Good start but stopped losing weight almost immediately

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Julani34
Julani34 Posts: 36 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I lost 2 kgs in my first 2 days on mfp but then i felt weak and hungry and set my goal from 1kg/wk loss to 0.75 kg and it stopped and I gained back a half a kg. It's been 10 days since and I don't understand what is happening? I have 20 kgs to lose and I log everything and even exercise, 7 minutes and I jog/walked once. Is there anything I can do to kick start the weight loss off again? I'm getting mega frustrated. I don't want to go back to 1200 cals a day as I had no energy but I'm not losing on 1300.

Replies

  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    Keep the course for a few weeks and be patient. If you still aren't losing anything consider getting a food scale to improve accuracy with your portions. Also- a lot of people only eat back 1/2 of their exercise calories because the auto-generated #s tend to overestimate burn.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    Think about how long it took you to gain that weight. You may be able to lose it faster, but not THAT much faster. Be patient and be realistic. You can do this!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,843 Member
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    gorillababyface wrote: »
    Add more healthy fats to your diet and lower your carbs early in the day. HEALTHY fats such as oils, nuts, fatty fish, and oil salad dressings will make you feel full faster. Carbs spike insulin which slows down fat loss and the sugar turns on your hunger...have carbs later in the day in your last meals and don't snack after. It will help you sleep also.

    Probability that evolution designed us to require complicated, arcane dietary practices - ones not followed by the last millennium or so of our ancestors - in order to be healthy? Near zero.

    OP, your new loss rate target seems more reasonable. It takes some time to sort out water weight changes and average digestive system contents and more, so patience is good advice.

    From your low calorie goal, I'm guessing you're female. If that's true, are you premenopausal? If so, one thing to know is that many women gain as much as several pounds of water weight at some point in their cycle (exactly when varies by individual). This water weight can hang around for days, then drop off. While it's there, it can mask any rational amount of weight loss, and even make you think you're gaining. When it drops off, voila, a loss shows up on the scale. (And this isn't the only possible cause of perfectly normal temporary water weight fluctuation.)

    So, stay the course for a month or so before thinking it isn't working. If it still isn't, there may be issues about how you're estimating your food intake, but with your stats, water weight is more likely than excess intake.

    Stay strong: You can do this!
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    gorillababyface wrote: »
    Add more healthy fats to your diet and lower your carbs early in the day. HEALTHY fats such as oils, nuts, fatty fish, and oil salad dressings will make you feel full faster. Carbs spike insulin which slows down fat loss and the sugar turns on your hunger...have carbs later in the day in your last meals and don't snack after. It will help you sleep also.

    Probability that evolution designed us to require complicated, arcane dietary practices - ones not followed by the last millennium or so of our ancestors - in order to be healthy? Near zero.

    OP, your new loss rate target seems more reasonable. It takes some time to sort out water weight changes and average digestive system contents and more, so patience is good advice.

    From your low calorie goal, I'm guessing you're female. If that's true, are you premenopausal? If so, one thing to know is that many women gain as much as several pounds of water weight at some point in their cycle (exactly when varies by individual). This water weight can hang around for days, then drop off. While it's there, it can mask any rational amount of weight loss, and even make you think you're gaining. When it drops off, voila, a loss shows up on the scale. (And this isn't the only possible cause of perfectly normal temporary water weight fluctuation.)

    So, stay the course for a month or so before thinking it isn't working. If it still isn't, there may be issues about how you're estimating your food intake, but with your stats, water weight is more likely than excess intake.

    Stay strong: You can do this!

    ^^This, and especially the bolded. I'm going to copy pasta the reply I gave someone else on pretty much the same thing, in which I am the perfect example of water weight masking fat lose:

    Five weeks ago I set about losing my little winter insulation layer (southern hemisphere). As of today, on the scale I am the exact same weight as I was five weeks ago. In between I have been both higher and lower. Why? Because in that time I have also restarted strength training (water retention for muscle repair), had PMS bloat, had ovulation bloat, restarted running, and now back to PMS bloat. Water weight fluctuations can very easily mask fat loss on the scale, which is why you need to look at long term trends rather than just day to day or week to week. A week ago I weighed 1.4 kg less than I do today. I have most definitely not eaten 10,500 calories over maintenance in the past week. If you know your calorie intake is on point, stay the course.

    (*sigh* at least my whacked out hormones are proving useful for illustrative purposes)

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