No weight loss after 4 weeks

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Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone can help. My husband and I have been making big changes for our health and waistbands recently. And he's seeing major changes and I'm not.

So, firstly, I quit smoking, and because I know it can lead to weight gain and at almost 16stone I certainly can't afford that. So, I got the body coach cookbook and completely overhauled our family dinners, and my husband and I taking leftovers (small enough portions) for lunch. A banana (in the car) for breakfast and a handful of pistachios (in shells) mid morning. Tracking calories, I'm between 1500 and 1600 every day, around equal percentage fat, protein and carbs.

We've been doing the body coach and bikini body mommy workouts, cardio 3/4 times a week, strength twice a week.

Anyway, my husband, who was around 14 stone has lost a stone and a half, I've put on 2 lbs. HOW? Lol. We're literally eating and exercising the exact same amount! Anyway, I had been avoiding the sad step, so today was my first weigh after 4 weeks coz I can get a little obsessive. Anyway. Help.
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Replies

  • summersongfox
    summersongfox Posts: 7 Member
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    Hello! This is my first time posting on anything. :) I figured I'd chime in because I had a similar result when I first started. I would suggest:

    1. Looking over what you have entered for your activity level and weight loss goals. Tweaking those may help some.
    2. Over-estimating your calories a little when you log (because most of us tend to underestimate those without meaning to) and eating back only a portion of what it says you've burned off through exercise as a number of people say it overestimates the burn for them
    3. Patience and persistence. Myfitnesspal is giving you a ton of information, but ultimately you will have to parse that information based on your results over time and tweak how you eat and exercise. I have that exact same issue with the scale and also had a slight gain when I started, but keeping with it anyway and just trusting that it would help over time has paid off.
    4. Don't get tied to the results the program thinks you will have. Even being careful with my logging and working out, I am not experiencing results as dramatic as the app thinks I will each week. Some weeks I have no change at all. Thankfully, this forum has let me know that is common for a lot of people. When I'm losing, it's little bits at a time. But I am still losing! And for me that feels like a miracle.

    I think if you already know that the numbers can mess with your head, then you are doing right to keep them to one side. You've already made some wonderful decisions for your health as a whole, and the rest will come with patience and persistence.

    I wish you the best!
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
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    Hi guys,

    I wonder if anyone can help. My husband and I have been making big changes for our health and waistbands recently. And he's seeing major changes and I'm not.

    ...

    Anyway, my husband, who was around 14 stone has lost a stone and a half, I've put on 2 lbs. HOW? Lol. We're literally eating and exercising the exact same amount! Anyway, I had been avoiding the sad step, so today was my first weigh after 4 weeks coz I can get a little obsessive. Anyway. Help.

    The odds are good that your husband has more calories to work with, because he's male, and likely because he's also bigger.

    Are you eating the exact same thing? If so, stop, unless it works in your calories, and start weighing and measuring according to your needs instead.

  • passenger79
    passenger79 Posts: 257 Member
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    Body coach recipes are so yummy but very calorific so unless you measure everything you eat it would be really easy to put weight on.
    You don't have to step on scales all time if you get obsessive but take measurements and measure and weigh everything you eat.
    Well done on quitting smoking :)

  • rednote49
    rednote49 Posts: 124 Member
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    Hang in there. Count your cals and keep going. Your body will catch up eventually. My first 5 weeks I registered no weight loss on the scale. My next weigh in, which was another 5 weeks later it showed 10lbs lost. Which was right in the wheelhouse of the 1lb a week loss given by MFP. Now that 1lb a week did not happen that way but it will average itself out.
  • YvetteK2015
    YvetteK2015 Posts: 653 Member
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    If you and your husband are eating the exact same amount, then there is your problem. You shouldn't be. You should be eating LESS than him. Just cut down your portion sizes, and log your calories, and assess where you are in a few weeks.
  • rmgnow
    rmgnow Posts: 375 Member
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    Are you logging your food?
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    • With a BMR typically way above that for females, a male will generally lose a lot faster than a given female with similar diet & portions (he will have a larger calorie deficit). And calorie burns for the same activity will usually be higher.
    • Weight can fluctuate several pounds within even the same day just due to water. Water retention will happen frequently when starting new exercise, changing diet, etc.

    The first 2 are my likely guesses. Other possibilities/suggestions:
    • If eating back exercise calories, do watch out for possible over-estimation on activities where 'vigorousness' can vary widely and isn't easily measured, such as aerobics.
    • Be careful with volume measurements of calorie dense items (like nuts).
  • RedSierra
    RedSierra Posts: 253 Member
    edited August 2017
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    Edited to add congrats on quitting smoking! :) That's a major accomplishment.

