What am I doing wrong?

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cathtaff
cathtaff Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! Hoping someone can help with my experience. I'm 46 female and in a bit of a weight plateau.

I'm logging accurately, not drinking booze, or eating processed food. I'm vegan, so get my fruit and veggies in each day and focus on eating whole grains only. When I log my food and exercise, it tells me I'll be 122 pounds in 5 weeks! However, the scale continues to fluctuate up and down between 131-128! I know this isn't much weight, but I'm of a small frame, 5ft 2 with a belly I'd like to lose, but it doesn't want to budge! Any suggestions would be appreciated? Thanks!

Replies

  • tapwaters
    tapwaters Posts: 428 Member
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    Fluctuations are pretty common. How long have you been stuck and do you weigh your food?
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    What is your time frame? The in 5 weeks bit is useful if you were a robot, and if every day in the next 5 weeks was exactly like 'today' in terms of cals in vs cals out. In reality, every day is not the same - and water weight will make things fluctuate.

    How long ago did you start? What was your weight then, and what is your weight now? In general, compare weight 30-60-90 days and so on. So if you weigh less now than 30 days ago, you're moving in the right direction. If its been less time than that, just keep at it.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
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  • cathtaff
    cathtaff Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks everyone - this is really helpful info. Stupid question, how do I know how many calories I should be eating to be in a deficit? I am currently trying to stick to 1200/1300. I just bought a scale!
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    edited June 2020
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    cathtaff wrote: »
    Thanks everyone - this is really helpful info. Stupid question, how do I know how many calories I should be eating to be in a deficit? I am currently trying to stick to 1200/1300. I just bought a scale!

    If you put your current stats and goals into MFP, it will give you a calorie goal. Since you don't have very much to lose, make sure you choose a reasonable goal for weight loss per week.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited June 2020
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    cathtaff wrote: »
    Thanks everyone - this is really helpful info. Stupid question, how do I know how many calories I should be eating to be in a deficit? I am currently trying to stick to 1200/1300. I just bought a scale!

    When you put your info (gender, height, weight, age, activity level) into MFP it uses standard formulas to estimate the energy your body uses in a day. When you tell it you want to lose weight, the calorie # it tells you to eat: includes your deficit. If you're smallish and/or not particularly active: aim for .5 to 1 pound weekly.

    For comparison: I am 45, 5'5", desk job and not very active, female and presently about 148 pounds. For me to maintain weight: I use about 1550-1650 calories per day. So to lose .5 pounds per week on average I need to eat 1300-1400. That is a deficit of about 250 per day. And this is why it would be unrealistic to try (at my current activity level at least) to lose 1-2 pounds a week. I just don't burn enough to have a big deficit.

    For a small daily deficit, it is very important to be accurate in my logging. If I log a banana at 80 cals and its really 120: my deficit goes from 250 to 210. If I make that sort of error multiple times a day, I could very well be eating at maintenance.

    For me, the 2nd part (once I get back into the habit of logging, eating in a structured range) is to increase my activity. If I add in 30-45 minute walk or run each day, I could burn an extra 200-300 calories per day.
  • cathtaff
    cathtaff Posts: 3 Member
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    So helpful. Thankyou!

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