Why am I not losing weight??!
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If you're burning that many calories, and keeping your caloric intake that low, you could always be converting fat to muscle based upon what your workout consists of. Muscle weighs more than fat, so that would explain why you're not losing weight. A good way to check yourself is to include your measurements in your weekly checks. That way, if you do go up a pound (not uncommon), but you lose an inch or two, you know that your gain is a postive gain and not a negative one.
There is more to nutrition and fitness than losing weight!
When you eat at a deficit it is damn near impossible to gain muscle that quickly... two weeks wont result in 31/2 pounds muscle gain.
you are most likely eating too little. and working out too much. Read the link in my signature "HOW TO BUST THROUGH A PLATEAU" In it she basically says that there are three contributing factors to weight loss; cardio/ strength training/diet. When they are out of balance you will plateau./ you must bring them back to balance and then you will start losing weight. Right now you are doing too much cardio not enough strength and you are most certainly not eating enough.0 -
Hi there!! So sorry you are having to go through this. I have a couple of questions for you though...
1) You say your work out and burn 600-1000 cals a day and stay at 1200 or under. However you do not mention that you are eating those calories back that you burn. 1200 cals a day is the minimum if you are not at least eating back to a minimum of 1200 cals, your body is probably in starvation mode which happens when you get too little food.
2) Are you drinking enough water? Water helps promote weight loss and at least 8 cups a day is recommended.I however, follow the "half your weight" rule. If you weigh 200lbs then you would drink 100oz of water at day minimum. More if you are working out.
Just thought I would throw those couple of things out there. Hope this helps. Good luck and don't give up...0 -
It seems no matter what I do I can't lose the weight. Drinking tons of water, eating 1200 calories or more. I recently started taking my measurements and they haven't changed much, only in my arms and thighs really. I gain most of my weight in my stomach and haven't lost anything there. I'm just so frustrated, feel like giving up.0
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It seems no matter what I do I can't lose the weight. Drinking tons of water, eating 1200 calories or more. I recently started taking my measurements and they haven't changed much, only in my arms and thighs really. I gain most of my weight in my stomach and haven't lost anything there. I'm just so frustrated, feel like giving up.
are you eating 1200 plus most of those 600-1000 calories burned from exercise?0 -
I hope that you can see from this outpouring of love to you that people don't want you to give up - Let us know how we can help hon - we WANT to see you succeed!!!!0
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The past 2 weeks, no I haven't. But even when I was eating back my exercise calories, I wasn't losing weight. Obviously, I don't want to lose weight the wrong way, I want to do it the healthy way, but I'm not losing weight any way I do it.0
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Not being able to see your food and exercise diary it is hard to comment in a meaningful way, but I would suggest using a measuring tape along with the scale. Weight is not everything. If you are losing inches you are losing fat.0
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The past 2 weeks, no I haven't. But even when I was eating back my exercise calories, I wasn't losing weight. Obviously, I don't want to lose weight the wrong way, I want to do it the healthy way, but I'm not losing weight any way I do it.
Well our bodies aren't doomed to be fat,,, so be hopeful that there are ways to lose weight for every person... I would switch back to eating all your exercise calories. and I would also start weight lifting if I were you... the more muscle you have the faster your body will burn through fat... so get to strengthing those muscles...0 -
Sorry, I thought I made my diary public, I will check into it. Also, what's the point of working out hard if I have to eat back more calories? What is a healthy deficit?0
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For your weight, probably 300-500 calories per day. You work out so you build muscle and strengthen your heart. Additional weight loss is only a bonus if you can have a larger deficit. But at 150 pounds, anything more than a 500 calorie deficit would be unwise... your body has smaller fat stores and thus weight won't fall off of you like it would someone who weighed twice your weight and ate the same exact diet.
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I didn't even read the other responses, but I can just bet everyone is telling you that it's because you're not eating enough. I'm having the same problem! I was doing the same thing, working out like my life depended on it and eating 1200 or under. I didn't realize I was in starvation mode. I just upped my calories to help out my metabolism yesterday. And I did a little research:
With my height and weight, my metabolism will naturally burn 1548 calories a day, even if all I did was just lie in bed all day. And if I get enough water, it may even burn 2000 calories. So, to keep my metabolism burning ALL THE TIME, I raised my MFP calories to 1540. That way, all day long, my metabolism will have something it can burn so it won't burn out. It's like a fire... if you don't throw something on the fire to fuel it, it goes out and you have to work to get it started up again, which can really slow down progress. You can go to this website and figure out how many calories your own body burns naturally :http://health.discovery.com/centers/heart/basal/basal.html
3500 = one pound. If I can keep up with the calories I burn during my workouts and remember this, I will almost be able to track when I will lose my next pound! If I can burn at least 279 calories each day for a week, I'll loose a pound a week. Double that number, and I'll loose TWO pounds per week. But I would have to consider raising my calorie intake a little higher if I were to work out that much, just to take care of my metabolism.
