Disappointing first WI

To lose 2 lbs, you'd have to have been at a 7000 calorie deficit in that one week.

Did you eat that much less/exercise that much more?

I started a week ago. Logging my food, and becoming more active. I had hoped to lose 2 lbs this first week. Disappointed when I only lost .8 lb. The logging of food is a reality check and does make me more concious of what I put in my mouth. Not sure if the exercise counters here are accurate but I use them anyway. I don't eat back all my exercise calories but if I am still hungry at the end of the day, I need to make sure I have e calories to compensate. I am a daily weigher which may be why I am so disappointed as today's weight shows a 1 lb gain over yesterday.

Anyway, Hi! I am new here. On to week 2.

Sorry but the reality is, you start something new and your body needs time to adjust. Also, your body has natural weight fluctuations so it isn't uncommon to see it jump up and down. Best advice, stay away from the scale on a daily basis.


Just a tip, if you want to improve fat loss, look to do some heavy strength training. ST has been proven to cut fat faster than just cardio. Also, be conscious of under eating too much as your body will adapt and burn less calories to ensure your metabolism has enough. If you know you are going to workout, add more calories during the day or eat higher calorie foods.

Hi nameless,

As I suspect you know... Daily weight varies dramatically for lots of reasons.... Water retention being one of the most significant and obvious...

I'd simply congratulate you on getting started and on losing In your first week! Slow and steady wins this race! Feel great - you are on your way with the first steps of this great journey!

yeah, don't pay much attention to your weight loss numbers until you have been at it for at least a month. Take the measurements and record them just for future use, but don't get caught up in it. After a month or two, take your starting weight and subtract your current weight and divide that by however many weeks and that is a better representation of our weight loss rate.

On a side note, this will keep you sane! You will have weeks that you work very hard and the numbers don't show it and weeks that you think you may have gained weight and you lose. There are just too many factors in the process of weighing yourself accurately to be able to REALLY detect a weekly weight loss rate due to fat only on a weekly basis. I have lost about 100 lbs so far and have weigh in data going all the way back to the beginning and the numbers are all over the place when you weigh in frequently.

I saw your post and it intrigued me since I have been trying to shed this weight for almost 2 months now. I've been focusing on my cardio and aerobics to help get rid of the weight but haven't really lost anything ;( it's a little disappointing but I've only just started MFP. Today I weighed myself and not only did I gain but my BF percent went up! Any suggestions?

Congrats to you......do not be upset with your loss that is great......it takes time I have been here for months and my weight goes up and down, do to ME not following the way I should.......you are on the right track and as for weighing every day I do the same thing and that is a habit I need to change because it is different all the time do the water retention......good luck and add me as a friend if you like......

Also think about all the time it took to get your body to where it's at today... You didn't gain all the weight in a week and it won't come off in a week either. I know it's hard but slow and steady really does work.

also, make sure you TRACK EVERYTHING... every bite and every sip and don't underestimate. I find it's safer to over estimate what i eat and underestimate what i burn.

It will make a difference... i remember my first week on WW i was SOOO upset because I wanted to see results like yesterday...but by keeping at it I went from 179 to 154. So it is possible.

Also, make friends on here, i find that seeing other people get active and eating well motivates me.

Don't beat yourself up over it! I know it's disappointing, because you want it all to come off now, but it takes time. It's tough to be patient, but in the end it'll be worth it. A week isn't much time in the long run - just keep at it! You can do it!

Welcome to MFP! I started here almost a year ago when I discovered the site "by accident" when looking for a way to count to calories.

I found their app and that that led me to this site. I started using the site immediately and have logged on every day since. Now I'm 33.8 pounds lighter and almost at my goal weight.

You don't have to "lift heavy" to lose weight. I don't. You don't have to measure yourself regularly. I don't. You don't have to use fancy gadgets like Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs) when you exercise to track your burns. (I don't.) You don't have to measure your food or exercise precisely and accurately all the time. I don't. (Lots of guesstimates but the idea is to be accountable and mindful as much as possible.)

Listen to your body. If you're hungry, it's because you need something more filling or need to eat more often. I do that and lose weight.

Eat between meals and drink two cups of water throughout the day and that will help keep you from feeling hungry. If you're hungry for more, you might need more good fats like half of a serving of peanuts or a tablespoon of peanut butter.

On days that you exercise, eat some or most of your exercise calories because you earned those calories and eating more than 1200 calories will help you feel satisfied.

Watch your sodium. That can cause the scale to move and stay in the wrong direction due to water weight. Before you go to a restaurant, try to plan ahead what you'll eat and find the nutritional information and plan accordingly. You'll be shocked at how high the sodium is in most restaurant foods and that will keep the scale high.

A typical day for me:

Breakfast: Kashi Cinammon Harvest Cereal (delicious!) with soy milk, low-sodium V8, multi-vitamin, coffee

Snack: Banana, 2 cups of water

Lunch: Spinach omelet with 2 eggs (sometimes add mushrooms), sometimes slice of multi-bran toast with a tablespoon of peanut butter, 2 cups of water

Snack: Yogurt with blueberries

Exercise: 1-hr. walk, 2 cups of water (sometimes no walk; just aerobics later if not a rest day)

Dinner: Lean Pocket Chicken (or many other things - sometimes cooked, sometimes prepackaged but not too high in sodium), 2 cups of water

Exercise: 15-30 min. of aerobics (time varies, depending on of I walked earlier) - I have 2 rest days a week.

Snack: Green Tea; If a rest day, my calories are limited to 1200 cals. so there isn't much for a snack and that determines what I eat. Sometimes a bar or two of dark chocolate, other times a Fiber One brownie. Something like that. When I'm in the mood, I'll have sliced apples with cinnamon.

Many people here will advise you to toss the scale and use measurements instead. You might decide to do that but I still use the scale as my guide. It really works and you can make it work in your favor if you learn to listen to your body and follow common sense guidelines.

Every kitchen should at least contain a digital scale. If you use volume (e.g. cups, handfuls, per-piece), you could be suffering from measurement error.

Get digital scales. Weigh calorie-dense solid foods.