I've not lost weight since week 1 - where am I going wrong?

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sdee903
sdee903 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I started calorie counting about 4 weeks ago and have gone with MFPs recommendation of 1640 calories a day. The first week I lost 5lbs even though I started midway through the week and mainly went over my limit on several days. After that week, though, I've only maintained my weight and haven't lost anymore and I don't really understand why as I'm definitely in a calorie deficit and I know in the beginning when you first change up your lifestyle is usually when most people see bigger losses.


Aftwr werk 1 i quickly adapted to making healthier food choices but I haven't always been using all of my calories and quite often, I'm only eating around 1200-1400 of them. This isn't intentional as I feel full and satisfied by what I'm eating, but could the reason I'm not losing be because I'm not eating the full amount? Other differences I've made have been drinking a gallon of water a day which I thought is meant to boost weightloss. I've also been working out (either running or home bodyweight exercises) around 3x a week - on those days I don't always eat back all of the calories and again, I'm wondering if that's a proboem? Do i need to eat all of my additional exercise calories?


So my question is, do I need to up my calorie intake or reduce it maybe? My diary is open and any help I can get on this will be hugely appreciated

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    In total, you've lost 5 pounds in 4 weeks? Am I reading that right?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    You're diary isn't open for me, perhaps it's set as open to friends?

    That first week 5 lb loss was mostly water weight. It's quite possible you've been slowly gaining that water back over the following 3 weeks, masking some fat loss on the scale.

    Drinking water really doesn't have much to do with weight loss, other than possibly influencing water weight fluctuations, which will always come and go as a natural part of a healthy functioning body :smile:

    How carefully are you checking the database entries you choose in the diary (there are lots of bad entries)?
    How do you measure out your portions?
    How much weight are you trying to lose?

    Hang in there!
  • sdee903
    sdee903 Posts: 9 Member
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    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    In total, you've lost 5 pounds in 4 weeks? Am I reading that right?

    Yes thats right. That was all in week 1 and nothing since
  • sdee903
    sdee903 Posts: 9 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    You're diary isn't open for me, perhaps it's set as open to friends?

    That first week 5 lb loss was mostly water weight. It's quite possible you've been slowly gaining that water back over the following 3 weeks, masking some fat loss on the scale.

    Drinking water really doesn't have much to do with weight loss, other than possibly influencing water weight fluctuations, which will always come and go as a natural part of a healthy functioning body :smile:

    How carefully are you checking the database entries you choose in the diary (there are lots of bad entries)?
    How do you measure out your portions?
    How much weight are you trying to lose?

    Hang in there!

    Thanks for your response Kim. My Diary was set to friends but is now public. I thought I was doing a pretty good job logging in the food diary and have definitely been getting better as I get used to it. I use a digital scale and weigh most things out but I saw a useful thread tagged on this forum which details exactly how to do it so I'm going to have a read of that. Im trying to lose 42 lbs for now.
  • sdee903
    sdee903 Posts: 9 Member
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    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    nnnaq5rggu08.jpg

    This was useful - thank you!
    I think points 1 and 2 are most useful for me. I'm going to give it a bit more time and also reassess how I'm logging things and will see how things go from there
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 984 Member
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    Do try to ensure you eat the calories allocated to you, including a good proportion of the exercise calories. If you're logging exercise manually, it's likely that the calories calculated for your runs, assuming you're accurate in gauging your speed, are probably correct. Weight lifting / strength training won't generate many calories anyway. Eat some calorie dense foods if necessary.

    Under-eating is really not good for you.

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