Discouraged! 1 month of counting cals/working out w/ no resu

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  • journalistjen
    journalistjen Posts: 265 Member
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    A couple things to try are to mix up your exercise and mix up your food. Try interval training, especially if you are a jogger. Also, try to mix up your diet with the types of foods you are eating to see what works for you. You may be getting too much protein or carbs or not enough of other things. Don't give up because a plateau can last a month or more.
  • Jrabes
    Jrabes Posts: 2 Member
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    Be very careful when you "eat back your exercise calories". Keep in mind, when you burn 500 calories in an hour-long workout, that's not really 500 MORE calories. Depending on your BMR, you would have burned 50+ calories just sitting on the couch, so you've really only burned an extra 450. If you're eating back the 500, you're actually ingesting an extra 50 calories over your limit every day, which will obviously add up over time.
  • Mynue_Jeens
    Mynue_Jeens Posts: 98 Member
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    You need to eat more. I know it sounds counter productive but 1200 is the bare minimum a person should net if thy want to survive. Because you're working out a lot you likely need much more than that (Closer to 1500 -1700) as the body needs fuel to put out that much effort. So calculate your BMR and figure out from there the amount of calories you really need to be successful.

    Another thing you might want to consider is if you are actually calculating everything you eat accurately and if you are really burning the amount you are recording. Heart rate monitors and the like can help with that.

    Last thing. Strength training will get you really great results in both weight loss and body composition. The more muscle you have, the more efficient your body will run.
  • ThinningDownChick
    ThinningDownChick Posts: 95 Member
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    i would maybe suggest calorie cycling... or playing with the macros a little.

    Agreed.
  • leelaknight
    leelaknight Posts: 37
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    WOAH GUYS!!!
    thank you too!!! i am also discourage and feeling heavier (3 weeks)
    i hid the scale but my clothes are getting tighter (10 pairs of jeans down to 1 pair)... i was eating 1400- exercising eating- 1800
    then i decreased cause so many people losing weight were at the whole 1200 thing...

    upping will help???? that would make my tummy sooo happy!!!! haha

    i measure and have not lost - gained at hips and i'm doing the sweat... yeah a few drinks on the weekend but really clean otherwise. i was afraid that if i take away any more pleasures (i am also a new non smoker- 3mths) it takes all the fun out of doing this and i fail...
    this is great reading!!!

    keep going

    alter cal/ day interesting...
  • catic
    catic Posts: 156
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    I'm in the same boat. I talked to some pretty infomative people on here that explained how to figure out how many calories I should be eating daily. So I uped mine to 1500 daily. I can't say if it's worked yet, it's only been a few days.
  • msln952
    msln952 Posts: 3
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    From what I have learned you need to mix up your excersize routine and keep the body confused as to what workout you are going to give it so you still are speeding up your metabolism. and then eat only what is allowed which is what you say you are doing. Maybe dont weigh in so often and go by the way your clothes fit. Some fat turns into muscle. Hope that helped. :)
  • atlantapiper
    atlantapiper Posts: 133 Member
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    I've been in a similar boat as well, and am trying a couple of changes: Not eating after 4pm and cutting back carbs, will see if that helps
  • martind53
    martind53 Posts: 13
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    My first three weeks I was eating at a 1,000 cal deficit and did not go down a pound. Then I added about 300 per day, mostly in fruit (love those mangos) and the weight starting to fall off. Soooooooo, I don't know if was adding the calories or adding more fruit, but who cares.......
  • rachf2013
    rachf2013 Posts: 69
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    Hey you are doing great! Stay in there! You may not be eating the right foods. Empty calories won't help, they'll just convince your body to not lose weight. Make sure you are getting enough protein, fat, and carbs. But try not to eat any sugar.

