Slow progress in losing weight

pianolover2012
pianolover2012 Posts: 168 Member
edited November 12 in Motivation and Support
Looking back on my progress it seems that I am losing about.4 a week . That seems very slow to me and is discouraging. Anyone have any ideas as to how I can speed it up to about a pound a week? I am walking about 45 minutes a day and I also do some light resistance training daily at my desk at work (yes, my co-workers think I am crazy!). I drink about 70-80 ounces of water daily and usually stay within my caloric intake. Thanks for any suggestions. My diary is open for your viewing.

Replies

  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
    Not sure what your BMR is, but I guess setting your daily calorie goal to that number if you are above that might help. I think I'm on an even slower track than you. I personally don't mind it because it means I am still losing weight AND getting to eat plenty.
  • MinisterTom
    MinisterTom Posts: 108 Member
    Lower your sodium intake, cut some of the bread out, increase protein. Purely from a calorie balance perspective, to lose one pound a week, you need to burn 500 calories more than you eat provided your metabolism is where it needs to be. What I did to increase metabolism is increase protein and limit carbs to fruits and veggies with limited bread intake. Sadly enough, everyone loses weight differently, and this is what worked for me, but you may have to experiment to find what works for you.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It looks to me like you're probably eating pretty close to your TDEE and getting just enough burn from exercise to lose about 1 Lb per week. I personally find it to be a lot easier to build the caloric deficit into the diet rather than trying to work it off. This way if I miss a day of exercise or whatever, it's no big deal because the deficit is already built into the calorie goal. Maybe try customizing your calorie goal to 1,400 or 1,500 net and eat back some of your exercise calories. Also remember that your net calories should not go below your BMR.

    Also, a lot of people log exercise and they really over estimate the burn. Even with a HRM you need to take into account calories that you would have otherwise burned regardless of the exercise as those calories will be included in the total. Also...and I don't know if you do this, but avoid logging ticky tacky stuff as exercise...i.e. vaccuming, doing the laundry...stuff like that. Only log real exercise.
  • elf618
    elf618 Posts: 317 Member
    I have also had some success with increasing protein. In it's place I've decreased carbs and try not to eat bread and potatoes, though I certainly haven't managed to pass up a lot of carby junk that finds it's way to the lounge at work as of late. I've been aiming for 120 g protein + in a day and find that I'm more satisfied and less hungry for junk when I accomplish that goal.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
    I looked at your diary and it shows a 1500 calorie allotment per day - you and I are the same age...but wothout other stats I cannot make an educated guess about the slow loss - maybe less food is needed; maybe more food.

    Have you calculated your BF% and BMR/TDEE? You can from www.fat2fitradio.com's calculators...My BMR is almost 1400 and my TDEe is between 1750 - 1900 depending upon my activity level. Why not go calculate and try it out?
  • carenscuisine
    carenscuisine Posts: 15
    I looked at your diary and you are on par for protein so IMHO I would not add more as you are not doing a lot of muscle work. I would go into the settings on your diary and add a sugar column, you would be surprised how much sugar you are consuming and that in itself is a culprit for slow fat loss. Its a hard one to look at and everyday you will walk to fine line of sugar intake or exceed it, but you will get a better idea of what should be consumed. There are a lot of hidden sugars in food!! I guarantee if you reduce the sugar you will see larger loss.
    good luck!
  • pianolover2012
    pianolover2012 Posts: 168 Member
    I looked at your diary and it shows a 1500 calorie allotment per day - you and I are the same age...but wothout other stats I cannot make an educated guess about the slow loss - maybe less food is needed; maybe more food.

    Have you calculated your BF% and BMR/TDEE? You can from www.fat2fitradio.com's calculators...My BMR is almost 1400 and my TDEe is between 1750 - 1900 depending upon my activity level. Why not go calculate and try it out?