I hope that helped you.0 -
It seems no matter what I do I can't lose the weight. Drinking tons of water, eating 1200 calories or more. I recently started taking my measurements and they haven't changed much, only in my arms and thighs really. I gain most of my weight in my stomach and haven't lost anything there. I'm just so frustrated, feel like giving up.
Again, youre not eating enough. If you are burning 1000 calories a day you should be eating closer to 2000 calories a day. Also, it's impossible to gain 3 1/2lbs of fat over night. IMPOSSIBLE. So it's most likely that you are bloated (either from your foods, drinks, lack of enough water or the most common reason.....that "time of the month.")
Eat more, eat healthy and keep up the workouts. If you do that for a month and are still not losing anything, talk to a doctor.0 -
It seems no matter what I do I can't lose the weight. Drinking tons of water, eating 1200 calories or more. I recently started taking my measurements and they haven't changed much, only in my arms and thighs really. I gain most of my weight in my stomach and haven't lost anything there. I'm just so frustrated, feel like giving up.
Again, youre not eating enough. If you are burning 1000 calories a day you should be eating closer to 2000 calories a day. Also, it's impossible to gain 3 1/2lbs of fat over night. IMPOSSIBLE. So it's most likely that you are bloated (either from your foods, drinks, lack of enough water or the most common reason.....that "time of the month.")
Eat more, eat healthy and keep up the workouts. If you do that for a month and are still not losing anything, talk to a doctor.
Agreed. You should eat moar phood. Healthy, of course, but moaruvit.0 -
Sorry, I thought I made my diary public, I will check into it. Also, what's the point of working out hard if I have to eat back more calories? What is a healthy deficit?
Look at it this way. Here is an example
Lets say that for your body to neither gain weight or lose weight you need to eat
1800 calories
well in order to lose one pound you would need to exercise and burn 500 calories. that would bring your defict down to
1300 calories eatin NET meaning you actually ate 1800 calories and then you exercised 500 a way.
IN THIS CASE you would NOT eat your calories back.
BUT MFP does this..
it takes that 1800 maintainence calories and subtracts 500 off the top for you RIGHT AWAY and puts your intake at
1300 calories... so REGARDLESS of whether or not you work out you will lose weight.
So IF you work out it would drop your deficit below 1200 calories which is super unhealthy. so mfp calculates those calories back into your diet...
1300-1000=300net calories (this is UNHEALTHY! so it adds them back in)
300 calories + 1000 = 1300.
1300 is still below your 1800 maintainence calories meaning that you will STILL LOSE WEIGHT.
Working out is for more than just creating a calorie deficit. its for strengthing your body and giving yourself a healthy heart and cardio vascular system.0 -
If you're burning that many calories, and keeping your caloric intake that low, you could always be converting fat to muscle based upon what your workout consists of. Muscle weighs more than fat, so that would explain why you're not losing weight. A good way to check yourself is to include your measurements in your weekly checks. That way, if you do go up a pound (not uncommon), but you lose an inch or two, you know that your gain is a postive gain and not a negative one.
There is more to nutrition and fitness than losing weight!
converting fat in to muscle? TROLL, I hope....0 -
If you're burning that many calories, and keeping your caloric intake that low, you could always be converting fat to muscle based upon what your workout consists of. Muscle weighs more than fat, so that would explain why you're not losing weight. A good way to check yourself is to include your measurements in your weekly checks. That way, if you do go up a pound (not uncommon), but you lose an inch or two, you know that your gain is a postive gain and not a negative one.
There is more to nutrition and fitness than losing weight!
converting fat in to muscle? TROLL, I hope....
I was hoping the same thing.0 -
If you're burning that many calories, and keeping your caloric intake that low, you could always be converting fat to muscle based upon what your workout consists of. Muscle weighs more than fat, so that would explain why you're not losing weight. A good way to check yourself is to include your measurements in your weekly checks. That way, if you do go up a pound (not uncommon), but you lose an inch or two, you know that your gain is a postive gain and not a negative one.
There is more to nutrition and fitness than losing weight!
converting fat in to muscle? TROLL, I hope....
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Your going to get a thousand different opinions, but without being able to see your food diary it's hard to figure out what the problem is.
I agree. What is your daily intake then maybe some solutions could be determined.0 -
Thank you, this was very helpful!0
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