Exercising and eating w/ deficit..not losing

Are you logging your food accurately? Logging every day (no cheat meals or days going unlogged)? How do you measure your portions? How much weight do you have to lose and what is your weekly weight loss goal set to?

Barring things like water retention (a possibility if you recently increased your activity), if you aren't losing, you're not eating in a deficit.

There could be a variety of factors. If you are working out intensively and dieting, it could be water retention, as women are more prone to hold water weight than men. If this happens, there really isn't much you can do except include dry carb refeeds, as carbs will actually help your body absorb the extra water, or wait 3-4 weeks before making an adjustment. Second, I would recommend relying on more than the scale only. If you are recomping, which is possible depending on your starting body fat %, sleep quality, diet etc, there will be no change in scale weight at all, though you will be getting leaner and stronger. In this case, take measurements at the end of the week of your waist, thighs, or biceps if you want. This is a far better indicator of fat loss than the scale alone. Third, are you sure you are in a deficit? If you are eating intuitively or eyeballing portion sizes, you can still be off by over 100 calories a day, which compiled over time is enough to wipe out the deficit for the week. Here is a good video that demonstrates this in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk

Fourth, have you reached a new maintenance point? The only way to know for sure, barring water retention, is to wait 3-4 weeks. If after 3 to 4 weeks you are still not losing, then you have reached a new maintenance point, which can be considered a plateau.

There are a few reasons why this happens: your body spontaneously decreases the amount of calories you burn at rest through a decrease in NEAT levels, basically anything that does not include your daily exercise: tapping your toe, standing up, fidgeting, etc. Second, the amount of calories that you burn decrease fairly proportionally with the amount of weight you lose. As a smaller person, you will burn less calories as a whole than when you were larger, and therefore, your deficit will also become smaller. Third, while over hyped to a large extent, your metabolism has an adaptive component that will make you burn less calories than predicted to maintain your body weight. There are a few ways to overcome this: increase activity levels as much as is realistically possible for you, include regular refeeds and diet breaks. Diet breaks will allow you to stay at maintenance calories for a period of two weeks. This has psychological as well as physiological benefits. It also allows you to have some education on how to successfully maintain your weight. Only reduce calories further if necessary. You want to be eating the highest amount of calories possible while still losing fat. If you do decide to make an adjustment, adjust by only 5 to 10% at most.

Erik_ss wrote: »

JOIN KETO:LCHF. I post topics about why individuals are not losing weight. Good luck.

If she's not losing weight she's not in a calorie deficit. Keto/LCHF isn't going to magically solve that. Some people have medical readings to restrict carbs and some people find that way of eating satiating but since OP said nothing about medical issues or feeling hungry I'm not sure why this is the immediate suggestion.?

OP how long have you been at this? Are you weighing your food using a digital food scale? Is this a new exercise routine?

pinuplove wrote: »

Are you logging your food accurately? Logging every day (no cheat meals or days going unlogged)? How do you measure your portions? How much weight do you have to lose and what is your weekly weight loss goal set to?

Barring things like water retention (a possibility if you recently increased your activity), if you aren't losing, you're not eating in a deficit.

Repeating for emphasis.

SylviaCherie wrote: »

If I don't log on certain days I will still count in my head the calories based on the database or packaging. I do try to log daily though. I have a good scale and a host of measuring cups and spoons. I'm addicted to my food scale.

My ultimate goal is to lose 40lbs. Would love to lose at least 15 by vacation in August.

There is no try! Only do! Humans have a tendency to easily forget the food they ate. Until you have a 4-week history of precisely and honestly weighed and recorded food and exercise, you have no way of determining of your weight loss has stalled. Why? Because intervals less than 4 weeks are meaningless. It's not a stall until you can prove is been a stall for 4 weeks, and if you spend 2 or 3 weeks precisely and honestly weighing and recording food and exercise you'll figure out what's going on anyway.

SylviaCherie wrote: »

WinoGelato wrote: »

Erik_ss wrote: »

JOIN KETO:LCHF. I post topics about why individuals are not losing weight. Good luck.

If she's not losing weight she's not in a calorie deficit. Keto/LCHF isn't going to magically solve that. Some people have medical readings to restrict carbs and some people find that way of eating satiating but since OP said nothing about medical issues or feeling hungry I'm not sure why this is the immediate suggestion.?

OP how long have you been at this? Are you weighing your food using a digital food scale? Is this a new exercise routine?

Doing this consistently for 3 weeks..maybe four. Yes I love my food scale. Am I 100% 24/7 ....no but I do measure most of the time or over estimate when I log my food

Are the workouts you are doing also new within the last 3-4 weeks? It often takes some time, particularly for women, to work through the various reasons for weight fluctuations (hormones, TOM, increased glycogen from new exercise, etc) and start to see the scale move in a consistent downward direction. A

As others have said - the logging accuracy is one of the most important things you can do to ensure long term success. If you are using a food scale for some things, you should be using it for all things - even things you think don't need to be weighed because they came from a package and you're eating the whole thing.

Keep at it - and then if still not seeing progress in the next couple of weeks - maybe time to reconsider the calorie goal you are aiming for. What are your stats by the way - height/weight/goal weight/activity level and what rate of loss did you select? What calorie target did MFP provide?

I know a few people will set their activity level to sedentary and then they can be sure if they eat back most of their exercise calories, they will still lose weight. I don't think you can use both the active setting and eat back exercise calories because then your activity is double counted giving you to High a calorie goal. It's set to active, don't eat back exercise calories or set to sedentary and eat back exercise calories.

SylviaCherie wrote: »

I workout 4-5 week(alternating between spinning and bootcamp), spend half of my one hour lunch walking (at times leisurely)and eating at deficit. Why am I not losing?? Even gained a pound. What is going on? It's not a thyroid issue because I just had bloodwork last month and it was good. I'm trying so hard to stay motivated but this has been a gut punch.. has me asking myself "why are you getting up at 5am every morning to remain the same weight?!" Please help I'm so frustrated.

This is exactly what is happening with me as well. Last year all I did was portion control and exercise. But now it is really hard to see any change even after exercising and staying under calorie goal. I guess age is a factor for me, who knows. Like you, I don't have any health issues either.

So this morning I decided to read about Keto diet and decided to follow it for a few days. Hope this helps me in achieving my goal weight. I am looking to lose 15 lbs.