I am so frustrated!
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you may not be eating enough and your metabolism is slowing down. You need to keep your body burning.
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It doesn't matter if your scale shows you decimal places. They're irrelevant. If your goals are set to a pound a week, you're not going to see that happen as a steady ticking down of 1/7 of a pound a day. Weight loss doesn't work like that. Scales arent' actually that accurate or precise.
I hate to break it to you, but even if you do lose your goal pound or two this week? You won't really be sure you're seeing it on the scale for several weeks or even a month. Your weight easily fluctuates across a day by more than the margin of a week's loss. Tiny differences in your digestive speed or water retention can easily register on your scale as a pound or more of weight.
In other words? Chill out, track your intake, and watch for longer term trends.2 -
you may not be eating enough and your metabolism is slowing down. You need to keep your body burning.
One's metabolism will never slow down so much that one stops losing weight while in a calorie deficit. If that were possible, no one would ever starve to death, and, sadly, people world-wide do so every day.
If one is eating so little as to be fatigued or weak, and is losing weight, that would be a good reason to eat more, and it's just possible that weight loss wouldn't slow down quite as much as the additional calories would make one predict.
With a short time horizon like one week, a much more likely explanation is water weight change due to TOM, exercise, sodium, healing, or other factors. With a slightly longer time horizon (3-4 weeks) with no loss, some of those could still be factors, but inaccurate food logging or optimistic exercise estimates become more likely explanations. After longer still (say, 6 weeks), and after having fixed as many logging/estimation factors as possible (as per the flowchart), but no loss, then I'd be taking my food logs to my doctor & asking for blood tests & such.
Patience, OP! I've been around here long enough (2 years) to see a lot of people succeed. Steady, manageable consistency over the long haul seems to be the best recipe for success.7 -
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I just wanted to chime in to say I know exactly how you feel! I've lost a good amount of weight, but I've hit several "plateaus" where I wouldn't lose an ounce for a week at a time. The last time that happened (I was actually around your weight), I got so frustrated I just ate everything in my path for 3 days straight. Seriously, SO much food. When it was all said and done I'd obviously gained a few pounds, which set me even farther back than I was...
The bottom line is if you give into old habits, a lot of times you're not just not losing weight, you're actively GAINING weight. Which is obviously worse than staying stagnant. You're doing great by taking charge of your health and monitoring your CICO. Everyone here will tell you it's a numbers game - burn more calories than you eat, you'll eventually lose weight. At 143, you're likely barely overweight (not sure your height) and the pounds aren't going to fall off like they might if you were 200+ lbs. Unfortunately the thinner you are, the longer it takes. Find other things to celebrate besides losing weight - ex) you ran farther than you did yesterday, you had a healthy lunch instead of junk food. You'll get there eventually, try to be patient and focus on forming good habits you can carry with you for the rest of your life :-)3 -
I have been eating 1200 or less calories a day and running. And I haven't budge on my weight! I am still 143.8. I feel so frustrated! I know it is only a week, but I am trying so hard!
And it makes me want to overeat and throw in the towel. How will I ever make my goal when I lose weight so slowly?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
It's been ONE WEEK. You really need to develop some patience.
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you may not be eating enough and your metabolism is slowing down. You need to keep your body burning.
One's metabolism will never slow down so much that one stops losing weight while in a calorie deficit. If that were possible, no one would ever starve to death, and, sadly, people world-wide do so every day.
If one is eating so little as to be fatigued or weak, and is losing weight, that would be a good reason to eat more, and it's just possible that weight loss wouldn't slow down quite as much as the additional calories would make one predict.
With a short time horizon like one week, a much more likely explanation is water weight change due to TOM, exercise, sodium, healing, or other factors. With a slightly longer time horizon (3-4 weeks) with no loss, some of those could still be factors, but inaccurate food logging or optimistic exercise estimates become more likely explanations. After longer still (say, 6 weeks), and after having fixed as many logging/estimation factors as possible (as per the flowchart), but no loss, then I'd be taking my food logs to my doctor & asking for blood tests & such.
Patience, OP! I've been around here long enough (2 years) to see a lot of people succeed. Steady, manageable consistency over the long haul seems to be the best recipe for success.
