I dont understand please help me understand..

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shellie1206
shellie1206 Posts: 80 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I have been exercising like: Hiking, Dancing, Walking for an hour, and cleaning my house, doing my Kinect games.
I burn at least 500-700 calories a day.
My food is pretty healthy I dont drink sodas eat donuts or chips.
My meals are usually some fruit lots of veggies I stay away from the foods I know will make me huge.

My problem is I dont understand why I am not losing anything and yet I have gained 4 lbs back and 2 days later I will lose it I am like a yo yo staying in the 209-204 range and not losing. What is going on I am soo confused and I want this weight to come off.

Replies

  • dirtbikegirl5
    dirtbikegirl5 Posts: 391 Member
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    Will you be willing to open your diary?
  • pastryari
    pastryari Posts: 8,646 Member
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    Well, cleaning isn't exercise. It's day to day normal activity.

    Also, your weight fluctuates constantly. Weigh yourself once every couple weeks or something. Not every day or two.

    Edited to add, it is hard to help you if your diary is closed.
  • Mindmovesbody
    Mindmovesbody Posts: 399 Member
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    Check out the group eat more to weigh less. There is an excellent article on plateau. My best guess is that you are not eating enough to fuel your workouts so your body isn't letting go!
  • yougojo170
    yougojo170 Posts: 62
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    You may not be eating enough. Also, don't weigh yourself too often.
  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
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    Stop weighing yourself everyday! Are you cooking your own meals so you can control what is in them? Are you staying away from processed and fast foods with high sodium, fat and calorie counts? Drink lots of water. Be patient, you did not put the weight on in a day and it will take longer to take it off. It's not a race, it's your life. Be honest in your diary and get yourself a food scale to make sure your portions are correct.
  • journalistjen
    journalistjen Posts: 265 Member
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    Plateaus can happen at anytime and last for weeks on end. There are so many factors for a plateau--water weight, physical stress, mental stress, or other unknown health factors. I don't know what a good range is for you, but if this is a plateau, the important thing to remember is to keep doing what you're doing that is healthy and stay consistent. Eventually, the weight will go down if it needs to. I've had a plateau last three or four weeks before because I had issues with menstruation and water weight. I quit weighing myself so often and just stuck to my plan, and the weight came off.
  • shellie1206
    shellie1206 Posts: 80 Member
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    I just made it visible to everyone please take a look thanks :)
  • giggitygoo
    giggitygoo Posts: 1,978 Member
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    A food scale is your best friend. I broke my first plateau by committing to weighing all of my food. As it turns out, I was rarely accurate with my portion sizes. Even overestimating how much you're eating can be harmful.

    Measuring cups are a good second choice, but they don't account for foods that can be packed down or vary in density.


    EDIT: It looks like your diary is open to friends only.
  • kneasles
    kneasles Posts: 23 Member
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    Keep track of your sugar intake. There's alot in fruits. I thought I was eating healthier by having homemade fruit smoothies with greek yogurt and about 3 servings of fruit. Once I joined MFP and started tracking my sugar and sodium it hit me. No wonder I became pre-diabetic. Now I try to eat apples more than any other fruit - less sugar and more fiber. Every so often I still enjoy my fruit smoothie but with only 1 fruit serving.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    Did you just start exercising or just recently increase your activity level? If so, it's likely the gain is temporary water weight. What happens is your muscles are damaged (which is why you're usually sore) and part of the healing process is water retention. Think of it like when you sprain your ankle and it swells with fluid - same basic process but not as obvious because it's spread out over a larger area.

    If you've been exercising for a while, I would think it has something to do with your diet. Since you didn't mention going over your calories, I would assume you're not eating enough... And like others have said, it's only possible to give constructive advice if your diary is open.

    Best of luck!
  • mamamc03
    mamamc03 Posts: 1,067 Member
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    Well, cleaning isn't exercise. It's day to day normal activity.

    Also, your weight fluctuates constantly. Weigh yourself once every couple weeks or something. Not every day or two.

    Edited to add, it is hard to help you if your diary is closed.

