Having trouble getting started.

celerieaz
celerieaz Posts: 26 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
By getting started I mean starting my weight loss.

29 yo, female. Some years ago I used calorie counting to drop 20kg. Since I moved to a new area though I’ve put back on about 7-8 kg, and I decided to stop being complacent and lose that + the remaining 10 kg I had always wanted to lose.

First started on keto, because I wanted to be satiated while eating at a deficit, but despite getting an abundance of fiber I found myself super constipated. So I dropped it and started calorie counting about a month ago.

I aim for around 1400 a day, and limit my carbs to breakfast and lunch. I eat the same thing almost everyday for breakfast and lunch.

B: 100g Greek yogurt, 14g almond butter, 20g granola, .1 tbs chia seed

L: 2 hard boiled eggs, 1 cucumber (Japanese cucumber, so smaller than American variety), 15g ssamjam, 1 baked sweet potato

For dinner I like to eat different soups. Like cabbage and pork, kimchi stew, etc, with another veggie side. Sometimes I’ll eat a salad.

On the weekends I’ve been trying to encorporare small indulgences that fit my calories, or if more around 1500 to 1600 intake. Like on Saturday I had half a beer, and on Sunday I had a burger.

I try to hit the gym at least five days a week. I do strength circuits with a personal trainer once a week and the other days I do a mix of cardio classes like body combat, and yoga. I try to do yoga the most as I know my problem area is being too tight and inflexible. Aside from that I have 2 dogs so we go on two long walks a day and a shorter one before bed.

I’m not overly active, and since I’ve been doing yoga more than anything I don’t know how much water retention I could have. But I’m not losing.

Any guidance here? I know weight loss can be slow, but it seems crazy to me that I’m trying hard and can’t get the scale to budge at 20kg overweight.

Replies

  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    A few questions you might ask yourself to make things easier:

    Why are you limiting carbs? Is there a valid reason? Why do you think carbs are bad? What if carbs are what satiates your appetite?

    The food choices you've listed. Are they what you really like to eat or are you just eating stuff you "don't mind" because they're perceived as "healthy" and you're on a "diet" and that's what you eat when your on a diet? If you weren't on a diet are these the food choices you'd make? Are there other foods (even if you consider them "bad") that you REALLY enjoy that you could be eating and still hitting your calorie target?

    Are you accurately weighing everything to the gram, logging everything and selecting accurate database entries? (how many grams is the cucumber? the sweet potato? how large are the eggs?). Are you including condiments and other stuff like cooking oils?

    You say you're not very active then talk about PT sessions and yoga classes and cardio classes and body combat classes and walking dogs 3 times a day. Are you accurately tracking your energy expenditure? How are you tracking your activity? Are you perhaps over estimating the number of calories you've burned which is diminishing your calorie deficit? Or even under estimating your activity level and making things harder on yourself by creating a larger than sustainable calorie deficit?
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
    I'm sure others will chime in, but here are some quick ideas.

    If you have started a new exercise routine you could be retaining water for muscle repair which could be masking any fat loss.

    How often are you weighing yourself? If only once a week or so you could just be hitting high days and missing the fluctuations. If you use a weight trending app and weigh daily you may see that your weight is actually trending down, just slowly. I use weightgrapher.com but there are lots of apps out there.

    It doesn't look like you are using a food scale for all your solids (I could be wrong). Take a look at this thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    And above all, have patience. I know we all want the weight gone yesterday, but it's a slow process. Hang in there, if you are eating less than you are burning the weight will come off.
  • celerieaz
    celerieaz Posts: 26 Member
    Thanks for the feedback!
    Danp wrote: »
    A few questions you might ask yourself to make things easier:

    Why are you limiting carbs? Is there a valid reason? Why do you think carbs are bad?

    I limit carbs for two reasons; I mindlessly overeat them if I don’t watch myself, and I find them less satiating than other foods. If I eat toast I get hungry after a few hours but if I eat a handful of almonds or some cheese I feel fuller longer.

    Danp wrote: »
    The food choices you've listed. Are they what you really like to eat or are you just eating stuff you "don't mind" because they're perceived as "healthy" and you're on a "diet" and that's what you eat when your on a diet? If you weren't on a diet are these the food choices you'd make? Are there other foods (even if you consider them "bad") that you REALLY enjoy that you could be eating and still hitting your calorie goal

    I know that it sounds stupid because I’m literally eating a cucumber with dip and eggs, but I’m eating that everyday because I enjoy it 😅 Sometimes if I get bored of it I have a quinoa bowl with kale, roasted veggies and skirt steak, but I genuinely like the foods I’m eating. I could eat my pork and cabbage soup (with ponzu) every night and only don’t because my husband would complain.
    Danp wrote: »
    Are you accurately weighing everything to the gram, logging everything and selecting accurate database entries? (how many grams is the cucumber? the sweet potato? how large are the eggs?). Are you including condiments and other stuff like cooking oils?

    You say you're not very active then talk about PT sessions and yoga classes and cardio classes and body combat classes and walking dogs 3 times a day. Are you accurately tracking your energy expenditure? How are you tracking your activity? Are you perhaps over estimating the number of calories you've burned which is diminishing your calorie deficit? Or even under estimating your activity level and making things harder on yourself by creating a larger than sustainable calorie deficit?

    I use a food scale and do weigh my food, but I will eat 1 cucumber regardless of the fluctuations in weight. Same with the sweet potato. So my daily count fluctuates but I’m tracking what I eat by gram when possible.

    As for activity level, I don’t input that into mfp and I don’t eat back calories from exercise. I guess I could be burning more than I imagine at the gym, but I don’t go to bed hungry or anything.

    Thanks again! I’ll try to examine everything again, including my exercise habits.
  • celerieaz
    celerieaz Posts: 26 Member
    Thank you!
    RAinWA wrote: »
    How often are you weighing yourself? If only once a week or so you could just be hitting high days and missing the fluctuations. If you use a weight trending app and weigh daily you may see that your weight is actually trending down, just slowly. I use weightgrapher.com but there are lots of apps out there.

    That’s a good idea! I do weigh myself each morning and try to keep track of where my weight is trending, but using an app will help me see more clearly if it’s trending down or not.
    RAinWA wrote: »
    It doesn't look like you are using a food scale for all your solids (I could be wrong). Take a look at this thread: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    And above all, have patience. I know we all want the weight gone yesterday, but it's a slow process. Hang in there, if you are eating less than you are burning the weight will come off.

    I am using a food scale, but like I said above, I just eat 1 cucumber and sweet potato each regardless of how heavy it is.

    That’s true, patience 👍🏼 Thanks, I’ll keep at it!
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