1 month in, ready to give up. 3lb off, 2lb on.
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I ran your stats through a TDEE calculator, and your sedentary TDEE looks to be 1900. So to lose approximately 1lbs a week, you should be consuming 1400 net calories per day.
Here's my suggestions:
- Track your intake as accurately as possible. That means using a digital kitchen scale, finding the most accurate MFP database entries and tracking every little thing that goes into your mouth.
- Eat back only half of your exercise calories. It can be difficult to get an accurate number for calories burned, so always err on the side of less. And only eat back calories if you're actually hungry and need to eat.
- Weight fluctuations are totally normal. Your weight can bounce around a few pounds day-by-day, due to a lot of factors you can't control. Try not to let it get you down. Weigh regularly, track those fluctuations and look for the downwards slope on your chart over several months. Then you'll know you're on the right track.6 -
This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .1
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theledger5 wrote: »This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .
I personally like using my sedentary TDEE as my baseline, then manually logging my daily exercises to determine how many extra calories I can eat on top of my baseline.
So for example - my sedentary TDEE is 1700. I want a 300 calorie deficit, so I'm eating 1400 calories per day. On a lazy day with no exercise, I eat only 1400 calories. If I go for a half hour run, it might say I burned 300 calories. I don't totally trust that number, so I will only eat back 150 calories. So my total for the day will be 1550.
Now - this works for me because I have a desk job. So my activity level is very low when I'm not purposefully working out. If you have a job where you're on your feet and walking around a lot, your baseline TDEE would be higher.
Hope that helps.2 -
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.
I would definitely not consider giving up the exercise ever. and I don't know what workouts you do, or what youre eating, but its only been a month. Honestly most of your weight loss is going to be contributed to your change in diet than the exercise anyway. Don't worry about the scale. Maybe you havent yet lost enough weight to see results but if you keep working it will happen. Maybe with the amount of calories youre burning, you should stick to the recommended 1800 calories and see if that makes a difference. When I was doing bootcamp, I actually had to increase my calories a bit, and it was usually calories in the form of a recovery snack like a protein shake.1 -
Looking at your diary, there are some easy switches you can do that might help. Ditch the breakfast cereal for something like eggs or oatmeal, swap out the mayo for plain greek yogurt, little things like that. Also, are you planning your calories out ahead of time or eating what you find and then logging them? If you can plan a little ahead of time, it's easier to figure out what the healthy swaps are. All those little things add up.3
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You are A, over estimating calories burned. B, under estimating calories eaten. C, both A&B or D, you have a medical issue.2
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If it's any consolation to you, I had a counselor at Jenny Craig accuse me of not sticking to the plan many years ago. I was soooo pissed...I had been exercising, eating what I was supposed to eat, drinking enough water to fill a built-in pool. I had only lost 1 lb...but guess what? I HAD LOST 17 INCHES in that month! The scale is not the only form of measurement when it comes to weight loss/slimming down. Just a thought...6
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Looking at your diary, there are some easy switches you can do that might help. Ditch the breakfast cereal for something like eggs or oatmeal, swap out the mayo for plain greek yogurt, little things like that. Also, are you planning your calories out ahead of time or eating what you find and then logging them? If you can plan a little ahead of time, it's easier to figure out what the healthy swaps are. All those little things add up.
as long as she is sticking to her goal calories, then switching our cereal for eggs/oatmeal etc is not needed - calories in/calories out - a calorie is a unit of energy
now for satiation, potentially consider switching foods up - but its not required to lose weight4 -
theledger5 wrote: »This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .
I personally like using my sedentary TDEE as my baseline, then manually logging my daily exercises to determine how many extra calories I can eat on top of my baseline.
So for example - my sedentary TDEE is 1700. I want a 300 calorie deficit, so I'm eating 1400 calories per day. On a lazy day with no exercise, I eat only 1400 calories. If I go for a half hour run, it might say I burned 300 calories. I don't totally trust that number, so I will only eat back 150 calories. So my total for the day will be 1550.
Now - this works for me because I have a desk job. So my activity level is very low when I'm not purposefully working out. If you have a job where you're on your feet and walking around a lot, your baseline TDEE would be higher.
Hope that helps.
