3 weeks and absolutely no weightloss!!!

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cheesyhan
cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys

I'm absolutely at a loss.

After nearly 4 years of eating dreadfully and gaining a lot of weight I've finally regained temperance and control only to not see the scales move downwards even slightly.

I've lowered my calorie intake by over 500 calories a day. I was previously eating 2,500 and 3000 calories easily and often exceeding this too. I was eating a high junk food diet. Lots of convenience foods as well as high sugar foods such as cakes, chocolate, crisps and ready meals etc. This has all happened since have to children lose together so add pregnancy weight twice over into this.

The last 3 weeks I've consistently consumed between 1500 to 1800 calories. I've eaten purely vegan. Reduced the sugar intake lots but not yet totally quit. I'm still having dark mint chocolate at weekends. I'm not eating from 7.30pm to 1.00pm each day excluding weekends whe I do have breakfast. I am having 2 decaf soya coffees totalling 38 calories each morning so.maybe this breaks my 'fast' too much.

I'm just dismayed that I've not lost even 1lb in 3 weeks. Especially when I see friends of mine lose half a stone here and there after just 1 week of slimming world or "cutting down".

I must be doing something wrong but I've no idea what...any suggestions or ideas?

I'm very disappointed and disheartened so encouragement would be greatly received.

Thank you

Replies

  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    What's your height, weight, sex and approx. activity level?

    Are you using a food scale to log your intake?

    How consistent are you with logging?

    Have you recently started a new exercise program?

    If so, are you eating back all the calories you burn? How are you calculating them?

  • cheesyhan
    cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
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    Hi all

    Thank you for your speedy responses.

    I've been weighing and measuring everything as well as logging every morsel consistently the last 3 weeks. This is to try and avoid over eating or under estimating.

    I was previously pure vegan and low sugar and very healthy as well as slim. I lapsed a lot during pregnancy.

    I've done a lot of research into the benefits of intermittent fasting and I would like to reap it's rewards.

    I have started back at running. I hadn't run for 2 months. I went again on Wednesday. I'm very unfit now and find the extra weight really impedes me. I did a run walk every minute for just under 5k and I will be doing this 3 to 4 times a week. Obviously extending the run walk gaps as fitness improves.

    How do I open up my diary?
  • dwilliamca
    dwilliamca Posts: 325 Member
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    Don't get too discouraged yet. All those carbs you were eating may still be causing you to hang on to some water. The scale can be stubborn sometimes. I'm a little confused about your numbers. Where are you coming up with the 1500-1800 calories number you are using? If you are truly eating half what you used to you should start to see it. Did you let MFP calculate that for you based on your statistics and activity level? Does that include your exercise calories if any? Are you truly burning as many calories as you are allotting for both in activity level and exercise? False numbers can screw things up. What is the reason you are eating pure vegan and are you are getting enough protein and fat? What do your macros look like? Although some people like fasting, it is not a necessity for weight loss. You need to find what works for you. Make sure you are accurately accounting for all your foods using a food scale, as estimating and even measuring is deceiving. Remember that oils used in cooking count too. Personally I'd try changing up my diet some, and add in some more exercise to kick start it. A little sugar isn't the problem as long as you log it. I eat a normal balance diet, eat foods I like, stay within my calorie budget on a regular basis, and do some daily exercise and it has worked for me although there are some weeks where I lose less than a pound/week and weeks where I suddenly drop 2. Good luck to you.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    cheesyhan wrote: »
    Hi all

    Thank you for your speedy responses.

    I've been weighing and measuring everything as well as logging every morsel consistently the last 3 weeks. This is to try and avoid over eating or under estimating.

    I was previously pure vegan and low sugar and very healthy as well as slim. I lapsed a lot during pregnancy.

    I've done a lot of research into the benefits of intermittent fasting and I would like to reap it's rewards.

    I have started back at running. I hadn't run for 2 months. I went again on Wednesday. I'm very unfit now and find the extra weight really impedes me. I did a run walk every minute for just under 5k and I will be doing this 3 to 4 times a week. Obviously extending the run walk gaps as fitness improves.

    How do I open up my diary?

    If you've just started exercising again it's possible that your body is retaining some water to help your muscles recover. This is pretty common and it may be "masking" your initial weight loss.

    To open your diary, go to "Settings" at the top of the page and choose "Diary." It will give you options to open up there.

    The benefit of IF is that it makes it easier for some people to reach a deficit. If you enjoy doing it or find it fits your life, go ahead with it. But there's nothing magical about it and if you'd rather eat the same amount throughout the day, feel free to do that.
  • cheesyhan
    cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
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    Oh and I'm female and weigh 12st 13lbs and am 5"4 inches.

    I am seriously weighing and measuring and creating recipes etc to the letter as I've failed in my attempts previously.

    I picked 1800 calories as my starter point to try and wean myself off of eating so much.
  • cheesyhan
    cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
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    And I wear a garmin vivoactive hr gps watch which logs my activity levels etc
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    cheesyhan wrote: »
    Oh and I'm female and weigh 12st 13lbs and am 5"4 inches.

