Not losing weight on 13-1400 calories a day

What is your weight, height and activity level. Just put all that into the mfp settings and eat those calories it gives you. Unless you have some special differences, it should work for weight loss. Are you eaing back the calories you earn through your escersize?

How long have you been counting calories? if you are not long started then it can take a little time to see results on the scale. If you are tracking accurately, keep doing that and you will see a loss in the near future.

Opening your diary or coming back to help fill in some of the blanks/answer some questions might help you to get more specific advice. Until then, these are my really generic tips:


1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

Maybe you aren't losing weight because you're gaining more muscle

Have you been taking other measurements besides the scale? Whip out that tape measure!! The scale is only one way of measuring progress. I have only lost 3 actual pounds since restarting my journey 2 months ago...however...I have lost 10 inches and 3% body fat. I rarely step on the scale because that number always discourages me. I try to rely more on my measurements and how my clothes are fitting. Keep up the good work!

community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10196160/scale-stress-syndrome/p1

motivatekait wrote: »

Definitely make sure you're drinking enough water, and I would personally avoid eating back any exercises calories. Like the users said before, make sue you calculate what calories you should be at based on your height/age/weight (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/). Trust the process, stress will make you hold on to that weight even more.

OP, if you decide to follow this link to figure out your calories, than yes don't eat back exercise calories. The calculator is TDEE calculator and accounts for your exercise.

MFP is a NEAT calculator and does not, so you should be eating back at least some of them.

So, are you eating 1300-1400 net or gross?

How long have you been at this increased level of exercise? One doesn't "pack on muscle" fast enough to offset the scale without being meticulous in their eating and progressive lifting programs. What does happen for around 2-4 weeks after starting a new program or increasing the intensity of an existing one is water retention. Your body will retain water for muscle repair until the body adjusts. This water retention can mask scale loses for a few weeks.

OODone wrote: »

danhib wrote: »

Maybe you aren't losing weight because you're gaining more muscle

Doesn't it require a surplus of calories to gain muscle?

Yep!

I would consult with a doctor if needed! I struggled immensely with weight even when extremely precise calorie counting (weighing and measuring absolutely everything and only eating non processed foods and 80 carbs a day, not drinking calories, adding the total sum of my groceries and making sure it was at or below my calorie allowance for the week, the whole nine yards). Even when running 5 miles a day and 800 calories maximum nothing budged. Years later I found I had an autoimmune thyroid disorder and my thyroid was coated in old scar tissue from times it had been damaged! Sometimes complex and sneaky underlying health issues are to blame.

This is a thread from 2016. The person who posted it has not been here since 2017.