Why am I not losing more weight? Any suggestions?
Options
Katherinelittle24
Posts: 63 Member
Hi everyone! So I am just wondering, how come am not losing more weight? This has been a mystery of mine, just because a couple of weeks I have stalled. This week, I lost like one pound which I dont understand. For the past couple of months, I have cut out all junk food, fast food and I hardly even drink diet soda anymore. All foods I eat are mostly whole foods and foods packed with protein. i also been tracking my food intake per day. i am 425lbs. I been exercising nearly everyday, I am even starting to go for 20 minute walks which used to be difficult for me...but I am just wondering, how come I am not losing weight? I just thought that at my size, I should be dropping pounds especially with the drastic changes that I have made on this journey of mine. Over two months ago, I ate fast food everyday and just ate nothing healthy but now I eat more vegetables, fruit, drink protein shakes, make delicious meals, I just dont know what im doing wrong...
11
Replies
-
You say you're tracking, how are you doing that? Are you weighing all your food on a digital scale, logging absolutely everything you eat and drink? Or are you estimating portions, etc?8
-
Hi - it sounds like you're on the right track, trying to eat healthier and starting exercise. And you are losing weight!!! Though not as fast as you want.
What's missing here is information on the calories. Without knowing your height, age, etc., and just going off your weight and gender, you should break even around 3,000-3,200 calories. So, yes, if you ate a typical diet of 1600-1800 calories as many here do, you would drop weight like a stone, really fast, like nearly 1/2 a pound per day for a while, until your weight comes down substantially and your break-even calories come down (5.5 calories per pound lost - so enjoy it while it lasts!). But are you eating at that kind of 1600-1700 caloric level? That's what is not clear and people can't really weigh in until they know your daily caloric intake. So, how many calories do you eat per day, and how do you measure them, because if you're not measuring them very precisely on a digital scale, they're probably higher than you think they are. Possibly much higher. Ballparking, volume measurements (like cups instead of ounces), and educated guesses, in place of a food scale, can add 200, 300 or more calories per day
On a related note, I have gained weight eating whole foods and lost weight eating cheeseburgers. Of course it is better to eat healthy, for so many reasons, but "healthy" does not always mean low calorie. The focus needs to be on calories.22 -
To add to what others have said: exercise can lead to water retention (for muscle repair) masking fat loss on the scale especially when it's a new routine.
PS: losing a lb a week is not a stall 😉 how much weight have you lost overall since you started? And how long ago did you start?5 -
Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.2
-
tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.3 -
tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.
First off:
- you are confusing BMR and TDEE
- all you need is to be in a calorie deficit, as you said yourself. You don't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight (unless you want to eat low carb or have medical issues requiring carb management), so why recommend it 'in her case'?20 -
7 -
BMR or TDEE, I am aware off the difference. But to get to TDEE one needs to know BMR. BMR is obviously not the complete picture but it does give you an idea where you stand. I recommended low carb/high fat simply because it worked for me. I was a great fan of high carb diets by the way had no medical issues-that I know of- except maybe being massively obese at 290 lbs and high blood pressure. To get to where I am now i did two things, gone into calorie deficit, got rid off most of my favourite high carbs bread pasta sugar and gone the keto way. Now I am not totally sure which helped me most keto or calorie deficit, but I am just saying what worked.tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.
First off:
- you are confusing BMR and TDEE
- all you need is to be in a calorie deficit, as you said yourself. You don't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight (unless you want to eat low carb or have medical issues requiring carb management), so why recommend it 'in her case'?
1 -
BMR or TDEE, I am aware off the difference. But to get to TDEE one needs to know BMR. BMR is obviously not the complete picture but it does give you an idea where you stand. I recommended low carb/high fat simply because it worked for me. I was a great fan of high carb diets by the way had no medical issues-that I know of- except maybe being massively obese at 290 lbs and high blood pressure. To get to where I am now i did two things, gone into calorie deficit, got rid off most of my favourite high carbs bread pasta sugar and gone the keto way. Now I am not totally sure which helped me most keto or calorie deficit, but I am just saying what worked.tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.
First off:
- you are confusing BMR and TDEE
- all you need is to be in a calorie deficit, as you said yourself. You don't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight (unless you want to eat low carb or have medical issues requiring carb management), so why recommend it 'in her case'?
Semantically, you absolutely don't need to know your BMR. I don't and haven't known mine for 11 years on this site, but I do know your average TDEE because of tracking. Keto helped you get into a deficit probably by blunting your hunger.
OP, it's quite possible that you are eating more "nutritious" foods which can also be calorie dense. So like others people suggest, how are your tracking calories?
10 -
BMR or TDEE, I am aware off the difference. But to get to TDEE one needs to know BMR. BMR is obviously not the complete picture but it does give you an idea where you stand. I recommended low carb/high fat simply because it worked for me. I was a great fan of high carb diets by the way had no medical issues-that I know of- except maybe being massively obese at 290 lbs and high blood pressure. To get to where I am now i did two things, gone into calorie deficit, got rid off most of my favourite high carbs bread pasta sugar and gone the keto way. Now I am not totally sure which helped me most keto or calorie deficit, but I am just saying what worked.tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.
