Not sure whats happening

tabi26 · June 2020

Hi all! Been awhile since I've posted on here.

I can't figure out what's going wrong with my weight loss program. I weigh my food. I watch portions carefully when I am not near a scale. I have been eating around 1500 calories/day for a week now and I somehow weight more than i did 7 days ago. My TDEE is 2012 calories/day, so I'm consuming well under that.

I have been tracking what I eat for years, so I know what I'm doing there, just can't seem to get my body to lose any weight. I generally take action at about 170lbs and get down to 165lbs in 1-2 days...then I sit at 165/166 for 2-3 weeks, give up, back to up to 170lbs. Repeat.

Asking here now because I'm just totally stumped. The math says I should lose, but I'm not. Ugh. Any suggestions? Or should I just drop down to 1200/day and cry my hungry butt to sleep nightly. lol.

yirara · June 2020

So you lose 5lbs in two days and not anything for 2-3 weeks. If this is actual weightloss then you're way ahead of your predicted loss. What's wrong with that? Why not continue instead of giving up after a few days? Waiter weight fluctuation is totally a thing and probably what you see here. Wait at least one, maybe even two menstrual cycles to see if the weight is going down as especially hormone fluctuations can lead to more water retention.

quiksylver296 · June 2020

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

cmriverside · June 2020

well...you don't have to be at "about" 1500 nor at 1200.

But you do need to find a calorie goal that will work.

Are you getting any exercise? I find that when I don't have a lot of weight to lose, I really need to be on point with food calories, nutrition AND exercise.

janejellyroll · June 2020

Can you clarify exactly what is happening when you're "giving up"? If you mean that you're staying on plan for a brief period, giving up and going off plan, and then getting back on, I'm not surprised you're not seeing what you want to see.

The closer you get to goal, the most consistent and patient you have to do. This means sticking to your calorie goal even when things aren't progressing as fast as you'd like. You've got to be able to think beyond a week at a time.

nanastaci2020 · June 2020

Weight loss does not necessarily happen in a week. It happens over weeks and months. You could weight more today than last week due to water weight from sodium, stress, change in sleep habits, change in the types of food you're eating, hormones/TOM. Track your calories, eating around 1500 (you mentioned TDEE of about 2000) for the next 8-12 weeks and assess your progress at that point.

Maxxitt · June 2020

It could be that the point at which you "give up" is the problem. If you are menstruating, you'll be going through water retention/gut slow-down cycle once a month. The first thing I would suggest is powering through the "give up" period and see if you can maintain a plan for 2 months & re-assess. The second thing is that while your tracking is pretty consistent, those meals that you aren't logging (maybe eating out or at a friend's?) may be ones that you are consuming more than you think. The third thing is to look at your level of activity - if you are over-estimating that, then your deficit is smaller than you think. Smaller deficits are easier to wipe out over the course of a week if you're eating out/take-out, whatever.

kimny72 · June 2020

tabi26 wrote: »

Hi all! Been awhile since I've posted on here.

I can't figure out what's going wrong with my weight loss program. I weigh my food. I watch portions carefully when I am not near a scale. I have been eating around 1500 calories/day for a week now and I somehow weight more than i did 7 days ago. My TDEE is 2012 calories/day, so I'm consuming well under that.

I have been tracking what I eat for years, so I know what I'm doing there, just can't seem to get my body to lose any weight. I generally take action at about 170lbs and get down to 165lbs in 1-2 days...then I sit at 165/166 for 2-3 weeks, give up, back to up to 170lbs. Repeat.

Asking here now because I'm just totally stumped. The math says I should lose, but I'm not. Ugh. Any suggestions? Or should I just drop down to 1200/day and cry my hungry butt to sleep nightly. lol.

Last week there are 2 days that either you dramatically under-ate, or you partially logged. You didn't log last Sunday. I could easily eat back a weeks' deficit with 2 unlogged meals and one free day.

How often do you eat away from a food scale and estimate or measure portions? Are you double checking that the database entries you are choosing have the correct calorie info?

Water weight can fluctuate up and down every day and week to week. Your scale doesn't just weigh your fat, it weighs everything in your body. You can't determine your success by one week on the scale, because you might have lost a lb of fat, but you're holding onto a little extra water for some reason, so your weight goes up a little. You are looking for a trend over weeks and months, not days. Days don't tell you anything useful.

Commit to logging very accurately and consistently for the next 6-8 weeks. Log every single thing - beverages, cooking oil, late night snacks, takeaway meals, cooking nibbles. Double check every entry you've been using to make sure the calories are correct. Try to eat as much as possible at home where you can weigh it.

There is no reason with your stats you should need to eat 1200 cals. The most likely culprit is either logging errors making your calories look lower than they are, or impatience causing you to take days off and eat back the deficit you'd built up over the course of the week.

Quoting for emphasis:

quiksylver296 wrote: »

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Good luck!

Not sure whats happening

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