Help, Havent Lost A Single Pound

I read back through your last couple of weeks and see a pattern of next to no breakfast, little fibre (keeps you feeling full) lots of fat, sugar and "fake food." I suggest you get your Dr to refer you to a dietitian for some help in planning a healthy diet (you're in Canada - it'll be free) and take a printout of a couple of weeks menus.

An hour with a dietitian will help you so much! Don't worry about being judged - dietitians see worse eating plans than yours every day and are fabulous at helping people make healthy, sustainable dietary changes.

In the meantime, you could start by making yourself eat a real breakfast every day, even if it's just a piece of toast with PB, coffee and fruit. (PB toast with sliced banana - yum!) Try cutting sweet servings in half. Try to increase your fruit and veg servings - they fill you up and make you feel good. Losing weight is good - losing AND feeling great is better.

There's another reason to go at this in the healthiest way possible. You have a daughter. She deserves both a healthy Mum and a good example so SHE can grow up healthy and fit.

i am on alot of medications and one of them is known to cause weight gain. if someone wants to comment they can not only tell me what im doing wrong but tell me how to fix it, for example i know i got to cut down on the sodium but i have no clue how to, it is already in the food and i cant take it out.

Unfortunately, sodium is in almost everything processed. Take a look at my breakfasts and lunches during the week, as I try to keep the sodium low (dinner is another story for me and sodium is often my nemesis, but I try). To really cut down on the sodium, stick to whole foods like fruits, veggies, and if you have to go processed...they do make frozen meals and things like that that are low or reduced sodium.

^yep! Sara lee also makes lower sodium lunch meats and I think alot of companies are trying to cut down on it too.

I noticed that, for example , tonight you had gravy with your dinner....cutting that out wont be a huge difference, only 23 calories, but it will cut out 300mg of sodium! same with the bbq sauce for lunch. Try cutting out or down on condiments and that would be a good start with the sodium....but like said above, sodium is in pretty much all our prepared/preserved foods....and unfortunately no good for weight loss

I agree with everyone above. I personally find that even if I am eating healthy but my carbs are over 200 I hold more water and have trouble losing weight. If you can shift the foods you eat and focus on lots of veggies and protein you will probably see better results. The more empty the food, the more you will need to eat. If you can switch to whole grains, veggies, and unprocessed foods I'll be you'll see the pounds melt off. I would focus on the diet more for now and make sure you don't overwork your body, give yourself rests in between and make sure you are measuring calories burned correctly. I've never burned more than 800 calories even after two hours at the gym.

I was disappointed to have gained a pound on my weigh in today. When I began logging my foods and joined the community, I had an injury to my trapezius muscle and had stabbing pains which I had to take medication for. I really could not get out of bed for a few days. I didn't eat much, so I knew I could gain some weight. Now that I am feeling better, I will have to start exercising more.

I know you are discouraged, but don't give up. I agree that breakfast is very important. Also cut out the processed foods if you are eating them and watch portion size. Please check in and keep us posted on your progress. You can do it.

This is not true!!!! Talk to another doctor, and keep talking to doctors until you have a referral! A true health care professional does NOT judge "fat people" as unworthy of their time. It makes me so sad to hear that a doctor either outrightly told you that or gave you that impression. I think you need a new doctor.

There are some great suggestions here. Congratulations to you on improving your eating habits, and on wanting to continue to do so! As said, if you cut out processed foods and eat more whole foods your sodium intake will go down. I would also not track fiber, especially since the amount it tells you to get on here, for most people, is too low anyway (20-35g is how much you should be eating). Tracking protein, fat, and carbs is important, and sodium in your case. I do not track my sodium because I eat so little of it.

I HIGHLY encourage you to keep going to the doctor and INSIST on seeing a dietician-the dietician will give you so many great ideas and help you make some more healthy changes. You especially need it since, as you said, you did not grow up learning how to eat healthfully. There are also some great blogs online if you google "healthy eating". If you don't have a lot of money, the Budget Bytes blog is great-she has lots of cheap whole foods meals. There is also one called so-and-so (forget the name Eats Real Food.

A basic guide is that each meal should have carbs, protein, and fat; your breakfast should include whole grains, dairy or dairy substitute, protein, and fruits and/or veggies. So say a whole grain cereal (I love oatmeal in the morning) with some milk and some hemp seeds on it and you could even still have a small glass of milk as well, or water or milk with protein powder, and an apple. Lunch and dinner should be a half a plate of veggies, quarter plate of protein and a quarter plate of carbs, and a glass of milk or something for the calcium (I take calcium supplements because I get very little dietary calcium, as I don't drink milk or anything). Eat fruits and veggies as snacks-veggies you can basically eat tons and tons of, they have very few calories and tons of vitamins. Even putting a very small amount of dressing on is okay. I like Italian dressing, or sometimes I do a tiny bit of olive oil with salt, pepper, and greek spices.

