Scale doesn't budge :(..Any pointers please

gdkarmarkar wrote: »

Hello,
I am 33 yr old female, currently weighing about 64 kgs, ht - 5ft 2".My goal is to weigh about 55 kgs in the next 4 months. Is that achievable?
I have been on the fitness journey on and off for the past few yrs now.Suffered from a knee injury in 2017 while doing crossfit and was out for a year just focussing on strengthening my knee just by physio sessions.Knee is much better now although not fully recovered.
I have started my fitness journey again from DEC 2018..keeping my calories in check, goal about 1200, ensure my calorie intake is about 1300-1400 on an avg with one day of some indulgence( one meal) in a week.
As per the diary of My fitness pal app, the calories remaining at the end of the day = 1000 on an avg.(Not sure if this is good enough).Any idea what should be the ideal number of calories remaining for weight loss.
My workout schedule is 5-6 times a week which consists of
-3 times cardio including HIIT, Circuit training
-‎ 2-3 weight training sessions for back, biceps, legs, chest and shoulders.
I have been monitoring my wt since dec but it hasnt budged even after following a healthy lifestyle.Any pointers that you guys can give me? It's the first time that my body doesnt seem to be reacting to my diet/ workout schedule and it is indeed demotivating.
Any help or pointers in terms of anything I am doing wrong would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot.

I'll second the food scale/logging as your first priority.

Secondly, your TDEE is somewhere between 1900-2100 calories (based on activity level). You should be able to comfortably eat 1400 + calories per day and lose 1-1.5 lbs per week, which given your stats my be a little aggressive.

You haven't been at it long enough to tell if fat loss is occurring or not. Fluctuations can easily mask fat loss progress.

Regarding your diary (important!):

The way MFP works is that it starts with your calorie goal based on your weight loss goal. If you eat to that goal, then the "Calories Remaining" at the end of the day should be 0 (ZERO), in theory. If it is 0, then you have met your planned deficit. You have eaten to your goal up to and including additional calories accounted for by exercise.

For example, let's say my calorie goal to lose 1 pound per week is 1900. My fitness tracker tells me I've added 800 due to exercise (or higher basic activity level than what I estimate - maybe I had a more active day than normal because I was up from my desk for longer). Because some fitness trackers are not a trustworthy on the calorie burn, I eat 500 calories back, or 2400 total. If I knew my tracker was accurate, I should eat all 800 back, or 2700.

If I ate 500, it would leave me with a "Calories Remaining" of 300. Many of us eat about 50% of the calories given back due to exercise. For me, if my activity is more cardio-based, I've found my Fitbit to be pretty accurate - I might eat 100% of those calories back - or 800 in this example - getting me to that 2700. In that case, provided my logging was accurate, then I am eating to goal.

If you have a planned deficit in MFP and you have 1000 calories remaining, you are not eating to your goal, you are more than likely under-eating - *unless your logging is not accurate*.

Takeaways:

1. Make sure you are accurate on your caloric intake. If you don't know how much your food item weighs, then you don't really know how many calories you are eating. Don't rely on measuring cups, package labels, etc.
2. You must give the process enough time to account for normal fluctuations (which you should not trying to control or manipulate by the way). For you that means 6-8 weeks of accurate logging/measuring. Do that before you make changes to your intake.
3. Don't try to accelerate the deficit that MFP already sets for you based on your goals. You should be in the neighborhood of 0 calories remaining at the end of the day (maybe plus 50% of your exercise credit). Doesn't have be 0 every day, but should be close to that for a running average over time.


The scale does budge if you are doing the process. Usually not as quickly as we would like, but the process works.