First off:
- you are confusing BMR and TDEE
- all you need is to be in a calorie deficit, as you said yourself. You don't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight (unless you want to eat low carb or have medical issues requiring carb management), so why recommend it 'in her case'?
Semantically, you absolutely don't need to know your BMR. I don't and haven't known mine for 11 years on this site, but I do know your average TDEE because of tracking. Keto helped you get into a deficit probably by blunting your hunger.
OP, it's quite possible that you are eating more "nutritious" foods which can also be calorie dense. So like others people suggest, how are your tracking calories?
Me either. Sometimes I still have working out my TDEE because my workout routines change so often, but I think I mostly have it nailed down.
BMR or TDEE, I am aware off the difference. But to get to TDEE one needs to know BMR. BMR is obviously not the complete picture but it does give you an idea where you stand. I recommended low carb/high fat simply because it worked for me. I was a great fan of high carb diets by the way had no medical issues-that I know of- except maybe being massively obese at 290 lbs and high blood pressure. To get to where I am now i did two things, gone into calorie deficit, got rid off most of my favourite high carbs bread pasta sugar and gone the keto way. Now I am not totally sure which helped me most keto or calorie deficit, but I am just saying what worked.tacolover10231989 wrote: »Metabolism works mysterious ways, sometimes it is hard to explain why things happen or dont happen. You are right, at that weight with any decent diet you should be dropping the pounds with ease. If I were you, to start with I would calculate my BMR rate to determine where my calorie deficit begins. Once you have that, plan your daily meals to go under that. Even without exercise just by being in calorie deficit all the time you should lose weight. When calorie deficit is established I would begin to experiment with different types of foods, high carb vs low carb, high fat/protein vs low fat/protein, the age old problem of what works. Each has its own benefits, one has to figure out which one works best. In your case I would go for low carb high fat, get rid of bread, pasta, sugar, go for high fat high protein dare I say go keto, see whether it works for you. If not, try to change the macros around, the most important factor is to eat less than what your body can burn a day.
Lol just no. Don't listen to any of this nonsense.
This 'nonsense' helped me lose 90 lbs in eleven months. I thought if it helped me it could help others but go on...enlighten me where I am going wrong.
First off:
- you are confusing BMR and TDEE
- all you need is to be in a calorie deficit, as you said yourself. You don't need to eliminate carbs to lose weight (unless you want to eat low carb or have medical issues requiring carb management), so why recommend it 'in her case'?
Also, I think the reason you were getting pushback on BMR vs TDEE...you said to eat below your BMR in your first statement.. You should eat below your TDEE to lose weight, but never your BMR.7 -
Since December 1st of last year, I have lost 44lbs. A couple of weeks though I didnt lose anything and this week I struggle with losing weight, but im wondering if maybe im taking in too much sodium? I do use seasoning a lot and I bought dill pickles recently which pickles is a lot of sodium. I have been taking in less than 1500 calories somedays, so sometimes I only do between 1200-1500 calories, sometimes more depending on my exercise level and my state of hunger. I know I am still doing well and im proud of myself because I have come a long way, I just have a goal in what I want to achieve by March.1
-
Again, how are you tracking your calories?
Are you weighing food, using cups, just going by the package weight...etc.5 -
Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Since December 1st of last year, I have lost 44lbs. A couple of weeks though I didnt lose anything and this week I struggle with losing weight, but im wondering if maybe im taking in too much sodium? I do use seasoning a lot and I bought dill pickles recently which pickles is a lot of sodium. I have been taking in less than 1500 calories somedays, so sometimes I only do between 1200-1500 calories, sometimes more depending on my exercise level and my state of hunger. I know I am still doing well and im proud of myself because I have come a long way, I just have a goal in what I want to achieve by March.
44 lbs in 2 months is a massive weight loss! That’s 5 lbs a week!!3 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »Again, how are you tracking your calories?
Are you weighing food, using cups, just going by the package weight...etc.
This. Also it is possible you are over estimating number of calories burned on your 20 minute walks.0 -
mariamsmb1 wrote: »Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Since December 1st of last year, I have lost 44lbs. A couple of weeks though I didnt lose anything and this week I struggle with losing weight, but im wondering if maybe im taking in too much sodium? I do use seasoning a lot and I bought dill pickles recently which pickles is a lot of sodium. I have been taking in less than 1500 calories somedays, so sometimes I only do between 1200-1500 calories, sometimes more depending on my exercise level and my state of hunger. I know I am still doing well and im proud of myself because I have come a long way, I just have a goal in what I want to achieve by March.
44 lbs in 2 months is a massive weight loss! That’s 5 lbs a week!!
Yeah, there really is nothing wrong with your rate of loss, you need to be more patient. If anything, it's fast.
And salt just messes with water retention a bit, it doesn't stop fat loss.5 -
You don't really need to change anything, except your perspective. Weight loss is not linear. You've lost 44 lbs in 2 months, you mentioned you lost 1 lb in the last week but yet you are asking "why am I not losing weight ?" You are losing weight. You can't expect to lose weight every day or even every week -- it just doesn't work that way.
