Not losing

amanda320rose · October 2023

I may be premature because I haven't weighed myself yet (following MFP 1200 calories) and I am on my first week but I have been unable to lose in the past. I did a six week challenge at the gym, ate eggs at every meal and spinach or chicken but only lost 6 lb. Total. I have done Weight Watchers and found it to be too restricted for me on most days. The only thing that worked for me in the past is only eating one meal a day but that isn't sustainable. I get enough sleep and I am not overly stressed (I totally was during the challenge and basically figured that was what was holding onto the weight). Do you think I am overthinking this and "causing" myself to hold on to weight? I have an appointment in November at a weight loss clinic for FDA approved meds but if I can do it on my own I have every intention of cancelling. I don't want to be one of those "here today gone tomorrow" people!
Stats are--50 yr old female, 5'4" and 190 lb. And I want to get to 150 lb.

Lietchi · October 2023

And what precisely is wrong with losing 6lbs in 6 weeks during your challenge at the gym? Nothing wrong with that loss. And if you were exercising hard (and especially if the exercise was new/more intense than usual) water retention for muscle repair could have been masking more fat loss on the scale. Nothing 'only' about those 6 lbs.

Don't underestimate how much your own mind can sabotage you. It starts with realistic expectations!

cmriverside · October 2023

Yeah, "expectations" comes to mind.

With the amount of weight you have to lose, set your Goals here to, "Lose 1 pound per week," and then eat that amount. 1200 is really low and really hard to keep up, and people tend to give up trying to hit that over time. One pound per week weight loss is healthy weight loss that isn't excruciatingly difficult.

On days you exercise for an hour, eat a couple hundred calories more.

Here, read these: https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

amfmmama · October 2023

You are not getting the most you can out of your workouts if you are only eating 1200 calories. Also, are you weighing your food? It is shocking when you start weighing things out, the difference in what you a serving size is, and what you think it is.

springlering62 · October 2023

I don’t mean this to sound mean. I spend half my life in this mode but…..My first thought after reading your post is that you’re playing whack’a’mole with weight loss.

Stop skipping from here to there like your hair’s on fire. Pick a plan and give it some time to work. You’re 50. I’m 61 and was obese until four years ago. I know exactly where you’re coming from, but I also know from experience, take a deep breath, and create a meaningful, achievable, patient plan and the weight will come off.

Neither of us put it on in a year or two.

By the same token, it’s unreasonable to expect the Fairy Weightmother to give you a total body work over in six weeks.

springlering62 · October 2023

And btw, that 6 pounds? That was over 3% of your body weight lost. Imagine if you had a plan and had continued it a plan that didn’t include an egg and spinach with every meal. Urp!

How many % down would you have been by now?

amanda320rose · October 2023

I can't reply to individual posts but thank you! Yes, I definitely feel like I am doing whack a mole with weight loss especially lately because I am frustrated and impatient. I changed my goal to 1 pound a week and the calories are more like a regular day for me. I will breath and keep the course

springlering62 · October 2023

amanda320rose wrote: »

I can't reply to individual posts but thank you! Yes, I definitely feel like I am doing whack a mole with weight loss especially lately because I am frustrated and impatient. I changed my goal to 1 pound a week and the calories are more like a regular day for me. I will breath and keep the course

We are here for you. In all seriousness, staying tuned in to these boards.m, asking questions, taking good advice even when internet-hurtful and weeding through the bad advice, it’s all been golden for me.

I just had my five year anniversary, and am maintaining in a place I’m very happy with.

We all want this for you!

Patience is the key- through (literally!) thick and (with effort and grace to yourself!) thin.

AnnPT77 · October 2023

amanda320rose wrote: »

I can't reply to individual posts but thank you! Yes, I definitely feel like I am doing whack a mole with weight loss especially lately because I am frustrated and impatient. I changed my goal to 1 pound a week and the calories are more like a regular day for me. I will breath and keep the course

This is a good plan: Find a relatively easy approach, stick to it, monitor in 4-6 week chunks to see a statistically useful average result, adjust moderately if/when necessary, and stick to it.

As you're losing, you can experiment with food choices/timing, see what keeps you feeling reasonably full while adding up to good overall nutrition and sensible calories, eating foods you personally enjoy and find practical/affordable. Couple that with fun (or at least tolerable/practical) exercise, and you have yourself a good overall plan.

I started losing when close to your size (183 pounds, 5'5") but age 59. It took just under a year, but I lost 50-some pounds, and am still at a healthy weight 7+ years later, now age 67.

Learning how to live happily on calories that can keep you at a healthy weight long term, almost on autopilot: That's the real prize, a good goal to work toward.

I'm cheering for you to succeed - it's very much worth the effort, IME.

Lildarlinz · October 2023

Hiiii

Give it more time hunny

I did 1200 calories and my weight fluctuates and still does now.7 weeks and lost 9lb so far but I’ve put back on and lost put it on and lost

1200 calories is hardddd! It’s so restrictive

Maybe up them a bit and enjoy life and your meals xx wishing you good luck

Just take it slow

that’s what I’ve learnt xx

JoLightensUp · October 2023

Sounds like you are already adjusting your goals to something more sustainable, which is great!

I'm the same height as you, 54 years old and aiming to lose about 14 kgs (about 30 pounds). I find that averaging a pound a week is about right for me. It's fast enough for me to notice encouraging changes in my body but not so fast that I feel deprived and want to gnaw my arm off lol!

I have a sedentary job and my only exercise at the moment is a bit of walking. I usually eat back any exercise calories. I log everything and try to weigh or measure at least calorie-dense or new foods to get a sense of portion size. Some things I just guesstimate. My weight is steadily dropping with this pretty minimum effort.

