Not losing weight!!! So frustrated!
noexcuses0626
Posts: 60 Member
In 2011, after having my son at age 30, I was able to lose 105 lbs in just over a year by simply eating less and moving more. I was eating somewhere between 1500-1750 calories a day with low impact exercise 45 minutes 5 times a week. In 2013 I gained back about 10 lbs and it's been a pretty steady decline in obesity since then and I had gained back all but about 30 of the pounds I had lost.
In January of 2016 I put my mind to losing the weight again but it's been a major struggle ever since. The first year (2016) I lost about 6 lbs and in 2017 another 20 lbs.
Since January of this year I have been super committed to finally getting back to a reasonably healthy weight, but despite my best efforts, the scale will NOT BUDGE!!!
I admit, my diet could use some work, but I exercise 5-6 times a week at a moderate-vigorous pace for 30ish minutes (HIIT, running, workout videos) and I stay within my daily limit of 1400, but if I do go over (rarely), it's never by more than 100-150 calories. I burn about 175-300 calories per workout depending on what I do and I try not to eat back my exercise calories.
About a month ago I bought a Garmin Vivosmart HR and started incorporating a lot more movement into my fairly sedentary lifestyle, as well as a 30 minute walk several times a week (half uphill). I'm getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of 9000 steps/day (up from ~2000). I've given up soda, which was my weakness until December 31 of last year and replaced it with sparkling water... oh, AND I have started intermittent fasting (since mid-February) between 8pm and noon.
So, why am I not seeing results? I'm stuck at 191-193 lbs and I can't do anything about it!!! I'm seriously considering having my BMR tested because this doesn't make sense to me! According to my fitness tracker, I should be burning somewhere around 600-800 calories more per day than I am consuming and yet I cannot lose a single pound BUT if I have a cheat day for just one single day, I gain weight!
WTF!?!?!
What am I doing wrong?
Help, please?
Stats:
Female
Age 37
Height 5'5"
SW: 247 lbs
CW: 193
GW: 160-165
In January of 2016 I put my mind to losing the weight again but it's been a major struggle ever since. The first year (2016) I lost about 6 lbs and in 2017 another 20 lbs.
Since January of this year I have been super committed to finally getting back to a reasonably healthy weight, but despite my best efforts, the scale will NOT BUDGE!!!
I admit, my diet could use some work, but I exercise 5-6 times a week at a moderate-vigorous pace for 30ish minutes (HIIT, running, workout videos) and I stay within my daily limit of 1400, but if I do go over (rarely), it's never by more than 100-150 calories. I burn about 175-300 calories per workout depending on what I do and I try not to eat back my exercise calories.
About a month ago I bought a Garmin Vivosmart HR and started incorporating a lot more movement into my fairly sedentary lifestyle, as well as a 30 minute walk several times a week (half uphill). I'm getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of 9000 steps/day (up from ~2000). I've given up soda, which was my weakness until December 31 of last year and replaced it with sparkling water... oh, AND I have started intermittent fasting (since mid-February) between 8pm and noon.
So, why am I not seeing results? I'm stuck at 191-193 lbs and I can't do anything about it!!! I'm seriously considering having my BMR tested because this doesn't make sense to me! According to my fitness tracker, I should be burning somewhere around 600-800 calories more per day than I am consuming and yet I cannot lose a single pound BUT if I have a cheat day for just one single day, I gain weight!
WTF!?!?!
What am I doing wrong?
Help, please?
Stats:
Female
Age 37
Height 5'5"
SW: 247 lbs
CW: 193
GW: 160-165
1
Replies
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Buy a food scale. Use it. Log religiously, no skipping, cheating or forgetting.
28 -
Have you had your thyroid checked? Mine died years ago and it's like swimming against the current just to maintain. Losing is very difficult (but I am slowly doing it).17
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I would suggest getting a food scale and weighing all of your food. Measuring cups are ok for liquids. You are most likely eating more calories than you think you are. You may also be overestimating your calorie burns, but your best bet would be to get a food scale and make sure you are logging your food as accurately as possible.8
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.0
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You keep saying "ish" and "when I do go over" and "sometimes" You need to keep a more accurate track of things, maybe open your food diary so we can check that out for you too. But it seems from what you say you're guessing a few things maybe not every day, but some days and that could be what's holding the weight loss back.11
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I am going to go with you are eating too much. You are probably significantly underestimating your calorie intake. A popular example I mention is cereal, where if you take 1 serving by volume, it is 50% more calories than if by weight (even though the weight should match the volume listed but it doesn't).13
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From what you've stated I see a potential error in caloric output (CO) estimate. I'm 6'4" 216 lbs and estimating my daily burn at 600-800 with minimum 12k steps/day and running 5-10k/day.
