Really need some advice and thoughts on why I'm not losing weight!!

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Replies

  • sijomial wrote: »
    What duration are these workouts?
    "3 days doing treadmill(polar heart rate says about 900 burn) and 2 days I do a Bop Harper workout video and then run up and down my stairs and that also is about a 900 cal burn on my heart rate monitor."

    If these are one hour workouts then I'm very dubious - that would take a very serious athlete to manage that.

    Have you kept the settings up to date in your HRM as you have lost weight?

    Mhm. Those numbers sound way overestimated. I think you’re not losing more weight because you aren’t maintaining the deficit you think you are. Like others have said, though, you may want to consider looking into strength training and such at this point.
  • If I had one pound to lose and it didn't seem to be going away, I think I would fast for a could of days, just to see it go away. But that's just me.

    Seriously? I think that’s a terrible idea. If you tighten up your deficit, you will lose the weight. There’s no need to not eat anything at all.
  • GingerSka wrote: »
    (I just snooped on your profile. Go Cougs!)

    I have nothing constructive to add, other than a ditto to GingerSka!
  • You obviously know what you're doing, but to get that last pound or so off, you are probably going to have to be even more accurate than you were before. You've figured out maintenance, so you need to shave 125 calories per day for the next month to lose 1 pound or 250 calories for the next two weeks.

    Some areas where I can see room for improvement -
    -weigh your bananas/fruits/veggies, etc. when at home. Unless you are cutting off the excess amount, I doubt you ate 118 grams 3 days in a row. It may not be much, but it all adds up when you are this close.

    -no more quick adds - if you have the NI of what you ate, enter it. If you don't, try entering the ingredients or googling the item. It's not going to be exact, but it may be closer than what you had before.

    -the Starbucks and other foods prepared outside your house are not able to be controlled as you need it to be with this small of a deficit. If they put an extra shot of syrup, extra splash of milk or an extra bit of whipped cream on at Starbucks, you could easily have 25-50 calories more than listed. An extra squirt of butter flavoring at the movie theater can be an extra 100 calories.

    -even pre-portioned packaged foods have been known to be off, usually they are heavier than listed. You might try weighing your yogurts, cottage cheeses, etc. for a while just to make sure the calories are as exact as can be.

    -I don't know how often you eat canned soup, etc., but I saw one day where you logged 2 C progresso light soup - did you really eat 2 C worth or did you eat a can? Those labels are misleading because they are labelled as about 2 servings when in fact they are 2.2 servings if you compare the weight of a serving vs. the weight of a full can.

    All of the things I mentioned are generally small issues and don't matter a whole lot when you have a bigger deficit. When you have a small deficit, you have to make sure your food logging is 100% on point and that your exercise logging is also on point. If you are off 10 calories here, 25 there, etc., you could easily wipe out your expected deficit.

    I would personally aim to hit 1700 calories per day (gross, not net) for 2-4 weeks and see if that doesn't get you where you need to be. That should create enough of a deficit that you should see a small loss.
  • Unknown
    edited May 2015
    Sounds to me like you are eating at maintenance bc you are significantly overestimating your exercise calories. Have you lowered your weight on your HRM? If it still thinks you weigh 200+, it will overestimate your burn. Also, if you are doing intervals, it will overestimate.
  • weird_me2 wrote: »
    You obviously know what you're doing, but to get that last pound or so off, you are probably going to have to be even more accurate than you were before. You've figured out maintenance, so you need to shave 125 calories per day for the next month to lose 1 pound or 250 calories for the next two weeks.

    Some areas where I can see room for improvement -
    -weigh your bananas/fruits/veggies, etc. when at home. Unless you are cutting off the excess amount, I doubt you ate 118 grams 3 days in a row. It may not be much, but it all adds up when you are this close.

    -no more quick adds - if you have the NI of what you ate, enter it. If you don't, try entering the ingredients or googling the item. It's not going to be exact, but it may be closer than what you had before.

    -the Starbucks and other foods prepared outside your house are not able to be controlled as you need it to be with this small of a deficit. If they put an extra shot of syrup, extra splash of milk or an extra bit of whipped cream on at Starbucks, you could easily have 25-50 calories more than listed. An extra squirt of butter flavoring at the movie theater can be an extra 100 calories.

    -even pre-portioned packaged foods have been known to be off, usually they are heavier than listed. You might try weighing your yogurts, cottage cheeses, etc. for a while just to make sure the calories are as exact as can be.

    -I don't know how often you eat canned soup, etc., but I saw one day where you logged 2 C progresso light soup - did you really eat 2 C worth or did you eat a can? Those labels are misleading because they are labelled as about 2 servings when in fact they are 2.2 servings if you compare the weight of a serving vs. the weight of a full can.

