I am not losing weight and not fully sure why?

missmerchandise · January 9

I know that tracking is really important but I forget to do it for a few meals each day. I have been tracking for 7 days straight. It does feel restrictive though. Id say I eat pretty healthy except I do have the occasional sweets/pastries/bagels. How do you all suggest I start seeing weightloss. I also thought about going on those weightloss meds but I dont think my insurance covers it

Retroguy2000 · January 9

Sorry, but it's pretty obvious from your post. You "forgot" to track a few meals, which is probably the bulk of your calories. You mentioned having sweets. That's an unknown amount of calories presumably. Even bagels while sounding healthier are huge in calories, especially once you add whatever is in them. You don't mention exercise.

Change is hard. It's up to you. Once you've been tracking for a while it gets much faster and easier to keep up with the habit. It's worth the effort.

Even if you could get the weight loss drug yeah that would solve your weight problem while on the drug, but it wouldn't instill the lifestyle changes needed to maintain your new weight without taking the drug forever.

PAV8888 · January 9

Tracking is something you can learn to do.

It is a TOOL.

You can use it in a restrictive way. You can use it in a permissive way.

The tool helps you gain insight into what you consume (and when). Your scale weight trend over several weeks shows you the results and consequences of your decisions.

What decisions you say? You are not powerless to effect change. You can weigh and log the bagel and the lb of chocolate covered nuts and the 112g of Turkish delights or backava or boiled tilapia or chicken or 500g of broccoli for that matter

And you can look at what they each brought to the table for you, and how many calories they cost, and over time you can learn to make better decisions and discover the compromises you're willing to make... and slowly, starting from the easy wins you can learn to eat within a budget you can afford... if you dedicate yourself to collecting the information you can use to make better decisions!

paperpudding · January 9

echoing what the others have said about tracking not being helpful unless you do it properly

I'm not one for logging every tomato slice or one grape etc, I dont think you need to be precisely accurate - but missing whole meals is just huge chunks of big information missing.

Also you have only been doing this for 7 days - you need to do it properly and you need to do it for longer before you have any useful data.

zebasschick · January 9

I don't think tracking is so much restrictive as it is supportive. It gives you some boundaries. It also shows you a pattern, which makes it easier to change that pattern once you know what it is. And logging is super helpful for that. As long as you log reliably. And believe it or not, you get used to it. I do it now as a matter of habit. My food scale sits on my kitchen counter, I don't put it away so it's always right there for me.
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The bottom line is if you eat what you always eat, you'll weigh what you always weighed. If you want to lose weight and not just lose it and gain it but keep it off, there have to be changes. Without tracking, you won't know where those changes can be made so that it fits your lifestyle and you don't feel like you're missing out.

csplatt · January 9

tracking allows me to eat more than i think i should, actually. even if you were tracking everything, 7 days isn’t even close to long enough to judge how well it’s working. try six weeks. the first step for you is to log everything.

PAV8888 · January 9

csplatt wrote: »

tracking allows me to eat more than i think i should, actually. even if you were tracking everything

Exactly. Once I managed to select appropriate instead of over aggressive goals and used tracking to highlight and guide me to the best values for me, it became a maximization game of fitting nutrition and fun within my caloric budget.

But it did take an open mind to making additional changes beyond solely eliminating or limiting options and portions

ninerbuff · January 9

Weightloss happens when you're in deficit. If you aren't consistent with logging, then how are you sure you are? One doesn't just spend money without knowing if they have the funds for it, and losing weight is the same. If you don't know how many calories you can spare, then you can easily overeat a NOT lose weight.

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mtaratoot · January 9

Two things:

1. Make sure your GOAL is appropriate. If you set MFP to lose too much too quickly, it CAN feel restrictive. It may be that you need to eat more. As long as you are in deficit, you'll lose fat. It may be slower than you want. In that you aren't alone. Slow is better. How much are you trying to lose? How fast? What kind of things are you eating, and how much? Your profile and diary are locked, so nobody can comment on what you DO log, and of course there's no way to know what you don't log.

2. Do you use a food scale? I recommend you do and that you use it any time you can for any thing you eat. It will become a habit and it won't be hard once you're used to it. Here's the bonus; if you get regular with weighing things, it gives you power to estimate when you're away from the scale. You have to keep using the scale to keep your eyeball calibrated though. When you aren't able to log, you can just make the best guess you can and write it down. I'm probably old-school, but I carry a pocket notebook and a pen so I can scribble notes to myself. I can write down a guess of what I eat and log it later. You could do the same if you either aren't using the app or don't want to log on the app or use your phone to make yourself a note for later.

