Why can't I lose weight?

nessa1979
nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

Replies

  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    Losing weight is taking in fewer calories than your body expends.

    You can eat "healthy" food and be eating at maintenance......or you can eat junk and eat at maintenance. Losing weight is all about fewer calories.

    Exercise helps you expend more calories, but without knowing your intake......you could be eating more to make up for calories burned.

    The up/down of day to day is natural fluctuation. Water weight and waste cycle. Weight loss will be very slow close to goal, like 1/2 pound a week. But you are looking for trends....not day to day.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    You need to eat less calories, stalls don't last for a year.

    Drop it by 250 calories and you'll start to slowly trend down.
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    i watch my calories... low carb
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    I will lower my calories and try that...I just always thought if I go to gym everyday...after a year id be able to say i lost 5 pounds or something...but this isn't the case and im just not sure what to do and im beyond frustrated.I realize muscle weighs more than fat and Im so close to where I want to be...just feel stuck
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Does "watch my calories" mean you log everything that goes in your mouth by weight?

    Because calories is per gram, not spoons or cups.

    How often do you eat out, where accuracy can be anywhere from decent 10% to out the window unknown?

    Since you should eat more when you do more (unless if using average weekly TDEE method just increased all the time) how are you logging your exercise calorie burn?

    After the initial starting the workout improvements in form - has your ability and strength continued to increase, or remain stagnant?
  • bambishealth
    bambishealth Posts: 134 Member
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

    Weighing everyday is not good. Weight can fluctuate due to water daily.
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    watch my calories meaning I try to keep below 1400 calories..I do not count calories because I found it hard to track especially when i make meals from home from health sites that I do not know the calorie amount too. I very rarely eat out...I drink a lot of coffee and not enough water..??
    My form has improvement for sure mid section and legs..i see the toning just no movement in weight...
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    Thank you for letting me know that! I have a Fitbit scale so it tracks my weigh ins...and my bmi which is 26.8. When during a month should you or how many time is healthy?
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    Happy Scale, I will look this up, thanks!
    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    bambishealth wrote: »
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

    Weighing everyday is not good. Weight can fluctuate due to water daily.

    Weighing every day helps me not freak out about those fluctuations. Now I better understand how food, exercise and hormones can affect my weight. Putting all my eggs in the one basket of a weekly weigh-in was way harder on me mentally. Especially when I didn't lose.

    I track using a weight trending program called Happy Scale.

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    watch my calories meaning I try to keep below 1400 calories..I do not count calories because I found it hard to track especially when i make meals from home from health sites that I do not know the calorie amount too. I very rarely eat out...I drink a lot of coffee and not enough water..??
    My form has improvement for sure mid section and legs..i see the toning just no movement in weight...

    If you're not weighing all solids and measuring liquids, it's really hard to know how many calories you're eating. You need to be in a deficit to lose weight. If low carb helps you get there, great! But the calories still matter. If you're not losing weight, you're not in a deficit.
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    what do you mean deficit?
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    bambishealth wrote: »
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

    Weighing everyday is not good. Weight can fluctuate due to water daily.

    There is no problem weighing daily. It helps you see the trends.
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    I will have to track my calories, and lower the amount im consuming?
    jenilla1 wrote: »
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    watch my calories meaning I try to keep below 1400 calories..I do not count calories because I found it hard to track especially when i make meals from home from health sites that I do not know the calorie amount too. I very rarely eat out...I drink a lot of coffee and not enough water..??
    My form has improvement for sure mid section and legs..i see the toning just no movement in weight...

    If you don't count calories, how do you know how many you're eating? It's clear that you are not eating in a deficit, since you are basically maintaining.

  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    what do you mean deficit?

    A deficit means eating less calories than your body is burning off.

    A deficit of 250 calories and you lose 0.5lb a week
    A deficit of 500 calories and you'll lose 1lb a week
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

    Start by reading this OP :)
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

    Start by reading this OP :)

    Thank you I will :)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Deficit - eating less than you burn on daily basis (though balance through the week works too).
    Only way to burn fat.
    Too much deficit and wrong workouts - burn muscle too, not good.

    Since you don't have an actual figure for how much you are eating - pretty simple solution.

    Find 250 calories every day that you will no longer eat.

    Life lesson there.
    You eat appropriate for your level of activity.
    Do more - eat more.
    Do less - eat less.

    Eat less than those levels and lose weight.
    Eat more than those levels and gain weight.

  • Afura
    Afura Posts: 2,054 Member
    bambishealth wrote: »
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

    Weighing everyday is not good. Weight can fluctuate due to water daily.

    Depends. I like weighing every day (sometimes I forget - the horror!) to see the general trend. Yay graph! Some people get anxiety, frustrated, etc. over weighing every day, those are the people that should step away from the scale. :smiley: A friend of mine, whom I love to death but keeps vacillating on doing well then poorly, doesn't feel right unless she steps on the scale then gets frustrated.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited March 2017
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    watch my calories meaning I try to keep below 1400 calories..I do not count calories because I found it hard to track especially when i make meals from home from health sites that I do not know the calorie amount too. I very rarely eat out...I drink a lot of coffee and not enough water..??
    My form has improvement for sure mid section and legs..i see the toning just no movement in weight...

    You need to learn to use the recipe builder on MFP - I wouldn't trust their estimates of calories anyway.

    Coffee is water, at least about 90% is retained as if drank as water anyway, so drink 32 oz worth, you can count 29.

    Question on form is in the movements, not the result on the body. It is because everyone improves performance merely starting to workout.

    If you fail to keep making improvement though, then either your workouts have reached maintenance level, or you aren't eating enough for body to recover well to improve.

    Some people eat so little and don't allow enough rest from hard workouts - they just become mediocre wastes of time basically.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited March 2017
    bambishealth wrote: »
    nessa1979 wrote: »
    I have been exercising for a year now, 4 or 5 times a week for an hour a day. This is a boxing/cardio class and I love it. I know I lost inches within the first 3 or 4 months but the last 6 months my weight has not changed. My goal weight is 135. I weight myself everyday in the morning after I use the bathroom and before i eat or drink - no cloths. My weight goes from 141 to 144, change day to day..a little up, a little down but no consistency of going down..yesterday I was 141.2 and today I am 143.0????? Why cant I lost weight after a year of eating healthy and exercise daily????

    Weighing everyday is not good. Weight can fluctuate due to water daily.

    Weighing everyday and thinking there is something meaningful to discern from it day to day is not useful.

    But a 30 day trend can be useful, about minimal time from a bunch of noisy water-weight fluctuating weigh-ins.

    Good or bad depends on if you can separate yourself from a mere number and view it as stats, or if it actually controls your decisions.
  • WorkoutResults21
    WorkoutResults21 Posts: 8 Member
    I would recommend changing up your workout as well. It may be that your body is used to doing the same workout over and over and therefore nothing is changing. Hope this helps.
  • twistedingenue
    twistedingenue Posts: 38 Member
    I gained weight after I became a gym rat, too! Went for a whole years 3x a week, and didn't see progress until I got serious about my diet at the beginning of the year. Invest in a kitchen scale and build those recipes. That's what's going to help the most.
  • nessa1979
    nessa1979 Posts: 10 Member
    twistedingenue wrote: »
    I gained weight after I became a gym rat, too! Went for a whole years 3x a week, and didn't see progress until I got serious about my diet at the beginning of the year. Invest in a kitchen scale and build those recipes. That's what's going to help the most.

    Thanks so much!!! I will take a look at my recipes along with fewer calories!

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