Need serious help please.

Options
13

Replies

  • Mcmilligen
    Mcmilligen Posts: 332 Member
    Options
    Hahah, there are a lot of contradicting posts here.

    I see two options.

    1.) You have lost fat, but because of lifting weights- have gained a bit of muscle as well. Since muscle is more DENSE than fat, your body may appear to be thinner... But does not weigh much less than when you had more fat on your frame.

    2.) You are not eating enough. Your body is storing fat because of the sudden shock of less food consumed.

    Here is what I think you should do:

    Reassess your nutritional requirements. This site is generally quite good at helping you meet your goals, both nutritionally and exercise wise. Do no eat too little, because this WILL backfire in the end.

    Keep exercising! It is AWESOME that you have made this commitment. But you need to accept that weight loss is not going to happen over night. You will need to create a new LIFESTYLE for yourself. It has, after all, only been 4 weeks.

    Buy a tape measure, and shut out the scale for a while. The scale is obviously negatively affecting your mindset. This way you can be sure that you are in fact losing in overall mass.

    And most important, keep going! We are all here to support you :happy:

    Good luck!
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
    Options
    1500 does pretty low for a tall guy - I eat more than that and I'm a 5'4" woman.
    What doesn MFP recommend for you?
    Maybe give that a try for another month or so and see how it goes.

    Really though, if you are noticing that your clothes are fitting better and you can see changes in your body, then don't worry too much about the scale - although we tend to rely on it, it isn't always the best indicator of all the positive changes in your body.
  • pleasehelpmegethealthy
    pleasehelpmegethealthy Posts: 16
    Options
    OMG! I just checked out my diary. I haven't broken 1300 yet! I still have 1057 calories to eat today to make 1500. This is not good.

    How do I make my diary public? How do I find out what amount of calories I SHOULD be eating?
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
    Options
    OMG! I just checked out my diary. I haven't broken 1300 yet! I still have 1057 calories to eat today to make 1500. This is not good.

    How do I make my diary public? How do I find out what amount of calories I SHOULD be eating?

    When you fill out your profile on MFP, it gives you a goal right there based on what you entered. It should be in your diary.
    Enter your information here to get a goal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided
    Make diary public here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • pleasehelpmegethealthy
    pleasehelpmegethealthy Posts: 16
    Options
    MFP says 1,860 Calories / Day. Yipes.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    Options
    Hahah, there are a lot of contradicting posts here.

    I see two options.

    1.) You have lost fat, but because of lifting weights- have gained a bit of muscle as well. Since muscle is more DENSE than fat, your body may appear to be thinner... But does not weigh much less than when you had more fat on your frame.

    2.) You are not eating enough. Your body is storing fat because of the sudden shock of less food consumed.

    Here is what I think you should do:

    Reassess your nutritional requirements. This site is generally quite good at helping you meet your goals, both nutritionally and exercise wise. Do no eat too little, because this WILL backfire in the end.

    Keep exercising! It is AWESOME that you have made this commitment. But you need to accept that weight loss is not going to happen over night. You will need to create a new LIFESTYLE for yourself. It has, after all, only been 4 weeks.

    Buy a tape measure, and shut out the scale for a while. The scale is obviously negatively affecting your mindset. This way you can be sure that you are in fact losing in overall mass.

    And most important, keep going! We are all here to support you :happy:

    Good luck!

    Just because you lift DOES NOT mean that you are gaining muscle!!! There is more to it then that!! You cannot make something out of nothing and the calories simply are not there.

    If only it was as easy as so many people seem to think :P
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    Options
    MFP says 1,860 Calories / Day. Yipes.

    You diary says less then 400 the last few days? You need to eat much more! You are going to be losing much more muscle than you need to
  • pleasehelpmegethealthy
    pleasehelpmegethealthy Posts: 16
    Options
    No, no. I just got lazy. It's actually been pretty steady at 1300-1400 a day.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    Options
    Whew! Still 1300-1400 is still way too low. I would aim for what MFP sets up for you. And as a male never go below 1800-2000!
    When you dip too low in calories you will, like I said, lose more muscle mass. Which makes for a "skinny fat" look the smaller you get. Restricting too far also will give loose skin. Better to do it slow and steady and feed the body what it needs :D
  • CaptainGordo
    CaptainGordo Posts: 4,437 Member
    Options
    Whew! Still 1300-1400 is still way too low. I would aim for what MFP sets up for you. And as a male never go below 1800-2000!
    When you dip too low in calories you will, like I said, lose more muscle mass. Which makes for a "skinny fat" look the smaller you get. Restricting too far also will give loose skin. Better to do it slow and steady and feed the body what it needs :D
    Yep. Do as scores have here, and follow the guidelines. It's a gradual, healthy, sustainable way to lose! :drinker:
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,138 Member
    Options
    So, to sum up, you need to eat more. You are not gaining muscle or converting fat to muscle or whatever people are saying.

