Help! What am I doing wrong? 😪

Panini911 wrote: »

stress can impact weight loss. during one of my weight loss times, I underwent a period of stress (not as bad as the loss of a loved one) and while I continued to weigh and log food, I stalled for many weeks. I chopped it up to stress.

but beyond the stress impacting the scale TEMPORARILY (if it is that it should eventually drop) I agree with the above, use a food scale for all solids (and as many liquids as you can)

I am sorry for your loss

TaraSpottyCat wrote: »

puffbrat wrote: »

What is your height and current weight? Can you open your food diary so we might be able to give more advice?

Hi again

All I'm getting is 'file failed to upload' 😞

Panini911 wrote: »

has the scale litteraly been at the same number? others have mentioned this could be a sign the battery is dying.

the stress could have caused issues and you'll be seeing the difference on the scale soon (assuming you are eating at a calorie deficit)

eating more/differently won't change things (other than your satiety).

go back to basics. re-enter your stats and current weight in MFP, careful weigh and log all the foods, eat all those calories plus your exercise calories (if you have concerns about them being over estimated eat a portion of them).

while logging carefully sounds like stupid advice, even I am finding errors years in. using the incorrect entry. weight cooked VS raw. logging accurately is not as easy as it sounds. and selection of entry in diary is crucial as many are false/wrong/not right for your food.

Panini911 wrote: »

OH OH OH - if you are adding exercise/increasing then your muscles will be holding onto more water to repair themselves. plus fluctuations in your weight due to water/time of the month are normal.

basically, i'd double down on logging, weighing and select an appropriate calorie goal (not too low) and stick to it another 2 weeks before making any drastic changes to diet.

diannethegeek wrote: »

TaraSpottyCat wrote: »

Hi

My weight loss has completely stopped. The last 4 weeks, the scales haven't moved at all.

I lost 16 pounds in the first 8 weeks. 2 of those weeks, I was only eating 700 cals daily approx, as I went through a bereavement, and just couldn't eat a thing through worry nausea.

Now I know that's not good for the body, so as soon as I felt better, I increased to 1150 cals daily. I lost 2lbs in 3 weeks, and the last 4, nothing!

Where am I going wrong please?
I have a quite sedentary lifestyle, due to disability, but do swim twice a week, and walk approx 3 miles. I have also joined a gym, and I began a yoga class yesterday too, so I'm trying all I am physically able to do. Oh and I bought a Bodyblade, for days when I can't get out.

I have raised my daily cals to 1250 three days ago, to see if that helps the plateau effect.

What bugs me, is when I barely ate a thing, I lost weight; now I'm eating a decent amount of cals for my lifestyle, I'm losing nothing.

p.s
I eat a very healthy diet now, and have increased my protein intake this week too. My ratio is 25 % fat / 30 % protein / 45% carbs.

Thanks for any advice you can offer 😊

With a closed diary, it's tough to give really specific advice. We all hope that there's just a logging issue somewhere because that's the most common issue with stalls like this and also the easiest to fix. If there's a deeper issue then it becomes a lot harder to narrow down exactly what's happening.

There are only a few options here, though.

1. A medical issue that needs to be treated. Obviously that's not one an internet forum can help with so if this persists you may want to go in for a checkup. You can print out your food logs to take with you.

2. An issue with your scales. Changing the battery, being sure it's on solid, level ground, checking to see if it needs to be calibrated, and using the same scale under the same conditions at the same time of day each time. Theoretically you'd see the scale move a lot more if there's something off with it, but if you've been the exact same weight with no fluctuations for 4 weeks that points to something being off with the scale. Your weight should go up and down even in maintenance.

3. You're eating at your maintenance level for whatever reasons.

• This could be a logging issue (again, the easiest to fix). Common logging issues include: not logging cheat days. Ignoring cooking oils, drinks, veggies, condiments, etc. Using "generic" or "homemade" entries in the database instead of the recipe builder. Trusting the barcode scanner or the green checked entries too much. It sounds like you've covered your bases here but I put it out there again just because it's so common.
• You could burn fewer calories than the calculators expect. At 1250 calories, I'd expect this to only tie in with medical issues and the difference from the average is only up to like 5%. It's a possibility but you should still be seeing the scale move in this case.

4. It's a patience issue. You ate very low calorie for a couple of weeks and your body is under a lot of stress. It sounds like you've increased your calories and your exercise in the last 4 weeks. With either of those I'd expect the scale to stall for 2-4 weeks due to increased water and increased food in your system. Fat loss may still be happening but it's just being masked by all of these changes happening. You may see a whoosh in a couple of days or you may not.


I see two paths forward, personally, and unfortunately they're in opposite directions. You can wait it out, remaining at the 1250 calories/day, and let your body sort things out for a few more weeks to see if that whoosh comes. If you're certain that you're doing everything right, then it should come and you should start to see weight loss again. Or you can take a diet break, reverse diet back up to your maintenance level and stay there for 1-2 weeks to let your body do any recovery it needs to do. Then start the calorie deficit again. It's a much slower path and you may see a little gain as you reintroduce more food into your system (it shouldn't be fat gain, though).

