Not losing - check out my diary - HELP!!! :(

Ive had similar issues - in fact hardly ever go over cals - eat less than half exercise clas back usually, and have not lost more then a pound in 5 months! I'd be interested what others have to say!

Jenny

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

Hi,

I quickly perused your food diary. A couple things popped out at me. First of all your sodium intake is pretty high. Most doctors now recommend to keep your sodium intake to around 1500 mg / day. MFP automatically sets your sodium "goal" to 2,500 mg, but really that should be the outer limit. I went in and changed my setting to 1500.

Another thing that popped out at me was that you seem to have too many calories left at the end of the day. You should be eating back at least some of your exercise calories. When you set your goals in MFP and it gave you 1200 per day that has a weight-loss calorie deficit built in. If you exercise on top of that you are creating too large of a deficit. Your body really needs a baseline of calories just to function properly. You're undernourished when you only eat a net calorie amount of 800 calories in a day.

I would also recommend that you try as much as possible to get rid of processed foods in your diet. All the additives and fake sweeteners and boxes of stuff just put too many empty calories into your body that are mostly void of nutritional value.

Many people on here will tell you that losing weight is as simple burning more calorie than you consume and that what you eat isn't that important. Well....apparently that's not working for you. My theory is: if I'm limiting the number of calories I consume in a day then I want those calories that I eat to be as nutritionally dense as possible. You should look at everything you're eating and decide: is it food? will it contribute to the nutritional needs of my body in a positive way?

One last thing to mention. As a group, people tend to underestimate the calories they're recording and over estimate their exercise. You may want to make sure you're being as accurate as possible.

Good luck and happy eating!
JoJo

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

lol...did not see this reply first...:blushing:

I'm by far a fitness guru, but when I look at your diary, I notice you aren't getting 8 glasses of water, which I hear is a must when losing weight....and almost every day you are way over in your sodium.....maybe you are retaining water? Just a thought. Don't give up, some people take longer to start seeing results.

lol...did not see this reply first...:blushing:

hehe, great minds :laugh:

A few things i noticed in your diary was your water intake is less than 8 cups some days. also, some of the foods you eat have a lot of sodium in it. When you eat too much sodium, your body will retain water. If you dont drink enough to help flush out that sodium, your body will lose fat pounds but retain water weight. You are short raw veggies too.

Everyones body is different. If you were used to eating 2500 calories a day and now eat 1200 calories, your body may take a while to adjust to the changes. It may go into shock for a while. Dont worry, it will catch up!

I started my lifestyle change just after christmas and have gone from 208.4 to 202.8. Not huge changes, but slow and steady wins the race. I only eat back half the workout calories sometimes because i find it hard to eat them all back.

Add me as a friend and ill help you motivated!!

Check your diary with open eyes. Most of the time, your sodium, fat, and sugar numbers are in red. Time to regroup and see what are the food items that you need to eliminate or reduce. Good luck!

I agree with the comments about the sodium being too high, the water not being enough, and the processed foods.

(By the way, I learned a great trick back in my WW days - If you have the dressing on the side and just dip the tip of the fork in before you put the salad on the fork, you eat less dressing without sacrificing the taste.)

Speaking from experience more than anything and since you mentioned PCOS, you way want to consider talking to your physician about the possible correlation between PCOS and a food allergy. Maybe talk about a food elimination diet. If I recall, PCOS is an autoimmune disorder. If you're allergic to something (wheat, dairy, some preservative), then your body is getting taxed even more so than normal, making it harder to function normally.

The other thing that I noticed is that the exercise diary could use a little bit of love. If you're like most of us, you're probably on a tight schedule, but the exercise is important, even if it's a 10 minute walk at lunch time.

1700 is like a maintenance level to me. I set mine at 1400 calories and seldom get that high. I follow cholesterol because I believe it shows me what is healthy and what is not . One thing is there seems to be an awful lot of sodium there, but I don't know what that means. Allowing my daily calories to fluctuate up and down somewhat seems to help me and exercise is the big kicker.

Oh boy, I saw a few things. Sodium jumped out at me first. Those processed foods are a killer... do all that you can to avoid them. A few times you stayed slightly in your range with calories, but went over on your fat grams. For me they go hand in hand. Your doing great on your water, but with the amount of sodium your consuming you may as well drink a kiddy pool full of water to flush it.

Although not everyone would agree with this but... the calories that I burn in the morning at the gym, I try not to use at all. I get my tail up 6 days a week at 4am to be at the gym by 4:30. I simply refuse to eat away an hour and 15 minutes of hard work on the treadmill. Try not to think of them as "usable" calories... think of them as "I'm PMSing and if I don't have a piece of cheesecake today I'm going to murder someone" calories Emergency Calories.

My advice.... lower the sodium, calorie intake and fat intake and you'll see a difference. Oh, and thanks for accepting my friend request Sheila

bump

I had similar problems and here are couple things that worked for me. I try to keep my sugar down and increased my protein. Although sodium can cause you to retain water, I think your issues may have to do more with PCOS. I was diagnosed with it about 7 years ago, but have not have any symptoms in the last 4 years (been under 160 during that time). Sugar really affected my weight loss. I can stay within my calories everyday, but go over in my sugar and lose nothing. So, I have no problems going over in protein, or even fat (healthy fats), if my carbs are lower and my sugars are in check. Now, I do have bad days, but that has worked well for me.

Also, I recently went to the doctor to be checked again for PCOS and other metabolic issues. Everything came back perfect. So, I bought a body media arm band so that I can get a better idea of my actual calorie burn for the whole day and to track my sleep (sleep also makes an impact on weight loss). I found that I burn many more calories in a day than I thought. So, I have been able to increase my calories by about 300 a day and I lost 2.6 lbs the first week I wore it. After not loosing for 4 weeks. Prior to my no loss, I would lose very slowly. And I noticed that hunger cravings are really bad on days that I don't get enough sleep.

Anyway, I know this can all be frustrating, but don't give up! You can do this! Please add me as friend if you want. : )

Hi,

I've lost almost 70lbs since last year. I've introduced more protein into my diet. I have a greek yogurt with breakfast. Homemade protein shake right after my workout to include 1 pkt carnation instant breakfast, 1 yogurt, 1/2 cup of frozen berries and a banana. If you workout a lot but don't consume enough you will remain stagnant.

Hope this helps!

I am not a fitness expert but I do know that you should watch your sodium. You are probably retaining way more water than you think because you consistently eat more than 2500 mg of sodium a day. Personally, I think 2500 a day is too much. I would steer clear of the lunch meats and any frozen dinners. THey are loaded with sodium. See if that helps. Dont get discouraged! You can do this.