    Learning about fitness is a process and it takes time. You can do this.
  • mathjulz
    mathjulz Posts: 5,514 Member
    Options
    You need more carbs. Yep, more. You only had 7 grams of carbohydrates today. I know diabetics who have more carbs in a day (and maintain a fairly healthy blood sugar and A1C). Trust me, carbs are not the big bad enemy!

    Now, I'm not saying to go binge on candy or cake. Where carbs come from is very important. Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains should be your main sources for carbohydrates. They come packed with nutrients your body needs to function (there are people who suffer from malnutrition without a calorie deficit because they don't get all these nutrients!). These sources have fiber, which is linked to digestive health, heart health, etc. And they have energy in the form of complex carbohydrates, which take longer to break down so they don't affect your blood sugar as drastically as junk carbs.

    It's all about a healthy balance. Low fat (especially saturated and trans fat) but you need some fat to function. Same for carbs - you don't need to go crazy, but you do need them. And I agree with the other posters who suggest that you may need more overall calories too.
  • pleasehelpmegethealthy
    pleasehelpmegethealthy Posts: 16
    Options
    I don't know why Trader Joe's Protein Bread comes up as having zero carbs. It actually has 15 carbs per slice and I have anywhere from three to five a day.
  • xoxMandyxox
    xoxMandyxox Posts: 104 Member
    Options
    I like the "toss out the scale" idea. Track your measurements instead. You might be losing inches in fat, but gaining muscle. So the weight sort of evens out even though you're losing fat :smile:
  • drog2323
    drog2323 Posts: 1,386 Member
    Options
    everyone is an expert too on here.

    *Reminds self to stay the F***K away from threads*.

    i'm not slamming people's advice on here, it's the thread jacking....muscle, fat, can't convert this to that. F**K, like some of these experts know. I am no expert whatsoever, and I'm sure most know more than me...but IMO, dude, just up your cals a bit and keep plugging on. grind it out and do what MFP says for the cals. up them to what they say and stay the course for the long haul. it wil happen.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
    Options
    I don't know why Trader Joe's Protein Bread comes up as having zero carbs. It actually has 15 carbs per slice and I have anywhere from three to five a day.

    It's the down side to having user entries in the databse - any item with a * next to it has been entered by an MFP users which means there is no guarantee to the accuracy of the entry. If you see something like this and you have the correct info handy, you can go in and fix it.
  • yasmine36
    yasmine36 Posts: 41 Member
    Options
    try mxing up your menu and calorie intake, your body has probubly gotten used to what you are eating.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    Options
    It's all about a healthy balance. Low fat (especially saturated and trans fat) but you need some fat to function. Same for carbs - you don't need to go crazy, but you do need them. And I agree with the other posters who suggest that you may need more overall calories too.

    Low fat is a terrible idea. .35 times body weight minimum 1g per lb of lean body mass for protein and the rest in carbs (or mix of the three)
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    Options
    everyone is an expert too on here.

    *Reminds self to stay the F***K away from threads*.

    i'm not slamming people's advice on here, it's the thread jacking....muscle, fat, can't convert this to that. F**K, like some of these experts know. I am no expert whatsoever, and I'm sure most know more than me...but IMO, dude, just up your cals a bit and keep plugging on. grind it out and do what MFP says for the cals. up them to what they say and stay the course for the long haul. it wil happen.

    Completely agree with you. Just think that it is best to call out some of the BS information so it doesn't spread xD
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
    Options
    Up your calories. Be sure you're eating the amount that MFP recommends (and I would recommend eating back some of your exercise calories too).

    I would suggest following MFP's "plan" for a few weeks (a month probably) and see how things go then.


    BTW, I'm a 5'4" female and I consume 2300-2500 NET calories a day to maintain 145lbs.

    You can't create too large of a deficit to lose weight. Your body will start fighting back.

Categories