You are losing around 1% of your weight per week on average but that doesn't mean you will lose 1% every week or .14% every day. It will likely happen in burst occasionally - you might go 2 weeks with no change and suddenly drop 2% in a week. Also, keep in mind that most people drop a lot of water weight in the beginning and then things level off and you can then see the actual body fat loss.
Use a tool like trendweight.com (there are others, but this is just the one I have experience with) to track your weight over time. It shows you your trend line and will help you realize you ARE losing weight, even though it isn't linear, day to day, week to week.
Unless you've gone 3+ weeks without ANY weight loss, I wouldn't worry about it. Stay the course and only think about making any kind of change when you've actually stalled -- which in your case you have not.7 -
I took that as she lost 44 pounds since December a year ago.
Either way it's a good result.
I think that we need to see that food diary to see where we can be of help with the food logging part.
@Katherinelittle24 Go to FOOD > Settings and scroll down, click "Public" and save. We can help more if you give us readable accurate info.
December of 2020, or December of 2019 is when you started?
1 -
cmriverside wrote: »I took that as she lost 44 pounds since December a year ago.
Either way it's a good result.
I think that we need to see that food diary to see where we can be of help with the food logging part.
@Katherinelittle24 Go to FOOD > Settings and scroll down, click "Public" and save. We can help more if you give us readable accurate info.
December of 2020, or December of 2019 is when you started?
I'm thinking it's December 2020, only because in her OP a few times she mentioned changing her eating habits a couple of months ago.1 -
Katherinelittle24 wrote: »Since December 1st of last year, I have lost 44lbs. A couple of weeks though I didnt lose anything and this week I struggle with losing weight, but im wondering if maybe im taking in too much sodium? I do use seasoning a lot and I bought dill pickles recently which pickles is a lot of sodium. I have been taking in less than 1500 calories somedays, so sometimes I only do between 1200-1500 calories, sometimes more depending on my exercise level and my state of hunger. I know I am still doing well and im proud of myself because I have come a long way, I just have a goal in what I want to achieve by March.
That's very fast weight loss, even for someone of your size.
I'm not saying this as a for-sure thing, but very fast loss itself can trigger scale-weight stalls (which may or may not be fat-loss stalls).
One factor is that very rapid weight loss is a physical stressor. In very general terms, physical and psychological stressors add up, to a cumulative stress level in any individual. One possible physical response to high stress is water retention (probably related to levels of cortisol, a stress hormone). That water retention can be a creeping sort of thing, and can accumulate to a surprising number of pounds, in unusual cases. If there is water retention creeping on, it will hide fat creeping off, if the body weight scale is the measure.
Another is that very fast loss can - not surprisingly - make our body think it's in a famine. It may slow things down, potentially in subtle ways: Fatigue (do less, rest more), maybe feeling cold more often, less fidgeting or other subconscious movement, slowed growth of hair and nails, etc.
This is not some magical so-called "starvation mode" that "makes our body hold onto fat" and completely stop losing weight at ultra-low calories. It's an actual phenomenon called "adaptive thermogenesis" that is a biological adaptation to humans' long history of mostly food shortage (not the modern surplus that's available in much of the developed world). Our body can slow down a little, to help keep us alive, in times of food shortage. Our physical systems don't know "famine" from "a diet". Some level of slow-down is common, normal, when restricting calories. We don't necessarily explicitly notice that it's happening.
Now, at the calorie levels you mention, you should still lose fat, even if there's adaptive thermogenesis. But, as others have mentioned, calorie logging is a skill, and we go through a learning process. Sometimes, levels of estimation or approximation that worked at first, don't keep working, and we need to fine-tune how we do it. Are you at that point? I don't know. But it's a consideration.
Sometimes apparent stalls can be a combination of factors, a little slowdown, a little about logging practices, a little about water retention (that can have many causes**), etc. Usually, if calorie levels are where they need to be, the scale stall will eventually break, with patience. Sometimes people will give you prescriptions to break a stall, like cutting carbs, or switching exercise routine, or taking a supplement, etc. Do those things help? I don't know . . . but I suspect in some cases they just take up some time, letting the person feel like they're "taking action", until the stall breaks through at the time it would've done under any circumstances. On the next stall, that same perceived magic solution may not work as well. 😉
There's lots of good advice in posts above, about logging practices, water weight, etc. (There's also a little bit of pretty bad advice: Seeing a post with *many* "disagree" clicks is a warning flag, a reason to check what mainstream authoritative sources (USDA, NHS, etc.) say about the subject, though one or two "disagrees" may not mean much.)
You're doing great. You can continue to do well. You might want to add some other metrics, if you haven't, to your monitoring routine, such as measuring-tape measurements once a month or so, regular photos every month or two with close-fitting or minimal clothing front/side/back (scary though that can be at first, later we may want to show off how far we've come - so don't wear undies only in the photo, because you can't share that here on MFP when you write your amazing success story!).
Hang in there. Keep making gradual progress, and you'll accomplish your goals. Best wishes!
** This is a really good read, useful background info for anyone who's pursuing weight loss, and using scale weight as a metric:
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations6
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 388 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 916 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions