I don’t get it
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ellioc2
Posts: 148 Member
Today was the day of my bi-weekly weigh in (blind weights). I’ve been eating 1200-1400 calories a day and exercising about 3-4 times a week. I try to burn 600 on the elliptical when I go. Before this I was averaging 5 pounds weight loss every weigh in. Today’s weight loss? A measly pound. For two whole weeks. I’m so mad at myself right now. Granted, I did go out with my classmates last night to celebrate the end of the quarter (I had a Cobb salad and tried to scrape off the cheese and use minimal dressing. I had one beer too). I ate more like 1500 yesterday because of that. But today I went straight back to what I had been eating and I had a pretty intense workout session. I know sodium can cause some water retention, but that much? Shouldn’t I see the scale move a little more? I was venting to my husband and he told me I just need to eat less and work harder, which is so frustrating because I feel like what I’m doing already is a lot. I don’t think I’ll ever be thin and I’m so mad at myself. I know I said that already, but I am. I’m just a fat failure 
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Replies
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How much do you have to lose? And how long have you been at this? It's unrealistic to expect to lose 5lbs every week unless you're currently over 500lbs (tone doesn't carry well in print, so please believe that I'm not trying to be snarky. I don't know anything about you.)
Generally speaking, you should be shooting for max 1% of your bodyweight per week. You may lose a bit more than that in the first couple of weeks, but that's mostly water weight, not fat. After that, things generally settle down and you start to lose at a more reasonable rate. Remember that to drop a pound per week, you need to eat 3500 calories below your maintenance level (i.e. 500 calories per day less than your total daily energy expenditure: TDEE). To drop 5lbs per week, you'd need to eat 2500 less than TDEE daily. You don't want to eat below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, i.e. what you burn daily just by existing). Weight loss takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
You are not a failure. You dropped a pound this week. That is excellent!
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Yes, sodium can make a difference if it makes you retain water. It can also be because you pushed a bit harder in the gym (muscles retaining water as they repair themselves), or a lot of other reasons. With weighting yourself just once every 2 weeks all you know is your weight that day and weight fluctuates up and down. Maybe yesterday you were a pound more down. As long as you're achieving a downward trend, you're making progress.
5 pounds every 2 weeks is 2.5 lbs a week, that's a bit of an agressive rate. How much weight do you have to lose overall? How much still til goal? How much weight have you lost already? It's normal for weightloss to be quick when you start, and slow as you go.
Not sure if you weigh your food, but there's always the chance you are eating more than you think. Are you eating back your exercise calories? (You should).
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Unless you are extremely obese, 2.5 lbs/week is likely not a healthy goal for you. And our body weight, especially as women, fluctuates constantly and can mask underlying fat loss. If you are unfamiliar with water weight fluctuations, you might benefit from daily weigh-ins for a while to get an idea how much weight you gain/lose under ordinary circumstances. With weekly or bi-weekly weigh-ins, you may just catch yourself on a high day. You will still see it trend downward over time, but it definitely requires a more relaxed, patient attitude
You might find this thread helpful:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p19 -
Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop taking weight loss advice from your husband. Your rate is already WAY too aggressive and MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. A 600 calorie burn sounds too high, as most MFP database estimates are, but you should at least be eating back half of that, likely more. At your current weight, at the rate you are losing, you are costing yourself a lot of lean muscle mass which is not only unhealthy, but won't be very asthetically pleasing in the end. A woman needs to net at least 1200 to meet her body's basic requirements.35
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Unless you are extremely obese, 2.5 lbs/week is likely not a healthy goal for you. And our body weight, especially as women, fluctuates constantly and can mask underlying fat loss. If you are unfamiliar with water weight fluctuations, you might benefit from daily weigh-ins for a while to get an idea how much weight you gain/lose under ordinary circumstances. With weekly or bi-weekly weigh-ins, you may just catch yourself on a high day. You will still see it trend downward over time, but it definitely requires a more relaxed, patient attitude
You might find this thread helpful:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
I had just eaten dinner (I had a fairly big dinner - huge piece of steak and huge side of roasted vegetables) and drank a lot of water since I had sweat so much at the gym. So I’m kind of hoping it was just that :-/
Most people don't weigh-in immediately after a large meal
It almost certainly was that. That makes me worry even more about your actual rate of loss.
