Eating 1500 cal or less working out 5 days still gaining?

Docekika · June 2017

I work out 5 days a week 45min+
I eat under 1500 cal
but I have stopped loosing and keep gaining and loosing a lb in water weight.
I'm so confused

sierradeltacanart · June 2017

I'm in the same boat. I work out 6 times a week but still can only lose water weight.

L1zardQueen · June 2017

Your diary is empty as far back as Tuesday. How do you know you are eating 1500 calories?

Poisonedpawn78 · June 2017

It could be a few things.

females can have water weight retention during that time.
are you weighing your food with a food scale? (you might be miss judging amounts, even 20% error could be enough to put you up at 1800 calories)
Are you trusting calorie listings in the database or double checking them against reliable websites? (could be bad entries)
Are you being honest with your entries? (leaving something out, guessing ect is only hurting your ability to see whats happening truthfully)

I am not accusing you of any of the above, but these are probably the likely reasons. There might also be a medical issue but I am not a doctor.

diannethegeek · June 2017

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.