Yes it does thank you. I generally try not to eat my calories back as I feel it defeats the object of trying to be in deficit. However I do have a desk job 4 days a week- despite this I still manage my 10k steps as I am pretty active before and after work. Weekends are non stop and I walk lots. Having said all this I think I will reduce my cals down to 1400 and see if this helps, I worry I can't maintain this level but for a couple of weeks I will try and see if I notice a change.
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If 1 pound per week is your goal and you are only one month in, I'll reiterate something: you don't have enough data to make a rational decision. You may actually be meeting your goal right now, but since you haven't given the process the time enough to unmask the fluctuations, you can't know. You are making an adjustment based on feelings, not necessarily on fact.
If your intake is being measured accurately, and your burn is close to accurate, the process will work. In this short of a time frame, your fluctuations could mask your progress. On the flip side, if you had lost 8 pounds with your 500 calorie deficit, then fluctuations could exaggerate your progress. Same issue here exists - there is not enough time to determine your actual loss rate because the magnitude of fluctuations are bigger than your intended progress.
Be careful of rash decisions....8 -
deannalfisher wrote: »Looking at your diary, there are some easy switches you can do that might help. Ditch the breakfast cereal for something like eggs or oatmeal, swap out the mayo for plain greek yogurt, little things like that. Also, are you planning your calories out ahead of time or eating what you find and then logging them? If you can plan a little ahead of time, it's easier to figure out what the healthy swaps are. All those little things add up.
as long as she is sticking to her goal calories, then switching our cereal for eggs/oatmeal etc is not needed - calories in/calories out - a calorie is a unit of energy
now for satiation, potentially consider switching foods up - but its not required to lose weight
Yeah, I guess I was thinking that in my head but didn't actually type it. Of course, even if you are under calorie, but eating junk than it could be a health issue thing but that doesn't necessarily look like the case. The previous point being, if you are more satiated, you will eat less if needed.0 -
Hi! I'm a pt whose focus has been on weight loss for the past 4 years and there are 3 important things. You need to be in a caloric deficit, you need to strength train at least 2-3 times a week, and you need to be patient. The scale won't do you much good. I measure my clients once a month with a tape. If you do use a scale, make sure you are under the exact same circumstances when doing so, as your water weight is going to fluctuate amongst other things. On the diet side of things: carbs are not bad. In fact carbs help your body store water. That is why the atkins diet works, because you don't carry as much water when you don't eat carbs. Bring back the carbs and guess what happens? Just make sure you aren't eating processed carbs (white carbs typically like white rice, pasta, white bread, sweets, etc.) I hope some of this helps, best of luck to you! Stay positive, you got this!
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theledger5 wrote: »This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .
Likely so. If in your job you daily experience bouts of sitting for 1 hour interrupted by no more than 5 minutes of walking, you're sedentary. It's very easy for most people to satisfy that metric, and most people should be sedentary. If you eat for "lightly active" on the days you don't even exercise, you have 3 days of eating in surplus each week. Hello, maintenance.3 -
JeromeBarry1 wrote: »theledger5 wrote: »This might be where I am going wrong. I presumed with my activity levels that I am not sedentary. I train 4 times a week doing high intensity cardio classes and boxing, plus 10k + steps a day on average. Perhaps I am eating more still than my body needs .
Likely so. If in your job you daily experience bouts of sitting for 1 hour interrupted by no more than 5 minutes of walking, you're sedentary. It's very easy for most people to satisfy that metric, and most people should be sedentary. If you eat for "lightly active" on the days you don't even exercise, you have 3 days of eating in surplus each week. Hello, maintenance.
I think this is right. I have a desk job 4 days a week and only train on 2 of those. I do get up and move around the building for various tasks during the day but mostly it is sitting. I guess I need to think carefully about adjusting the calories on those days to compensate. I won't give up, I am determined to keep at it but a little loss would have been more encouraging! On the positive side I can definitely see an improvement in my fitness and feel so much better for it. I realise weight loss starts in the kitchen but I am keen to keep up my classes as they have helped with my depression and sleep pattern etc.0 -
Don't give up!
If all you wanted was to lose weight you've accomplished that!! You lost a pound . See there, you've lost weight!
You don't want to lose weight.
None of us do.
We want to improve our quality of life.
We know losing weight will improve our health, create better relationships and how we relate to people and how they relate to us, we want to wear the dress, get the girl/guy, take the vacation, have our cake and maybe have a taste.