We all want the weight gone yesterday, but we shouldn't sacrifice our health & lean muscle to do so. Your heart is a muscle too.14 -
Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop taking weight loss advice from your husband. Your rate is already WAY too aggressive and MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. A 600 calorie burn sounds too high, as most MFP database estimates are, but you should at least be eating back half of that, likely more. At your current weight, at the rate you are losing, you are costing yourself a lot of lean muscle mass which is not only unhealthy, but won't be very asthetically pleasing in the end. A woman needs to net at least 1200 to meet her body's basic requirements.
Yeah, he’s naturally skinny/slim and he actually has to work to put weight on! It’s very mathematical to him, the calories. I don’t think he understands the nuances of dieting and calorie counting at the low end and what it does to the metabolism. Not to mention my mood, I’ve been really hangry and just plain irritable lately.
Math is a wonderful thing, but only when combined with sound knowledge about weight loss. Maybe this will help:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p19 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »How much do you have to lose? And how long have you been at this? It's unrealistic to expect to lose 5lbs every week unless you're currently over 500lbs (tone doesn't carry well in print, so please believe that I'm not trying to be snarky. I don't know anything about you.)
Generally speaking, you should be shooting for max 1% of your bodyweight per week. You may lose a bit more than that in the first couple of weeks, but that's mostly water weight, not fat. After that, things generally settle down and you start to lose at a more reasonable rate. Remember that to drop a pound per week, you need to eat 3500 calories below your maintenance level (i.e. 500 calories per day less than your total daily energy expenditure: TDEE). To drop 5lbs per week, you'd need to eat 2500 less than TDEE daily. You don't want to eat below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, i.e. what you burn daily just by existing). Weight loss takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
You are not a failure. You dropped a pound this week. That is excellent!estherdragonbat wrote: »How much do you have to lose? And how long have you been at this? It's unrealistic to expect to lose 5lbs every week unless you're currently over 500lbs (tone doesn't carry well in print, so please believe that I'm not trying to be snarky. I don't know anything about you.)
Generally speaking, you should be shooting for max 1% of your bodyweight per week. You may lose a bit more than that in the first couple of weeks, but that's mostly water weight, not fat. After that, things generally settle down and you start to lose at a more reasonable rate. Remember that to drop a pound per week, you need to eat 3500 calories below your maintenance level (i.e. 500 calories per day less than your total daily energy expenditure: TDEE). To drop 5lbs per week, you'd need to eat 2500 less than TDEE daily. You don't want to eat below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate, i.e. what you burn daily just by existing). Weight loss takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
You are not a failure. You dropped a pound this week. That is excellent!
Since 2 weeks, actually :-/ See my above post for where I am. I know I don’t have hundreds of pounds to lose, but I just feel really icky in my body and want to get out of that overweight BMI range (my body likes being there I’ve found, which is annoying). A nice thin person weight smack dab in the middle of my BMI range would be great. I’m sick of feeling like my body is barely adequate and pudgy. I don’t think anyone would call me “fat” but they certainly aren’t calling me thin.
I see that. A pound is still good. With 20lbs to lose, really, 1lb per week is about the most aggressive you can safely shoot for and 1/2lb would be better. You just don't have the fat reserves to lose more quickly. Which means that you're also going to be losing muscle. Your heart is a muscle.13 -
Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop taking weight loss advice from your husband. Your rate is already WAY too aggressive and MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. A 600 calorie burn sounds too high, as most MFP database estimates are, but you should at least be eating back half of that, likely more. At your current weight, at the rate you are losing, you are costing yourself a lot of lean muscle mass which is not only unhealthy, but won't be very asthetically pleasing in the end. A woman needs to net at least 1200 to meet her body's basic requirements.
