4 weeks - no movement on the scales
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laurendunlop83
Posts: 7 Member
Hey, I'm a bit confused. I have been working really hard for the last 4 week. Sticking to a 1200 kcal a day target. Trying to make sure that I have a good balance between carbs and proteins albeit I do have a bit of work to do on the % of carbs I'm consuming. I have been working out consistently following a lunch time programme of weights 3 x per week, yoga x1, pilates x1, walking 7 days per week and swimming where I can.
But after 4 weeks of work the scales haven't shifted at all.
I'm 16st 9lbs currently so have plenty to loose and have had success before using MyFitnessPal particularly in the first few weeks so I'm stumped as to what I'm doing wrong.
I've been told that I'm building muscle but as I've only been at this for 4 weeks and have come from an otherwise sedentary lifestyle I find that hard to believe.
Bit concerned as I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anyone else been in a similar position?
But after 4 weeks of work the scales haven't shifted at all.
I'm 16st 9lbs currently so have plenty to loose and have had success before using MyFitnessPal particularly in the first few weeks so I'm stumped as to what I'm doing wrong.
I've been told that I'm building muscle but as I've only been at this for 4 weeks and have come from an otherwise sedentary lifestyle I find that hard to believe.
Bit concerned as I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anyone else been in a similar position?
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Replies
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Open your diary to the public to get help finding mistakes you might be doing such as not weighing your food, etc. Go to settings. I think 1,200 is too little with all that exercise. Make sure you are not pregnant.3
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OP, if you are not already, get a digital kitchen scale. Weigh all solid and semisolid (e.g., cottage cheese) foods. Measure all liquids with measuring cups or spoons. Then be sure to log them using either the nutrition info from the labels or info that matches the USDA nutrient database. An easy way to find the latter in MFP is to do this:
- Go to this link: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list
- Choose Standard Reference from the Select Source dropdown
- Type your food in hte Enter one or more terms box (e.g., chicken breast)
- You'll get a list of all of the chicken breast entries. Find the one that best matches what you are eating and click on it. Example: https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/887?manu=&fgcd=&ds=Standard Reference
- Copy and paste the name (05064, Chicken, broilers or fryers, breast, meat only, cooked, roasted) into the MFP food search box.
- You'll get several entries that show up. Choose one and see if the nutrition info on it matches the one on the USDA site. In this example, the first entry matches (I compare calories, protein, carbs, and fat) so I would use that one.
It sounds like a pain but once you've done it for a couple of weeks your Recent list will be populated with foods you use over and over and logging will go a lot faster.15 -
The scale isn't not moving because you gained muscle. Some of it could be because of water weight retained due to the exercise or just normal fluctuations in weight which can be several pounds but most likely you are eating more than you think from not weighing your food. Do yourself a favor and get a food scale. It is worth it's weight in gold and actually very convenient. Also, if you open your diary, the folks here are very good at spotting problems to help you out.13
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at 1200 cal a day - its likely you aren't gaining muscle
are you weighing and logging EVERYTHING?7 -
13 -
laurendunlop83 wrote: »Hey, I'm a bit confused. I have been working really hard for the last 4 week. Sticking to a 1200 kcal a day target. Trying to make sure that I have a good balance between carbs and proteins albeit I do have a bit of work to do on the % of carbs I'm consuming. I have been working out consistently following a lunch time programme of weights 3 x per week, yoga x1, pilates x1, walking 7 days per week and swimming where I can.
But after 4 weeks of work the scales haven't shifted at all.
I'm 16st 9lbs currently so have plenty to loose and have had success before using MyFitnessPal particularly in the first few weeks so I'm stumped as to what I'm doing wrong.
I've been told that I'm building muscle but as I've only been at this for 4 weeks and have come from an otherwise sedentary lifestyle I find that hard to believe.
Bit concerned as I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anyone else been in a similar position?
you can rule out the muscle gain! you are certainly not gaining appreciable muscle mass in 4 weeks of yoga, swimming and walking.
are you weighing everything you eat???9 -
When folks have the issue you're having, it's 99.9% of the time due to inaccurate logging - either OVER estimating how many calories you burn when working out, UNDER estimating your calorie intake, or a combination of both. Sucks I know but that's the truth! I have lost 24 lbs since April of this year using accurate logging at a 1200 cal a day. I measure my food when I can instead of "eyeballing" or "guestimating" the amount and always downplay how many calories I think I've burned when I work out. So far, I have been losing 1.5 - 2 lbs a week. It will slow down when I get closer to my goal weight but accurate logging is the key!10
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Two possibilities, and more than likely it is a little bit of both:
You need to be more patient. Water weight from sodium, stress, TOM, muscle repair is hiding your weight loss.
Your logging is not accurate.
Even with the best efforts, we are human and are going to have logging errors. But as others have mentioned, using a food scale for everything solid will help.6 -
Is 1200 the number mfp gave you?
How often are you weighing?
Are you using a food scale?0 -
I don't know your age or height but I just put your weight into a calculator with the age of 40 and the height of 4ft 10. Going from the picture you're probably under 40 and 4ft 10 is the smallest you can be before being classified with dwarfism so you're probably taller than that. So the calories you need to eat a day to lose weight would likely be higher than the calculator told me. But even with those numbers I worked out that a woman of your weight at 40 years old and 4ft 10 would have lost 6 lbs by eating 1200 a day for 4 weeks.
This leads me to believe that you are eating more than 1200 a day.
With the numbers I put into the calculator it looks like you are consuming closer to 2000 calories a day.