Are you using a weight tracking app like Libra or Happy Scale? If not, it might be worth trying. I use Libra and find that it helps to keep me focused on the longer term trend rather than daily fluctuations.

I hope you stick around the boards and let us know how you go. I'm still trying to understand weight management myself. I have lost before but not maintained the loss when life has got stressful. Hopefully this time will be different for me. I'm shooting for sustainable changes as much as I can as well.

ddsb1111 · October 2023

This isn’t your fault OP. No one really knows the math unless they’ve been here long enough. I wish someone else were writing this but me but I’ll give a very simplified version a shot

To find out how many calories you burn a day by just existing + moving around, going to work, doing your daily errands, etc…. That is called your TDEE.

Let’s say your TDEE is 2000 calories. Now, to lose 1 lb a week you would need to burn 500 calories MORE per day (so in this example 2000 + 500= 2,500 which would be your daily calories burn goal). Now you know, 1 lb of fat = 3,500 calories or 500 calories x 7days a week.

Losing weight when you have a low TDEE is incredibly hard because you don’t have a lot of wiggle room. Women, for example, shouldn’t eat less than 1,200 for health reasons, and men- 1,500.

So, if you choose to lose 1 lb a week that would look like this: 2,000 (TDEE) - 500= 1500 daily calorie goal.

Even if you weigh your food on a food scale you won’t be perfectly precise but you can get fairly close to those calories. If you’re just going to eyeball calories then you’ll likely consume twice what you think you are. Don’t believe me? Just YouTube why you should use a food scale.

This is why weight loss can be tricky. Use your daily weigh-ins as a baseline for your data. Weigh your food so you know what you’re really eating. Expect daily water weight and hormonal variations. And use the averages to make any adjustments as needed, but allow at least a month to stabilize and see the results.

If you find losing 1 lb a week is too aggressive and difficult to adhere to the diet, then reduce it to 250 calories or a .5 lb loss per week.

This is why losing 6 lbs per week for 6 weeks is no small feat! It’s incredibly difficult and you’re putting your body through a lot just to lose weight on top of managing your lifestyle and health. It’s important to understand what is realistic, what is aggressive, and what is setting yourself up for failure. I hope this helps you know the difference.

MacLowCarbing · October 2023

1/2 lb to 2 lbs per week is considered healthy for most people.

1 lb per week is great, you're right in there.

While some people struggle to lose weight more than others due to genes, medical conditions, medication, phys. activity level, etc. overall you need to just make sure you're in a caloric deficit.

You can get fat eating eggs & spinach basically if you're over-eating your daily calories; and you can get skinny on brownies if you're in a caloric deficit. So tracking really really helps.

If you struggle with hunger while sticking to a deficit, consider playing with your macros, figure out if you have trigger foods that keep your hunger up, see what you find most satiating, etc. I figured out low carb/high fat is best for me and I almost always under-eat my daily goals. Someone else might find high carb more satiating because they can eat as many low-cal veggies as they want. It's really something you have to play around with to find your sweet spot.

amanda320rose · October 2023

I weighed in this morning and I have lost 4 lb. I know it is water weight more than likely but I don't care! Upping my calories just a little seems to keep me feeling full and happy.

cmriverside · October 2023

Nice. The scale is a bit of a fickle, "friend," so it can't always be trusted.

Do the right thing(s) over time and the weight will go. Some weeks will be no loss and some will be more than expected.

Stay the course.

AnnPT77 · October 2023

amanda320rose wrote: »

I weighed in this morning and I have lost 4 lb. I know it is water weight more than likely but I don't care! Upping my calories just a little seems to keep me feeling full and happy.

Good show!

Losing any meaningful total amount of weight is realistically going to take quite some time (weeks to months, maybe even years). Therefore, having a calorie level that keeps you full and happy, but allows gradual fat loss - that's a win.

[edited by staff]

Wishing you continuing sustainable, steady progress!

amanda320rose · October 2023

JoLightensUp I just downloaded Libra. How is it different from just keeping track in MFP?

yirara · October 2023

I think Libra is a weight-trending app, like Happy Scale that I use on iOS. Basically you log your weight every day and you get a line through your measurements that is a 7 or whatever day trend. If you have a couple of measurements this will show up. Why not log the last measurements from the last days, under the correct date? Then you might see this line. If you look at the weight in MFP you only see the day to day measurements; some will be higher and others lower. With a trend line you can see whether your weight is actually going down in all that single day clutter.

Lietchi · October 2023

Libra shows the trend beyond the fluctuations. The trend can also go up and down (depending on how fast the rate of loss is), but much less - it makes it easier to judge your progress.

An example below, with the dots showing the weigh-ins and the line showing the trend.

And an example when my rate of loss was more slow:

Clear ups and downs from water weight fluctuations (the graph is in kg, roughly double the numbers for the equivalent in lbs), but the trend shows that I was definitely losing weight/fat.

JoLightensUp · October 2023

Yes, all that Yirara and Lietchi said. 🙂If you enter your weigh-ins so far with their dates, you will see a trendline appear.

The time I really find this valuable is when I feel like I'm "stuck" on the same weight for a while - it's actually happening to me now. Even though my weigh-ins have been the same for quite a few days, my trendline is still going down.

What I used to do was think I had to cut my calories even more, which of course I couldn't sustain. The trendline reminds me to be patient and my weight will most likely drop without changing anything.

There are also advanced preferences in Libra's settings where you can change how much effect each weigh-in has on the trend (smoothing days) and how many weigh-ins are used in the forecast (forecasting days).

Not losing

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