    OK, so I just generated my BMR and it lists that I should eat 2179 calories daily. That is WAY above what I am eating now. Could this be the problem? I feel like that is a lot of calories.
  • pianolover2012
    pianolover2012 Posts: 168 Member
    I looked at your diary and you are on par for protein so IMHO I would not add more as you are not doing a lot of muscle work. I would go into the settings on your diary and add a sugar column, you would be surprised how much sugar you are consuming and that in itself is a culprit for slow fat loss. Its a hard one to look at and everyday you will walk to fine line of sugar intake or exceed it, but you will get a better idea of what should be consumed. There are a lot of hidden sugars in food!! I guarantee if you reduce the sugar you will see larger loss.
    good luck!

    Good idea. Thanks!
  • pianolover2012
    pianolover2012 Posts: 168 Member
    I looked at your diary and you are on par for protein so IMHO I would not add more as you are not doing a lot of muscle work. I would go into the settings on your diary and add a sugar column, you would be surprised how much sugar you are consuming and that in itself is a culprit for slow fat loss. Its a hard one to look at and everyday you will walk to fine line of sugar intake or exceed it, but you will get a better idea of what should be consumed. There are a lot of hidden sugars in food!! I guarantee if you reduce the sugar you will see larger loss.
    good luck!

    Good idea. Thanks!
  • Justkritter
    Justkritter Posts: 143 Member
    I looked at your diary and it shows a 1500 calorie allotment per day - you and I are the same age...but wothout other stats I cannot make an educated guess about the slow loss - maybe less food is needed; maybe more food.

    Have you calculated your BF% and BMR/TDEE? You can from www.fat2fitradio.com's calculators...My BMR is almost 1400 and my TDEe is between 1750 - 1900 depending upon my activity level. Why not go calculate and try it out?

    OK, so I just generated my BMR and it lists that I should eat 2179 calories daily. That is WAY above what I am eating now. Could this be the problem? I feel like that is a lot of calories.

    On the contrary, if you are working out like 3-5 times a week eating at or near 2179 will help your body keep its metabolism up, have enough nutrients to fuel muscle growth, and burn more calories. Thing with extreme calorie deficit is that if you're not really used to it and you do it abruptly or for a prolonged span of time it can cause metabolic damage which while stagnate weight loss (aside from your initial weight loss) and will force your body to lose more lean mass than fat. Active people tend to eat more around 2000+ to ensure energy levels are up and cutting down around 300 cal for an extra loss over the week. I might say though maybe it is indeed with what you are eating since I would consider .5 lbs loss over a week a more steady pace. Check for sodium contents and sugar as both can retain water, becoming unused energy resulting to weight gain or just water pooling inside you.
  • NattieJoan
    NattieJoan Posts: 72
    It could be that you are building up more muscle which is heavier than fat (:
  • kaiamore
    kaiamore Posts: 1
    i also had a very slow loss...it was indeed discouraging when everyone else seemed to be dropping pounds each week and I was in ounces. However, I stuck with it and in the end I think a slow and steady loss helps to build habits that you can depend on. it took me over 6 months to lose 10 lbs but I have been able to maintain it because I did not do anything too far outside my comfort zone. I think as long as you are losing the rate of loss is not that important and year from now you will be at a great weight and you will not be too stressed out trying to keep up something that is very difficult.
  • txbutterfly69
    txbutterfly69 Posts: 115 Member
    OK, so I just generated my BMR and it lists that I should eat 2179 calories daily. That is WAY above what I am eating now. Could this be the problem? I feel like that is a lot of calories.
    [/quote]

    Not necessarily if you work out almost everyday. I was following the set guidelines for loosing weight and my calories were low. I do something everyday and I was only loosing 1 pound a month! I went back to a time that I lost about 5 a month and I was eating nearly 2,000 calories. Somedays less, some days more. I found that not eating the same amount of calories works to break a plateau. I went to freedieting.com and used the calculator there to help me set my calories and follow the zig zag (calorie cycling) plan. Stick with the "fast loss" version (middle one---recommended). I did it once before and had great success. Again this year doing it again. Don't know why I hadn't done it sooner???

