Anyone Else Feeling Down Because of Not Losing/Gaining?
somethingsoright
Posts: 99 Member
Been at this since the latter part of August. Before starting, I logged my "non-dieting" intake and averaged about 3,600 calories a day and maintained an obese weight. I've since cut my calories by half and exercise regularly (an hour on the bike every day and weight training 3x/wk). I weigh my food, including pre-packaged items.
I'm nearing the end of my 10th week and lost 13 lbs, which sounds decent, but I am obese and need to lose this weight faster for health reasons. Plus, the past 4 days I've steadily been gaining weight (half lb a day). I feel broken by this. I'm still in the same clothes I started out in and nothing is getting looser.
Anyone else going through something similar? Anyone went through this and overcame it? How?
I'm nearing the end of my 10th week and lost 13 lbs, which sounds decent, but I am obese and need to lose this weight faster for health reasons. Plus, the past 4 days I've steadily been gaining weight (half lb a day). I feel broken by this. I'm still in the same clothes I started out in and nothing is getting looser.
Anyone else going through something similar? Anyone went through this and overcame it? How?
4
Replies
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Coping when discouraged. You aren’t broken. You are succeeding. Do you have a weekly chart of your weight since starting? Make one. That chart is the picture of successful weight loss. Failure to recognize our own successes is a big problem in weight loss.
Control your expectations. I like to watch business news. Don’t know why, I’m not an investor. But business news is all about trends. People make fortunes in the stock market predicting and riding trends. But the best stock in history did not go up every single day. It’s the trend that counts, not the day to day.
Can you quit daily weighing? Day to day is not a very helpful way to track your weight, especially if you are training with weights. Stressed muscles retain water.
When losing I liked to think in terms of 3 month blocks. Don’t know why, but it seemed like a good amount of time to test a particular plan. So you’re closing in on 3 months. Stay the course for a few more weeks and do a major evaluation of what you’ve learned. Then take your new knowledge and adjust your plan if needed.
Last. Beware that voice in your head telling you to go faster. Speed, or attempts at speed, wreck a lot of weight loss efforts. The best plan is one you will actually follow.
Losing 10 lbs is better for you than trying for 20lbs and running off the rails. Keep working. You’re doing very well.
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Loosing weight is definitely hard & a process that takes time. I always loose 10 then gain it back smh but I've recently been using MFP to help me track for about 2 weeks so hopefully this works for me but no matter what we have to keep going if we want to.see change.1
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I've been on the losing train on and off in the last years. My last, and successful attempt, started this January. I was not overweight but still wanted to lose, and did - about 15 lbs from Jan to June.
But the first month? The first month I ate 1,200 cals per day, while moving a sensible amount each day. The whole of January, eating like that, I lost... NOTHING. Not a damn lb. Was it discouraging? YES. Was my math correct? Yes. Did I stick with it, eventually to see the scale budge, and whoosh down rapidly? Yes. I upped my calories to 1450 after that and lost as projected. No idea why I got stuck a whole month, while weighing everything to the gram, but I chalked it up to „things that just happen”, and „bodies are not a closed thermodynamic system”.
If you're on point with your CICO calculations, just give it time. It's frustrating, I know. But eventually, the scale will give in. You're doing things right, but it's a bit like poker - no matter how much you have the math down, there's a thing called variance.
Good luck!5 -
Keeping an eye on your intake and exercise are important but in some cases too little calories can cause a person to go into starvation mode. It happened to me in my first 2 weeks.
I cut my intake to around 900 calories a day and didn't exercise much at all (sedentary). I lost 10 lbs. in the first week. When I weighed myself on the end of the second week I had gained a pound back. I was very disappointed.
Even though my overall weight was still down (9 lbs. in 2 weeks) I had to wonder how in the world did \i gain a pound back after sticking to the same routine on the second week?
Most of the first week was likely water loss. The second week was likely starvation mode. I have since upped my calories to 1250 a day and added some dumbells every other day.
One thing you could do is look at your routine. Some people "plateau" where they can't seem to lose any more weight. That has also happened to me. The trick is to change your routine...either add more weight bearing exercise or trim your calories a bit more or both. Also look at making sure you are meeting your protein requirements as you may be burning muscle instead of fat. Trimming calories is fine but sometimes you do it at the expense of proper protein intake.