Without really digging through your diary, workout schedule, and weight loss graphs, that's kind of the best I have to offer. Usual disclaimer: I'm not an expert, listen to your doctors, etc. etc.

diannethegeek wrote: »

TaraSpottyCat wrote: »

diannethegeek wrote: »

TaraSpottyCat wrote: »

Hi

My weight loss has completely stopped. The last 4 weeks, the scales haven't moved at all.

I lost 16 pounds in the first 8 weeks. 2 of those weeks, I was only eating 700 cals daily approx, as I went through a bereavement, and just couldn't eat a thing through worry nausea.

Now I know that's not good for the body, so as soon as I felt better, I increased to 1150 cals daily. I lost 2lbs in 3 weeks, and the last 4, nothing!

Where am I going wrong please?
I have a quite sedentary lifestyle, due to disability, but do swim twice a week, and walk approx 3 miles. I have also joined a gym, and I began a yoga class yesterday too, so I'm trying all I am physically able to do. Oh and I bought a Bodyblade, for days when I can't get out.

I have raised my daily cals to 1250 three days ago, to see if that helps the plateau effect.

What bugs me, is when I barely ate a thing, I lost weight; now I'm eating a decent amount of cals for my lifestyle, I'm losing nothing.

p.s
I eat a very healthy diet now, and have increased my protein intake this week too. My ratio is 25 % fat / 30 % protein / 45% carbs.

Thanks for any advice you can offer 😊

With a closed diary, it's tough to give really specific advice. We all hope that there's just a logging issue somewhere because that's the most common issue with stalls like this and also the easiest to fix. If there's a deeper issue then it becomes a lot harder to narrow down exactly what's happening.

There are only a few options here, though.

1. A medical issue that needs to be treated. Obviously that's not one an internet forum can help with so if this persists you may want to go in for a checkup. You can print out your food logs to take with you.

2. An issue with your scales. Changing the battery, being sure it's on solid, level ground, checking to see if it needs to be calibrated, and using the same scale under the same conditions at the same time of day each time. Theoretically you'd see the scale move a lot more if there's something off with it, but if you've been the exact same weight with no fluctuations for 4 weeks that points to something being off with the scale. Your weight should go up and down even in maintenance.

3. You're eating at your maintenance level for whatever reasons.

• This could be a logging issue (again, the easiest to fix). Common logging issues include: not logging cheat days. Ignoring cooking oils, drinks, veggies, condiments, etc. Using "generic" or "homemade" entries in the database instead of the recipe builder. Trusting the barcode scanner or the green checked entries too much. It sounds like you've covered your bases here but I put it out there again just because it's so common.
• You could burn fewer calories than the calculators expect. At 1250 calories, I'd expect this to only tie in with medical issues and the difference from the average is only up to like 5%. It's a possibility but you should still be seeing the scale move in this case.

4. It's a patience issue. You ate very low calorie for a couple of weeks and your body is under a lot of stress. It sounds like you've increased your calories and your exercise in the last 4 weeks. With either of those I'd expect the scale to stall for 2-4 weeks due to increased water and increased food in your system. Fat loss may still be happening but it's just being masked by all of these changes happening. You may see a whoosh in a couple of days or you may not.


I see two paths forward, personally, and unfortunately they're in opposite directions. You can wait it out, remaining at the 1250 calories/day, and let your body sort things out for a few more weeks to see if that whoosh comes. If you're certain that you're doing everything right, then it should come and you should start to see weight loss again. Or you can take a diet break, reverse diet back up to your maintenance level and stay there for 1-2 weeks to let your body do any recovery it needs to do. Then start the calorie deficit again. It's a much slower path and you may see a little gain as you reintroduce more food into your system (it shouldn't be fat gain, though).

Without really digging through your diary, workout schedule, and weight loss graphs, that's kind of the best I have to offer. Usual disclaimer: I'm not an expert, listen to your doctors, etc. etc.

Thank you for your detailed reply ❤

I'm going to stick to 1250-1300 till my weigh in on Tues, and see what happens. I'll also change the batteries on my food scales. I've already changed the battery on my personal ones.

I hope this isn't a medical problem, as I'm OCD about logging every single thing, and correctly. I even add my supplements, like omega fish oil / flaxseed capsules etc.

In the meantime, I'll try to keep my chin up.

One other thing, I haven't been eating my exercise calories, as I wasn't sure what to do. Is this recommended, as I see conflicting info on Google? Over a week, I have around 800-850 exercise calories. Should I eat them each day,

Thanks again 😊

I'm sorry, I missed that you have obsessive-compulsive disorder. If calorie counting or logging are triggering your OCD then it might be a good idea to step back and talk with your therapist or treatment team. Balancing mental illness and a diet can be hard (for me it's depression) but there are ways to do it if the OCD is an issue. Definitely don't just ride that out alone when there is help available.

Generally speaking, yes you're meant to eat your exercise calories back. Some people aim to eat only 50-75% of them, though, to account for the inherent fuzziness when it comes to estimating calorie burns. That wouldn't be why you aren't losing, though.

chocolate1902 wrote: »

Get rid of the stress because that’s going to cause weight gain every time. Best way to do that in my opinion is to practice meditation 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night. Very very effective. Wouldn’t hurt to throw some high intensity interval training into your exercise routine. You can make this happen for sure!