    A *typical* day for me is this:

    Breakfast: One serving of Fiber One 80 Calories cereal and 1/2 cup of Light Vanilla Soy Milk - 115 calories
    Snack: Can range between 50-110 calories (Usually something like a Chewy granola bar, fruit, Special K chips, etc)
    Lunch: Has been a salad for about 2 months now...Baby spinach, blueberries, strawberries and almonds with Kraft Raspberry Vineg. Dressing (60 calories per serving)
    Snack: If I'm going to the gym I'll usually eat a serving of Almonds or something high protein
    Dinner: Usually a salad too with chicken, salmon, or shrimp...I count everything, the croutons, the dressing, etc. If I don't eat a salad, it's usually a serving or 1.5 of a serving meat and then veggies (broccoli, mixed veggies, etc)

    I don't think I'm doing that bad! I don't know what else to do!!! I eat salad for at least one meal each day. Maybe I should go back to eating egg whites for breakfast and ditch the cereal because of the carbs? I'm stuck!

    Be careful that your calories are not too low. With that much salad, you may not be getting enough food. I know that seems backwards , but if your body feels you aren't getting enough, it will refuse to give up any pounds. Also, try to switch up your foods day to day. Sometimes that can help get a reaction from your body.
  • chrinsky
    chrinsky Posts: 16 Member
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    Thank you all for your suggestions and support! Sounds like the general consensus is that 1200 cals/day is just simply not enough! Maybe I will try upping my daily calorie intake to 1400/day and see if that helps! As well as maybe some more high intensity training into my workouts! Thanks again everyone!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Thank you all for your suggestions and support! Sounds like the general consensus is that 1200 cals/day is just simply not enough! Maybe I will try upping my daily calorie intake to 1400/day and see if that helps! As well as maybe some more high intensity training into my workouts! Thanks again everyone!

    Net more than your calculated BMR. I never noticed your BMR being mentioned, nor maintenance calories, only 1200, and that appears to have been MFP's goal.

    MFP has a safety check in doing the math for goal calories, no matter what your maintenance calories are, if your desired weight loss causes goal calories to go under 1200, it will not, for generally accepted safety reasons.

    But, by the same token, it misses an equally bad safety effect, eating below your BMR. It will more than happily suggest a goal calorie way below your BMR sadly.

    If the healthy BMR is eaten below long enough, your body will lower it, your metabolism, to match what you take in.

    So you may lose for a while, depending on your deficit below BMR.
    But once it lowers, no more weight loss. Until you go lower again, or exercise more.
    Now what? The body will go lower again.

    You cannot win that downward spiral of chasing a falling BMR, you'll lose more than weight.

    Eat at or slightly above healthy BMR. Yours may be lower already, and before it recovers you will gain weight possibly, stick with it.
    And then feed your accurate exercise calories. Minus the maintenance calories for that time period. Because you may have burned 500 in 60 min, but part of that 500 is the maintenance calories MFP already has in it's calculations. So you record 450 prehaps, or whatever the math works out to.
  • LabRat529
    LabRat529 Posts: 1,323 Member
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    So I bumped the 700 calorie a day thread up because I think it might be helpful to those struggling to lose weight on 1200 (yes, I know 700 is not the same as 1200, but the principles are the same). Unfortunately, a lot of these types of struggles are beyond my expertise. I know a lot about the human body, but I don't know the ins-and-outs of weight loss and metabolism. But it makes sense to me that your metabolism can adapt and that you need to re-train your mind and your body to function at a normal level of calories before your body will start losing weight again.

    One of the things I like so much about the 700 calorie a day thread is that it talks about courage. It's scary as hell to increase your calories. But it seems to me like it's a really good idea.

    So I hope you all will read that thread.

    As for my personal experience- I was losing weight on 1500 to 1600 calories a day and was NOT eating my exercise calories when I joined MFP, which means my net was 1200ish. My weight loss was slowing down. After joining MFP and seeing how others ate, and after doing some reading, I've increased my calories. I now eat 1800 to 2100 a day. Here's the warning: I still haven't lost much weight. And it IS discouraging. I am sad when the scale doesn't move. BUT I feel happier and healthier than I was on the 1200 calories a day, so while I haven't loss, I feel for me personally it's worth the extra effort to get my body working right.

    And it IS a huge learning process for me. I probably cheat more than I should and I don't always hit my macros, so I'm learning to eat better foods, learning self control, and I really feel like the things I'm doing now are way better for me in the long run then what I was doing to stay at 1200 calories.

    My MFP friends know I whine a lot about the damned scale (and I'm sorry for the whining), but I'm optimistic that it IS going to work and that it IS worth the effort to teach my body to burn calories like a normal, healthy human being.