Forget protein shakes because they likely won't make you feel satisfied. Look at adding nuts and seeds (pumpkin are very protein rich) to increase protein as well as non fat or low fat greek yogurt. They are high in protein and can make you feel fuller longer. and stay away from packaged food. the calorie content may fit into your plan but it likely contains too little protein or has other added gunk that your body simply doesn't need.
And finally, don't give up. Reducing your intake and increasing your exercise will eventually get you where you need to be but just remember that this is a lifestyle change. Thinking that once you have lost the desired amount of weight you can stop exercising and stop calorie counting you are just going to gain it all back. Fast weight loss almost always comes back (95% of people) because it isn't sustainable.14 -
Keeping an eye on your intake and exercise are important but in some cases too little calories can cause a person to go into starvation mode. It happened to me in my first 2 weeks.
I cut my intake to around 900 calories a day and didn't exercise much at all (sedentary). I lost 10 lbs. in the first week. When I weighed myself on the end of the second week I had gained a pound back. I was very disappointed.
Even though my overall weight was still down (9 lbs. in 2 weeks) I had to wonder how in the world did \i gain a pound back after sticking to the same routine on the second week?
Most of the first week was likely water loss. The second week was likely starvation mode. I have since upped my calories to 1250 a day and added some dumbells every other day.
One thing you could do is look at your routine. Some people "plateau" where they can't seem to lose any more weight. That has also happened to me. The trick is to change your routine...either add more weight bearing exercise or trim your calories a bit more or both. Also look at making sure you are meeting your protein requirements as you may be burning muscle instead of fat. Trimming calories is fine but sometimes you do it at the expense of proper protein intake.
Forget protein shakes because they likely won't make you feel satisfied. Look at adding nuts and seeds (pumpkin are very protein rich) to increase protein as well as non fat or low fat greek yogurt. They are high in protein and can make you feel fuller longer. and stay away from packaged food. the calorie content may fit into your plan but it likely contains too little protein or has other added gunk that your body simply doesn't need.
And finally, don't give up. Reducing your intake and increasing your exercise will eventually get you where you need to be but just remember that this is a lifestyle change. Thinking that once you have lost the desired amount of weight you can stop exercising and stop calorie counting you are just going to gain it all back. Fast weight loss almost always comes back (95% of people) because it isn't sustainable.
So much wrong with this, just ignore it.
Weight loss isn't linear as so many things affect it - water, hormones, salty food, the weather etc etc.
As others have said, be patient, keep maintaining a healthy and sustainable deficit and just ride it out.
If you haven't already done so put your stats into MFP so you have an idea about what calories you should be aiming for.8 -
13 pounds in 10 weeks is not 'not losing' and 2 pounds in 4 days is not gaining - it's a weight fluctuation. I can gain that overnight by eating pizza
Most anyone here who has lost weight has gone through the same thing. Just buckle up, buttercup, because it's NOT all downhill from here. I like weighing daily and using a weight trending app. Keeps me sane to still see a downward trend even when my day to day is up. On the flip side, it lets me know when I might need to adjust something if my trend starts to flatten out or rise.6 -
Coping when discouraged. You aren’t broken. You are succeeding. Do you have a weekly chart of your weight since starting? Make one. That chart is the picture of successful weight loss. Failure to recognize our own successes is a big problem in weight loss.
Control your expectations. I like to watch business news. Don’t know why, I’m not an investor. But business news is all about trends. People make fortunes in the stock market predicting and riding trends. But the best stock in history did not go up every single day. It’s the trend that counts, not the day to day.
Can you quit daily weighing? Day to day is not a very helpful way to track your weight, especially if you are training with weights. Stressed muscles retain water.
When losing I liked to think in terms of 3 month blocks. Don’t know why, but it seemed like a good amount of time to test a particular plan. So you’re closing in on 3 months. Stay the course for a few more weeks and do a major evaluation of what you’ve learned. Then take your new knowledge and adjust your plan if needed.
Last. Beware that voice in your head telling you to go faster. Speed, or attempts at speed, wreck a lot of weight loss efforts. The best plan is one you will actually follow.
Losing 10 lbs is better for you than trying for 20lbs and running off the rails. Keep working. You’re doing very well.
Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I do have a chart tracking weekly weight loss/gain. Guess I am just afraid because my weight is going back up the past few days. It's super easy for me to gain and have it 'stick'. I will try my best to think in the long term. I like the idea of 3 month blocks. I started weighing every day recently, hoping to catch gains when they're small. But I don't know what else I could do, besides lower calories more (and I'm already hungry enough every day), so perhaps looking at the long term would at least not have me stressing about the day-to-day, week-to-week fluctuations.0 -
13 pounds in 10 weeks is not 'not losing' and 2 pounds in 4 days is not gaining - it's a weight fluctuation. I can gain that overnight by eating pizza
Most anyone here who has lost weight has gone through the same thing. Just buckle up, buttercup, because it's NOT all downhill from here. I like weighing daily and using a weight trending app. Keeps me sane to still see a downward trend even when my day to day is up. On the flip side, it lets me know when I might need to adjust something if my trend starts to flatten out or rise.
LOL at the 'buttercup' comment. After writing my original post, I arrived at work and was thinking, "suck it up, buttercup."1 -
SabAteNine wrote: »I've been on the losing train on and off in the last years. My last, and successful attempt, started this January. I was not overweight but still wanted to lose, and did - about 15 lbs from Jan to June.
But the first month? The first month I ate 1,200 cals per day, while moving a sensible amount each day. The whole of January, eating like that, I lost... NOTHING. Not a damn lb. Was it discouraging? YES. Was my math correct? Yes. Did I stick with it, eventually to see the scale budge, and whoosh down rapidly? Yes. I upped my calories to 1450 after that and lost as projected. No idea why I got stuck a whole month, while weighing everything to the gram, but I chalked it up to „things that just happen”, and „bodies are not a closed thermodynamic system”.
If you're on point with your CICO calculations, just give it time. It's frustrating, I know. But eventually, the scale will give in. You're doing things right, but it's a bit like poker - no matter how much you have the math down, there's a thing called variance.
Good luck!
Wow, a whole month and nothing. That sounds rough. Glad it turned around for you.
Poker and variance. Will be keeping that in mind. Thanks.0 -
Jackie9003 wrote: »Weight loss isn't linear as so many things affect it - water, hormones, salty food, the weather etc etc.
As others have said, be patient, keep maintaining a healthy and sustainable deficit and just ride it out.
If you haven't already done so put your stats into MFP so you have an idea about what calories you should be aiming for.
MFP has me at 1,680 calories a day to lose 1 lb a week.1 -
somethingsoright wrote: »13 pounds in 10 weeks is not 'not losing' and 2 pounds in 4 days is not gaining - it's a weight fluctuation. I can gain that overnight by eating pizza
Most anyone here who has lost weight has gone through the same thing. Just buckle up, buttercup, because it's NOT all downhill from here. I like weighing daily and using a weight trending app. Keeps me sane to still see a downward trend even when my day to day is up. On the flip side, it lets me know when I might need to adjust something if my trend starts to flatten out or rise.
LOL at the 'buttercup' comment. After writing my original post, I arrived at work and was thinking, "suck it up, buttercup."
lol I'm glad you didn't take offense! It's something we day to our kids all the time.0 -
Friend, keep telling yourself the good things! We didn't get obese in 10weeks and we're not going to lose it in 10weeks either.
SO MUCH of this ::waves hands wildly:: is playing the long game. Find habits you like, find foods you like, find things you can do for a long...dang...time.
Because whether you're looking for a specific weight or size, you don't just need to set that goal for a date, you need to set it for life.
When you set your goals for the future, everything you do is a learning opportunity. Losing is success, maintaining is success, saying no (and saying yes at times!) is success, and yes, gaining is success! Find the lessons in all that you do.
I have SO slowly lost 30lbs over the past 4 years. I started at 210 and am currently at 175. I still have more to go, sure, but I'm taking it in 5lb increments. Lose 5, see how well I maintain that for a few weeks/months...lose another 5...see how that goes.
The other thing is...if you haven't, TAKE PHOTOS and MEASURE multiple (but consistent) body parts with a TAPE. It took me MONTHS to see the difference in my size and SHAPE. The scale and clothes aren't always the best, objective measure. (For that reason, it's not a bad idea to crop your face out too.) Look at ALL the data points.
ok i'm done yelling.
