Not losing weight!!! So frustrated!

noexcuses0626 · April 2018

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.

concordancia · April 2018

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.

quiksylver296 · April 2018

@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/p1

kimny72 · April 2018

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!!!

guitargirl55 · April 2018

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!

CSARdiver · April 2018

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.

kimny72 · April 2018

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.

steveko89 · April 2018

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,

noexcuses0626 · April 2018

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.

quiksylver296 · April 2018

@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.

GottaBurnEmAll · April 2018

It's almost always universally true, that when you are not losing weight, there's something wrong with logging.

Additionally, nothing stays static over time, including someone's lifestyle. It might be easier to lose weight at one phase of your life than another because you have more incidental daily movement than you realize when you're younger, and this gives you a higher TDEE. So it's easier to be lax about things and just cut back and see results.

Fast forward a few years, you've slowed down a bit, your TDEE is lower and the difference between that TDEE and your cutting back efforts isn't enough to create a deficit... BOOM, the scale won't budge.

In addition to tightening up your logging and taking a frank look (research METs) at how many exercise calories you might actually be burning, I'd also suggest now you get into the habit of trying to incorporate more incidental movement into your daily life. This will serve you well as you get into maintenance AND help the scale move as you lose weight.

Take the stairs instead of elevators or escalators. Park at the far end of parking lots. Do body weight squats while brushing your teeth. Keep a really neat house and vacuum every day. Pace around while the coffee is brewing or something is heating in the microwave. Try to move around for a few minutes every hour.

nutmegoreo · April 2018

quiksylver296 wrote: »

@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.

It's long, but the first several pages are full of information:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

mazdauk · April 2018

5 years on maintenance with the help of a food scale - if ever I feel tempted to skip, I put what I think is the weight in a bowl and then weigh it. Its an eye-opener! Also, although I have a Garmin tracker I don't connect it direct to MFP, I use it to check my walking speed before entering walks. Other than that I use the MFP estimates and its fine. But the food scale is the vital element. As others have said, you are probably under-estimating food and over-estimating calorie burn. Trackers can be inaccurate - fitbits can over-estimate calorie burn by 30%. (see the Which? report)

concordancia · April 2018

noexcuses0626 wrote: »

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.

It doesn't have to be complicated. You are making it complicated by worrying about BMR and such.

Plug your data into MFP, choose a goal of 1lb/week, and eat food. If you are hungry, play around a bit to figure out which foods help you feel fuller. Generally, fiber, protein and fats are going to be the winners. This is one reason that diets that focus on veggies, lean meats, healthy fats and some whole grains stick around longer than others. The best thing is, these choices are good for the whole family.

Every step you take towards more nutrition, proper calories and moving means better long term health, whether you lose the weight or not. It may also be the difference between gaining even more weight or not.

kimny72 · April 2018

noexcuses0626 wrote: »

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.

I'm gonna be honest - when I was losing weight, I couldn't have a bagel if I wanted to, I had to plan out my week to fit one in if I really wanted it. I had to stop opening a bottle of wine during the week, and stick to one bottle of beer on Saturday. We become accustomed to thinking of high calorie treat foods as normal daily occurrences and feel deprived when we don't get them. But they aren't meant to be "whenever I want them" foods.

What I had to do was really study my food log and figure out what foods filled me up at the right calorie level and build my daily plan around them. Once I did that enough, it became a habit, just how I eat, and it no longer took effort. Then I found treat foods that made me happy but didn't blow my numbers out of whack, and had them pretty much daily. And then there are the calorie bombs - the bagels, the bottles of wine, the big burger and fries at the restaurant on the corner - these things I mostly avoided, except for special occasions. I had to change the way I thought about those foods. Now that I'm at goal weight, I can fit them in more often, but I'm still basically eating the way I did when I was losing, because I really did enjoy it and it did just become "the way I eat".

I would second the suggestion to read the diet break thread, and consider following that protocol while you experiment with the food scale. Hang in there :flowerforyou:

concordancia · April 2018

How about half a bagel or a mini bagel? The top half of an everything bagel is the good part, anyway!

Most bagels these days are around 400 calories, without the cream cheese. If that is more than 1/4 your daily calories, there aren't very many people who are going to feel satisfied.

CSARdiver · April 2018

noexcuses0626 wrote: »

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.

I'm 47, 6'4" 215 lbs and extremely active and I cannot have a bagel when I want if I want to be in a deficit. A bagel is ~300 kcals and does not satiate my hunger. I could easily go through a box of Panera bagels. Note that I've been in audit all week and bagels are provided for breakfast, so I'm off my routine and going over budget nearly every day

This is all part of the learning process. Instead of a bagel I make a 2 egg omelette with a splash of hot sauce and spices - that and a hot cup of coffee is ~200 kcals and this holds me for hours. This is my strategy. Yours will be different.

It isn't complicated. It is quite simple.

It involves changing your behavior and nothing is harder than this simple task. Nothing is more worthwhile as well.

DomesticKat · April 2018

noexcuses0626 wrote: »

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.

You sound a lot like me 4 or 5 years ago. I knew what I needed to do but I convinced myself it was too hard. I just knew it wasn't possible to eat less. I just knew I had to be eating the right amount and wasn't losing weight and I needed to just resign myself to being overweight forever. I too lost a little weight on my own but I always stalled. So I stayed overweight for a while longer until I gave in and accepted that what I was doing wasn't going to work anymore. I had to do something different. So I bought a food scale, accepted a slow rate of loss over a long period of time, and I took off 70 pounds in two years by sticking with it. Then I had a baby, gained back some weight, and so far I've lost 57 pounds and counting in a year by doing the exact same thing. It took me 9 years to figure this out. You can start right now and figure out a new strategy to get you where you want to be. Take a diet break, figure out what's holding you back, and come up with a new plan.

DomesticKat · April 2018

Oh and I'm a mom to five kids. I know what busy is and I've used every excuse in the world to talk myself out of doing what I needed to do. I used to think I could exercise my way out of too many calories. For a long time, I convinced myself that exercise was the way to lose weight so I didn't have to focus on my diet because I didn't WANT to reign it in. Now I lift weights 3 or 4 times a week, and lose weight because I focus 100% on my calories. I know that's the only way to make this work and it's really not difficult once I changed my mindset.

apullum · April 2018

Quite honestly, I think you believe it's complicated because you're overcomplicating it.

Most of your original post is about exercise. Exercise gives you more calories to eat and helps improve your physical fitness, but it's not required for weight loss. You don't have to spend hours at the gym.

You don't have to care what "two dozen" or even two hundred people think about your eating.

You don't have to know your BMR. You don't have to struggle to calculate it or pay anyone to figure it out for you. MFP calculates your calorie goal for you. Set your rate of loss to 1 lb. per week and eat that number of calories.

You DO have to make sure that you are in a calorie deficit. The best way to ensure this is to weigh all of your food. If you aren't weighing your food, you are likely eating more calories than you believe you are.

If you are using gym equipment or MFP's database to calculate exercise calories, you're likely overestimating. Both of those are notoriously high. Try eating back only half of what they recommend.

You may not be able to have an entire bagel and still meet your calorie goals. You might be able to eat only half the bagel. You might have toast instead of a bagel. You might have to eat smaller meals or replace high calorie foods with lower calorie foods. This is a lifestyle change. You have to be willing to make some changes. You have to figure out how much you want the bagel, and if you really want it, you have to make it fit into your calories for the day.

Not losing weight!!! So frustrated!

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