    I'll get there. I do think I sorta "broke" my metabolism over the years with yo-yo dieting. Right now, since I'm not really losing, it's safe to say that either my maintenance is at 1800 to 2100 a day, but I've started lifting weights and I'm WAY more active than I've been in YEARS and I'm pretty much happy with my progress except on the days when I step on the scale.

    I feel like this is something I can sustain for years, whereas on the 1500 calorie (1200 net diet), I was always trying to trick myself not to be hungry and I always had pizza or burger king on the back of my mind and I would binge hard (I still binge, but now my binges are much more reasonable- a few cookies and some pizza instead of a whole bag of cookies + chips and queso + pizza and wings).

    So anyway, I guess that's all... just my personal belief that it's worth the effort to repair a damaged metabolism even if you don't lose for a few months.
  • Florawanda
    Florawanda Posts: 283 Member
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    A friend has just lent me a book by 'The Food Doctor', Ian Marber, called 'the Food Doctor - everyday diet'. He explains the way our metabolism works in a very simple way, and has a number of other tips. To quote "Rather than frenetic over-exercising, it is actually sustained medium-level output (the" slow-burn") that is important for enhancing your set point and encouraging the gentle and sustained release of fat, allowing it to be turned back into glucose so that your body can use it for energy. .... There is only one way to lose weight sensibly and slowly. That is to eat little and often, combining complex carbohydrates and proteins recommended in The Food Doctor plan - and to exercise at a steady level. This will ensure that your set point is maintained and avoid triggering your body's famine response."
    The set point is the point at which your food intake creates exactly the same glucose as your body requires for its day-to-day functioning.
    And one of his main points is to eat regularly through the day, not just at the three main meals. This is something I certainly do not do, and might experiment with!
  • rachelsmulson
    rachelsmulson Posts: 1
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    You can't expect drastic results in a month. A big possibility is that you're gaining muscle and losing fat. And that's a great thing. Muscle weighs more than fat. So if your gaining and losing week by week, keep working. Try changing your stardard of accomplishment less on the scale and more on how your body is changing. Pay more attention to how you feel after your workout. Tired? Stressed? Regretful? Did you push yourself as hard as you can to reach the goals you've set. Push yourself as hard as you can for as long as you can and you will never regret a work out again.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    You can't expect drastic results in a month. A big possibility is that you're gaining muscle and losing fat. And that's a great thing. Muscle weighs more than fat. So if your gaining and losing week by week, keep working. Try changing your stardard of accomplishment less on the scale and more on how your body is changing. Pay more attention to how you feel after your workout. Tired? Stressed? Regretful? Did you push yourself as hard as you can to reach the goals you've set. Push yourself as hard as you can for as long as you can and you will never regret a work out again.

    Can't gain muscle that fast, especially eating in deficit.

    And topic is over 2 yrs old.
  • Rattym123
    Rattym123 Posts: 7
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    I have had the same but only for the past week. I can imagine the frustration but my partner told me it's probably my body turning the fat into muscle or something, and that even though I am the same weight I should be loosing inches. Is that what is happening to you at all? X
  • LifeWithPie
    LifeWithPie Posts: 552 Member
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    You can't expect drastic results in a month. A big possibility is that you're gaining muscle and losing fat. And that's a great thing. Muscle weighs more than fat. So if your gaining and losing week by week, keep working. Try changing your stardard of accomplishment less on the scale and more on how your body is changing. Pay more attention to how you feel after your workout. Tired? Stressed? Regretful? Did you push yourself as hard as you can to reach the goals you've set. Push yourself as hard as you can for as long as you can and you will never regret a work out again.

    You just resurrected a thread thats been dead for 2 1/2 years. Your advice is a little late.
  • Supertact
    Supertact Posts: 466 Member
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    This thread has some of the worst advice I've ever seen lol.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I have had the same but only for the past week. I can imagine the frustration but my partner told me it's probably my body turning the fat into muscle or something, and that even though I am the same weight I should be loosing inches. Is that what is happening to you at all? X

    Not happening to you either.

    Fat can NOT turn in to muscle, and neither can you lose fat and gain muscle at the same fast speed - muscle lot harder to gain than that.

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