We want the results.
We want what it is weight loss will do for us if and when we achieve it. In the end that feeling is fulfillment.
You want to change your life.
That's what you want and that's why you cried over a pound. so if you want it that bad, why are going to quit. Quitting will never make you fulfilled.
Have a hard day. Cry about it, struggle, fail, learn but get back on it and never give up. Its Possible!!!!3 -
"they have helped with my depression and sleep pattern etc."
Screw the weight loss. Do it for that.6 -
It sounds to me as your body has adapted to your calorie deficit!? Its the age old your body is compensating for the drop in calories!
Don't start dropping further and further on your counter! Weight loss is all about burning more than your taking in yes but you need to be burning in the right way (If that makes sense???)
You need to be working aerobically Getting that heart rate up n out of breath!
Throw out your scales! People get too focused on the numbers! Your yo-yo in weight could be a number of things water retention, as I said earlier your body is adapting to your drop so it will rise n fall but DONT GIVE UP!!!!!
Good luck! N Stay strong !
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You guys are all amazing! So much inspiration and positivity. Onwards and upwards, I will keep it up!4
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OK: seriously: Chill Out.
As many people have mentioned you don't have the trending weight data to support your perception of lack of weight loss.
If anything, your perception and attitude indicate that you're already stressing your body and yourself WAY TOO MUCH.
LONG TERM COMPLIANCE WITH YOUR DIET AND EXERCISE GOALS is what will get you results.
You are pushing yourself to achieve fast results. You are about to give up unless you see your "hard work pay off".
I don't see too many success threads from people with this attitude... because they do take their ball and go home in despair when things don't go their way!
--> Accept slower results achieved with less (perceived) effort <--
--> CHILL <---
--> Push yourself SOME; but, probably a heck of a lot less than you are right now <--
This is not a short term battle that you will fight and be done with.
Your weight loss period is just an entry ticket to maintenance.
Maintenance has no end date.
Cultivate the long term attitude your current posts are missing.
Good luck.3 -
Sure, you just HAD to be all up-beat and happy right before I yelled at you
That will show me in good light!!!!
... and it will teach me to type a bit less next time!
weightgrapher.com allows you to superimpose your weight trend graph from 28 days ago (user adjustable) over your current weight trend graph to see the changes. if you use weighthrapher, tell it you want to maintain to avoid their "advice".4 -
If weight loss is your goal, focus first on your diet and wait to ramp up your exercise.
I've lost 40+ since Jan just by focusing on my diet. By working out my meal planning choices I'm also rarely famished.
After you are losing from diet, you can start ramping exercise.1 -
theledger5 wrote: »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.
I don't think your situation is anything that can't be resolved with consistency and patience, but just thought I would throw out there that women have varying experiences with hormonal fluctuations. I always thought women were *supposed* to gain weight right before & during their period, and that is the experience of many. Personally, I steadily gain from TOM to ovulation, where I'll typically be my highest weight, then steadily lose from ovulation to TOM, which is where I'll register my lowest weight of my cycle. I can only get a true sense of my progress at that time, and comparing it to any other weeks within my cycle isn't helpful. It was pretty stressful until the pattern established itself and I knew what data I could take to heart.1 -
theledger5 wrote: »Thanks for all the advice. I have opened up my diary so feel free to have a look and offer any more advice. I genuinely feel I need to cut calories even more as I'm not convinced the Fitbit is accurate with the figures. I'm aiming for 1000 a day deficit and feel I am doing this but it's just not showing. In the past I have done slimming world and feel I've eaten lots more food and over a month I would have lost 1/2 stone. I don't want to go back to the SW trap as I know long term it doesn't work but at the same time I get annoyed at seeing friends lose massive amounts over shorter time and I barely lose a couple of lbs in a month. Grrrrr!
