defeated

aec23
aec23 Posts: 6 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I started using MFP exactly two weeks ago today. For the past 3 weeks I have been meeting with a personal trainer twice a week for 30 minutes. 3 days a week I walk on my own (we have a treadmill in our basement). I have not gone over my calories. I am not starving myself at all but have really been staying 100 - 200 calories under each day. I religiously log my food intake... not cheating at all. Every single thing that goes in my mouth gets written down.

I have not lost a thing. Nothing at all... :(

Replies

  • Sl1ghtly
    Sl1ghtly Posts: 855 Member
    The scale is evil. It will call you a failure even though you have dedicated two weeks to fitness.

    Wait a few more weeks, then when the scale least expects it, jump on real quick before it realises what your doing.
  • Nicola0000
    Nicola0000 Posts: 531 Member
    How much are you eating, with or without exercise?
  • 86_Ohms
    86_Ohms Posts: 253 Member
    Keep at it!

    Also, what time a day and how often are you getting on the scale? And are you sticking to whole foods as your intake? (lean meats, fruits, vegetables, beans, etc -- nothing that had to be machined together).

    Also: Water. You need probably over 8 cups a day. It will help carry out "toxins" from the work outs. Burning calories is a chemical reaction, so that energy gets turned into a byproduct and needs a way to exit the body (water).
  • sjackson1717
    sjackson1717 Posts: 94 Member
    Have you spoken to your trainer about this? There could be many reasons why the scale is not moving. Did you measure yourself? Are your clothes fitting different? Maybe you can make your diary public so we can get a better understanding of what your taking in and how much? Don't be discourage your on the right track.
  • aec23
    aec23 Posts: 6 Member
    How much are you eating, with or without exercise?

    My trainer and I set up my profile together... according to MFP I am able to have 2100 calories a day. My trainer told me to keep it between 1800 and 2000 a day. I have been averaging 1900 calories a day.
  • aec23
    aec23 Posts: 6 Member
    Also, what time a day and how often are you getting on the scale? And are you sticking to whole foods as your intake? (lean meats, fruits, vegetables, beans, etc -- nothing that had to be machined together).

    Also: Water. You need probably over 8 cups a day. It will help carry out "toxins" from the work outs. Burning calories is a chemical reaction, so that energy gets turned into a byproduct and needs a way to exit the body (water).

    I weigh myself first thing in the morning (after I work out)... no clothes on, right before I get in the shower. I drink water all day long! Water has never been a struggle for me. Despite the fact that I am so overweight... I am truly only a water drinker.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    I started using MFP exactly two weeks ago today. For the past 3 weeks I have been meeting with a personal trainer twice a week for 30 minutes. 3 days a week I walk on my own (we have a treadmill in our basement). I have not gone over my calories. I am not starving myself at all but have really been staying 100 - 200 calories under each day. I religiously log my food intake... not cheating at all. Every single thing that goes in my mouth gets written down.

    I have not lost a thing. Nothing at all... :(

    First - read this
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/350212--why-scales-lie

    2 weeks is a drop in the bucket when it comes to weight loss. It is not necessarily enough time to see a measurable difference. And the scale is the worst measurement of our success in fat loss. Water weight can easily mask small losses in fat.

    The likely explaination here is that you just started working out -right? When we do, our muscles tend to store water while they repair which can be reflected in the scale. Over time it will even out and you will see the scale move. In the meantime, keep at it.
    Also be consistant with the time of day you weight and remember that many other things affect water retention, including time of the month for us ladies.

    Keep going, you will see changes. It just takes some time.
  • Nicola0000
    Nicola0000 Posts: 531 Member
    Try weighing yourself before you workout. Muscles can hold onto water, so see if this helps.
  • Jacwhite22
    Jacwhite22 Posts: 7,010 Member
    Honestly....I know its hard but keep with it...two weeks is really too son to see any noticable difference. What is your sodium intake like? It is very possible you are retaining water(esp with starting to work out your muscles take more glycogen in)..... When you say MFP gives you a target of 2100 what did you put in to get to that....meaning how much are you trying to lose.....how quickly......what did you put for lifestyle(sedentary, etc)....how are you figuring in workout calories?
  • SunnyAndrsn
    SunnyAndrsn Posts: 369 Member
    I know you're feeling defeated, but how does your body feel? Do you feel stronger? Can you walk farther than you were when you started? Maybe feeling like you can walk a little farther? What about your energy levels?

    I know, I know...I want the scale to move faster too, but I just want to remind you to look at the whole picture. If you 'quit' the changes you've started to make, where will you be in a year? If you keep going with the things you've done in the last two weeks where will you be in a year?

    Scales are evil, they really, really are.
  • aec23
    aec23 Posts: 6 Member
    Honestly....I know its hard but keep with it...two weeks is really too son to see any noticable difference. What is your sodium intake like? It is very possible you are retaining water(esp with starting to work out your muscles take more glycogen in)..... When you say MFP gives you a target of 2100 what did you put in to get to that....meaning how much are you trying to lose.....how quickly......what did you put for lifestyle(sedentary, etc)....how are you figuring in workout calories?

    Technically... MFP says I can have 2120 calories a day... I was just rounding the number in my previous post :)
  • ladyplaz
    ladyplaz Posts: 111 Member
    Ok. Good news. I started off in Jan. I thought I would drop weight like a stone when I started this program. WRONG!!!! I didn't lose anything for the first two weeks. I figuired out, my body was freaking out. Here I was suddenly watching how much I ate and how much I excersised, it just refused to budge. So, don't be concerned just yet, enjoy the feeling of getting to know your body again. If you want, I would love to encourage you, just send a friend request. :flowerforyou:
  • Lesa_Sass
    Lesa_Sass Posts: 2,213 Member
    It did not go on in 3 weeks, it is not going to come off in 3 weeks. I have been here 2 mos and have lost 2 lbs according to the scale, please feel free to look at the picture of my on my profile of me in black., I have not lost weight I have lost major inches.