Carry things like fruits, sliced veggies, hard boiled eggs, a wrap with nut butter and banana in it, cheese and veggies in a wrap, etc with you when you go out, and it decreases the temptation to eat out.

I find that often the calories burned calculator on here overestimates, so I usually try to knock some off. If you have a smart phone, you can use this great app called runkeeper when you're out walking-it uses the GPS to track your distance and speed and also gives you a calorie count. There is an option for walking in the activities. I tend to trust this one a little more than the MFP calculations since it knows the speed you are going.

I read back through your last couple of weeks and see a pattern of next to no breakfast, little fibre (keeps you feeling full) lots of fat, sugar and "fake food." I suggest you get your Dr to refer you to a dietitian for some help in planning a healthy diet (you're in Canada - it'll be free) and take a printout of a couple of weeks menus.

An hour with a dietitian will help you so much! Don't worry about being judged - dietitians see worse eating plans than yours every day and are fabulous at helping people make healthy, sustainable dietary changes.

In the meantime, you could start by making yourself eat a real breakfast every day, even if it's just a piece of toast with PB, coffee and fruit. (PB toast with sliced banana - yum!) Try cutting sweet servings in half. Try to increase your fruit and veg servings - they fill you up and make you feel good. Losing weight is good - losing AND feeling great is better.

There's another reason to go at this in the healthiest way possible. You have a daughter. She deserves both a healthy Mum and a good example so SHE can grow up healthy and fit.

i would LOVE to see a diatition but unfortunately they wont take fat people anymore because they find it is majorly a waist of their time. i have already talked to my doctor about this.

Hey, OP. First off, congratulations. You've taken a big step forward and started making positive changes. That's a great start. It sounds like you're frustrated, and frankly, I don't blame you. Based on what you're saying, I guess you're new to the process.

Given the results you're having, I think there's something wrong with how you're measuring calories in (what you eat), calories out (what you burn), or both. Before making radical changes in your diet (radical diet changes are really hard to keep up with anyhow) or your exercise, I'd suggest two things: First off, you need to accurately measure how much you're really taking in. That means a food scale. If you are relying on your estimates of how much one ounce, or one serving of something is, then your estimate needs to be pretty accurate. Try weighing out how much you really are taking in. Don't change anything yet, just measure it accurately. Secondly, you need an accurate count of what you burn off. That requires a heart rate monitor, or as a minimum, checking your pulse rate periodically as you work out to make sure you're at the right intensity level.

Now, all that said, I've approached things in a slightly different way that might be anathema to some MFP'ers, but it works for me: I try to consciously overestimate how much I'm eating, and I don't generally eat all my exercise calories back. That means I run some pretty big calorie deficits some days, and not so much on others. Some people might say that I'm "starving" myself, but if I don't feel hungry, I figure it's all good.

Now, I'm no trainer, I'm not a "health and fitness expert" or anything like that, and I'm no doctor. What works for me might not work for others. If you're really stumped, try talking to your doctor. Better yet, try to get a consult with a nutritionist. Accurately logging your consumption will really help them help you to get the process started. There are a thousand opinions out here in MFP-land, and more than one of them are right. The hard part is figuring out which ones. Good luck, and don't despair. All it takes is to tip the balance in the right direction, and good results will come of it.

Edited to add:

i would LOVE to see a diatition but unfortunately they wont take fat people anymore because they find it is majorly a waist of their time. i have already talked to my doctor about this.

You need a new doctor. Remember, even the guy who graduates last in his medical class in Bermuda still gets called "doctor". Diet and weight management are the #1 health factor in the developed world, and a good doctor should know this.

thank you for the comment, i have changed so much in just a month both with my diet and my exercise, i do weigh my food with a food scale though. and i am going to talk to my doctor again about seeing a nutritionist but last time he said that they dont take over weight people anymore as most of them dont stick with it and it is a waist of time on their part. i am proud of the changes i have made, it has taken alot of work and alot of determination, i am going to try not eating back as many of my exercise calories. is it possible that i am just gaining muscle and thats why i havent lost?

It is very difficult to gain muscle, especially as a woman. A woman can gain about 1/2 lb of muscle a month, give or take a bit.

But I think it is a combination of things. You should eat your exercise calories, but try only a quarter or half for a while, until you can accurately log the calories burned. Eat breakfast and talk to your doctor about your medication, since it causes weight gain you may need to do extra things to counteract that. And try not to work out for so long every day. Cut it down to an hour 5 or 6 days a week, since you work out for hours at a time, your body needs a break to recover.