    About your husband losing faster than you: men have more lean, fat-burning muscle than women and typically lose faster.

    http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/5-reasons-men-lose-weight-faster-than-women

    "There's truth behind the Popeye and Olive Oyl body types. Men have more muscle, especially in the upper body, and since muscle burns more calories than fat, men have a faster metabolism—5 to 10% faster to be exact. You can blame (or thank!) testosterone for the double standard."
  • clairecostello1987
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    Thanks guys, he's just a jammy git I think. Anyway, I've not been weighing my bananas, but I do count the number of pistachios I eat, normally 10 in a handful. I do weigh food going in, but it's portioned out between me hubby and kids, so I try to work it out that way - eg, I cook 250g pasta, 100 for me, 100 for him and 50 between the kids, coz they're only tiny. If we're taking a portion for lunch, it's maybe a third if the size of a dinner portion and I factor that in too. I'm fairly good with maths so I'm confident with my sums. I do track everything I eat, but I don't track exercise, so my calories are just from my calorie allowance, which I'm under every day. I've set mfp to my weight which I update, and with the aim of 2lb a week (wishful thinking).
    I'm definitely toning a bit, clothes are sitting better, and we've been taking progress pics where I can see a bit of a difference - if I squint, lol.
    I am wondering if quitting smoking might have something to do with retention, and I'm possibly a little insulin resistant having had gestational diabetes in all my pregnancies and pcos.
    Regardless, I doubt I'll be some kind of medical marvel who remains heavy despite healthy diet and exercise. So I'll stick at it, and wait for the magic to happen and keep trying to improve. I'll look into weighing food for greater accuracy and perhaps start throwing the odd stick of butter into my husband's dinner, just to take the edge off my jealously. Lol.
    Thanks again everyone!
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
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    Weight is just a number. It is a HUGE deal that you are noticing toning and clothing fit. Those are FAR better indicators of how you're doing than the number on a scale. In addition to everyone else's comments, remember if you're working out you're building muscle mass. It is not uncommon to see no change or even weight gain based on the weight of new muscles.

    How much muscle do you think a women strength training twice a week for 4 weeks would gain?
  • richb178
    richb178 Posts: 47 Member
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    Weight is just a number. It is a HUGE deal that you are noticing toning and clothing fit. Those are FAR better indicators of how you're doing than the number on a scale. In addition to everyone else's comments, remember if you're working out you're building muscle mass. It is not uncommon to see no change or even weight gain based on the weight of new muscles.

    Yeah, if you are gaining muscle mass and losing an equal amount of fat mass, the muscle will only take up about 4/10 of the volume the fat took, so your clothes may be fitting looser w/o losing weight.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Hi guys,

    I wonder if anyone can help. My husband and I have been making big changes for our health and waistbands recently. And he's seeing major changes and I'm not.

    So, firstly, I quit smoking, and because I know it can lead to weight gain and at almost 16stone I certainly can't afford that. So, I got the body coach cookbook and completely overhauled our family dinners, and my husband and I taking leftovers (small enough portions) for lunch. A banana (in the car) for breakfast and a handful of pistachios (in shells) mid morning. Tracking calories, I'm between 1500 and 1600 every day, around equal percentage fat, protein and carbs.

    We've been doing the body coach and bikini body mommy workouts, cardio 3/4 times a week, strength twice a week.

    Anyway, my husband, who was around 14 stone has lost a stone and a half, I've put on 2 lbs. HOW? Lol. We're literally eating and exercising the exact same amount! Anyway, I had been avoiding the sad step, so today was my first weigh after 4 weeks coz I can get a little obsessive. Anyway. Help.

    You're eating the exact same amount as your husband to lose weight? Men generally have significantly higher calorie requirements than women...1500-1600 calories per day for a man would be a huge deficit in most cases...not necessarily the case for a woman.

    I can lose about 1 Lb per week eating 2200-2300 calories per day...which is roughly what my wife maintains on
  • clayelliott847
    clayelliott847 Posts: 125 Member
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    Kudos to you for quiting smoking and trying to lose weight at the same time. That is hard, because you want to eat more when you not smoking.
  • clairecostello1987
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    Hi guys, yeah, I'm eating around the same as my husband at dinner and lunch. I started off two stone heavier than him (thanks kids) and now he's lost a further 2 stone. I'm not framing my eating in reference to his, I'm going by the recommended calories for 2lb for my hight/weight from my fitness pal. Lol, my inner feminist bristles at the notion I should automatically eat less than him. Anyway, I'm finding this sustainable, I'm not cutting further to see faster results because I won't stick. If there's one thing I'm an expert at it's falling off the wagon face first into a bottle of wine and a burger!
  • clairecostello1987
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    Sorry, he's lost a further stone and a half, so I'm now 3 1/2 stone heavier than him.
  • jonnyman41
    jonnyman41 Posts: 1,031 Member
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    New exercise often initially hinders weight loss, not because of the muscle weight thing, but because of extra water in your body while your muscles get used to working out so that may be one of the factors. That will settle down soon so don't worry.
    Also try dropping your calories a little more but do it by eating something different at lunch and breakfast rather than even smaller portions. E.g try salads and soups, eggs for breakfast etc...
    Don't eat back more than half your exercise calories either.

    You will start to do well at some point with a change of living, but, as its not working so far, just shake it up a little.
    Men do seem to lose so much easier, it's not fair lol
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
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    In short you are eating more than your body needs.

    Strip 100 calories from your diet (thats around 25g carbs, or around 11-12g fat) and monitor for the next 7-14 days.

    If this does not work, repeat.

    Essentially if you are maintaining you are taking in as many calories as you are burning off.

    Your body has to be in a deficit for you to drop fat.

    Simple as that.