What am I doing wrong?

melissayoungblood · October 2018

I am pretty much eating 1 boiled egg and fruit with coffee for breakfast. Lunch and dinner either a smart one dinner or lean cuisine dinner. Lara bar for snack daily. Calories are about 1,000 a day sometimes 1,100. I am 45 year old woman with crashed slow metabolism. Not able to exercise much from two car accidents and back and neck injuries. Walk nightly. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Lost 10 pounds in 34 days. Last two weeks scale has not moved. Have swelling in ankles and legs allot.

cmriverside · October 2018

First - your metabolism isn't crashed. However, by eating so little you are not helping things.

You say "about 1000-1100"? Knowing precisely actually makes a big difference. "About" isn't a way to track.

Ten pounds in 30 days is a lot; many would say too much unless you're 70+ pounds over weight. How tall are you and how much weight do you need to lose?

quiksylver296 · October 2018

I hold water weight at ovulation and TOM. Could that be a reason for your lack of loss the last two weeks?

shadow2soul · October 2018

Well you might be under-eating a bit, but that’s something that will effect health and body composition.

You are experiencing swelling which means you are retaining water. That will mask any fat loss on the scale.

It’s only been 2 weeks. Patience. You lost pretty quickly in your first 34 days so a 2 week stall isn’t surprising and doesn’t indicate anything is wrong.

pussingtonp · October 2018

Just quick estimates for your food intake:
1 large egg = 75 calories
1 cup fruit = 50 calories
coffee = 0 calories (sugar add 15 calories/spoon and 35/ creamer)
smart one / lean cuisine = 400 each
Lara bar = 190

Daily total = 1115 / day

So if you add cream or sugar to your coffee add to that. If you drink anything other than water add to that. Sometimes food can be a bit deceiving in it's nutritional content, this is just quick numbers off the top of my head, but I wanted to give you an idea of how much calories are in your food for the purposes of my explanation below.

You don't need to exercise to lose weight. I lost the first 30lbs without any form of exercise.

First step is to work out your TDEE, https://tdeecalculator.net/. This is number 1.
Next step is to work out what your eating in a day, accurately. This is number 2.

If number 2 is less than number 1, you will lose weight.

Just note that to loose 1lb you need a deficit of 3500 calories - so you can break this down per day, and MFP will do all the calculations for you based on your TDEE.

Exercising will give you some extra calories to add to number 1, but it is totally possible to lose weight only through diet.

Good luck - as simple as the theory is to loose weight, it's really hard in practice, and can be very frustrating. Knowing your numbers can help a lot though, as you can really look at your diet and see what you can change and cut.

cmriverside · October 2018

Just note that to loose 1lb you need a deficit of 3500 calories - so you can break this down per day, and MFP will do all the calculations for you based on your TDEE.

Actually this is not how Myfitnesspal calculates. You can read more here in "Help."

How does MyFitnessPal calculate my initial goals?

kimny72 · October 2018

melissayoungblood wrote: »

I am pretty much eating 1 boiled egg and fruit with coffee for breakfast. Lunch and dinner either a smart one dinner or lean cuisine dinner. Lara bar for snack daily. Calories are about 1,000 a day sometimes 1,100. I am 45 year old woman with crashed slow metabolism. Not able to exercise much from two car accidents and back and neck injuries. Walk nightly. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Lost 10 pounds in 34 days. Last two weeks scale has not moved. Have swelling in ankles and legs allot.

It is perfectly normal to go a week or two with no loss on the scale. Unless you are obese, you lost weight for the first month at a very aggressive pace. This might be stressing out your body, messing with your hormones, and causing you to retain water. It's also possible your frozen meals and bars are high in sodium causing you to retain water too.

Are you logging here? Would you be willing to provide your height, weight, and goal weight?

earlnabby · October 2018

Sounds like you are in the water regulation temporary stall phase. It happens to many people where they lose a lot at the beginning, including water weight, then their bodies take on a little extra water because it dropped too much, resulting in no loss showing on the scale. This can happen anywhere between week 3 and week 6. It is a normal process and is just your body getting used to the reduced calories.

It sounds like you are eating too little, your weight loss is a bit aggressive at 2 lb a week. Unless you have something like 50-100 lb to lose, you should slow it down to closer to 1 lb a week.

You don't need to exercise to lose, just adjust your calories to fit your activity level.

melissayoungblood · October 2018

Thank you all for your help. I am 5'4" and weigh 184 at this time. I would like to loose 40 to 50 pounds. I log in what I eat into MFP and it ranges from 1000 to 1,100 calories per day. I will add something to hit the 1,200 calorie mark. I was worried I may be eating to little but then wasn't sure given my lack of ability to exercise much at this time. I am in physical therapy after an unsuccessful stem cell transplant but the PT is once a week then walk most days. I gained 30 pounds in a year after medical issues and now it seems to be a struggle. Thank you all for the advice.

PAV8888 · October 2018

Your 10lbs in 34 days is aggressive.

Your 10lbs in 34 days argues that 1200 is not necessary for more conservatively paced weight loss.

Swollen anything argues that you have excess water weight. Usually run of the mill water weight issues resolve in a few days.

If swelling is unusual for you, not explainable, doesn't resolve, or or gets worse fast, you should check such with your doctor...

People don't lose weight like a Swiss clock.

Add a trending weight level app or web site to your arsenal and extra patience.

Sorry for your recent health struggles.

You don't *need* exercise or even a walk in order to lose weight.

Of course both walks and more vigorous exercise are great for health if you can safely engage in them.

melissayoungblood · October 2018

Thank you! I will practice patience. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. In my younger years the weight would come off fast just didn't seem as fast to me this time. But I also could exercise more then.

What am I doing wrong?

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