Bottom line if you aren't losing you have not achieved a calorie deficit yet.
...and I had a total thyroidectomy in 2000. I put on 70 lbs over 14 years because I ate more than I burned. I discovered MFP in 2014 and lost 60 lbs the first year eating less than I burned.
Feel free to check BMR, but speaking as someone who manages a metabolics lab....it isn't your metabolism.15 -
Exercise is all fine and well but the calories you take in is what affects weight. If you haven't seen weight loss in 4 months then you are eating more than you think or your calorie burns aren't as high as you think.
As others have already mentioned, a food scale is key and also logging every single thing you eat accurately and consistently.
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Yoyoing can make weightloss slower but not stop I’ve yoyoed 30 years but I still lose weight aged 48 if I’m careful and really really really strict no kicking anything no odd food and drink not logged as some people pick and skip food and drinks and don’t log them thinking they aren’t applicable but of course your body knows. Also the data o here is way out log all your own foods for 6 months gets your own data base
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I was stuck at 150 lbs. for the longest time. I bought a food scale and discovered I was not in the daily calorie deficit I thought I was. Whoops! For instance, I thought I was consuming maybe an ounce of cheese for a snack just by eye-balling it. No, I was eating three ounces at a sitting. I thought a handful of almonds was a healthy snack. It is, but a serving is 11 or 12 nuts, not the 20 to 30 nuts I was chewing through. By improving my accuracy, I started losing weight and reached my goal in six months.19
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Thanks for all of the replies. Here's my math for a typical week:
BMR (according to online calculator): 1600 x 7 days per week = 11,200 calories burned
+ Exercise: +/- 250 per session (not including walking -- just actual exercise ie: running, HIIT, video, etc) x 5 per week = 1,250 calories burned
+ = 12,450 calories burned per week
- Calories consumed = 1400 x 7 = 9,800 calories consumed
= 2650 calorie deficit per week
That means that I should be losing at a rate of maybe .5 lbs per week, which I would be FINE with, but I'm not losing anything! And I have increased activity significantly and become much more vigilant about logging and drinking water in recent months and still NO CHANGE!
In any case, I'm going to try a food scale, though I'm skeptical, because I have never used one in the past and managed to lose 105 lbs in a year and a half. This is not my first rodeo, I know how this weight loss thing works. It's just NOT working for ME. Frustrating!
Thanks again
13 -
If you're truly in a caloric deficit, you don't NOT lose weight (over a sustained period of time, not counting short-term fluctuations). Period. It can't happen.9
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It's already been said. Your maths is correct for maths, bit it is not that straight forward. If you are not loosing, then you are not in s deficit. Either your are taking in more calories than you think, oryou are not using as many as you believe, which could be the exercises, but could also be the BMR calculator is not correct for you.
First tighten up your logging weight everything (not using volume/cups for anything other than liquids). If you are still not loosing then you will need to knock the calories back and see if that works.7 -
What foods are you eating? Possibly lower your carbs and increase your fat/protein. What shocks me is that you haven't lost after cutting out soda. That tells me you are either eating too little or eating more than you think. Also, good idea to have your thyroid checked. That can play a huge role!!32
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What foods are you eating? Possibly lower your carbs and increase your fat/protein. What shocks me is that you haven't lost after cutting out soda. That tells me you are either eating too little or eating more than you think. Also, good idea to have your thyroid checked. That can play a huge role!!
How would eating too little cause a person not to lose weight?13 -
noexcuses0626 wrote: »Thanks for all of the replies. Here's my math for a typical week:
BMR (according to online calculator): 1600 x 7 days per week = 11,200 calories burned
+ Exercise: +/- 250 per session (not including walking -- just actual exercise ie: running, HIIT, video, etc) x 5 per week = 1,250 calories burned
+ = 12,450 calories burned per week
- Calories consumed = 1400 x 7 = 9,800 calories consumed
= 2650 calorie deficit per week
That means that I should be losing at a rate of maybe .5 lbs per week, which I would be FINE with, but I'm not losing anything! And I have increased activity significantly and become much more vigilant about logging and drinking water in recent months and still NO CHANGE!
In any case, I'm going to try a food scale, though I'm skeptical, because I have never used one in the past and managed to lose 105 lbs in a year and a half. This is not my first rodeo, I know how this weight loss thing works. It's just NOT working for ME. Frustrating!
Thanks again
There is no reason to believe that the online BMR calculator is correct for you and you don't even mention how you are calculating your exercise burn.
