1 month in, ready to give up. 3lb off, 2lb on.

theledger5
theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I literally cried this morning. A whole month has passed with calorie counting and exercising 4 x a week- mixture of cardio and boxing. Plus my 10k steps a day. I was so pleased last week to have lost 3lb but on the scales this morning it's gone back up by 2lb meaning in a whole month of being in calorie deficit I have only lost 1lb. I'm so upset. I am carefully logging my food and being honest about what I eat. My TDEE gives me 1800 cals to lose weight at 1lb a week and I have reduced that down to 1600 and I am still regularly under that. Fitbit says I burn on average 2200-2500 a day. I am thinking something is wrong. Have I to cut down further? Even my hubby comments on how little I eat at my evening meal, I have no carbs at all other than at breakfast. I see my friends on slimming world with food piled high on plates and losing weight at 2-3lb a week and I can't even manage that in a month. I've never been so active as I am right now. Seriously depressed. I am 40, 5'8" and 192lbs, want to get down to 150 but that looks impossible. I have no thyroid gland but medicated properly.
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Replies

  • VictoriousBeauty
    VictoriousBeauty Posts: 135 Member
    Hi

    am confused, I am way way heavier than you, shorter admittedly but my calories are under 1500 which I feel is too low for someone of my weight, worried when I get nearer weight I shall be on something like 800 to lose on this system Only wondering if you eating sufficient protein? fats?

    whats a typical day like?

    thyroid does cause a problem but, if medicated well and controlled shouldnt totally prevent Have you considered joining your friends, I suspect you are not eating enough
    xoxox
  • mrschwarten
    mrschwarten Posts: 194 Member
    Keep plugging away. It sucks, really, when you try so hard but no movement. I personally would not cut your calories further, that may cause you to lose out on important macros and micros. Maybe you can try different nutrition breakdowns...increasing your healthy carbohydrates? Sometimes if I'm in a slump, adding a serving of carbohydrates seems to help (also helps my mood!). It'll come, I promise, just keep trying! We're here for you!!
  • Dekayla13
    Dekayla13 Posts: 64 Member
    I can feel your pain but instead of being sad be happy that you lost that one pound forever! I recently started weighing daily and keeping it in my journal just to get a better idea of my body's monthly fluctuations. I know not seeing the results you want instantly is disappointing when you are trying so hard, but keep your head up and keep going! You will see the results you are looking for soon. I hope you don't get discouraged and feel a bit happier!
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
    It's not my time of month. Last week when I weighed and had lost it was just as my period had ended. It's just so disheartening. I know it's not linear but I have waited for a full month and was hoping that more than 1lb would be lost. It hardly seems to the effort when I factor in my efforts at exercise which I have been doing since January. Last week I burned 18500 cals and ate only 11500. I've looked back on all my meal planning and made sure I weigh food and usually over estimate on some things just to be on safe side. I feel hungry a lot of the time so not seeing the results is feeling frustrating.
  • mariazmabey
    mariazmabey Posts: 22 Member
    I don't think you should focus on the scales.. try taking a before and after picture i think that works best I hardly weigh myself i can see my body's changing it just takes time :) .. maybe try changing what you eat and have healthy carbs like brown rice, sweet potatoe etc.. Do you go to the gym?
  • theledger5
    theledger5 Posts: 63 Member
    I do use happy scale to trend the loss. I love my exercise and it's really been the catalyst in changing my mood and helping with joint pain so I don't want to give it up. But I don't see the changes either in the mirror, clothes or on the scales. I am however stronger and fitter so I guess the changes are internal.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    theledger5 wrote: »
    I do use happy scale to trend the loss. I love my exercise and it's really been the catalyst in changing my mood and helping with joint pain so I don't want to give it up. But I don't see the changes either in the mirror, clothes or on the scales. I am however stronger and fitter so I guess the changes are internal.

    can you open your diary?

  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
    I think you need to focus on a different scale - do you have a food scale? As others have said, no need to avoid any specific food (although too much salt can cause water retention) but you do need to be accurate with your portions. Also be honest with the amount of energy you are expending - for example, if you walked for an hour and logged "4mph very brisk walking" do you know you walked 4 miles in that hour (using a tracker or walking a known route), or are you just puffed out because you walked further/faster than usual?
  • l911jnt
    l911jnt Posts: 164 Member
    honestly it just sounds like water weight. It happens to me all the time. I am going thru my longest period with water weight as we speak. I eat too much sodium and it makes me retain water. I dont get upset about it, it happens all the time with me. I will get a whoosh and it will come off after a while. That s just how weight loss work s for me.
  • daneejela
    daneejela Posts: 461 Member
    I don't know if this would make sense, but I am going to say it :) If you feel hungry all the time, maybe you haven't yet "fired" metabolic chain for weight loss, i.e. melting fat for energy. When I start loosing weight, I usually don't feel hungry, I guess because my body makes energy from fat.
    Maybe you can try to play with your macros, i.e. reduce/increase carbs/proteins/fats..
    Maybe slow down exercise pace for a while and see what happens?
    I understand that it's very frustrating, but don't loose motivation only because your first month has been disappointing. Everyone looses weight at different pace, someone struggles with first few pounds, someone with 20th pounds...Forbid your brain to make any false generalizations!
    You're not zombie, you're human, and humans do loose weight when in calorie deficit long enough.
    Otherwise we would not need any food nor agriculture :)
  • MaddMaestro
    MaddMaestro Posts: 405 Member
    It's only been a month. Keep going. Women especially will go through minimal weight gain when their cycle approaches, but they will lose it if they stick with their health routines.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    edited April 2017
    OP, I think you need to understand how fluctuations work. Both their magnitude and their frequency. And the fact that you can control some, but not all of them.

    The problem with fluctuations is that most of us do not know exactly when we are at the peak of them or the valley when we step on the scale. (Frequency). As far as magnitude (and I post on this a lot), your fluctuation range can easily be larger in one day than your target loss in a week. When I use myself as an example, I've seen a 4 pound swing inside of a single day - several times. Curiously enough, I've weighed 4 pounds less halfway through a day, after eating 2/3 of my calorie budget. Did I lose 4 pounds of fat in a day? Obviously not.

    Bottom line - in order to really see the trend, you need a large enough magnitude of fat loss to overcome the magnitude of fluctuations. At 2 pounds per week goal, you probably need 6-8 weeks minimum to really know. If your goal was smaller, it would take even longer.

    If your process is correct, this will work, but time is your friend. You must have it in order to really see the trend. No need to give up. After another month, you can decide you need to tweak something, but don't make a bad decision now based on your feelings or incomplete data.

  • Wolfger
    Wolfger Posts: 350 Member
    I'm no expert, but I'd say that if this is your first month of calorie counting and you've lost 1 pound the entire month, something is wrong. Either you have fed some bad info in to MFP regarding your weight and activity level, or you are misjudging your portions, or... something. Perhaps your body just has an abnormally slow metabolism and you need to adjust. Tweak something and try again. Maybe your bathroom scale is nuts. Maybe you need to tell MFP that you're sedentary. Those things affect your target calories per day. Are you getting enough sleep? Drinking enough water?

    On the other hand, you say you've never been as active as you are right now. That could also cause you to lose more slowly in the short term, as you are likely building muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, and you could be slimming without the scale detecting it. Are you also using a tape measure to track progress? Granted, that's a bit trickier to measure accurately, but the scale is only a single datapoint and not the whole story. Oh, and if you log exercise into MFP, don't make the mistake of eating all those calories back (they automatically add your exercise calories to your daily goal).

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