Help! I am not losing weight.

davijjmom wrote: »

I am 49 years old. I started the program March 3rd. I track my meals. I never go over the calorie limit. I sometimes go 5% of my recommended fat percentage (peanut butter is the culprit). I hit the gym 4 times a week doing strength training and 30- 40 min of cardio. I I have a trainer. I drink 32 - 64 Oz of water a day. I do much better with the water on my gym days. Each week I weigh myself, I stay between 158-160lbs. I had an appointment with my GYN a few days ago, she said I should do intermittent Fasting. I don't want to do intermittent Fasting or take supplements. But, I am now desperate. I know I don't do everything perfectly. But does that mean I won't see any results?!

Was the exercise new? Do you still have monthly cycles? (Rhetorical questions: You don't need to answer in print.)

It's common to see a water weight increase when starting new exercise (or increasing total load, or adding new types), especially strength-challenging exercise. Time-wise, you're kind of past the time (4-6 weeks) when I'd expect that water retention to have re-balanced and stop being a factor that can mask fat loss on the scale.

However, if you have monthly cycles, and maybe especially if you're in perimenopause so having unpredictable cycles, it's narrowly possible that you added some water weight early on from new exercise, then started to drop that at the same time water crept on from cycle-related hormonal water retention. I think that's not super likely given the timespan, but I think it could still be possible in the rare case. (If it were the case, patience would be the answer - for another 2-3 weeks, maybe.)

I do think it's more probable, as others have said, that you've inadvertently found your maintenance calories. MFP, other calorie calculators, even fitness trackers - all of those make estimates based on population averages. Most people are close to those averages by definition, but a few people can be noticeably off them (high or low), and a very rare few surprisingly far off. (MFP is 25-30% off in its estimates for me, as compared with around 8 years of personal logging experience. My good brand/model fitness tracker - one that works well for others who've talked about it here - is off by about the same amount. It's not that they're wrong: It's that I'm somehow non-average.

Generally, if you compare start and end weights over 4-6 weeks, or at the same relative point in at least 2 different menstrual cycles if you have them, that's a reasonable indicator of whether your current calorie goal is working for you as an individual or not. If it's not, you can adjust by using the approximation that 500 calories a day is around a pound of fat a week. (Use arithmetic for fractional pounds, of course.)

Best wishes!

If you weight every day and you're entering your weight in a weight trend app and you haven't seen any movement... I too would say maintenance.

BUT, is there no movement? Depending on your sampling frequency it is entirely possible to be seeing the same numbers while still losing!!!
Feb 27 160.4
March 4 162.0
March 11 162.2
March 19 160.6
March 27 159.4
April 7 160.2
April 13 160.0
WHAT THE KITTENS, right?
This is going NOWHERE.
But while it may be true that it is not going FAST, this is what the graph looks when I plug in ALL the values, not just the ones I told you about:


March average was 1.4lbs higher than April's.

Besides weighing yourself, are you taking measurements weekly or taking weekly photos?
How do your clothes fit?

IF is tricky, especially for women our hormones don’t like it and I would only do IF only and if I’m trying to lose the last 5lbs , but I do follow a rule of thumb which is I don’t eat late at night at least 2-3 hours before bed time.

You might be at maintenance calories however if your clothes fit better and you see muscle gains I would stay at those calories and just keep lifting heavier your body composition will change but it does take time. I’ve stayed at the same weight but my body composition has changed drastically and I’m okay with that.

Good luck!

musicfan68 wrote: »

I agree, "flexing" your calories (never heard of it called that before) is not what you need to do. You need to stay in a consistent calorie deficit.

In the 80's it was called the Zig Zag diet. It worked only if the overall weekly calories put you in a deficit consistently for a few months.

Worth checking your macros and aim for more protein, fibre and complex carbs. Also, takes time to really make a difference as we get older. Hormones have alot to answer for too. I’m 41 and the same weight as you. Have been tracking since January and the scales haven’t moved but my body composition is changing.