    I am seriously weighing and measuring and creating recipes etc to the letter as I've failed in my attempts previously.

    I picked 1800 calories as my starter point to try and wean myself off of eating so much.

    I ran your stats through my favourite TDEE calculator (www.sailrabbit.com/bmr) and your Sedentary TDEE is coming up as 1886. Meaning, if you were to have a day where you're mostly seated (like an office job) with NO intentional exercise, you could eat 1886 calories to maintain your current weight.

    Since your current goal is 1800, that is veeeery close to your Sedentary TDEE with very little margin of error. Obviously this isn't accounting for your exercise, but still something to keep in mind. Lowering your calorie goal a bit might get the scale moving.

    PS - Heart rate monitors and activity trackers can over-estimate your calorie burns. Often, most people only eat back 50-75% of the exercise calories their device tells them they've burnt.
  • mysteps2beauty
    mysteps2beauty Posts: 494 Member
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    Might be high sodium intake. It will cause you to hold on to water. Any processed food i.e. canned foods, frozen foods or easy preparation meals like hamburger helper may fall into your allowed calories, but these and similar items are very high in sodium.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,988 Member
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    Do you check the database entries you select against the package label or against the USDA database (ndb.nal.usda.gov)
  • cheesyhan
    cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
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    Lynn_glenmont....I can't say I do....what is thus checking the database? I do barcode scan many of my ingredients or foods etc. Not sure if that's the same thing.

    Oh and I might add that I'm still breastfeeding my youngest. I've had people say this could affect weightloss.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    cheesyhan wrote: »
    Lynn_glenmont....I can't say I do....what is thus checking the database? I do barcode scan many of my ingredients or foods etc. Not sure if that's the same thing.

    Oh and I might add that I'm still breastfeeding my youngest. I've had people say this could affect weightloss.

    It's a possibility that your barcode scans are pulling up incorrect entries and this is resulting in your eating more than you think you are. It might be worth doublechecking your frequently used entries for accuracy.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    cheesyhan wrote: »
    Lynn_glenmont....I can't say I do....what is thus checking the database? I do barcode scan many of my ingredients or foods etc. Not sure if that's the same thing.

    Oh and I might add that I'm still breastfeeding my youngest. I've had people say this could affect weightloss.

    Since the database is created by other MFP users, many entries are incorrect. You should always double check that the entry that scanned has the right calories/macros.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    You were eating above your maintenance calories to gain weight, and now you could be possibly eating right on (or scraping in just below) your actual maintenance calories.

    How many calories does mfp give you to lose weight?
  • cheesyhan
    cheesyhan Posts: 10 Member
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    Christine...it's giving me 1400 and something. I'm working on getting down to that. I guess I assumed that I'd lose some weight if I ate at least 500 calories less than my body was used to in order to lose 1lb a week. Obviously not lol.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    cheesyhan wrote: »
    Christine...it's giving me 1400 and something. I'm working on getting down to that. I guess I assumed that I'd lose some weight if I ate at least 500 calories less than my body was used to in order to lose 1lb a week. Obviously not lol.

    What your body is used to and what it needs are two different things. If your body is used to eating 3000 calories, for example, that would be more than it body needs. If you lower that by 500, it would still be more than your body needs and you would still be gaining. What you are used to eating is irrelevant to weight loss numbers. In your case, you apparently settled at maintenance or somewhat close and would need to either go lower or be more active to start losing.

    Keep in mind, females experience a lot of hormonal fluctuations which can affect water retention, so it's best to evaluate weight at similar cycle points (example: right after period, then right after period next month). Better yet, just weigh in daily and use a weight trending app or website to average out fluctuations. If after a month or two the trend isn't pointing down, then something is likely wrong with your logging.
  • sgtx81
    sgtx81 Posts: 466 Member
    edited November 2017
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    I have the same thing going on and I know ppl will tell you it's that you're not logging correctly... horsecrap. That's not necessarily the case... it can be, but it's not set in stone. I log, weigh, measure everything. I actually kind of enjoy doing it. My weight stalled out for three solid weeks with no difference after I started exercising over 45 minutes a day it just froze on me. That's cardio, no weightlifting. I increased calories and it hasn't budged. Started eating more carbs, nothing. Checked sodium intake, nada. My maintenance calories are like 4029, I've been doing about 1500 since August and losing a good amount of weight. Things aren't always so clear-cut. I'm taking a 1-2 week diet break where I will get as close to maintenance as possible and then getting back on it. If it does the trick I will be doing 3 months on two weeks off for as long as it remains effective. Don't be too discouraged, just make sure you're doing your part correctly and adjust calories when you lose weight. One thing... I wouldn't count too heavily on the database here... it almost seems like some of the entries were made with ppl being dishonest to themselves so they didn't feel too bad about eating what they were eating. That or they were just really careless making the entries.

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