Try the food scale, then once you are sure about accuracy, try cutting calories.8 -
noexcuses0626 wrote: »Thanks for all of the replies. Here's my math for a typical week:
BMR (according to online calculator): 1600 x 7 days per week = 11,200 calories burned
+ Exercise: +/- 250 per session (not including walking -- just actual exercise ie: running, HIIT, video, etc) x 5 per week = 1,250 calories burned
+ = 12,450 calories burned per week
- Calories consumed = 1400 x 7 = 9,800 calories consumed
= 2650 calorie deficit per week
That means that I should be losing at a rate of maybe .5 lbs per week, which I would be FINE with, but I'm not losing anything! And I have increased activity significantly and become much more vigilant about logging and drinking water in recent months and still NO CHANGE!
In any case, I'm going to try a food scale, though I'm skeptical, because I have never used one in the past and managed to lose 105 lbs in a year and a half. This is not my first rodeo, I know how this weight loss thing works. It's just NOT working for ME. Frustrating!
Thanks again
You will seriously be shocked once you start using one. I'm over 5 years into successful maintenance and I STILL use my food scale on a regular basis-it is so freakin' easy to underestimate portion sizes!
Also, 250 calories burned for an exercise session seems a bit high. Fitness trackers are notorious for overestimating burns, you might want to adjust your estimate down.
10 -
concordancia wrote: »
There is no reason to believe that the online BMR calculator is correct for you and you don't even mention how you are calculating your exercise burn.
Try the food scale, then once you are sure about accuracy, try cutting calories.
How does the average person calculate their BMR if not using online calculators (I tried multiple)???
I started using the food scale today and learned that I've been overestimating the size of my banana, but underestimating the amount of cream that I put in my coffee... So, step one was to cut back on cream and I replaced my second cup with tea -- no milk. I'm looking forward to seeing where else I was off and making adjustments along the way.
10 -
Heart rate monitor. Here, read this blog post by Azdak. He's been in the fitness industry for decades.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-214722 -
noexcuses0626 wrote: »concordancia wrote: »
There is no reason to believe that the online BMR calculator is correct for you and you don't even mention how you are calculating your exercise burn.
Try the food scale, then once you are sure about accuracy, try cutting calories.
How does the average person calculate their BMR if not using online calculators (I tried multiple)???
I started using the food scale today and learned that I've been overestimating the size of my banana, but underestimating the amount of cream that I put in my coffee... So, step one was to cut back on cream and I replaced my second cup with tea -- no milk. I'm looking forward to seeing where else I was off and making adjustments along the way.
I use a heart rate monitor for my exercise burn (I've tried three different ones all with similar outputs), so yeah, 250 is pretty normal for me and it's usually more like 275-300.
Because it's all an estimate based on height, weight, age & gender, there is still room for inaccuracy, you have to adjust based on real world results.
To echo what you've been told already: if you're not losing weight over an extended period of time, you're not in a deficit.3 -
MerryMavis1 wrote: »
Also, 250 calories burned for an exercise session seems a bit high. Fitness trackers are notorious for overestimating burns, you might want to adjust your estimate down.
I use a heart rate monitor for my exercise burn (I've tried three different ones all with similar outputs), so yeah, 250 is pretty normal for me and it's usually more like 275-300.
1 -
Regarding BMR, the online calculators are averages. You start there and make adjustments based on what you see in the real world.
It often takes me a month to see my first loss when making changes, but if nothing has changed in six weeks or more, you are at maintenance. Now you know your maintenance and can make adjustments from there.4 -
@noexcuses0626 Check out this thread. It has many illustrations of why a food scale is such a powerful tool for weight loss.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p13 -
noexcuses0626 wrote: »concordancia wrote: »
There is no reason to believe that the online BMR calculator is correct for you and you don't even mention how you are calculating your exercise burn.
Try the food scale, then once you are sure about accuracy, try cutting calories.
How does the average person calculate their BMR if not using online calculators (I tried multiple)???
I started using the food scale today and learned that I've been overestimating the size of my banana, but underestimating the amount of cream that I put in my coffee... So, step one was to cut back on cream and I replaced my second cup with tea -- no milk. I'm looking forward to seeing where else I was off and making adjustments along the way.
Honestly, there's really no reason to nail down your BMR. What's important is how many calories you are actually burning in a real day, and no calculator can tell you that. They just give you a starting point. Use MFP, use a TDEE calculator, use a formula, doesn't matter. You figure out what your real number is by logging accurately and consistently for a couple of months and looking at your progress. If you start out thinking your TDEE is 2250 based on a calculator, so you eat 2000 cals for 8 weeks and you don't lose any appreciable weight, then you know your actual TDEE is the 2000 cals you were eating.
I found all the calculators and options so confusing, I just went with MFP's NEAT calc since I was logging here anyway and just tweaked as I went.