Exactly.1 -
personally i feel 1200 cal per day is very low. think longer term, your body can not sustain 1200cal a day thus once you reach your goal weight and start to slowly increase the cal you will gain weight (you need to look at your BMI index and rating to see how much caloried your body needs to operate each day). I feel if you were on higher cal like the 1800 you mentioned and seeing results than it may be that your body is in fact storing what you are eating as fat as you do not have adequate intake of protein, carbs,fats. A 600cal decrease is alot, I would look at working back up off 1600-1700cal per day and see how you go, dont forget the make up of that 1700cal is very critical, for instance you could in essence be eating 1700 of fast food each day, or you could be eating 1700cal of chicken, salad, tuna/fish, vegetables ect ect (see the difference) It may be you need to adjust your food types, variety, meal timings ect. Also females that have the 'rod' form of birth control will 9/10 times find it harder to lose weight, I would always recommend the removal of the rod and use of a pill provided that you do not have side effects form the pill form. When looking at weight lose it can take 2-3 weeks for your body to adjust to a new diet/nutritional plan so hang in there, also be aware the 2-3 days before your menstrual cycle and about 3-5 days after you may find is the hardest time to lose weight, this is because your bodies hormones are at peak and water retention is at peak.1
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I lost a pound today! I think I was holding a lot of water, and now I feel back on track. Thank you all, you really helped me feel better.7
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if you are under 1200 calories , perhaps you need to up the calories , add 100 calories every 2 days until you see progress , then you will know where your body is comfortable in weight loss0
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fixed it for you.personally i feel 1200 cal per day is very low. think longer term, your body can not sustain 1200cal a day thus once you reach your goal weight and start to slowly increase the cal you will gain weight (you need to look at your BMI index and rating to see how much caloried your body needs to operate each day). I feel if you were on higher cal like the 1800 you mentioned and seeing results than it may be that your body is in fact storing what you are eating as fat as you do not have adequate intake of protein, carbs,fats. A 600cal decrease is alot, I would look at working back up off 1600-1700cal per day and see how you go, dont forget the make up of that 1700cal is very critical, for instance you could in essence be eating 1700 of fast food each day, or you could be eating 1700cal of chicken, salad, tuna/fish, vegetables ect ect (see the difference) It may be you need to adjust your food types, variety, meal timings ect. Also females that have the 'rod' form of birth control will 9/10 times find it harder to lose weight, I would always recommend the removal of the rod and use of a pill provided that you do not have side effects form the pill form. When looking at weight lose it can take 2-3 weeks for your body to adjust to a new diet/nutritional plan so hang in there, also be aware the 2-3 days before your menstrual cycle and about 3-5 days after you may find is the hardest time to lose weight, this is because your bodies hormones are at peak and water retention is at peak.
(edited for wonky formatting)3 -
personally i feel 1200 cal per day is very low. think longer term, your body can not sustain 1200cal a day thus once you reach your goal weight and start to slowly increase the cal you will gain weight (you need to look at your BMI index and rating to see how much caloried your body needs to operate each day). I feel if you were on higher cal like the 1800 you mentioned and seeing results than it may be that your body is in fact storing what you are eating as fat as you do not have adequate intake of protein, carbs,fats. A 600cal decrease is alot, I would look at working back up off 1600-1700cal per day and see how you go, dont forget the make up of that 1700cal is very critical, for instance you could in essence be eating 1700 of fast food each day, or you could be eating 1700cal of chicken, salad, tuna/fish, vegetables ect ect (see the difference) It may be you need to adjust your food types, variety, meal timings ect. Also females that have the 'rod' form of birth control will 9/10 times find it harder to lose weight, I would always recommend the removal of the rod and use of a pill provided that you do not have side effects form the pill form. When looking at weight lose it can take 2-3 weeks for your body to adjust to a new diet/nutritional plan so hang in there, also be aware the 2-3 days before your menstrual cycle and about 3-5 days after you may find is the hardest time to lose weight, this is because your bodies hormones are at peak and water retention is at peak.
No. Your body cannot store fat if you are eating in a deficit.
And seriously, you are advising a woman to quit her current birth control and switch to the pill because...YOU think it's better for her? Wt actual f.6 -
And don't forget the obvious - muscle weighs more than fat! In that case, go by how your clothes are fitting, not the number on the scale. Good luck - you got this! 0
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choklityum wrote: »And don't forget the obvious - muscle weighs more than fat! In that case, go by how your clothes are fitting, not the number on the scale. Good luck - you got this!
by volume it weighs more,but a lb of muscle is the same as a lb of fat. 1200 calories(a bigger deficit) in less than a week is also not going to result in muscle mass,to where the scale wont move.0 -
I have a hormonal IUD and I've lost almost 40 pounds so far. And I'm older and I have a bad thyroid. You can absolutely lose weight with a hormonal IUD, and IMO hormonal IUDs are awesome. I'm in my late 40s and I've used a lot of different kind of birth control - this has been the best by far for me. Don't switch birth control if it's working for you. There are so many bad side effects to birth control that if you've found one that isn't causing you trouble, keep it.1
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Is it normal to lose weight and not inches?0
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Is it normal to lose weight and not inches?
For me it has seemed to somewhat go in spurts. So weight one week and inches the next. Over the longer term, both have gone down but my neck got bigger this last week for some reason.
I do find inches harder to measure though.
The other part is, unless you are measuring all over your body, you could be losing inches where you are not measuring. So you legs could shrink, weight go down and you not know your legs shrank.0 -
the key is not to weigh yourself everyday, just go with the way you feel, I am sure you feel better after your runs and staying light on your food, if yes then keep doing what you are doing and forget about weight loss, one day after a month or so weigh yourself and look in the mirror and trust me you will see the difference and will be proud of what you would see.
Thanks,
I weigh myself everyday - there is nothing wrong withthat - in fact it helps me (and others) to identify trends that may influence weight fluctuations. too much sodium, weight is us, not enough sleep, weight it up, got 10k steps, weight is down - a number on the scale isn't the be-all end all - treat it like a data point
weighing only once or twice a month can be as mentally bad as weighing daily - what is you are 3 days out from your TOM and water retention - its not unusual to see weight jump 4-5lbs in that time period1 -
can you open your diary?
what kind of proportioned meals? (like lean cuisine type things)
you said you were using measuring cups - they can be widely inaccurate - I recommend buying a scale and weighing food by the serving size (typically g or oz)0 -
Is it normal to lose weight and not inches?
I really have to use the scale as my guide. I carry my "most recent" fat in my legs and thighs, and arms. My waist and hips show very little change in the tape measure until I start getting down closer to my goal weight (talking about losing 15-20 pounds here). Remember that we all store fat differently on our bodies...so it will come off in a different order (place) for you, than it will for someone else.0
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