Stuck

It's frustrating for sure. But in the long game, three weeks isn't much time. There's lots of missing information here. People are going to want to know your stats and other info: how much are you trying to lose, do you use a food scale, how long have you been trying to lose, etc.?

Even though I am 53 and know better, I STILL expect (to some degree) that if my mind is on board to stick to the plan, my body should show results within 24 hours. Truth is, I have a uterus, and largely due to that, my weight can fluctuate wildly, masking any progress at any given time.

Here's what I do and it is 180 degrees from what works for others. I don't weigh myself. I stick to the plan (this takes an extra amount of trust) and weigh myself after long intervals. Some folks weigh every day so that they can see the trend, and that itself can ease the mind. Make peace with the scale in whatever way you can.

Others who have been on here longer and been more successful than I will have lots of advice. Read it and think about it. This is a lifelong process. The hardest thing I learned was that I could easily lose the 20 pounds, but I could NOT EASILY keep it off. And here I am, working on 10 pounds... again.

One other thing to consider: what good does giving up do? A weekend off might be in order if you need a break after many months, but if you're restricting to much, even that might not be the best solution for you.

3 weeks really isn't very long in the grand scheme of things. Trust the process.

Some things you could look at, though:

* Is your logging on-point? Are you weighing your food and picking accurate database entries?
* Assuming your logging is on-point, do you have your calorie budget dialed in, whether you're using MFP's NEAT method guided setup or figuring your budget by your TDEE minus 250/500/whatever cals/day?
* Assuming your logging is on-point and you have your calorie budget dialed in, are you sticking to that budget? Especially if you're aiming for half a pound per week, even something as small as a candy bar or a can of soda can blow your deficit for the day - do that enough times in a row and you've eliminated your deficit for the week.
* Assuming you've got all of the above on lock, are you due for your period? Hormone fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle in bodies that have them can cause water retention, which can mask fat loss on the scale.
* Have you recently started exercising, or increased the frequency or intensity of your regular exercise? Bodies retain water to repair muscles after exercise as well.
* How often do you weigh yourself? If you weigh daily, normal fluctuations can make it hard to see the overall trend.
* Do you weigh yourself under exactly the same circumstances every single time? Same amount of clothing on your body, same time since eating/drinking/using the toilet, same scale in the same place (ideally a level spot on a hard tile floor)?
* How are the batteries in your scale, assuming it runs on batteries? Are they running low and need replaced?
* Does your scale need to be calibrated?

deborahupton10 wrote: »

Hi
I'm sorry I have absolutely no idea what tdees are I log and weigh everything mfp has set my Calorie target I don't have monthly periods I had a hysterectomy most of the food I eat I scan the barcide and put it in the weight.
I get weighed at mums every week on the same scale in the same place same time after work in the same uniform after using the loo.
I am trying to stick to my budget my diary is public its not perfect but I am trying xx

TDEE stands for "total daily energy expenditure," it's the number of calories your body burns in the course of a day. Just being alive burns a certain base level of calories (called "BMR," "basal metabolic rate"), and anything you do above and beyond laying stock-still in bed burns more, which adds up to your TDEE. Some folks use TDEE to manually override MFP's calorie budget instead of using the guided setup, because it factors in regular exercise - I do, for instance, because at this point my exercise habit is consistent week-to-week and it's less work to just factor it in rather than try to log it and eat those calories back every day. If you don't exercise consistently week-to-week, or at all as the case may be, that's OK - just use MFP's guided setup, as you've done.

MFP's guided setup uses a different method for calculating your budget; they base their calculations on NEAT, which stands for "non-exercise activity thermogenesis," how many calories you burn while going about your day-to-day business outside of purposeful exercise (hence the "non-exercise" part). This is what the "activity level" part of the guided setup is asking about, basically; if you do any purposeful exercise during the day, MFP wants you to log that exercise in your diary and eat those calories back. If you have a desk job ("Not Very Active" or "Sedentary" activity level), your NEAT is probably relatively low, since you spend a third of your day sitting down. Conversely, if your job involves a lot of standing, walking, and/or carrying and operating heavy equipment, your NEAT will be higher (Lightly Active, Active, or Very Active, respectively). People aiming for a certain number of steps per day are trying to increase their NEAT, if that helps you wrap your head around the concept.

You don't have to answer this because it's your personal health information, but a hysterectomy just means removal of the uterus - if they left in your ovaries (i.e., they didn't also do an oophorectomy), you may still have a hormonal cycle that affects water retention, even though you don't bleed anymore.

Double-check the entries that come up when you scan the barcode against the label in your hand, make sure the numbers match. The database is about 15 years old and largely user-submitted, so recipes or serving sizes may have changed, or someone might have put in the information wrong sometime in 2011 - no one is watching the database and updating it when food manufacturers change up their processes.