Not losing - don't know why

Suzanne_the_foot_lady · June 2018

As others have said, scale is important if you want to be accurate. I made it a little easier by making things in my usual way, then weighing then, like the milk in my coffee. I put the usual amount of milk in the cup, then measured it. Luckily it was exactly 200ml, so I can add my coffee every morning without having the fuss of measuring.
Also, as others have pointed out, mfp over allocated calories used in excersize by around a third, so when I add my excersize, I put in a third less than I have actually done, to give me a more accurate estimate. That way I'm not as tempted to eat back more calories than I've earned. Good luck. I have a similar amount to lose and it is hard!

Cactusjack01 · June 2018

I don't stress about the perfect measurements. If its not working - increase the calorie deficit you're aiming for. A 300 calorie deficit is easy to get wrong with estimated measurements. So make it 400. if that isn't working (after a few weeks) make it 500. Then 550 etc...until you get the consistent results you were expecting. It's like calibrating the error.
It's like my garmin forerunner 15. It doesn't really count steps. It measures distance and converts it into steps. So it's always 'wrong' but always relatively right (increasing my goal from 10,000 steps to 11,000 steps is an accurate 10% increase). Do the same thing with measuring the calories. If it's not working, decrease your intake by 5 or 10%. If it still doesn't work then do it again a few weeks later. Logically (and this isn't debatable) you will reach a point where you are either losing weight or miraculously surviving on zero calories.
For me, this is for life so it has to be simple

Teerai · June 2018

Two actions that will give you results

1) Use a food scale - for all the reasons already stated.

2) Do not eat all your exercise calories - in fact, as few as possible.

If you eat well (lots veggies and very little sugar) you can get most of what you need in your base calories.
If you are concerned, a multi vitamin supplement while dieting will give some peace of mind.

mkculs · June 2018

When someone is more active, they are likely to be hungrier. Eating back some of those calories is a normal, healthy, sustainable response to increased hunger. Learning to live with a little hunger and learning to distinguish between hunger and appetite is important for a life-long healthy habit. Suffering through more significant hunger--as often happens when exercise cals are not eaten back in some portion--doesn't help; it is more likely to trigger a binge.

So much depends on how much exercise and what deficit someone is targeting that it does not mean everyone needs to eat back a portion of their exercise cals. On days I'm not working out, I do a very modest amount of walking (because I like the way it makes me feel). I'm rarely much hungrier and the exercise cals "earned" are minimal, so I don't worry about whether or not I eat them back. But for all serious workouts, yep, I'm eating back 50-75% of my cals b/c I am that much hungrier that day or the next if I don't.

I've been losing steadily and stopped the habit of exercising just so I could eat more. I exercise b/c I like the way I feel during and after exercise. I don't suffer with significant hunger, either; that's not sustainable. Finding that balance is really helping me stay true to my lifestyle change in the short-run--I haven't been at this long enough to know if it will also work in the long run, but all I've got is the feedback my body is giving me and I feel good, so I'll stick with it unless my body tells me something has to change.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · June 2018

Teerai wrote: »

Two actions that will give you results

1) Use a food scale - for all the reasons already stated.

2) Do not eat all your exercise calories - in fact, as few as possible.

If you eat well (lots veggies and very little sugar) you can get most of what you need in your base calories.
If you are concerned, a multi vitamin supplement while dieting will give some peace of mind.

MFP uses NEAT,it is set up to eat at least half your calories you burn if not all. some can eat all of them back some cant. its going to vary person to person. but to tell someone not to eat most of them back is asking for problems. you HAVE to fuel your body if you are working out or being really active. your deficit is built in BEFORE any exercise you do. so with exercise it creates a bigger deficit which for many is not a good thing

obbzyx · June 2018

If you are exercising more, especially weights, you will add muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. If you're looking to lose weight rather than muscle up, and are not losing weight while following the program, you may need to re-evaluate your exercise regime? Look at doing more cardio workouts rather than weights/strength workouts... Walking/Jogging are perfect cardio workouts, and swimming will provide an all over cardio workout plus tone your body...

MichelleSilverleaf · June 2018

obbzyx wrote: »

If you are exercising more, especially weights, you will add muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. If you're looking to lose weight rather than muscle up, and are not losing weight while following the program, you may need to re-evaluate your exercise regime? Look at doing more cardio workouts rather than weights/strength workouts... Walking/Jogging are perfect cardio workouts, and swimming will provide an all over cardio workout plus tone your body...

You can't add muscle in a deficit. And if one is not losing weight when following a program they're likely over-estimating how much their burning during exercise and/or their logging is off. Assuming they've not just started a program, in which a small weight gain is likely water weight which would eventually drop away.

Alyssa_Is_LosingIt · June 2018

obbzyx wrote: »

If you are exercising more, especially weights, you will add muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. If you're looking to lose weight rather than muscle up, and are not losing weight while following the program, you may need to re-evaluate your exercise regime? Look at doing more cardio workouts rather than weights/strength workouts... Walking/Jogging are perfect cardio workouts, and swimming will provide an all over cardio workout plus tone your body...

This is not true.

Generally speaking, you will not put on muscle in a deficit.

Telling someone to abandon resistance training for more cardio is not the best advice.

4legsRbetterthan2 · June 2018

If you would like to continue the debate about eating back exercise calories, or not, please see this thread:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10677272/to-eat-back-exercise-calories/p3

In the future, if you find yourself in disagreement with a poster who is not the OP of a help thread, please take the debate over to the debate board.

Lastly, Please only use the spam or abuse flags for bot style spam, or extremely inappropriate content (think pornographic images or something similar). If you would like more guidance it can be found here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10007789/flagged-content-reported-posts-warning-points#latest

Thanks,
4legs
MFP moderator.

happytree923 · June 2018

Psychgrrl wrote: »

As evidence of the need to use a food scale, here is my crinkle cut fries experience from last week (which I am still bitter about, by the way ... )

The package says one serving is 85 grams, 3 oz, about 23 pieces. I put a bowl on my food scale and put a few fries in, then a few more. You know how many fries made the 85 grams? Six. SIX!!!!!! Most of the fries in the package were about the same size. If I had counted and not weighed, I would actually have eaten 4 servings when I only counted one. Six stinkin’ stupid fries. #ThatWasJustMean

I had this exact experience too recently! There were smaller pieces at the bottom of the bag so the more I took out of the bag the closer a serving was to the bag's estimate but I honestly don't know how they came up with the number. You shouldn't be allowed to classify crumbs as 'pieces' to make your serving size seem bigger.

Not losing - don't know why

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