Why can't I lose weight?

Are you sure you're on 1700?

Have you gained muscle in that time? Do you really need to lose that five pounds?

I am on a weight loss journey, as well. I have calculated myself needing 1,200 calories a day. I have learned that I have been severely undereating when it comes to meals, but overeating in snacks. I'm just starting, but I started planning my meals ahead of time. Still learning, so I'm not a pro. But I ate properly yesterday and forgot to take in account the calories I would burn during a workout. I ended my day with needing 456 calories so I made a protein shake for a snack.

Calories are not just calories- Really pay attention to your macros. Increase your protein and make sure that your carbs are high nutrient (fruit, veg). Add a relaxing evening walk of thirty minutes or so after dinner if you can- a gentle stroll. I am over 65 and struggled like crazy to lose on restricted calories because my body seemed to just adjust (great for survival, not great for weight loss). I lost 35 pounds adjusting the macros inside my calorie window and adding the walk. Cheers!

OP, you were losing pretty slowly on average in the first place, averaging around 1/3 pound per week. That's not a bad thing at all.

But - since you haven't given us the relevant info to really assess sensibly - it seems like one very plausible explanation is that you're now eating maintenance calories, if the stall has been for a month or more.

Normally, when someone says they've stalled, I'd ask whether they were losing at a good rate and stopped losing suddenly, or if instead their loss gradually tapered off.

If sudden change, without an equally sudden change in eating or activity (either exercise or daily life stuff), the somewhat more likely explanation is increased water retention. The reason may not be obvious, and yes in some scenarios it can last for weeks.

On the other hand, if loss tapers off gradually then stalls, the odds go up that the explanation is that the person has found their maintenance calories. (Real world experience trumps any calorie calculator when it comes to defining maintenance calories.)

That's why I'm saying what I am. You can lose more. How to do that? You'd need to give us more details, but right now I'd be shooting in the dark.

springlering62 wrote: »

Just a totally random thought. I was discussing with a girlfriend yesterday about how our weight is really bouncing around the last couple weeks.

We both walk a LOT, and it’s been well into the 90’s here the past couple weeks.

We agreed the heat probably has a lot to do with it.

I can’t seem to stay hydrated even though I feel like I’m drinking two or three times as much water as usual.

Also, my hot mat classes have been verging on intolerably hot.

I’m also craving salty foods as a result of the heat.

If you’re a walker or runner, “heat stress” may be a factor, too, and may be disguising loss.

I’m not worried. It’s just a temporary thing for me to bounce so hard in both directions. As soon as it cools off a wee bit, I expect to “lose” several pounds.

I was in Alaska for a few weeks, came back to Texas, and my weight immediately shot up, like, 3 pounds. I think you're on to something!

All good stuff above. I went through a 15lb cut this year and hit a plateau that went on for at least to weeks.

It sucks!

If you just stay on the same program that has proven that it will work it will eventually work again. It just takes persistence.

PS You've lost at fantastic rate for long term success. It means you are just below your daily caloric need (TDEE) by about 200kcals on average. Consider that when you go on maintenance. You get just a little more. Keep logging for as long as you can stand it!

AnnPT77 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

Just a totally random thought. I was discussing with a girlfriend yesterday about how our weight is really bouncing around the last couple weeks.

We both walk a LOT, and it’s been well into the 90’s here the past couple weeks.

We agreed the heat probably has a lot to do with it.

I can’t seem to stay hydrated even though I feel like I’m drinking two or three times as much water as usual.

Also, my hot mat classes have been verging on intolerably hot.

I’m also craving salty foods as a result of the heat.

If you’re a walker or runner, “heat stress” may be a factor, too, and may be disguising loss.

I’m not worried. It’s just a temporary thing for me to bounce so hard in both directions. As soon as it cools off a wee bit, I expect to “lose” several pounds.

On top of that, just for calorie counting fun, both higher ambient heat during exercise and dehydration during exercise will tend to increase heart-rate based calorie estimates for that exercise session. The actual calorie expenditure doesn't increase commensurately.

Wouldn't it be great if you could burn more calories just by watching a scary movie and raising our HR this way?

So, 18 lbs/2 years = 90 cal a day over TDEE (calculated as ((18 lbs*3700 cal per lb)/(104 weeks in 2 years))/7 days in a week) On the losing side you have: 13lbs/9mos. = 190 cal day under TDEE ((13lbs*3700 cal per lb)/9 months)/4 weeks per month

So you gained the weight by being 90 cal a day over on average, and lost what you have by being 190 cal per day under on average. But having lost 13 lbs, you TDEE will have changed by up to 100 cal per day. Assuming you've changed nothing about how you eat, it would mean you're under your TDEE by 90 cal/day on average. At that rate, it will take you a 41 days to lose 1 lb, or a month and 10 days. So you can keep eating like you are and it will take you over half a year to lose the last 5 lbs, or you can further decrease your caloric intake by 200 calories a day and lose that weight in about 3.5 months. Or eat even less to lose faster.

