Why am I not losing weight?

It's been three weeks. What you're doing wrong is likely to be lack of patience. Weight fluctuates naturally, read the "weight loss is not linear" post in the most helpful posts sticky. I'm sure someone helpful will link it in a second.

Do you have one of these?

If not you are eating WAY more than you think you are. Also, how often do you weigh in? Daily, weekly? Are you tracking weights and following a trend line or just comparing one number to the last number?

You're either taking in more calories than you think you are (very common answer) or you're drastically overestimating your calorie burn and are eating back too many of those exercise calories (also a very common thing).

You'll likely get the standard advice - open your food log so people can see how your tracking looks and call out any issues and/or go through your food log with a fine toothed comb to look for leaks or miscalculations.

BTW - drinking protein shakes for breakfast, avoiding fried foods, and cutting alcohol mean absolutely nothing if you're still exceeding your calorie target. 1000 calories of potato chips is exactly the same as 1000 calories of carrots from calorie in/calorie out standpoint.

I've noticed MFP gives out very very low daily calories for those who want to lose 1 lb a week. It could be you aren't eating enough and you're body feels like it needs to hold onto whatever it can. If you're working out regularly (at least 3 times a week) you might notice a big change if you eat more. I certainly did! Trust the process and keep going! Weight loss is not a race.

Most machines and a lot of charts show you your gross calorie burn per hr. not your net calorie burn per hour. In effect they count/add the calories you would be burning even if you didn't exercise, this no insignificant number. Just like your gross salary vs your net salary there is a big difference. As a rule of thumb 1/3 of those calories are overstated but for more accurate measures look for online calculators that specifically tell you your net caloric burn.

I've also encountered no weight loss in the first 4 to 6 weeks. If you are new to this here are some tips that helped me make myfitnesspal work for me and find the mistake that you are probably making. (Note that I'm a 41 years old male. It might be different for you!).

My conclusions are:

1- Buy a Fitbit watch and track all your exercises, steps and calories burned and sync the Fitbit app it with Myfitnesspal. This will for sure get you a more accurate estimation of how many calories you really burn daily.

2- Setup Myfitnesspal at the lowest activity level: Many people overestimate their daily activity level and set it higher than it actually is in reality. My lowest activity level for a man my age is 1500 calories a day. If you use a Fitbit watch, it will automatically adjust the extra calories burned and add it to your daily activity level. In my case, I spend (1500 from my daily activity level + roughly 1500 from workouts, steps, my job and all my other daily activities like sitting on the sofa for instance). So roughly more than 3000 calories daily (it varies every day a bit give or take, depending on how much you do) It can easily also be 4000. Setting myfitnesspal to it's lowest activity level ensures you can simply never go wrong! The extra's will be added anyway, so don't worry about that activity level too much!

3- be sure there is no medical reason for you to retain weight!

3-First of all, I must conclude: if you are just a starter and haven't trained for many years like in my case. Your body has to adjust to a new rhythm, which is the cause of you probably not losing any weight the first month to 6 weeks. Just have some patience, people expect dramatic results the first month but your body simply doesn't work like that!

- A totally new rhythm (more training, another diet) causes stress to your body. Significantly rising your cortisol levels. In male cases, cortisone is an anti-hormone to testosterone. More stress, less testosterone! More stress also equals not losing any weight! Stress is the cause people gain weight. Try to reduce your stress levels by getting enough sleep (that is where the magic happens, growth hormone and testosterone release and muscle growth) and avoid stressful situations wherever you can and above all. Give your body some time to adjust to the new situation. Don't expect dramatic results the first month!

- I've started doing weights 4 days a week. And after a month I've added 3 days of high-intensity cardio workouts. If you are following a bodybuilding program, you actually gain weight in muscle. Don't look too much at the scale! The scale is actually a pretty bad measurement. You are actually burning fat and the same time you are gaining muscle mass. So you might not lose much weight, but you see your body is transforming itself. You are starting to look better, and if you want to measure it. Just measure the size of your waist, hips, and neck for instance and see that the inches have been burned off already. Besides myfitnesspal can't track weight training yet, so a Fitbit watch gives you the option to track your workouts with weights more accurately.

- If you have never trained much: you get quite some explosive muscle gains which they call newbie gains. So that explains why you are not losing weight! If you train really hard the first year you can gain 1 kilo of muscle a month!

- In the first months, your metabolism is changing. Give it some time to increase and burn of more calories.

4- Water retention. In the first few weeks again you might retain water resulting in not losing any weight. Too much salt consumption can also be a factor. In my case, I use creatine as a supplement and it also causes more water retention in the muscles.

5- Another great tip is consistency. Follow your training plan. In my case, I lift weights 4 days a week and 3 a 4 days a week I do my cardio workouts. I also walk a lot more than before and rather leave the car at home. The basic principle is to burn more calories than you consume. To lose weight means being in a daily caloric deficit every day! To retain muscle your nitrogen balance must be positive, which means you need to be consuming sufficient protein. It is possible to reduce fat and gain muscle at the same time. Especially if you have never worked out before!

