Weight loss suggestions

miller4431
miller4431 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I have been logging everything I eat for 2 weeks. I am always under my calorie goal. I walk for 30 to 45 minutes almost every day. When I get on the scale I should have lost but it says I gained. What am I doing wrong, can anyone help?

Replies

  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    Your profile is private, so I can't see your diary to see what and how you are logging. What is your height/weight and calorie goal? How many calories are you eating and drinking daily?
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,248 Member
    2 weeks isn’t enough time to gauge anything. Wait 2 more weeks and adjust calories at that point if necessary.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,117 Member
    As mentioned above, your profile, and therefore diary, are private. First place I would start is how are you determining what to track? I use a scale, and measuring cups and spoons, depending on the item. Scanning capability helps too, but I think that is now only on MFP premium (I did update to paid subscription).
  • Ares1319
    Ares1319 Posts: 10 Member
    Muscle is going to weigh more than fat did so if you've started walking a lot you may not be losing weight because your body is replacing the fat weight with muscle weight. Also make sure you are drinking plenty of water to account for the exercise.
    Sometimes it also depends on what you are eating at what time of day (for example I can eat bread or potatoes in the morning but if I eat them at dinner they stick with me more so I have to work harder to burn off those carbs than if I had eaten meats or veggies).
    Keep at it! Two weeks may not be enough time for the scale to change, but if you track your measurements (waist, hips, thighs for example) you can often see a difference there before the scale if you are converting fat to muscle.
  • jsmestflowers
    jsmestflowers Posts: 52 Member
    The body is diabolically smart. If it's used to holding onto weight, it will do its best to hold onto it. Heck, I have fasted before and not lost weight (crazy but true, granted it was only a 48 hour fast). The point is that you have to change the bodies mind by sticking with it for a good long time. The body is also a very slow learner. Now my thing was blood sugar (but it's the same with weight loss, just one day it will start working, then it will start working great). The key is consistency and not lusting for results, that lust for results will demotivate the hell out of you. Your body will adapt, in its own sweet time, which will be way slower than you want. Just keep doing the needed and the necessary.

    Oh yeah that under calorie but gaining weight, has happened to me a LOT, it's like a curse (how the hell does that happen right? Your totally not alone, just have to give your body time to adapt.

    One other note: 1 pound is theoretically around 3500 calories which tells me that to lose a pound you going to need that deficit (and hour on a treadmill will give you a couple hundred and diet will give you a few hundred more) you will build up that deficit over time (every day a few hundred till that magic number of 3500 is reached and you lose that pound). Keep with it, you're building that number and your body is fighting you, but with consistency you can teach it new tricks. When it does, hold onto your hat, all that "crap" you are reading will start working, and working well. The peeps around here absolutely know they are talking about it just takes the body some time to wake up.

    It took me over 2 months to convince my body to lower my AIC, but when it decided to it was light someone flipped a switch. That's how it goes down for a lot of folks.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,749 Member
    If you are only weighing yourself once a week, it could simply be that on that particular morning you were retaining more water or had more food waste in your system. Weight goes up and down daily based on the above. A processed meal has a lot of salt, which can cause weight gain. A hard workout may also cause you to retain water. Eating a large apple before bed can leave more weight in your digestive track. Keep doing what you are doing for a few more weeks and see what the scale shows. Also, be careful to weigh everything you eat and check to see if food data items you choose in the data banks are accurate.
  • justduckio
    justduckio Posts: 2 Member
    Be careful logging. A lot of items in the database are wrong and make sure u are measuring accurately. I got a food scale and found I was signicantly under reporting what I ate daily.
  • Ares1319
    Ares1319 Posts: 10 Member
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Ares1319 wrote: »
    Muscle is going to weigh more than fat did so if you've started walking a lot you may not be losing weight because your body is replacing the fat weight with muscle weight. Also make sure you are drinking plenty of water to account for the exercise.
    Sometimes it also depends on what you are eating at what time of day (for example I can eat bread or potatoes in the morning but if I eat them at dinner they stick with me more so I have to work harder to burn off those carbs than if I had eaten meats or veggies).
    Keep at it! Two weeks may not be enough time for the scale to change, but if you track your measurements (waist, hips, thighs for example) you can often see a difference there before the scale if you are converting fat to muscle.