Is there anywhere in your diet that you can think that you might be eating more calories than you realise?
Misjudged portion sizes rack up the calories very quickly.2 -
You seem to have started exercising recently. Exercised muscles retain more water and a new exercise regimen exacerbates that effect.0
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It seems a few folks have reading comprehension issues. SMH4
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It's hard to know for sure; sometimes you just hit a plateau, sometimes you're too deprived and your drop of energy makes you burn fewer calories either during the day or during exercise. Maybe you are eating proper portion sizes but using a more generous drizzle of olive oil on your salad than you thought. Or maybe you're experiencing a medical issue. If you're about to start your period also, it could mask weight loss with fluid retention; usually I drop as much as 2-3 lbs from pre- to post-period.0
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It seems a few folks have reading comprehension issues. SMH
I took it that way first, and couldn't believe Liam Neeson was telling me that OP was building muscle in a deficit. I stared at the woo button. Thought, but the rest of it makes sense. Reread the first sentence. Finally caught the double negative.
I remember a sort of brain twister from when I was a kid. It was a sentence in a triangle or a square -- some form to artificially constrain the line length, while also distracting you. You were supposed to read it aloud. Almost everyone would read it and skip a word that was repeated at the end of one line and the beginning of the next. It was a "small" word, like an article or "not." They just wouldn't see it. I think something like that is going on here. We expect to see a normal sentence without a double negative, so we do.3 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »It seems a few folks have reading comprehension issues. SMH
I took it that way first, and couldn't believe Liam Neeson was telling me that OP was building muscle in a deficit. I stared at the woo button. Thought, but the rest of it makes sense. Reread the first sentence. Finally caught the double negative.
I remember a sort of brain twister from when I was a kid. It was a sentence in a triangle or a square -- some form to artificially constrain the line length, while also distracting you. You were supposed to read it aloud. Almost everyone would read it and skip a word that was repeated at the end of one line and the beginning of the next. It was a "small" word, like an article or "not." They just wouldn't see it. I think something like that is going on here. We expect to see a normal sentence without a double negative, so we do.
That is an intelligent response. I can understand misreading the first line. That is easy to do but then the entire rest of the post would contradict it. That is when an intelligent person would catch that and go back a re-read the first line.
As for building muscle in a deficit, even if someone is able to, it wouldn't prevent the scale from moving because any muscle gained would be offset because the calories out would increase by an amount equivalent to what it took to build that muscle.2 -
Thanks for your comments everyone. I have been reviewing my food diary with my trainer and although I've been recording everything she feels that my carb intake is probably too high given that I suffer from insulin resistance. She suggested an increase in calories and a decrease in carbs. I've lost 2lbs in 2 days of doing this and feel much more satiated.18
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laurendunlop83 wrote: »Thanks for your comments everyone. I have been reviewing my food diary with my trainer and although I've been recording everything she feels that my carb intake is probably too high given that I suffer from insulin resistance. She suggested an increase in calories and a decrease in carbs. I've lost 2lbs in 2 days of doing this and feel much more satiated.
the 2lbs in 2 days is obviously water weight from lower carbs. telling you to increase your calories to lose weight?? time to find a new trainer!! (wait a second - trainer for nutritional advice??????)14 -
Muscleflex79 wrote: »laurendunlop83 wrote: »Thanks for your comments everyone. I have been reviewing my food diary with my trainer and although I've been recording everything she feels that my carb intake is probably too high given that I suffer from insulin resistance. She suggested an increase in calories and a decrease in carbs. I've lost 2lbs in 2 days of doing this and feel much more satiated.
the 2lbs in 2 days is obviously water weight from lower carbs. telling you to increase your calories to lose weight?? time to find a new trainer!! (wait a second - trainer for nutritional advice??????)
Yep, your trainer is clueless. Weight loss is about calories not carbs. A bunch of us here have lost well over a hundred pounds eating lots of carbs.9 -
Also, stop worrying about what your weight does daily. That doesn't mean jack. My weight was up 3 pounds this morning. That is normal. Our weights fluctuate constantly. I gained a pound just taking a shower. What matters is fat loss and that is based on a calorie deficit. Trust the math and watch the trend over time.7 -
Muscleflex79 wrote: »laurendunlop83 wrote: »Thanks for your comments everyone. I have been reviewing my food diary with my trainer and although I've been recording everything she feels that my carb intake is probably too high given that I suffer from insulin resistance. She suggested an increase in calories and a decrease in carbs. I've lost 2lbs in 2 days of doing this and feel much more satiated.
the 2lbs in 2 days is obviously water weight from lower carbs. telling you to increase your calories to lose weight?? time to find a new trainer!! (wait a second - trainer for nutritional advice??????)
Nope! the trainer is correct (this time)--with all the exercise the OP is doing, 1200 calories is not enough and she also said she's insulin resistant (i.e. pre-diabetes) so it would be best for her to watch her carb intake or better yet, for her to get a glucometer (blood sugar meter) to monitor her blood sugars before & 2 hrs after meals and how various foods her affect blood sugar readings. Things like bread, noodles, rice, mashed potatoes (especially the instant or quick-cooking kind) drive my blood sugars up very high & very quickly. I know for myself (a diabetic), if my blood sugars get above the 140-150 mg/dl range, I get hungry and if my blood sugars get above the 180-200 mg/dl range, I get extremely hungry (i.e. I feel like I'm starving which can easily trigger an eating binge) and don't feel satiated even after eating.9
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