Fitbit calories are far from accurate for me. They are way high - I never use them to judge what I should be eating. So it's possible.0 -
I'm sorry you're frustrated. I just re-upped my game after lots of stalling. You're probably not going to ever lose 10 pounds a month if you're losing in a healthy way (2 pounds a week is really good. I've not found it to be reliably consistently attainable as our bodies' cycles ebb and flow like the ocean does.) Don't let a little frustration sabotage your month of good work. And this is just me, but I find that the caloric burn assigned by apps for exercise is a little on the generous side... I just broke up with my fitbit so I can focus more on the intake part and trust that the output part is happening with my daily workouts, instead of letting those calories back onto my allotment for the day. Hope that makes sense...1
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My view is this;
1. Fitbit is a load of crap for calorie estimates, ped. and HR only.
2. Muscle gain may make it look like you haven't lost any weight, especially if exercise is new to you.
3. Weight loss is not linear.
4. Do not continually reduce calories, it doesn't work like that, go with what the MFP calculator tells you to eat. (Under 1200 is dangerous / starvation mode).
5. Try not to monitor yourself just with lbs, since it will jump around like this, use waist measurements / exercise time / Max weight lift etc... MFP can track all these.
Good luck!
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theledger5 wrote: »Thanks for all the advice. I have opened up my diary so feel free to have a look and offer any more advice. I genuinely feel I need to cut calories even more as I'm not convinced the Fitbit is accurate with the figures. I'm aiming for 1000 a day deficit and feel I am doing this but it's just not showing. In the past I have done slimming world and feel I've eaten lots more food and over a month I would have lost 1/2 stone. I don't want to go back to the SW trap as I know long term it doesn't work but at the same time I get annoyed at seeing friends lose massive amounts over shorter time and I barely lose a couple of lbs in a month. Grrrrr!
Glad to see that you've decided to stick with it and give it more time... consistency and patience will be your best friends!
I just wanted to add a couple of things. Firstly, never compare yourself to other people - even other people who seem to be doing the same things as you. I know that's tough - I catch myself doing it at times, especially when I see, for example, someone I know is heavier than me posting that they're now wearing a much smaller size than I am. "How come I can't wear an 8?! I'm way smaller! It's just not fair!!" What I need to remind myself of is that they are probably a different shape to me, a lower body fat percentage, whatever else might be different. (Clothing sizes vary hugely depending on brand, too.) They are them, and I am me, therefore I can't expect to be the same.
That's a long-winded way of saying, only compare yourself to how YOU were a month or six months or a year ago. Don't worry about anyone else. I know it's difficult not to, especially when you see other people losing weight faster, but the way you're going about your loss is sustainable if you learn to eat suitable portions of satisfying food for the rest of your life. What are your friends going to do when they reach their goal and quit Slimming World - gradually put the weight back on? (It sounds like you've done that yourself in the past.) It might take you longer, but I bet when you get there you'll keep it off because you'll have learned the right way to do it. It doesn't matter how slowly you go, so long as you stick with it.
Secondly, if you feel you're going to have trouble with the deficit and you're feeling hungry, consider reducing your deficit. I was on a 500-calorie deficit for the first year of my loss, for an average of 1lb per week. (Some weeks I lost, some I gained, sometimes I stalled for a few weeks at a time. On average, the loss was what I asked for.) Of course I would have loved to lose the weight much faster, who wouldn't? But I think that if I had tried, I would have been much too hungry and I would have given up. As I've gone along my appetite has adjusted to the reduced calories and I find it much easier now, but even so I had to reduce my deficit in January to 0.5lbs/week as I was starting to get hungry on my much reduced allowance. (The lighter you get, the less calories your body needs to maintain itself, so your allowance reduces even further the more you lose.)
If I want to lose the last 15lbs or so faster, I'll need to put in more effort and exercise more, but that's within my control if I want it badly enough. So far it's been good and I'm happy with my rate of loss... better than losing maybe 10 or 20 pounds quickly and then giving up and piling it back on because I was hungry and feeling deprived of chocolate...
Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you to stick with it and give it lots of time... as others have said, you really need a few months' worth of data before you can properly see trends. A loss, however small, is still a loss, so be proud of yourself for that! And good job on the exercise... if it's helping your sleep and mood, that's a good enough reason to continue. 0 -
Hi there!
Reading your post made my heart hurt for you! Please don't give up! A month is such a short period of time to be giving up after! You can totally do this and you need to keep on pressing forward!
I hope that all the inspiring comments here are going to convince you to rally and find your path to success. ❤️0 -
So sorry for your frustration. CICO works, so stay the course. You could be retaining water as you are gaining muscle. It will come off. Stay strong.0
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