By the way that burn is based off the elliptical machine itself (which I realize might be off), not MFP database. I don’t even track it on here because i haven’t been eating back my exercise calories.
I can't speak to the accuracy of elliptical machines, but honestly, based on your rate of loss, it sounds like you could be eating those 600 calories no problem. And a food scale is always a good idea. Most people tend to underestimate how much they are eating, but you don't want to be cheating yourself either.4 -
I'm going to second the advice of stop listening to your husband about your weightloss. The things you said he told you will make you sick and to be very honest I'm afraid either they'll hurt your chances at long term success or could lead you down the road to disordered eating.
MyFitnessPal has your deficit build into the calorie goals it gives you. That means if you have it set to the max of 2lbs a week and it tells you to eat 1400 cal day, it's because it estimates you burn 2400 a day just going about your life. This banks you 1000 cal/day, 1000x7 days = 2 pounds. Exercise is mainly for health, not to lose faster. I lost my first 20 without hitting the gym.
Maximum healthy weightloss is 1% a week. For you, that's 1.6 pounds a week rn and will continue to go down as you get closer to your goal weight. Losing too fast exposes you to all kinds of problems, such as gallstones. A faster rate of loss means more loose skin and muscle loss.
I lost 50 pounds in 5 months eating at a 1000cal/deficit (meaning my mfp cals + exercise calories, I was 294 at the start). You will not gain if you eat your exercise calories. I would recommend a lower rate of loss, like 1lbs/week.
I strongly recommend that you get a digital food scale.11 -
Don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop taking weight loss advice from your husband. Your rate is already WAY too aggressive and MFP is designed for you to eat back at least some of your exercise calories. A 600 calorie burn sounds too high, as most MFP database estimates are, but you should at least be eating back half of that, likely more. At your current weight, at the rate you are losing, you are costing yourself a lot of lean muscle mass which is not only unhealthy, but won't be very asthetically pleasing in the end. A woman needs to net at least 1200 to meet her body's basic requirements.
Yeah, he’s naturally skinny/slim and he actually has to work to put weight on! It’s very mathematical to him, the calories. I don’t think he understands the nuances of dieting and calorie counting at the low end and what it does to the metabolism. Not to mention my mood, I’ve been really hangry and just plain irritable lately.
TBH you need to stop thinking that you're on the biggest loser and can lose 10lbs per week, and start a more sustainable weight loss regime. you sound miserable, that's no way to live.
you may not love your body right now, but you should love yourself enough not to want to damage it just to lose 5lbs in a couple of weeks.16 -
After you lose the weight you'll have to watch watch your portions so you won't gain it back. Get a food scale--the last 20 lbs are the hardest. Start to study your portions, and your macros--protein, carbs, fat and sugar. I agree that you shouldn't lose more than 1 lb a week. You are too nervous and need to calm down. Eat enough to fuel your workouts and maybe throw in some yoga or meditation. Your husband is very different from you (mine is exactly the same, only he doesn't give me advice) so don't listen to him. He means well. Good luck. Remember aside from looks, you're doing this for your health.4
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Your husband either doesn't understand that there is no intentional exercise built into your MFP goal or he doesn't understand weight loss at all. Ignore him either way. His comments are particularly dangerous given your history of disordered eating.
You said it's hard to tell what is healthy dieting and what is disordered. You should consider checking in with your treatment team (or a new one, considering you've been recovered for 10 years). What you're doing now--netting 800 calories, calling yourself a fat failure when you're only 20 lbs overweight--sounds fairly disordered to me.22 -
As mentioned you are already losing way too aggressively for your stats. It is not healthy for your body, and you will lose extra muscle mass (as per your other thread you want to lower your bodyfat% and maintain muscle, well, this is NOT how to do it).
All of what you are saying plus a previous ED, I think it would be a good idea to check in with your treatment team or doctor since some of those feelings seem to be resurfacing.11 -
Second the suggestion about finding a treatment team.
You are being unreasonably hard on yourself.
You are not eating enough and your body is responding to that.
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