Not losing weight

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anapenaloza9
anapenaloza9 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Was hoping someone could help me see what I'm doing wrong here. So I started eating clean and working out Feb 10th 2017 and started at 175lbs. I'm not sure on the exact body fat % because I don't have those fancy scales. I meal prep every Sunday and I've figured out how many calories I need to consume for weight loss based on my body etc. it's about 1250/ day. I've been working out 6 days a week for an hour. I take a different class at the gym: body pump, cycle, boot camp,body combat and body step. I weighed myself last week and I'm only down 4lbs! In 2 months. I had been avoiding the scale because I get easily discouraged and I have noticed I look slimmer so when I weighed myself I was shocked. I thought I had lost at least 10lbs. I do have a cheat meal once a week and I just cheat one meal, no alcohol, and I drink 64oz of water per day. Has anyone else struggled with this? It's so discouraging to not see the scale go down! I don't know what else I could be doing to help my progress.

Replies

  • leooftheyear
    leooftheyear Posts: 429 Member
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    What's your current weight, height, etc?

    What is your goal set at and your goal weight?

    Do you eat back your exercise calories?
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    anapenaloza9 wrote: »
    Was hoping someone could help me see what I'm doing wrong here. So I started eating clean and working out Feb 10th 2017 and started at 175lbs. I'm not sure on the exact body fat % because I don't have those fancy scales. I meal prep every Sunday and I've figured out how many calories I need to consume for weight loss based on my body etc. it's about 1250/ day. I've been working out 6 days a week for an hour. I take a different class at the gym: body pump, cycle, boot camp,body combat and body step. I weighed myself last week and I'm only down 4lbs! In 2 months. I had been avoiding the scale because I get easily discouraged and I have noticed I look slimmer so when I weighed myself I was shocked. I thought I had lost at least 10lbs. I do have a cheat meal once a week and I just cheat one meal, no alcohol, and I drink 64oz of water per day. Has anyone else struggled with this? It's so discouraging to not see the scale go down! I don't know what else I could be doing to help my progress.

    if you arent in a deficit you wont lose weight,and 4lbs in 2 months is like 1/2 lb a week(250calories a day deficit),so you are losing weight.weight loss is also not linear so you wont lose the same amount of weight each week,some weeks you may maintain or gain. eating clean has nothing to do with weight loss,its all about calories in vs calories out. and one cheat meal if you arent sure how many calories it is can wipe out a deficit. use a tape measure to gauge inches loss,sometimes the inches come off before any loss is shown on the scale.

    scales to measure fat% arent accurate anyway.how do your clothes fit? are you feeling better? looking better body wise?
  • Blitzia
    Blitzia Posts: 205 Member
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    I think the answer may be to tighten your logging. 4 pounds in 2 months is about .5 pound per week, which is not a bad rate, but it's understandable if you want to shoot for 1 pound per week. (You didn't mention height, so I'm not sure how much you want to lose.)

    Either way, losing weight is 100% math. So things like eating clean may be beneficial for your overall health, but it has nothing to do with weight loss. You mention that your calorie goal is 1250, how well are you sticking to that? Are you estimating how many calories you burn when you exercise and are you eating those calories back? (If so, you may be overestimating your calorie burn.) What exactly is in your cheat meal? How many calories?

    Precision can make a huge difference. One pound per week means you need a deficit of 3500 calories. Let's say your logging isn't perfect and maybe you're eating 10% more calories than you think. Now your deficit is only 2625. Let's assume your cheat meal is a big mac, fries, and a coke. That's another 1090 calories off your deficit, so your deficit is now 1535, or less than half a pound per week.

    So if your logging is imprecise or your cheat meal is high enough in calories your deficit could be less than you expect. I suggest doing the math on your cheat meal and checking the rest of your logging.
  • anapenaloza9
    anapenaloza9 Posts: 3 Member
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    Im 5'3 and now weigh 171lb. my goal weight would be 125lbs. and no, I dont eat back my calories because I'm never sure how many calories I burned when I worked out. I do measure my food especially carbs and protein.

    So usually breakfast I have 1/3 cup egg whites with mixed veggies like asparagus and mushrooms, and 2oz of ground turkey, or deli turkey.
    snack I'll have a carbmaster yogurt from Kroger or Greek yogurt with 1/4 cup granola and banana
    lunch will be a protein shake the udder bliss whey protein and 7 almonds
    snack is either an apple with 1 tsbp almond butter or a rice cake
    dinner normally 4oz of fish, or chicken, or salmon with steamed veggies

    This is what i've been eating for the most part the last couple months.
  • Blitzia
    Blitzia Posts: 205 Member
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    How do you measure? By weighing or by measuring cups? And what's a typical cheat meal?
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    It seems that you are often measuring dry foods by cup measurements. Cups and oons should be for liquid measurements only. If you want better accuracy then measure these on a scale for weight. Weigh everything including your banana, apple, almond, veges etc if you aren't already. These weights vary and 7 almonds will not always weigh the same. Check everything against the USDA data base as some things on the database have been entered inaccurately and make sure your entries are for grams or ozs and liquis measures and not cups and per unit with fruit and veg.. I think your slower weight loss is due to inaccuracies in measurement of calories consumed.
  • missmagnoliablossom
    missmagnoliablossom Posts: 240 Member
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    Opening your diary would be very helpful.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited April 2017
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    You need to use a food scale to weigh all foods that are solids or semi solid. Everything that isn't a liquid needs to be weighed, that means weigh your almond butter, egg whites, butter. Weigh prepackaged foods, too.

    You say you measure protien and carbs, but what about fats? Proteins and carbs have 4 calories per gram while fat has 9 calories per gram. Weigh fruit and veg, weigh cereal.

    No more cups/spoons for solid foods. Its innacurate. If you've set yourself to lose 1lb per week, your logging is off by 250 cals daily. Weigh food in grams.

    Also, make sure the database entries you select are accurate by either double checking them against USDA entries (produce, meat) and/or packaging information.

    Log everything including cooking oils/spray, beverages, condiments, milk in cereal. Even bites/tastes/licks. It all adds up.

    Edit: what lillymoo said.
  • anapenaloza9
    anapenaloza9 Posts: 3 Member
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    I seriously had not considered some of these things. I don't log my meals every day, and don't log cheat meals. Also, I will weigh all solids from now on to get accurate numbers. I was just so frustrated because I figured the pounds should be coming right off!! When I had my first son 4 years ago I ate about the same things I'm eating now and the weight came right off and I wasn't even working out. Gotta work harder at tracking meals and measuring from now on!! Thanks all.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    just so you know.weigh packaged food too they can be off up to 20%.
  • mom22dogs
    mom22dogs Posts: 470 Member
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    Your morning snack of yogurt, granola and banana could be as much as 400 calories. Granola is very high calorie, and bananas have a lot of calories especially if they are large bananas. You do need to weigh these things.
  • jdog022
    jdog022 Posts: 693 Member
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    if that cheat meal is big enough it can wipe out your entire week deficit. weight and log every single thing you consume for a month and report back. log that cheat meal accurately too.
  • gamerbabe14
    gamerbabe14 Posts: 876 Member
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    Just try for a week to weigh all of your food using a scale (super cheap ones on Amazon). It'll be an eye opener for you!

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