Congrats on the food scale, it's eye-opening!!!3 -
It may be worth looking into more strength training. Yes you are doing tons of cardio, but by adding in some strength training, you will increase the calories burned with each cardio session that you do. I just started a 5x5, all you can lift program about 2 months ago. I was terrified that I was going to turn into the hulk, but its been great so far! My butt is more lifted and nice, cellulite is reduced, and it's really made dieting easier.
I also would recommend focusing on WHAT you are eating along with how much. If you are eating the correct amount of calories but it's all Cheetos, that doesn't give your body the nutrition that it needs.
Otherwise, it really may be worth a visit to a doctor.
Don't give up! Best of luck to you!15 -
noexcuses0626 wrote: »MerryMavis1 wrote: »
Also, 250 calories burned for an exercise session seems a bit high. Fitness trackers are notorious for overestimating burns, you might want to adjust your estimate down.
I use a heart rate monitor for my exercise burn (I've tried three different ones all with similar outputs), so yeah, 250 is pretty normal for me and it's usually more like 275-300.
The base formula for all caloric estimations all originate from long steady state cardio. Most of these originate from the military and Olympic programs to estimate the amount of fuel and nutrients needed to keep individuals at an ideal physical state. The further you drift from these specifics, the more error you introduce to the output. HRM and other calculators should be taken with a grain of salt and most grossly overestimate the number of calories burned. Calisthenics, HIIT, aerobics, etc. all carry a high degree of variation depending on the effort one puts into the activity. Use this number with caution.
If you aren't experiencing fat loss over 4-6 weeks, then you have not established a deficit.6 -
guitargirl55 wrote: »It may be worth looking into more strength training. Yes you are doing tons of cardio, but by adding in some strength training, you will increase the calories burned with each cardio session that you do. I just started a 5x5, all you can lift program about 2 months ago. I was terrified that I was going to turn into the hulk, but its been great so far! My butt is more lifted and nice, cellulite is reduced, and it's really made dieting easier.
I also would recommend focusing on WHAT you are eating along with how much. If you are eating the correct amount of calories but it's all Cheetos, that doesn't give your body the nutrition that it needs.
Otherwise, it really may be worth a visit to a doctor.
Don't give up! Best of luck to you!- I see no reason to think OP is eating all Cheetos or anything like that.
- Not getting enough nutrition does not keep you from losing weight. It may do other bad things, but it won't stop weight loss, and that's what OP is talking about.
9 -
I felt the same way last summer. My wife and I are typically both active but both suffered injuries that kept us from our respective active pursuits for the better part of the winter of 2016 and basically hibernated and gained some weight. Got to where I could get back in the gym in January '17 and hit it hard, thought I was eating at a decent deficit and eating back my exercise calories measured with my heart rate monitor, though I barely lost any weight. Like you, I kept rechecking my math over and over but wasn't adjusting to my real-life results; taking estimated sedentary TDEE, adding exercise cals, and subtracting 500 for a deficit was leaving me with 2500-2700 calories. I did that for six months. Frustrated, I finally took a hard look at my logging and realized I wasn't being nearly as accurate as I thought, and would usually log incomplete days or not at all Friday-Sunday. My highly researched Polar H7 Heart rate monitor was also giving me 600-800 calories per workout, per my observed TDEE, I likely only burn 1/3 to 1/2 that much. I tightened all that up starting in late July; I meticulously use my food scale, and haven't missed a day of logging since last July, and eat the appropriate observed calorie level. Doing so I easily lost 10lbs August to January going from 15% to under 13.8% body fat.
TL;DR - Lock down your logging, forget your HR monitor, get/use a food scale,4 -
I don't want to be an elite athlete, I don't want 15% body fat. I am a 37 year old busy working mom who just wants to be healthy. It shouldn't be this complicated! I should be able to eat a freaking bagel if I feel compelled to, but I can't! In fact, even eating only two meals a day, I have two dozen people telling me that I'm eating too much. It's upsetting, honestly, to think that this is what my life has come to. I have 40-50 lbs to lose just to be considered healthy and I'm already struggling at 1400 calories per day and exercising 5 days a week. I don't know how much more energy I can give to this endeavour. Maybe I should just resign myself to being a fatty.20
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@noexcuses0626
Maybe it's time for a diet break?!? You've lost a lot of weight already. You sound worn down. You could take a break for 2, 3, 6 months (or however long) and eat at maintenance. Fit a bagel in once in awhile. When you feel rejuvenated, go back to a calorie deficit to lose the last bit.
Have you listened to the Half-Size Me podcast? She talks about diet breaks quite a bit.
There's also a popular diet break thread in here. Maybe someone will link it. I don't have it.7
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