    Please do not give up, the scale is not an accurate measure of anything.


    Give it 2 more months and if you still do not feel better or feel like being healthy is worth it, then give up, until then, you have not been defeated, you are on a path to victory!
  • aec23
    aec23 Posts: 6 Member
    Thank you for your words of encouragement. I know not to expect noticeable results this early in the game... but even just half a pound would have been great! I have SO far to go... it is all so overwhelming. I can do.. I have to do it... Thank you again :)
  • Mamakatspokane
    Mamakatspokane Posts: 3,098 Member
    Stick with it! You are not defeated. I applaud you for staying strong. It's super hard when the scale is not moving to maintain your determination but your still on MFP and that's awesome!!!!:flowerforyou: I'd say keep up the good work for a few more weeks and if nothing moves then try mixing up your calories either direction to find what works for you. Since your in the middle of your range you have some wiggle room!
    :drinker: Here's to not giving up on yourself!:drinker:
  • mgm5726128
    mgm5726128 Posts: 5
    I am writing this because I hope that it offers you a ray of hope...

    Since January 9th to March 9th, I lost a 17.2 lbs. Last week alone, I lost 3.2 lbs and decided that I was happy with my current weight even though it was not my original goal weight.

    It's taken me a lifetime of struggle to get here... the weird thing is that it all clicked in the past 2 months...

    You are doing a lot of things right... you exercise, you drink water, you have a personal trainer, you track your food... and you are probably wondering 'why isn't this working?".... I've been there....

    I'll tell you this, every body preaches that all you have to do is have a caloric deficit... this is "old" thinking. If this was the case, then imagine if one person only ate protein, while another only ate fat, and a third only ate carbs. Lets say they eat equal amounts of calories, would they all lose weight? No, they wouldn't and they each would be sick due lack of nutrients. My point is that caloric deficit is important but that is not sufficient to create weight loss.

    I have a feeling that if you made a few minor adjustments, that you would start seeing results right away, not in months but in days and weeks. That's what happened to me and I started losing 2 lbs a week, which was my goal, as soon as I made these adjustments.

    If you want me to see what you may need to correct, I would need to see what exactly you are doing now.

    Regardless, hang in there, there breakthrough you are looking for could be right around the corner.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Thank you for your words of encouragement. I know not to expect noticeable results this early in the game... but even just half a pound would have been great! I have SO far to go... it is all so overwhelming. I can do.. I have to do it... Thank you again :)

    Trust me, I understand. I have been there. I am sure most of us have. Just hang in there. In the meantime, look for other NSVs (non-scale victories), like being able to do thing longer than you could before, or your clothes fitting better, or just that you feel better because you are eating better and active. One step at a time. Before you know it, you will be looking back saying wow, look how far I have come.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
    2 weeks is nothing. It is entirely normal not to see a loss in 2 weeks, you can look up 100 threads just like this one on here. 2 weeks in is when you start feeling hungry, start feeling tired from the new exercise, and begin to feel a bit cold and irritable. Just keep at it, and in another 2 weeks you will have seen a loss.
  • tinaruby
    tinaruby Posts: 74 Member
    He should have warned you that when you work out regularly you don't always see the difference on the scale for a while. Take measurements!! I worked with a PT a few years ago and after 3 months I saw NO change on the scale, but I had lost 5 inches in my waist and nearly 2 inches off each arm.

    Success is success, measure it in more than one way! :-) Good Luck, you know you can do it, don't get discouraged!!!
  • Tourney3p0
    Tourney3p0 Posts: 290 Member
    If this was the case, then imagine if one person only ate protein, while another only ate fat, and a third only ate carbs. Lets say they eat equal amounts of calories, would they all lose weight? No, they wouldn't

    Sure they would, so long as they all ate the same amount of calories and that number was less than their daily required intake. Lots of studies have shown this, compensating for water retention.

    Here's a pretty good story about a nutrition professor who lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks eating nothing but junk food, for no reason other than to highlight the importance of calorie counting.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

    He probably felt like crap afterward and was horribly nutritionally deficient, but we're just talking about raw weight loss here.
  • Captain_Tightpants
    Captain_Tightpants Posts: 2,215 Member
    Lot of possible reasons:

    You could be retaining fluid - due to a diet that is either too high in sodium or some other reason

    You could be mismeasuring your calorie intake. Here's an example of how that can work...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

    You could be overestimating exercise calories. Buy an HRM

    The profile you and your trainer set up may be slightly too high. Some people who have gained a lot of weight in the past have BMRs up to 10% below predicted calculations. I suggest going through the math on this site and double-checking what mfp told you to eat: http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/
    (If you still don't lose on these numbers then try shaving them down by 5% and see what happens)

    You could have thyroid issues - have your doc run a thyroid test

    You could have a faulty scale. Or a scale that works fine but that isn't on a level floor or that isn't in the same place each time you weigh.

    You could be weighing in at different times? Always weigh in first thing in the morning, naked, same day each week, preferably after visiting the bathroom.

    You could be undereating and overexercising - if you freak your body out it will release stress hormones like cortisol that will cause it to hang onto every last bit of energy it can. (note: I think this is unlikely, just listing it for the sake of completeness)

    Good luck to you and keep on at it. Even if the scale doesn't move you are still getting healthier. Always remember that.
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