As Columbo would say; Uh. One more thing: A week isn't enough time. Give it a month and reassess. You might change your goals. Weight loss will not be linear; it will bounce around. When you weigh every day, ignore the number and instead put it in a spreadsheet and look at a rolling average. A weighted moving average is better. For more information, check out The Hacker's Diet, especially the chapter on Signal & Noise.

AnnPT77 · January 9

missmerchandise wrote: »

I know that tracking is really important but I forget to do it for a few meals each day. I have been tracking for 7 days straight. It does feel restrictive though. Id say I eat pretty healthy except I do have the occasional sweets/pastries/bagels. How do you all suggest I start seeing weightloss. I also thought about going on those weightloss meds but I dont think my insurance covers it

I agree with others above in general.

I'm going to say an additional thing, one that may seem harsh . . . but I think it's true.

You've seemingly decided to try using calorie counting as a weight loss method. You say "I forget to do it for a few meals each day". So you are not, in reality, actually calorie counting. That's a decision you are making.

You don't need to be perfect from day one, i.e., it may take a few days to get into the routine of logging everything. But if you don't count whole meals, it's not going to work. So, if you want to calorie count to lose weight, what I'd suggest for you in order to start seeing weight loss is that you commit to actually counting all the calories.

I figure if I say I want to do something, but I don't actually take the steps to do it, that's an example of wishful thinking. If I truly want to accomplish something, I will take the needed steps. If I don't do it, I didn't mean it; in effect, by not acting, I'm making a decision not to reach the goal. I need to own that decision, and not tell myself a pretty story about how much I want to succeed but it's just too hard.

Calorie counting isn't the only way to lose weight. (Though eating the right number of calories pretty much is the way to lose weight, there are various ways to get there. Counting is just one of them, probably the most straightforward, but it doesn't best suit everyone.)

As an aside, some people avoid forgetting to log by planning all of their day's meals in advance, and logging them. (If something changes, they adjust after.) Some people make a strict rule that they may not put a food in their mouth until it has been logged, as a way to avoid forgetting. There are various options, if you want to commit to counting, and succeed through this route.

But if the calorie counting route isn't realistic for you, pick a different method. Or decide now is not the time you're willing to commit to losing weight. (I was not ready for years, decades . . . and I paid a price for that in health consequences.)

I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I'd truly like to see you succeed. The benefits for health and quality of life are a great payoff for that effort.

Best wishes!

Sweetzyd · January 10

All the tips above are great, and like Ann mentioned, some people plan and log their meals in advance. This is what I do and it has helped me a ton. If the day changes with my foods/meals, I adjust accordingly. Good luck to you!

Yivs_87 · January 10

Great advise and points above.

I'd advise to go and read some/most/all of the pinned important threads in the various subforums. Spend some time reading the various posts and the advice everyone is getting on their questions. And then make your own plan on how to take on calorie counting.

"Logging the food" won't magically resolve our eating habits, and help us lose the weight.

Understanding what kind of a calorie goal you specifically need to have based on your age and activity life style, is crucial. I remember back when I first found MFP it set me on 1200 calories... and boy was this a torture! Then at 1400, because I got stuck on 1200 and I read that I need to "eat more" - same, horrible, impossible for me who was at the time going to the gym daily. Now, with 0 exercises and with very few steps my starting calorie goal is between 1700-1800 calories, and I'm losing. But it was a long journey to understanding all about calories, eating calories back, TDEE, etc. The posts in the forum helped me figure out that there's something I don't know and I needed more research.

Another key mindset is, as pointed above, to not as "restriction" but as "allowance". Once you've figured out the appropriate calories intake for you, take them as a budget and the same way you budget your money, you can use your calories.
If you know how much you can spend a day, you know what you can afford - in advance - for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. If you log your food accurately, then when you choose your next meal you need to be mindful "I already spent that much, I've got that much left and 1-2 meals ahead, so this one shouldn't be more than X".
Biggest mistake you could make when you do log is, to log it blindly and after your meal to see that oops you're left with 100 calories until the end of the day and you've just finished your pre-lunch snack...

Same way as with money budget, you can budget the calories to "save up" some - so if you eat a bit less today, tomorrow you can allow yourself a bit more. Or if you want to have a whole pizza and a beer on Friday evening, and you know that it will be well over 1000 calories, you can try to save up 100 calories for a week prior to that - it's a tiny cut per day, and on your Friday you can have your regular calories+all the extra saved.

All of this is really well explained in those pinned/important topics. All of this can be understood if you spend a few days just lurking in the forums and you read any topic that resonates with you.

So, do your research, make your own personal plan and commit to it. If you don't, no one will do it for you. Only we hold the power of changing ourselves.

I am not losing weight and not fully sure why?

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