    All of the things I mentioned are generally small issues and don't matter a whole lot when you have a bigger deficit. When you have a small deficit, you have to make sure your food logging is 100% on point and that your exercise logging is also on point. If you are off 10 calories here, 25 there, etc., you could easily wipe out your expected deficit.

    I would personally aim to hit 1700 calories per day (gross, not net) for 2-4 weeks and see if that doesn't get you where you need to be. That should create enough of a deficit that you should see a small loss.

    I weigh my bananas, most times they are less than what it says, I NEVER eat more than what I log, I measure out my soup..most times it's actually less. I don;t add butter to my popcorn and I ALWAYS over estimate on what I eat.
    I'm a food logging/weiging nazi..trust me. I am not laxing on anything just because I've lost weight. I am very strict and annoyingly so, just ask my husband! haha
  • I wear the heart rate monitor every day. I've updated it. I never eat back all my exercise calories. I run for 74 minutes on the treadmill between 5.5-7.0. The treadmill says 1300, my heart rate monitor says 900 something and I always go by what MFP says, which is less than my monitor says. I also don't trust the monitor
  • Also, when I do a quick add, it;s mostly when me and my husband have made something, and I add it after weighing, calculating and figuring out all the numbers, easier for me than making a recipe. It's a serious business! Goood thing my husband is a math guy cause I wouldn't be able to do it! haha
  • Also, when I do a quick add, it;s mostly when me and my husband have made something, and I add it after weighing, calculating and figuring out all the numbers, easier for me than making a recipe. It's a serious business! Goood thing my husband is a math guy cause I wouldn't be able to do it! haha

    If you are that accurate with your food logging, then you now know what your maintenance is. From looking at your diary, it looks like you are getting right at goal on average, so you will need to reduce below maintenance to see any loss. If you cut just one Starbucks purchased drink per week you would probably see the 1 pound gone over the next couple of months. Or, if you reduce the size of your Starbucks drink, you will get the same benefit. Or, you can just find somewhere else to cut 150ish calories per day to lose a pound over the next month.
  • I will try eating at 1700 a day, not counting in any exercise and see what happens. That's about 200-300 less a day about!
  • Unknown
    edited May 2015
    i see a lot of cup entrees in your diary.
    That is not weighing all your food on a food scale.

    You eat more than you think is my guess
  • Unknown
    edited May 2015
    I wear the heart rate monitor every day. I've updated it. I never eat back all my exercise calories. I run for 74 minutes on the treadmill between 5.5-7.0. The treadmill says 1300, my heart rate monitor says 900 something and I always go by what MFP says, which is less than my monitor says. I also don't trust the monitor

    You say you never eat back all your exercise calories, but I took a peek at your diary and you do seem to eat them back pretty much every day. Most people usually eat back only about half, because they really are that overestimated. Even a HRM can be wrong. Do you run every day? Do you know what your running pace is? You’d have to run at a fairly rapid pace to burn that much, and doing so every day for over an hour would likely be fairly tiring.

    Edit: you also don’t weight “everything”. I notice that you don’t weigh your meats and beans, and the margin of error can really add up on those sort of things.
  • I will try eating at 1700 a day, not counting in any exercise and see what happens. That's about 200-300 less a day about!

    I am a bit shorter and about 10lbs heavier atm than you and I lose on 1800 a day (TDEE-10%)....

    but it does sound like you are eating at maintenance.
  • I run 3 days a week and the other 2 I do a Bob Harper workout video which is cardio plus weights(not with the biggest loser people so it's super hardcore) When I add in my exercise calories, I leave out about 200 out of what it says, but maybe it is waaaay off so I'll go by what MFP says of how many calories I'd burn for that amount of time working out.

    But yes, running on the treadmill about 6.0-7.0 for over an hour is extremely tiring..but I do it lol

    I measure my meat on a scale..4oz and I do measure in cups sometimes, like 1/4 cup of beans..but was told by my nutritionist that it was fine to do that. But sometimes I do measure in grams and oz..like yesterday with my lettuce.
  • Unknown
    edited May 2015
    Btw, not trying to nitpick, just trying to help :smile:. I do still think your calorie burns are overestimated, because they generally are. Most people here (from what I gather) eat back around half of the MFP estimation.

    Then again, I don’t rely on exercise much for weight loss, I mostly do it because I like it (especially lifting). I burn just over 300 calories running 5k in about 28 minutes, which isn’t a lot at all (I’m shorter at 5’4” and 129lbs).

    Have you ever looked into strength training? It can really help make our bodies look better without much change on the scale. Though you can’t gain muscle in a caloric deficit (save noob gains i.e. some gains at the beginning if you haven’t lifted before), it helps hold on to muscle mass. And getting stronger is always nice IMO.