Exercise, weight loss and tracking foods

kathrynharding13
kathrynharding13 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi Guys, since lockdown I am wfh all day and made a conscious effort to exercise 5 days a week. C. 8 weeks in, I am keeping this up and I can see changes in my body shape. I am doing a mixture of HIIT, Pilates and body weight resistance training. So far so good.

From a “diet” perspective, I am trying to lose 14 pounds. I record everything I eat in the app and over the last 2-3 weeks have always been under my net calories for the day/week (if I don’t exercise I may be slightly over that day but only c. 100 calories). my OH does intermittent fasting so I have tried that for the last 3 weeks and only have coffee for breakfast and start eating at lunchtime. He swears by this yet it has made no difference to me.

All this effort however I have literally not lost 1 pound. I religiously weigh everything I eat and just don’t know what else I can do. mFP recommends 1350 calories a day so I don’t feel I can really go any further below this. I eat healthily - aiming for < 30% carbs/40% protein/30% fat but don’t always hit this. Any fats I eat are generally “good fats” rather than junk food.

Please help. As much as I am really enjoying exercising, it is really impacting my morale that I am not seeing any change in weight. I know it is best to lose weight slowly and I want to do it so I can sustain it, but I would have expected to have lost at least 2-3lbs by now! When I complete my diary each day, MFP tells me I can reach my goal weight in 5 weeks but clearly this isn’t happening!

Replies

  • lisanmurphy331
    lisanmurphy331 Posts: 2 Member
    I have just had a similar situation leaving my in tears yesterday! I will say that from Past experience as we build more muscle the scale may not change. I would start measuring your. Body or use an old photo to compare and good luck!,,
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,851 Member
    You have started a very intense exercise regime, water weight retention (to repair your muscles) is an obvious potential reason for not having lost weight. Especially since you say you are noticing changes in body shape.

    A second possibility is errors in your food logging. Are you weighing everything (no cups or teaspoons or eyeballing), including cooking oils for example? Are you checking that the food database entries that you are using are correct?

    By the way, intermittent fasting is just one possible way of achieving a calorie deficit. Losing weight is all down to calories, no matter what you eat or when you eat your meals. So if intermittent fasting makes it easier to respect your calorie goal, great. If it doesn't, then there's no reason to do it if you don't like it.
  • KrissFlavored
    KrissFlavored Posts: 327 Member
    With only 14lbs to lose, weight loss is not only going to be slow and minimal but even a slight change in water weight is going to hide it.

    Just keep going, if you're sure you're logging things correctly, it's going to take a while but you will see a movement on the scale.

    At your size body composition changes are something you should focus more on priority wise, it may be more of a motivator.
  • kathrynharding13
    kathrynharding13 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I will keep going and fingers crossed I will see movement. It is just soul destroying when you step on the scale feeling you’ve done really well and see no impact!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,851 Member
    kathrynharding13 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I will keep going and fingers crossed I will see movement. It is just soul destroying when you step on the scale feeling you’ve done really well and see no impact!

    Soul destroying? I do think it's good to take a step back and reflect on that choice of words. The scale is an obvious choice to judge progress, but you have said you can see changes in your body. So you have done well! :smile:
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    kathrynharding13 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I will keep going and fingers crossed I will see movement. It is just soul destroying when you step on the scale feeling you’ve done really well and see no impact!

    Soul destroying? I do think it's good to take a step back and reflect on that choice of words. The scale is an obvious choice to judge progress, but you have said you can see changes in your body. So you have done well! :smile:

    I was going to comment that this was a bit excessive, too. Perspective is important!
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    kathrynharding13 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone for the reassurance. I will keep going and fingers crossed I will see movement. It is just soul destroying when you step on the scale feeling you’ve done really well and see no impact!

    Soul destroying? I do think it's good to take a step back and reflect on that choice of words. The scale is an obvious choice to judge progress, but you have said you can see changes in your body. So you have done well! :smile:

    I was going to comment that this was a bit excessive, too. Perspective is important!
    Agreed. Tying your your emotions to the scale that much is really counterproductive. The scale will always fluctuate.

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