Why aren’t I losing weight?

allanrjudge
allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
edited August 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
I know there’s probably (annoyingly) hundreds of these types of posts on here so I apologise in advance,

I’ve fluctuated for years since the age of 16, my weight can go up by as much as 5 stone then I lose it again and so on. Which is why I’m worried I’ve permanently f****d my metabolism or something.
If you look at my food diary I know my diet is everywhere, but sometimes I can go weeks where I don’t go over my calories and I exercise atleast 6 days a week (LIIFT4, Cardio, Fitness Blender) and track what I’m burning with a Polar HRM.

I was 250 lbs last Jan, got down to 197lbs in October, went upto 215lbs by March and during lockdown I got upto 225lbs. Now I’m about 217lbs but haven’t lost any measurements for months. Clothes aren’t looser, nothing has changed. I try not to weigh myself too much anymore because if I haven’t lost weight after working out, watching what I eat etc I just binge, which I know is bad. I’m not indenial or oblivious to how counter productive this is.

I always change my calorie goals. I keep thinking ‘the less calories I consume the faster I’ll lose weight’. I’ve tried all different calorie goals and nothing is working.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long winded post, just a bit fed up.

Replies

  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    No it’s not 100% accurate. Some days I just don’t log what I’m eating, but I know I’m not going over my calories.

    Like today for example for dinner I just had some rice and vegetable chilli. But I done a Cize workout, a country heat workout and had a little bike ride.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    edited August 2020
    But I do go through phases where I do alternate day fasting. And on the days I don’t eat I just track the Protein shake, the pre workout and the creatine and the oat milk I have in my coffee.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    harper16 wrote: »
    allanrjudge wrote: »
    No it’s not 100% accurate. Some days I just don’t log what I’m eating, but I know I’m not going over my calories.

    Like today for example for dinner I just had some rice and vegetable chilli. But I done a Cize workout, a country heat workout and had a little bike ride.

    How many calories were in that meal? Are you using a food scale? The minimum you should be eating is 1500 net calories a day.

    I’ve set it to 1500 cals I’m starting to wonder if that’s a bit too low. I’ve tried setting the calories to 1500 for example, then if I burn like 700 cals that day I’ll eat back half of them. But at the moment I’m trying to just eat the 1500 cals and not track my exercise.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    But on the days where I have tracked my food I have been completely honest and I do use a food scale.
    I know I’m not helping my cause with how all over the place my food diary is currently, but this is because I’ve reached a point where I’m fed up of tracking everything I eat, every calorie I burn and still not seeing results. I’ve just lost motivation.

    I am very honest though, I don’t see the point in being indenial because it just takes longer to work out what the issue is.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    Strudders67 wrote: »
    How do you know if you do / don't go over your calories? Your diary doesn't seem to show many entries for the last few days and I very much doubt that you're surviving on bread and butter. I certainly hope you're not. It's very very likely that you're eating more than you think you are.

    Start by going to the Guided Set up, under Goals. Enter your stats and a rate of weight loss (only select 2lb a week if you have more than 40lb to lose; but given what you've said about binge eating, I'd be more inclined to select 1.5lb a week or even 1lb a week as that'll give you a few more calories to eat). See how many calories MFP gives you and eat that number each day. On top of that, each day that you do deliberate exercise, you should log that exercise and eat at least a reasonable percentage of the calories earned. Be aware that a lot of fitness trackers over-estimate how much you've burned though, so maybe pick a number between 50 and 75 and eat that percentage of calories burned.

    Also, start logging everything that you eat and everything you drink. Use kitchen scales to weigh everything solid (including all those slices of bread) and use spoons to measure every liquid. Check that the nutritional info ofthe entries you're selecting from the database match the info on the packaging -a lot of entries are incorrect.

    Weigh yourself first thing tomorrow morning, then give it 3-4 weeks of eating at a consistent level (don't change any goals in that time) and see how you're doing at that point.

    And click the search button, type in 'metabolism'and read some of the previous posts / answers about how it's almost impossible to break your metabolism and still be alive.


    Thank you for this. I would have given someone this exact same advice a couple of years ago because I know it works. I’ve been successful with MyFitnessPal so many times. But it just hasn’t worked for me this year. And that’s why my food diary looks the way it does. I will be honest though, sometimes if I overeat on a certain day (having a binge) I track what I’ve ate into the following day. That’s a bad patter but by the end of the week I’ve normally made up for it all.

    I’ll do exactly what you’ve said, give it 2 weeks and see how things are then. If it doesn’t work I’ll bump this thread and go back to the drawing board.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    I was following a diet plan on the app ‘Eat This Much’ for weeks, I didn’t trust the their numbers though so used MyFitnessPal to track everything I ate and tracked all my exercise. Still didn’t lose weight. And that is me being completely honest, I didn’t over eat, I just ate what it told me to eat.
  • allanrjudge
    allanrjudge Posts: 84 Member
    lemongirlbc wrote: »
    Why are you doing the fasting days? Could this be causing you to overeat on other days, as you are ravenous the next day?

    The obvious answer to why you aren't losing weight is that you are actually eating more than you think you are, especially if you aren't tracking accurately. Nearly all people are prone to overestimating the number of calories they burn in workouts, and under estimating the amount they are actually eating. You need to pick a sensible, achievable, consistent rate of loss (1lb per week, maybe?) enter that in MFP and then commit to eating that amount every day, with extremely careful tracking. Which means weighing and tracking every single thing you eat.

    I’m definitely going to do this now. As I said, I have done this before loads of times and it’s worked, but this year it genuinely hasn’t worked for me. And I do track everything, even cucumber.



  • Ddsb11
    Ddsb11 Posts: 607 Member
    Since you’re asking for help log everything in grams for 2 weeks and open your food diary. Let’s start there.
  • sianlr87
    sianlr87 Posts: 72 Member
    allanrjudge wrote: »
    Thank you for this. I would have given someone this exact same advice a couple of years ago because I know it works. I’ve been successful with MyFitnessPal so many times. But it just hasn’t worked for me this year. And that’s why my food diary looks the way it does. I will be honest though, sometimes if I overeat on a certain day (having a binge) I track what I’ve ate into the following day. That’s a bad patter but by the end of the week I’ve normally made up for it all.

    If you are logging food the following day, do you have the exact weights of everything? I would re-iterate everything people have said. Back to basics, set the calorie goal through the guided set up and don't select too high a target for loss. Get your logging under control. Log it all. Do this for a few weeks, even if you're over your calorie goal. After this, people here will be able to review your diary and give you more helpful advice as to where you can improve etc.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    For 4-6 weeks:

    Commit to accurately logging everything you consume. Use a food scale for all solids, cups/spoons only for liquids.

    Try to be more in control of the foods you consume. If you eat food made by others (friend, family, restaurant) you have to guess to a certain extent.) Avoid random bites, licks, tastes as those have calories and they add up.

    Use a food scale for anything solid - that means even a slice of bread, piece of fruit, etc. Use accurate diary entries. If you grill a piece of chicken and its raw weight is 187 grams, then log based on raw weight. Look at the details in the entries to confirm accuracy. The database is user generated, and there are errors. Some from innocent mistakes, and others because manufacturers update product details/servings/contents sometimes.

    When you check your weight, be consistent. If you weigh today before breakfast naked and next week after lunch fully clothed: those data points are impossible to compare. The food, drink, etc. in your body at the time of weighin affects the # on the scale so try to keep the schedule routine. Also use the same scale, in the same place of the house.

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