5- Setup your macro's correctly (that's a bit experimental for everyone) In my case the best for me is 50% carbohydrates- 15% fat and 35% protein. It's a bit different for everyone depending on your sex, age, fitness, health, and goals. Google a bit of info on that and try what works best for you and try to maintain your macro's the best you can with every meal.

6-Track everything that you eat or drink correctly. Read the labels of your food and drinks and be sure all the data is correct. Note that people make mistakes entering a new barcode in myfitnesspal, so always check if nutrients and calories match with the product you find in myfitnesspal.

7-Track everything that you eat or drink correctly. Again: no hahaha... Don't fool yourself by having a cheat day and not enter the bad calories that you have been consuming. Pizza, french fries and soda pops are a no-no! Don't eat or drink empty calories and high-fat foods. Your body needs to recover from that for DAYS!!! But if you have a cheat day, just pick up where you left the next day. Don't give up and you see results! All depends on what you eat. You might not count the calories but your body does! Try to be strict for 3 months and see dramatic results.

8-Drinking alcohol. Lowers testosterone, causes you to sleep bad, produces bad toxins that cause hangovers, causes to miss a training day and is the cause of you gaining weight. Try to add a beer into myfitnesspal and see that it is the highest density of calories you can drink. Wine or vodka, all the same. Don't drink at all! Yup- it's not easy!

9-Look carefully what you eat. Rice, pasta, bread, and nuts are really dense in calories. Avoiding those products, and replacing them with other fibery products is the best option for me. I just use some crackers free from sugar, palm oil and so on. They are high in fiber, sugar-free, low in fat, contain more protein (and mine, for instance, is high in minerals like iron and other beneficial vitamins). At the end of the day, I just take 10 grams of walnuts to add to my fat and not more! In that case, my macro's are balanced. Also cook without oil or very very little! 1 spoon of oil is 200 calories!!! A better alternative to rice is Quinoa, a lot of iron but be careful: also high in calories. If you do eat rice just take a small portion or you easily overeat yourself. Don't eat big meals, if you over eat it will be stored in fat!

10- Eat more veggies and fruits. It will fill you up first (not leaving you hungry) and ensures you get all your essential nutrients. For instance, for breakfast, I eat 100 gram of Blueberries, 100-gram Strawberries, 60 gram of Green Grapes and I mix that all with a 250-gram low-fat curd which is high in protein. After that 2 crackers (high in carbohydrates) with smoked turkey file (high in protein, low fat). Eat your greens for dinner, lots of broccoli, spinach, curly cabbage and basically all other veggies will do. A salad with tuna fish will do fine!

- If you are vegan you get your proteins from veggies, beans, chickpeas, tofu and so on. If you are not into vegan you better eat lean meat like turkey, chicken or steak and occasionally some fat fish. You can also consume low-fat cheese or cottage cheese. They are low in calories and high in protein!

11- Drink lots of water. The best is warm water! I start my day with a large glass of warm water with fresh lemon juice. It is best to drink a lot and if you can.... drink warm water, tea or soup. It opens your cells ( cold water closes them) and is really good for the liver. If you can drink 3 liters a day.

12- Sport more = eat more. You don't need to be hungry if you sport enough. Now I already said I do weights 4 times a week but I've added 3 a 4 days of cardio on top of it. I take 2 rest days. If you sport more you burn more calories, that in turn you are able to consume. Very simple. You really don't need to be hungry to lose weight! It takes hard work, pain, stamina and above all consistency. All is better than starving yourself and no exercise like most people think works. It is really a lifestyle to addopt and to maintain! Sporting once or twice a week is probably not the way to reach your goals. It takes hard work and lot's of effort!

13- This is maybe the best tip of them all.

What I've been encountering is that myfitnesspal estimations might not be right for you: I actually started to lose weight quite dramatically after 6 weeks or 2 months. If you are not losing weight and did all I've said before. You might still be consuming too many calories.

For example:
- myfitnesspal says that I can eat 3000 calories a day and still lose 1 kg a week. 1500 from my daily activity level and 1500 extra from my workouts, steps and so on. I found out that that is simply not true in my case!

I've tried this simple experiment. I consumed between 1500 and 1800 calories a day, I kept my macro's spot on and suddenly after a while I've dropped 3 kg in 1 week. You have to do this small experiment for yourself and try to keep your calorie intake at a rate that is comfortable to you.

1kg drop in weight in a week is enough for me, and recommended what is healthy to lose. So now I eat 2200 calories a day and lose 1 kg a week. Experiment a little a bit until you see you are losing weight! (Remember: give your body some time to get adjusted to all the factors I've mentioned before and then try it. I'm not a dietist or a doctor, but this is what let to balancing my weightloss optimally for ME an let myfitnesspal work for ME.)

The more I read on these forums, the more I am not so sure that all these fitness trackers and watches are the be all and end all. Are people using them wrong? They see that they burned 1100 calories, does that 1100 already include their BMR or NEAT calories as reported by MFP? They think, wow 1100 extra calories, so instead of 1200 today I can eat 2300. At that rate, even with their exercise and walking they end up at maintenance or higher? Are my assumptions all wrong on this?