Keep doing the work. You're miles ahead of where you were. You're stronger, you're smarter, you're capable of being the person you want to be.
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somethingsoright wrote: »Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I do have a chart tracking weekly weight loss/gain. Guess I am just afraid because my weight is going back up the past few days. It's super easy for me to gain and have it 'stick'. I will try my best to think in the long term. I like the idea of 3 month blocks. I started weighing every day recently, hoping to catch gains when they're small. But I don't know what else I could do, besides lower calories more (and I'm already hungry enough every day), so perhaps looking at the long term would at least not have me stressing about the day-to-day, week-to-week fluctuations.
I often go up 2-3-4lbs even then do a sudden drop. a day or two or even a week "up" can just be a question of time of the month, water retention, eating too much fatty foods. If you are logging correctly, weighign food and sticking to the recommended calories just hang in there and keep going the scale will move down again.
I am currently up almost 3lbs from last weekend but i'm hanging in there.
I use a weight trending app and it's amazing how up and down it goes day to day week to week. but the trend doesn't lie and is steadily downwards. I am on the last few lbs and working on finding maintenance.
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somethingsoright wrote: »Thanks for all the advice. Yes, I do have a chart tracking weekly weight loss/gain. Guess I am just afraid because my weight is going back up the past few days. It's super easy for me to gain and have it 'stick'. I will try my best to think in the long term. I like the idea of 3 month blocks. I started weighing every day recently, hoping to catch gains when they're small. But I don't know what else I could do, besides lower calories more (and I'm already hungry enough every day), so perhaps looking at the long term would at least not have me stressing about the day-to-day, week-to-week fluctuations.
I often go up 2-3-4lbs even then do a sudden drop. a day or two or even a week "up" can just be a question of time of the month, water retention, eating too much fatty foods. If you are logging correctly, weighign food and sticking to the recommended calories just hang in there and keep going the scale will move down again.
I am currently up almost 3lbs from last weekend but i'm hanging in there.
I use a weight trending app and it's amazing how up and down it goes day to day week to week. but the trend doesn't lie and is steadily downwards. I am on the last few lbs and working on finding maintenance.
Same for me, I weigh everything and I know I haven't gone over but I've had little sleep lately and salty food so I'm up 2lbs, it will come off over the weekend no doubt. Happy Scale is my preferred choice and it keeps me sane lol0 -
somethingsoright wrote: »Jackie9003 wrote: »Weight loss isn't linear as so many things affect it - water, hormones, salty food, the weather etc etc.
As others have said, be patient, keep maintaining a healthy and sustainable deficit and just ride it out.
If you haven't already done so put your stats into MFP so you have an idea about what calories you should be aiming for.
MFP has me at 1,680 calories a day to lose 1 lb a week.
Trust in it, keep logging accurately and it will work. 13lbs off in 10 weeks is great and it's actually on target.
To lose quicker, as you said in your opening post, change your settings to 2lb per week for a time and see how you get on.
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This is what losing weight looks like graphed out...it's not linear...this is what it looks like for everyone.
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Jackie9003 wrote: »Trust in it, keep logging accurately and it will work. 13lbs off in 10 weeks is great and it's actually on target.
To lose quicker, as you said in your opening post, change your settings to 2lb per week for a time and see how you get on.
I went to change it to 2 lbs per week and saw that exercise calories are not included with the total allowed calories? That's confusing to me because the diet/fitness profile page asks how much exercise a week you do. I thought the calories for exercise were already included. Does this mean with my new calorie target of 1,200 a day, I can eat back the calories I burn through working out? If that's the case, I'll start logging exercise here.
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somethingsoright wrote: »Jackie9003 wrote: »Trust in it, keep logging accurately and it will work. 13lbs off in 10 weeks is great and it's actually on target.
To lose quicker, as you said in your opening post, change your settings to 2lb per week for a time and see how you get on.
I went to change it to 2 lbs per week and saw that exercise calories are not included with the total allowed calories? That's confusing to me because the diet/fitness profile page asks how much exercise a week you do. I thought the calories for exercise were already included. Does this mean with my new calorie target of 1,200 a day, I can eat back the calories I burn through working out? If that's the case, I'll start logging exercise here.