    It is true that weight changes daily and it can be frustrating...
    But I disagree that cleaning isn't exercise. It is not a part of everyone's daily activity. I don't clean daily. In fact, I RARELY clean because I get anxiety from doing it. So when I clean...I log it, because you ARE still burning calories. Even if I eat celery that is 4 calories...Im going to log it, because it is still food. And when you are are starting out...you figure out what exercise really is. If all I get one day is 15 minutes of hard core cleaning...I will put it! Each person will do what is right for them.

    To the OP....Plateaus are a natural part of this process. Change things up. Spike or drop your cals for a day...not below 1200 ofcourse. Commit to NO crap for a day. Kinda like that chain email you get to boycott the gas station to get them to drop their prices...do that with your body. Lower your carb intake one day. Watch your sodium constantly. Up your water.

    You can do this!! We all can!! Positive reinforcement!!
  • now_or_never12
    now_or_never12 Posts: 849 Member
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    You seem to have an awful lot of sodium daily. That would be one thing to keep an eye on and lower.

    Do you drink water? You don't have any tracked so I'm not sure if you aren't drinking it or just not logging it.

    Personally I wouldn't be logging things like daily cleaning or cooking for exercise. Those things should be factored into your activity level,
  • littlepinkhearts
    littlepinkhearts Posts: 1,055 Member
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    Perhaps you may find the answer here. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less
  • kevin3344
    kevin3344 Posts: 702 Member
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    Ok OP looked your diary and here's my take. We all know that it's calories in vs. calories out. Your diary actually doesn't look that bad. However, if you're counting things as exercise that are not really exercise it may inflate what you think you can consume for the day. I would try counting only that exercise where you are breaking a sweat for a while (for example, running or the gym). Sometimes, what you may think are burning calories are just daily activities. Try that for a while and see if it works. I know MFP has it where we can count cleaning, etc., but unless you own a cleaning business I wouldn't count it :)
  • sherylhs
    sherylhs Posts: 141 Member
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    Hi Shellie,
    First, great job on the 21 lb weight loss. Stick with this, you can do it.

    I just quickly glanced at your diary and I think there are two areas you could look at to help you get away from the plateau. Sodium and fast food. Couple of days your sodium was really high and that will make you retain water no matter how much water you drink. Fast food really has no place when you are trying to lose weight. All that processed junk just isn't good for your body and can also be compounding the sodium issue.

    If you can give up the fast food items, I will guarantee the weight will start falling off.

    Awesome job on the exercising! Good luck and don't give up.

    ~S
  • sthrnchick
    sthrnchick Posts: 771
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    My first thought would be that you need to check your sodium intake and try to keep it under 2500/day... its in EVERYTHING!

    I agree to not weighing everyday too if the flucuations bother you...I personally get a kick outta it...one morning...I gained 6 pounds from the day before...

    And make sure you are drinking LOT AND LOTS of water- this will help with the sodium also...good luck- hang in there...if you are eating clean and with a deficit...exercising...it will come off!
  • PHATmommy68
    PHATmommy68 Posts: 112
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    You seem to have an awful lot of sodium daily. That would be one thing to keep an eye on and lower.

    Do you drink water? You don't have any tracked so I'm not sure if you aren't drinking it or just not logging it.

    Personally I wouldn't be logging things like daily cleaning or cooking for exercise. Those things should be factored into your activity level,

    I agree.. ALOT of sodium!
  • CarlydogsMom
    CarlydogsMom Posts: 645 Member
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    First of all, good job on the 20+ pounds so far. After looking at your diary, I'm actually quite surprised at how much processed/fast-food that's listed. As others have mentioned, that's a ton of sodium, and it's also the killer combination of high fat and high carb.

    Try having meals that are either low-fat...or low-carb, but not high in both macros, together. Not necessarily have to go "low carb" or whatever as a lifestyle or even long/short-term diet, but as a singular meal. Make the following your basis for everything you eat: lean protein and veggies. If lean protein and veggies can be the mainstay of your diet, with other things added (like WHOLE grains, not french fries and hamburger buns) as a treat or in low levels, you may shake things up and get going on weight loss.

    As an example, I saw that you had some sort of salad with a burger and bun (I don't know, all the ingredients were listed individually, like cream cheese, jalapeno, etc.). Maybe instead have the lettuce, toppings, etc. with crumbled burger on the top, and forego the bun.

    You can do it!

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