Exercising and calorie counting and NOT losing weight

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christopherpm
christopherpm Posts: 75 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Some advice please. If a woman exercises for an hour a day at LEAST 3 times per week, and is using this website to keep count of the calories AND is sticking to the 1200 calorie daily limit, why would they not lose weight?

She uses the Salter Mi-Body scales which measure weight, BMI, BMR, Muscle Mass, % Water, Visceral fat etc...

10lb was lost in the first 4 weeks, but since then, nothing - ALL measurements have remained the same.

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  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    what is her beginning fitness level?
    what is her fitness history?
    maybe she isnt burning as many calories as she thinks.
    maybe she's eating more calories than she thinks.
    how many calories does she need per day for maintenance?
    how close is she to a healthy weight?
  • christopherpm
    christopherpm Posts: 75 Member
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    what is her beginning fitness level?
    what is her fitness history?
    maybe she isnt burning as many calories as she thinks.
    maybe she's eating more calories than she thinks.
    how many calories does she need per day for maintenance?
    how close is she to a healthy weight?

    She is not very fit, although she IS becoming more active, doing at least an hour a day on a treadmill - the majority of it is fast walking with the odd "jog" thrown in.
    She has NEVER been fit, and has since childhood been overweight.
    I'm not sure about maintenance, but she eats as close to 1200 calories a day as possible (as set by myfitnesspal.com)
    And as for weight, she is obese, so I would have thought that the mixture of exercise and HEALTHY diet would have had some positive impact.
  • sharronej
    sharronej Posts: 1 Member
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    Hi, I'm brand new to the boards but from what I've been reading I wonder if she's eating enough? Are the 1200 calories her net calorie intake or is she not eating her exercise calories? I have less than a stone to lose so obviously it's hard work getting the scales to budge at all but I have been avoiding the temptation to not add these extra calories in because you get the daily warning on MFP if you've consumed less than 1200. Please pass on my admiration - it's so hard to keep going when the scales don't reflect your effort! I do know that personally I have the odd bite of one thing or another and don't track it so this is an area I need to brush up on myself.
  • Joannie30
    Joannie30 Posts: 415 Member
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    is she drinking enough water? (At least 8 glasses a day) This can help a LOT!

    If you don't drink enough water, your body holds on to what water is already there, which can lead to extra weight...
  • SmashleeWpg
    SmashleeWpg Posts: 566 Member
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    Try having her give this thread a read :)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/524791-women-who-eat-more-than-1800-calories-a-day?hl=women+who+eat+more&page=4#posts-7549729
  • Awkward30
    Awkward30 Posts: 1,927 Member
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    Honestly, if she is obese, her body would be fine with 1200 cals. More likely, she isn't measuring her food. It has been shown many times that people are terrible at food logs. Leaving out "tasting my coworkers dessert" or orange juice or bananas, and misjudging portion sizes by as much as 100% I was actually wrong about the size of a 3 oz portion of chicken breast by a full 100% before I weighed one out!
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,376 Member
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    Maybe you should read this...It sounds like she is not getting enough calories per day & her body is storing everything b/c it thinks it is starving....

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/518533-major-sucess-with-higher-calories
  • autumnk921
    autumnk921 Posts: 1,376 Member
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    Try having her give this thread a read :)

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/524791-women-who-eat-more-than-1800-calories-a-day?hl=women+who+eat+more&page=4#posts-7549729


    This too...
  • Hope1971
    Hope1971 Posts: 111 Member
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    is she drinking enough water? (At least 8 glasses a day) This can help a LOT!

    If you don't drink enough water, your body holds on to what water is already there, which can lead to extra weight...

    Until this moment I had NO IDEA what the fascination was with water, water, water! THANK YOU!! I finally have my answer to why it is important..lol
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    Honestly, if she is obese, her body would be fine with 1200 cals. More likely, she isn't measuring her food. It has been shown many times that people are terrible at food logs. Leaving out "tasting my coworkers dessert" or orange juice or bananas, and misjudging portion sizes by as much as 100% I was actually wrong about the size of a 3 oz portion of chicken breast by a full 100% before I weighed one out!

    this is what i'm thinking as well. weighing food is a PITA, but it can be very valuable at the beginning until you can eyeball what a serving size is.

    the other thing to realize is that sometimes the serving sizes on MFP are different than what's on a package. for instance, i cant remember what bread it was, but the package was using half a slice of bread as the serving size (who does that??) while the MFP data had the full slice of bread with the half slice numbers. annoying! so you eat 1 slice of bread then you're already eating twice what you think you are.

    the other thing to keep in mind is that a lot of things measure their serving size by precooked weight. so once you cook and that slice of beef shrivels down to less than what it's started with, it's possible that you're underestimating your cals .

    another thing to have her look at is the macors, especially sodium and sugar. i know for me, these things make me retain water if i'm not careful with how much i eat. same goes with any food allergies. i just gained 3 pounds last week (even though i was below my calorie goal) because i ate more gluten and i'm retaining
  • shesgotsauce
    shesgotsauce Posts: 2
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    She probably has plateaued and needs to change up her exercise routine.

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