Doing everything right, yet not losing

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mblaze84
mblaze84 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m getting extremely frustrated.

I’m eating 1200 calories per day (measuring/weighing and being extra vigilant) and working out 5-6 times per day (mix of cardio, body weight, weights, etc)

I thought I saw a loss Monday of 2 lbs, but this morning was back up 2lbs.

How do I know if I’m losing weight or just fluctuating? I should be losing weight at that amount of calories and exercise.

I’m 5’4’’ and 130 (ish) lbs. Want to get back to 120lbs and a flatter (ish) stomach and you can’t lose in just the problem areas so I’m committing to the weight loss.

Help.

Replies

  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    How long have you been at this deficit? I hope it was a typo with working out 5-6 times a day. Even if it is per week your calorie deficit is probably too strict for that amount of activity. The closer you are to your goal the slower the weight loss will (and should) be. Consider changing to 0.25-0.5 pounds per week.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    1. Make sure that you are weighing and logging your calories correctly. I would not rely on the MFP entries. Make your own entries. Weigh your food with a scale. No measuring cups or spoons.

    2. Are you adding back exercise calories? Again, I would not rely on the entries in MFP. They are notoriously high burns. I would subtract 20%-50% of what MFP gives you for a burn. Also, watches are not reliable either.

    3. Weight loss is not lineal. It will fluctuate up and down. Download an app like Happy Scale or Libra and log your weight every day. You'll see the fluctuations, but you'll also see the downward trend

    4. It took me 6 weeks to see any movement in my weight. And that was after I didn't see change after 4 weeks and tweaked my calories. Patience is a must with weight loss.
  • mblaze84
    mblaze84 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks everyone for your thoughtful and helpful responses!

    And yes 5-6 times per week NOT per day. Oops!
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    mblaze84 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone for your thoughtful and helpful responses!

    And yes 5-6 times per week NOT per day. Oops!
    I’ve tried various techniques to lose the last ten pounds (because I have regained it). My least successful was losing quickly- a pound a week. Because I was ravenous and “got there” and quickly over ate.

    Losing a half pound a week has allowed me to reach goal and slip into maintenance easily. But, I really love sweets! So, I’m working yet again on the last 8 pounds, and doing it slowly and patiently and trying to really (really) change how I handle candy and cakes and cookies. Getting into maintenance right at Halloween hasn’t been ideal :smiley:

  • ldrag07444
    ldrag07444 Posts: 19 Member
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    Also weigh myself the same day every week and the same time.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    I’m 5’2”, 134 and 64 yo. My maintenance is 1350 and slow weight loss is 1200 (not counting exercising). Eating 2 slices of pizza every week would really sabotage my process unless I banked calories, which is hard to do at 1200 per day. OP is also at 1200/d......
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
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    How do you find time to workout 6 times a day? Damn!
  • mblaze84
    mblaze84 Posts: 3 Member
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    psychod787 wrote: »
    How do you find time to workout 6 times a day? Damn!

    😂😂😂
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,029 Member
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    ldrag07444 wrote: »
    Sometimes you need a jump start. I did very well by eating one no no meal in a week. My weakness is pizza, so I allow myself 2 slices a week on a Friday night, then good all week. Think this type of thing jump starts your weight loss as long as you are on track all week.

    There is no truth or science to this. But true that you can have a slice of pizza every now and then and not ruin your progress.

  • Slowfaster
    Slowfaster Posts: 185 Member
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    Pizza always puts my weight up the following day no matter how few the calories. it must be the amount of salt causing water retention.

    I only weigh once a month because of all those little things and once a month takes care of any hormonal cycles going on. It depresses me to see any gain so this assures I'll see a loss.

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