Frustrated at lack of progress

dankenyon1986
dankenyon1986 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

Title says it all really.

At the start of the year I started cycle commuting to improve my fitness and lose weight. After a pretty lazy 2024 I put on a few kg, however after cycling over 1000km and following a healthier diet and about 1900cal a day I've lost 2kg.

I know it should be celebrated and shouldn't be rushed but honestly it's so demotivating and I can see why people opt for wegovy etc.

Ah well, I'll keep on trucking I guess just needed a little rant

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,446 Member

    Can you give us a bit more info? What are your current stats? How far is your commute? How do you measure your food intake?

  • dankenyon1986
    dankenyon1986 Posts: 5 Member

    The commute is 17km a day, I work 4 days a week. Average 6000 steps a day and some weekends now it's getting warmer I will do a 50km+ cycle.

    Food intake is logged on MFP, recently started doing the meal plans they have for premium plus members. I'm eating mostly plant based with a little meat.

    I know it's a long slow journey but my ADHD doesn't like lon and slow 😂

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,421 Member

    progress that is too slow indicates you're on a very small calorie deficit. It sounds like you have plenty of activity so it's going to come down to lowering your calories. You say 1900 that may sound good on paper however, when you figure every day of the week at over time and get more accurate with your accounting and tracking you'll probably find that your weekly calories are higher than you think.

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,446 Member

    Can you use your ADHD to hyperfocus on using a foodscale on everything you eat, including condiments, oils, etc. and on finding correct database entries every single day? We still don't know what your weight is, gender, etc… but it's very likely you're just eating more than you think. A 8.5km cycle ride doesn't burn too many calories if you have a half good bike and it's not hilly. So what you can work on is tightening up your logging, or just eating less without improving logging and have a look in 4-6 weeks where you are.

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,583 Member

    No matter what any of us does, weight loss is slow. And it is agonizing at times! I feel your pain!

    How does your daily eating compare with MFPs advice? If you want to mess around with the formula, you can go to the page below. Ignore their terrible diet advice, but the calculator is very close to what MFP uses. Generally, I put in sedentary, then add something in for workouts.

    https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

    Your commute definitely burns some extra calories and is getting you in much better shape (fat —> muscle). Totally worth it! You can get a calorie estimate for it using your phone and one of many various tracking apps. Or, get an apple or other fitness watch.

    And, as @yirara points out, logging reasonably accurately is key. Eating restaurant food is a killer: they always slip in extra calories and salt to make it appealing. And then there "da beers." Boy, do they add up in calories fast!

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 2,040 Member

    You say you "put on a few kg" and that you've lost 2kg presumably in the last 10 weeks. That's about 0.5 pounds per week, which if you are close to lean (you don't say, but you imply it) sounds quite reasonable. Slow and steady progress is obviously working. You're already doing a decent amount of activity, so your next step after this should be cutting out a couple of high calorie cheat meals or snacks.

  • traleen
    traleen Posts: 61 Member

    I’m in the same boat. Slow as in non existent weight loss 1.3 lbs in 4 weeks. My thyroid is low. Medication change 4 weeks ago. No loss of calories counted. 1500 to 1800 a day

  • dankenyon1986
    dankenyon1986 Posts: 5 Member

    Sorry for missing some information.

    I'm male, 38 and currently 96kg. Last year I peaked at 101kg.

    I wish I could hyper focus on weighing everything it would make things easier!

    The 1900 calories comes from MFPs meal plan to lose weight based on my current data.

    Thankfully I don't eat out often and don't drink beer much, I'm hoping that having structured eating is also going to help. Previously breakfast was a cup of coffee, lunch was something I never remembered to eat and then a larger evening meal. Not the best way of eating.

    The weight is slowly coming down but seeing it creep up now and again really is disheartening.

    It's all for a better me and it'll be worth it in the end

  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,619 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48579478#Comment_48579478

    That's a wide acceptable range. What are your stats? How much did you tell MFP you wanted to lose per week? What calorie allotment did MFP give you?

  • pridesabtch
    pridesabtch Posts: 2,619 Member

    @dankenyon1986 do you add exercise on top of the 1900 calories? MFP seems to give a very generous calorie burn for cycling. If you are overestimating the calorie burn and under estimating your intake, that will slow you down. Good luck!

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,421 Member
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48579505#Comment_48579505

    lots of things stand out here that can be problematic. Tighten up your counting and look at weekly numbers. Take 7 days worth and divide by seven and this is your actual daily amount. You need to do this every day though and not cherry pick days where your calories are lower. If you really want to make your fat loss accelerate, you're going to need to be a lot more exact and you'll need to look at your beer consumption and you're going out to dinner situations those two things alone can kill a weekly calorie deficit.

    Also, a lot of the information on calories on the database on this app can be off so you may want to look at the ingredients in those meals and cross check with something like ChatGPT or Google just to confirm that those calorie amounts are correct.

  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,583 Member

    @dankenyon1986 : It's frustrating, but slowly is actually better. Consider that, once you reach your goal, you're going to add in only a very few calories (<500kcal/day) and you will be balanced.

    Now, I don't know about you, but I can eat 500kcals in about 10 minutes! Lemee at that slice of pepperoni pizza!

    So, getting good at logging will help you for as long as you can do it, whether cutting or in maintenance.

    Keep cool and on program! 😎

  • age_is_just_a_number
    age_is_just_a_number Posts: 840 Member

    It could be many different things:

    • are you losing fat and gaining muscle?
    • are you eating too few calories?
    • are you eating too many calories?

    Check out this video on how to determine the 'right' calorie intake for you.

    The WORST Calorie Mistake Everyone Makes

  • ddsb1111
    ddsb1111 Posts: 951 Member
    edited April 25

    OP, you can lose weight without exercise as long as you’re in a calorie deficit. That said, I totally get the frustration, it feels unfair when you start moving more and the scale barely budges. What often happens is that increased activity can boost your appetite, so we end up eating more without realizing it. That’s why staying consistent with your tracking is key. If you stick with your new routine and really dial in your logging, the results will come. And just for reference, a healthy and sustainable rate of weight loss is about 1–2 lbs per week. Anything beyond that tends to be more extreme. Hope this helps put things in perspective!

  • FitMomOK
    FitMomOK Posts: 71 Member

    I heard this on a podcast- the coach said he has his clients who are stuck plan an ideal day that fits their macros.

    Then they prep and eat ONLY that for 3 days. Not one bite different. He said it has a 100% success rate.


    i tried it. It worked because tracking is easy. I didn’t have to think about snacks- decisions were already made. I picked meals I really enjoyed.

    When I find myself stuck I go back to that.

    Try it! Maybe 4-5 days? If you don’t lose weight after that, you have very solid data that you need to lower calories to create a deficit.

  • FitMomOK
    FitMomOK Posts: 71 Member

    … and use a kitchen scale. I got mine at Walmart for about $15.
    For example, when prepping your meals for your 3-5 day experiment (post above):

    Put meal prep container on scale. Zero it out. (Tare button) Add yogurt to make one cup (in g). Press tare to zero it again. Add scoop of protein powder. Zero again. Add pb2( in grams). Zero again. Add blueberries (grams to equal one cup). Stir& put lid on. Do that for each day you’re prepping (I do 3 extra usually). That whole thing takes 5 minutes about.

    Enjoy your yogurt meal. Save as a meal in mfp, name it. Copy in mfp to every breakfast that week.

    Etc.

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