Also, when your talking about <100 cal/day deficit, your tracking needs to be spot on. All calculations assume 1lb of fat = 3700 cal.

There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public. In the app, go to Settings > Diary Setting > Diary Sharing > and check Public. Desktop: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

tishie1 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

OP, you were losing pretty slowly on average in the first place, averaging around 1/3 pound per week. That's not a bad thing at all.

But - since you haven't given us the relevant info to really assess sensibly - it seems like one very plausible explanation is that you're now eating maintenance calories, if the stall has been for a month or more.

Normally, when someone says they've stalled, I'd ask whether they were losing at a good rate and stopped losing suddenly, or if instead their loss gradually tapered off.

If sudden change, without an equally sudden change in eating or activity (either exercise or daily life stuff), the somewhat more likely explanation is increased water retention. The reason may not be obvious, and yes in some scenarios it can last for weeks.

On the other hand, if loss tapers off gradually then stalls, the odds go up that the explanation is that the person has found their maintenance calories. (Real world experience trumps any calorie calculator when it comes to defining maintenance calories.)

That's why I'm saying what I am. You can lose more. How to do that? You'd need to give us more details, but right now I'd be shooting in the dark.

I was losing steadily for about 9 months. Then, I had a consultation with a supposedly excellent dietician who told me weight doesn't matter at all and to eat whatever I felt like all the time. I gained 5 pounds in 6 weeks. Then, I quit consulting her and went back to trying to lose weight. I lost the 5 pounds gained due to the dietician, but couldn't lose anything after that. I eat around 1650 calories a day and workout out 3 times a week, with 1 hrs walk a day.

@tishie1, how long has it been since your 5 pound gain and reloss, i.e., how long has your weight loss stalled at your current weight?

With a weight loss rate as slow as you'd been experiencing, it's very possible for water weight weirdness to mask fat loss on the scale for multiple weeks, a month or potentially more, depending on other factors that might increase water retention. Some of those possible factors have been mentioned on the thread, I think, but you can learn about other possible ones in this article:

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

Some water retention rebalancing could be triggered by that gain and re-loss.

If it's been less than 4-6 weeks (or so) that you've been stalled at your current weight, one valid option would be to wait it out, frustrating as that sounds, and see if the scale starts dropping again.

My estimate of your effective average daily calorie deficit, when you lost 13 pounds in 9 months, would be about 181 calories. (I disagree with a PP about the math.)

I'll show my work, which is a rough estimate. With about 4 weeks in a month, 9 months is about 36 weeks. 13 pounds loss in 36 weeks is about 0.36 pounds per week (13 divided by 36). 0.36 pounds loss would imply a weekly average calorie deficit of about 1264 calories (0.36 times roughly 3500 calories in a pound of fat - 3500 being a more common estimate IMU than PP's 3700). That would be a deficit of 1264 per week, divided by 7 days in a week, or 181 calories of daily deficit on average, approximately. Just to be clear, I'm rounding the numbers I type here, but calculating with the full decimal places.

I don't know your age, but if you're 30, a TDEE calculator** would estimate that the average woman your size would have a TDEE of about 1800-some calories if sedentary, or maybe 2100-2200 with the 3 workouts and daily walking. Your loss experience at 1650 + 181 implies a maintenance TDEE of 1831, which doesn't seem so far out of the realm of possibility. We're each individuals, not each statistically average. (MFP estimates my calorie needs several hundred calories off from my real-life experience over 8 years of logging and weight management experience. That's extreme, but not impossible.)

** I used this one:

https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

I agree with PP that you would've lost about 100 calories of TDEE from smaller body size (at your starting weight vs. current weight), all other things being equal. That's kind of just an error margin around the estimates from your past weight loss, not something precise.

It's even possible that you've found your maintenance calories at 1650, though that would be a somewhat statistically rare possibility, too. If you think that could be the case, the right strategy would be to cut calorie goal a little more, add some exercise duration/frequency/intensity, or increase daily life activity. Other MFP-ers share their ideas for that last thing in this thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

So, depending on your intuitions about what's happening, you could hang in there for a few weeks, or you could shift your calorie balance. I think those are the realistic options.

Best wishes!