    No. This is bad advice. In 2 weeks, there is no way they would build enough muscle to gain muscle weight. What it most likely is is water weight from the new activity. Also, time of day and what you eat has nothing to do with it as long as you are in a calorie deficit. I eat once a day and can lose just fine when in a calorie deficit.
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    you won’t convert fat to muscle in 2 weeks and especially from just walking.

    I put on muscle pretty quickly when I started exercising (granted I also lift weights). It's dependent upon a person's individual physiology and genetic predisposition, which is why I suggested taking measurements beyond just weight. Over the last few years I've found if I eat things like sandwiches at dinner I don't lose nearly as much weight those weeks as I do if I eat them in the morning/at lunch despite having similar weekly deficits. It's quite possible these were simply "plateau" weeks in my weight loss, but I thought I'd share my personal experience and possible take on the situation.
    Everyone's body is going to react to diets a differently. I could never eat once a day because my body needs more consistent blood sugar levels throughout the day but if it works for you then it's great that you've figured your body's needs out!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,265 Member
    More than likely your not in a deficit, for whatever reason, it's hard to say from your statement. Cheers
  • Edintokyo
    Edintokyo Posts: 38 Member
    miller4431 wrote: »
    I have been logging everything I eat for 2 weeks. I am always under my calorie goal. I walk for 30 to 45 minutes almost every day. When I get on the scale I should have lost but it says I gained.

    Do you gain every day?
    How much do you gain?
    What is your daily calorie goal?

    I also doubt it is muscle…
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    jsmestflowers wrote: »
    The body is diabolically smart. If it's used to holding onto weight, it will do its best to hold onto it. Heck, I have fasted before and not lost weight (crazy but true, granted it was only a 48 hour fast). The point is that you have to change the bodies mind by sticking with it for a good long time. The body is also a very slow learner. Now my thing was blood sugar (but it's the same with weight loss, just one day it will start working, then it will start working great). The key is consistency and not lusting for results, that lust for results will demotivate the hell out of you. Your body will adapt, in its own sweet time, which will be way slower than you want. Just keep doing the needed and the necessary.

    Oh yeah that under calorie but gaining weight, has happened to me a LOT, it's like a curse (how the hell does that happen right? Your totally not alone, just have to give your body time to adapt.

    One other note: 1 pound is theoretically around 3500 calories which tells me that to lose a pound you going to need that deficit (and hour on a treadmill will give you a couple hundred and diet will give you a few hundred more) you will build up that deficit over time (every day a few hundred till that magic number of 3500 is reached and you lose that pound). Keep with it, you're building that number and your body is fighting you, but with consistency you can teach it new tricks. When it does, hold onto your hat, all that "crap" you are reading will start working, and working well. The peeps around here absolutely know they are talking about it just takes the body some time to wake up.

    It took me over 2 months to convince my body to lower my AIC, but when it decided to it was light someone flipped a switch. That's how it goes down for a lot of folks.

    A1C is a measure that looks at average levels back over 3 months, so it's no surprise it might take a while for the old info encoded in your blood markers to stop influencing your numbers.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    miller4431 wrote: »
    Hi everyone, I have been logging everything I eat for 2 weeks. I am always under my calorie goal. I walk for 30 to 45 minutes almost every day. When I get on the scale I should have lost but it says I gained. What am I doing wrong, can anyone help?

    Two weeks isn't remotely enough time, nor does it provide enough data to perform any kind of meaningful analysis. What does "gaining" mean....over what period? How many weigh ins? Our bodyweight isn't static, it fluctuates up and down and all around. Losing actual fat is a very slow process...as is gaining actual fat. Short terms changes are largely varying degrees of body water composition and digestive waste. A 1 Lb per week loss of fat for example can easily be masked by water for which I can fluctuate easily 3-5 Lbs day to day or not at all.

    You need more data points so that you can get a better look at your overall trend over time. Just looking at each weigh-in in isolation doesn't provide much meaningful data.

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