ebentzley wrote: »

HI, I am a newbie here , just poking around the site. I have been seriously logging int MFP for the past 3 weeks. My problem is getting in the exercise, and getting my mind straight that this is going to be a long process. looking to lose 60 lbs. Scale has not budged in a week. Trying to keep the bad, "give up,what's the use voice" from taking over. I'll drink some water and see you guys later!!!

Welcome to the group @ebentzley !

Not that you asked, but thought I'd post some thoughts on things to check when you get in a stall...hopefully you're already doing these things, but I find these were my go-tos when I was having issues. I still have to check them while in maintenance at times too.

Water Retention: If the exercise is new to you (even if it is just a different routine) you may have some water retention. Just push through the stall and it will eventually drop off (could be days or even sometimes weeks later). And even as vintage babes, I'm still convinced we have monthly hormonal weight fluctuations (yippie for being a gal...NOT)...so just be patient with yourself during the process. Look at monthly trends, if possible. I've had weeks where I don't lose much, then the next week, drop a couple pounds. Oh, and yea, drinking more water, for me, was great for helping to flush the water retention. Not the same for everyone, but worth a try to see if it helps you.

Accurate Calorie Burns: Also be sure you logging accurately for your exercise and weight. I've seen some folks on here log crazy high calories for some of their activity (nearly double what it should be based on other calorie calculators - I have one person on my feed regularly logging 2K+ burns for bike riding, but given what she's said about her ability, even for the hours she's out riding, I think she's at a minimum double estimating and possibly more....had another lady that would regularly log calorie burn for 'driving her car', and wondering why she wasn't losing ~ had to drop her as a friend as her whining about not losing was getting on my last nerve for that level of nonsense). Also, as you lose weight, you get less calorie burn for the same activity...it's a bummer, but it's a reality.

CICO Estimation: So when it comes to calories in vs calories out, my biggest rule is "Don't fool thyself". I typically tried my best to under-estimate my calorie burn from my exercise (and not count every little activity), and if needed (because there was no scale) over-estimate my calorie intake. That always gives me a bigger deficit to work with, but frankly it was probably closer to being spot on rather than giving me any 'extra' deficit as I was working on a 1 lb/wk deficit, but regularly only lost about .75lbs/week.

Accurate Portion Sizes: Also, be sure you are accurately logging your food.

• It's eye opening to get a scale to weigh out portions at least for a while (if you aren't inclined to be obsessive about it like me), until you know what a real serving size is (typically 28-30g / 1 oz for most things ~ I use little custard bowls to put my portions in, not make me feel like there is more, but because they have some lines on them, and I fill up different foods to different lines depending on the weight of the food)...and even more surprising, you can find you are often satisfied with that little of a portion.
• If you eat out a lot, find a way to better estimate portion size as they often give way too much food for a serving (often their serving should be 3-4 portions for a woman and at least 2 portions for a guy). I typically use my hands (as they are always with me), so I know that a palm-full, or a fist, or something the size of my hand is about a portion...it takes some work to figure out what foods are what portion sizes, but once you have an idea, it makes estimating a bit easier when logging. To give you an idea, for me, the flat palm of my hand is about 4oz of meat, my thumb is about 2 Tbsp (of peanut butter), my fist is about a cup, about 1/2 a palm-full is 28-30g of nuts/candy. Clearly, it will be different for you since we all have different sized hands, but it's a decent way to estimate.
• Oh, and the serving sizes on bags of food isn't as grossly bad as some people make it out to be in the forums. So, I regularly count out the number of chips I eat when I'm at a Mexican restaurant (or even at home) and use a standard equivalent from the database. It's fair to say to double check it for a while, but once you can confirm the food you are purchasing is typically right, you don't need to weigh those things regularly...just grab it, log it, and eat it.

Food portions are one of the easiest areas to slip up on over time, and typically the biggest area where you need to tighten things up when you are dealing with a stall.

My biggest stalls were typically caused by lower than expected calorie burns (like when I went from doing a ton of cardio to doing more weight lifting - same exercise time, but less calorie burn) and getting sloppy on my food portions (or not staying below my calorie goal consistently)...it's one reason I love that I was so obsessive about logging even on really bad days (still don't get the mindset of not logging when you know you've had a bad day), because I could track down my problem areas pretty quickly and work to fix them. However, water retention regularly played with my head too, and there isn't much you can do about it.