That part of the profile is just for setting a personal goal for amount of exercise per week. It is not included in your calorie allotment. Just your daily activity is accounted for. So, yes, eat the exercise calories.2 -
somethingsoright wrote: »Jackie9003 wrote: »Trust in it, keep logging accurately and it will work. 13lbs off in 10 weeks is great and it's actually on target.
To lose quicker, as you said in your opening post, change your settings to 2lb per week for a time and see how you get on.
I went to change it to 2 lbs per week and saw that exercise calories are not included with the total allowed calories? That's confusing to me because the diet/fitness profile page asks how much exercise a week you do. I thought the calories for exercise were already included. Does this mean with my new calorie target of 1,200 a day, I can eat back the calories I burn through working out? If that's the case, I'll start logging exercise here.
Your exercise targets are just for you...they have no bearing on your calorie targets as they aren't included in your activity level. You account for exercise activity after the fact by logging it and getting additional calories. You'll note that the activity level descriptors make no mention of exercise...just your day to day humdrum.2 -
somethingsoright wrote: »SabAteNine wrote: »I've been on the losing train on and off in the last years. My last, and successful attempt, started this January. I was not overweight but still wanted to lose, and did - about 15 lbs from Jan to June.
But the first month? The first month I ate 1,200 cals per day, while moving a sensible amount each day. The whole of January, eating like that, I lost... NOTHING. Not a damn lb. Was it discouraging? YES. Was my math correct? Yes. Did I stick with it, eventually to see the scale budge, and whoosh down rapidly? Yes. I upped my calories to 1450 after that and lost as projected. No idea why I got stuck a whole month, while weighing everything to the gram, but I chalked it up to „things that just happen”, and „bodies are not a closed thermodynamic system”.
If you're on point with your CICO calculations, just give it time. It's frustrating, I know. But eventually, the scale will give in. You're doing things right, but it's a bit like poker - no matter how much you have the math down, there's a thing called variance.
Good luck!
Wow, a whole month and nothing. That sounds rough. Glad it turned around for you.
Poker and variance. Will be keeping that in mind. Thanks.
Yup.
Here's my graph from the period - 1,200 cals for the first month, 1,450 for the second two, then gradually up to 1,850. Weight training (which I highly recommend) starting April. Sorry for the quality, I had to crop it off the forum on my phone. Hope it's still visible.
Moral of the story - stick with it! 😊0 -
All the above comments are correct every person is different and what works for one may / won’t work for another take all advise and Fit what works for you into your life . Everyone’s body is different in 2016 I lost 54 kilos in 50 weeks yes that’s a huge amount but I was grossly obese now just grossly overweight I’ve kept most off but for me no exercise means weight gain no matter how well I eat body type and metabolism play into along with age . So after a long term injury I’ve been back at it since April I’m older and it’s a lot slower and that’s ok I have as many up on the scale days as down but I know now the only way to succeed is to keep going don’t starve yourself look at your calories and see if there is something you could exchange for something more filling if your feeling like your starving all the time it will be to hard so look at recipes other people’s diary s use Vegeis to bulk up your meals . And yes you can eat back the wxcercise calories but be aware mfp is very generous I aim for half but don’t feel guilty if I eat them all on some days .
Swap up what your doing for exercise my body is stubborn and loves to hold its weight and gets used to a route in fast so I’m constantly looking for a different combination of working out oh and we all plateau don’t get discrouraged
It’s a life long journey4 -
I looked at your diary and see you are eating about 1200 cals a day, is that correct? I average burn 3k calories a day and lose eating 2400 calories a day. When I eat 2000 cals or less I stop losing. Have you played around with you calorie goals?4
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I think I need one of these weight loss graphing tools. My weight fluctuates quite a bit and it IS discouraging to see the number go up on the scale. I try to not put too much meaning into a higher weight as I know that I’m doing what I need to do to lose the weight, but somehow the number does provoke a response from me. I am trying out committing to a time frame and doing it. Right now I am counting calories and I have finished my first week of IF. I’ve been on MFP for 50 days or so and lost 13 pounds. I have a long way to go, but I know that giving up is not going to solve my weight issues, so I have to forge on and find new solutions when I have a set back.0
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