Whats stopping the pounds dropping?!

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kitchendaddy
kitchendaddy Posts: 1
in Introduce Yourself
So I guess I;m new to this but I have exercised regularly before. It's been my diet that hasn't been consistent. However I have been here for almost two weeks and yet theres barely any loss even with coming under in calories and pushing my aerobic exercise to over an hour. Why won't the pounds come off? I blew out my right patella a few years back and the accompanying weight gain from inactivity was in excess of 70lbs. I know theres a fit person somewhere here but its been hard thusfar.

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  • billsica
    billsica Posts: 4,741 Member
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    Open up your diary for people to see. Its your food that is the issue.
  • Michelle9939
    Michelle9939 Posts: 291
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    You might be losing inches right now.
  • Tereztaylor07
    Tereztaylor07 Posts: 200
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    There is such a thing as too much cardio. Incorporate some strength training and back off cardio. Go more intense for shorter periods.
  • tinacrane
    tinacrane Posts: 134 Member
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    I agree about the food. I am 54, in menopause, and lost 25 pounds just logging all my food. Due to 2 foot surgeries, I did not exercise during that 8 month time, but still lost weight. And have you lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks? That's no so bad at all!
  • slowills
    slowills Posts: 3 Member
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    I've had that same issue... I had to change the stuff I ate to really lose weight. I was staying under my calorie goal, but eating a lot of lean cuisines and other types of processed foods. I don't know what you are eating, but when I started eating more fresh fruits and veggies and trying to eat less processed food I really started to see the scale go down.

    I know it can be a pain, but try to not eat very many Lean Cuisines, canned soup, or anything like that. Also, substituting low cal/high sugar snacks for fruit or nuts can help.
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
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    Without seeing your diary it's hard to tell but it sounds like you are making a common 'dieter' mistake of undereating and over working out.

    You should be working out probably about 30 min 4-5 times a week to start with- to help push your body without wearing yourself down. And as far as food - please note that on MFP your daily goal is in NET calories. This means your base amount (1500 if your are a guy is as low as you should be going) PLUS what you burn off exercising. If you are interested in finding out why eating more can be helpful you can search "exercise calories" on the boards (or wait here I'm sure a lot of people will try to fully explain it). But rest assured you can fuel your body adequately and still lose consistently.

    And finally - be patient! 2 weeks is a MAX of 4lbs in healthy weightloss. You should be mentally committed to this journey for about 1 week per lb you wish to lose. This mindset will help you look at the big picture, so to speak, as opposed to obsessing about why you havent lost 5 ounces since monday :smile:

    (Note, these are GENERAL guidelines meant to help you in the right direction. Not everyone agrees with them, I am not a doctor or a professional- just a minor fitness dork who reads a lot. But this is something that worked for me and so I can attest that it has positive attributes.)
  • slowills
    slowills Posts: 3 Member
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    I MEANT- substituting fruits and nuts for low-cal/high sugar snacks can help...

    NO 100 CALORIE PACKS!!!! Just have a regular cookie or two. Much more satisfying and less processed.
  • mlaufit
    mlaufit Posts: 4
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    I'm no expert, so be forewarned. But from what I have read ...
    Dropping pounds is a function of two primary things as they relate to your targeted calorie allowance per day:

    1. Calories IN - your intake of food
    2. Calories OUT - your expenditure of what you've consumed.

    PRACTICE #1 - Try keeping your calories within the targeted amount.
    You might monitor your food intake for a number of weeks for learning purposes. Myfitnesspal.com has been really great tool -- I even got a food scale and started to measure portions (this was a good eye opener!)

    PRACTICE #2 - Exercise to expend the calories (as well as promoting healthy cell growth) - enter the exercise and calories burned in myfitnesspal.com. It's good as a record and as recognition that you did something positive!

    When you exceed the targeted calories, you gain weight. When you don't use all the calories, you lose weight (albeit gradually!!!). For example, If you eat/work all day and use up your targeted calorie allowance(let's say 2100 calories for example) by dinner, go out for a walk 30 mins (walking the dog pace). This will burn 100 calories according to MFP. The net calories for the day is 2000 which would be below the target, so, if this behavior continued, you'd start to lose the pounds.

    A CRITIQUE - MFP tallies the calorie relationship regarding food and exercise in a way that might be misleading - the calories earned from exercise are credited towards your daily allowance so one might think they can CONSUME the amount of calories that they burned. If they do this, they will maintain weight, not lose weight.

    A WORD ABOUT #1 - CONTENT! As the writers before me note, eat heart healthy, whole foods (vegetables and fruits), stay away from processed foods (easy to say, harder to do), educate yourself about the contents and calories. AND

    ANOTHER WORD ABOUT #1 - WATER! If you try to drink 8 glasses of water (8 oz) per day, you will see it's easiest done if distributed through the day beginning with morning. It's also a great filler and pick-me-up if you are hungry, tired, or upset. Drinking water can also be calming. So for the fitness, calories, nerves, skin, circulation, neurologic cells, drink water (not soda, juice or alcohol which work against your better efforts to lose weight).

    A BIG WORD ABOUT #2 - INTERVALS! What I've been reading and trying seems consistent - that you burn fat more effectively when you do interval training. I have to walk (not supposed to run for a little while) so I go on the treadmill at a comfortable pace and gradually increase the incline so that I get more resistance and increased speed for up to a minute, raising the heart rate. Then I go back to lesser incline and slower speed to allow the heart rate to go back down. Internet has a lot of info on different intervals and methods.

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