    Started again in January and I've lost 3 pounds already and yes, eating lots of food! You just have to eat the right kind of food, not fast food. lol

    ps I do allow treats in my diet and use my high calorie days for eating out or bigger treats. It does work. I learned about this on Livestrong when I was doing their loggin there. Something about tricking your body and never knowing how many calories it will consume that day. Same with exercise, change your routine. Hope this helps. :-)
  • alexveksler
    alexveksler Posts: 409 Member
    I looked at your daily food diary. You are consuming too much processed food. Most of it is out of the box(from what I can tell). All that is high in sodium and most of all you are not getting nutrients (carbs from veggies, fats from seeds and nuts, protein from beans and lean meats)

    I would try to change things around. give yourself 3-4 weeks with new diet and you will see progress. The magic is in your hands.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    OK, so I just generated my BMR and it lists that I should eat 2179 calories daily. That is WAY above what I am eating now. Could this be the problem? I feel like that is a lot of calories.

    I'm guessing that 2179 is actually your TDEE and your BMR is probably somewhere in the 1400-1600 range. Your TDEE is how many calories you are burning with your current activity factored in. To lose approx. 1 lb per week, you would need to keep up your exercise levels and eat approx. 1679 calories per day. This is calculated based on if you are "average". If you have a higher body fat % than is average for your height/weight, your BMR and TDEE may be lower.

    What you are doing IS working, and really, what's the benefit of making goal faster? You will need to keep monitoring your food intake and keep exercising. There really is no end to this process, so I say focus on doing what you are supposed to be doing and go from there. Looking at my weightloss tracker, my average weekly loss for the past year is .64 lbs/week. I have a lot to lose, but instead of going all crazy, I'm just taking it day by day. I pretty much only maintained for 3 months, but at least I didn't gain and have to start all over.

    Also, if you aren't already weighing and measuring all of your foods, I would definitely recommend getting a digital scale and weighing everything for at least a while. Also, make sure you are double checking the NI of the product you are eating with the NI of the product listed on MFP. I went to put in something I had eaten yesterday, and someone had changed the NI for the correct serving size/amount to 130 calories from 210. BIG difference.

    Edited to take out the part that I didn't mean to quote.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    Okay, just read over a few days of your diary. I don't care what you eat, so I'm not going to preach about that, but with your calorie goal at only about 450 calories less than your TDEE (which should include your exercise), you have to make sure that you are tracking as accurately as possible. This is especially true with "processed" foods and recipes. If you didn't make it yourself, I recommend weighing your portion of whatever you are having and picking an option that has weights and logging it that way instead of "1/2 slice" or something like that. If you can manage to cook at home a bit more, it would probably help you have more accurate calorie counts. If not, then I'd be happy with the approx. .5 lb per week loss and accept that it's a good loss given your current lifestyle and abilities.
  • yoovie
    yoovie Posts: 17,121 Member
    damn Im doing it wrong too I guess
  • Porshiana
    Porshiana Posts: 20 Member
    edited October 2017
    Weight loss is a simple equation. You must burn more calories than you eat. Also, weight loss is 80% what you eat, and only 20% what you do.
    I would suggest looking at your goal and food intake.

    Are you really counting everything? Including things like ketchup, or that 1 little tablespoon of peanut butter that you may not realize contains 100 calories. What about every piece of gum or candy. Are you measuring everything, or just guessing?
    Also, you could have a calorie goal, and a calorie limit like I do. I have my goal set at 1200. And sometimes I go over. But my absolute calorie limit is 1600. So if I reach 1600 calories I am absolutely not allowed to eat another thing until midnight. ( helps that I work nights) I probably hit my goal 2-4 times a week. But I always meet my 1600 limit. Except Thursday when I go to my T.O.P.S. Club meeting. If I lost weight,I get a huge indulging ice cream. Just one, that one day. But that's motivation to lose the rest of the week. I've lost 20 pounds since September 1st
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  • SLLeask
    SLLeask Posts: 489 Member
    This thread is from 2013!!!!
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