Why am I not losing weight?

[S100HP]

I've been tracking calories etc since the 4th Dec, and I've barely lost any weight. On a good day I'm 3lbs lighter than I was when I started, but this morning I was the same as I was at the start. Why? I'd expect to have dropped a bit by now! My target is 1800 per day and I'm there or thereabouts.

Calories consumed for last few weeks:





Calories spent over same period





Proper kick in the teeth this morning when I weighed the same as 5 weeks ago

[Kneedragger95]

You're probably eating more than you think, it really is as simple as calories in Vs calories out.

[Robertj21a]

Sounds like you are trying to micro manage it hour by hour or day by day. Suggest you make all your effort but only check progress weekly.

[Sheets Tabuer]

CICO.

You are probably not tracking accurately

[S100HP]

Kneedragger95 said:

You're probably eating more than you think, it really is as simple as calories in Vs calories out.

Sheets Tabuer said:

CICO.

You are probably not tracking accurately

I'm tracking everything, using myfitnesspal, where my target is 1800 per day. I'm there or thereabouts most days, but often quite a bit under when you take exercise into consideration.

[Vocal Minority]

Can you humor us and give us a typical day of everything you consume, down to the last raisin and morning coffee?

[Fun Bus]

Assume you're exercising?

[counterofbeans]

Just my opinion but....

You think, or something is telling you, that you are using a lot of calories walking.

IME walking just doesn't consume meaningful calories unless you are doing it very quickly or for very long i.e. many hours.

It's just not strenuous enough. Do more cycling.

[HarryFlatters]

S100HP said:

I'm tracking everything, using myfitnesspal

Are you weighing stuff as you make your food, or just going "that's about 100g of ham", or "that's about a tablespoon of honey".

If so, alter your intake of carbs to protein heavily in favour of protein.

[Fun Bus]

For the past 10 days I've drastically cut down my carb intake and have already lost 7lbs. This has been coupled with 3 x 1hr gym sessions a week of both cardio and weight work.

[48Valves]

You need to include things like tea and coffee. If you have 6 cups of tea at 25 calories each thats an additional 150 calories.

Having done something similar I would echo two things from above.

1. Weighing ingredients and portions is critical. You could be supprised how much you are potentially over eating.

2. Calories burnt through exercise is often grossly over estimated. Especially walkiing.

[bigandclever]

I might be missing something, but if we take week of 25 December as an example:

You ingested about 14000 cals
You expended just over 4000 cals
So you took in 10000 cals more than you used that week.

Which is a lot, but every week you're not in deficit.

Apologies if I've misread something.

[S100HP]

bigandclever said:

I might be missing something, but if we take week of 25 December as an example:

You ingested about 14000 cals
You expended just over 4000 cals
So you took in 10000 cals more than you used that week.

Which is a lot, but every week you're not in deficit.

Apologies if I've misread something.

14000/7 = 2000 per day

4000/7 = 571 per day

1428 consumed per day average

[Granfondo]

S100HP are you drinking alcohol?

[S100HP]

Granfondo said:

S100HP are you drinking alcohol?

Nope, don't drink

HarryFlatters said:

Are you weighing stuff as you make your food, or just going "that's about 100g of ham", or "that's about a tablespoon of honey".

If so, alter your intake of carbs to protein heavily in favour of protein.

I generally try to weigh most things

Fun Bus said:

Assume you're exercising?

Yep. Try to cycle to work twice a week, 45 mins each way and run twice a week too, along with about an hour or so of dog walking each day.

Vocal Minority said:

Can you humor us and give us a typical day of everything you consume, down to the last raisin and morning coffee?

If I'm honest maybe this is the crux of the issue. I might only be eating 1800 calories a day, but its not "good" food I suppose. Tesco meal deal, bit of this, bit of that. Not much green stuff, bit too much bread/pasta I think. Having just looked back at myfitnesspal daily diary I'm a bit ashamed to post it, so I think I might have worked out the issue...

[Robertj21a]

A Tesco meal deal, plus bread and pasta should have given you a clue all along. Vegetables and salad items are a good way of bulking up intake with little impact on calories.

[dojo]

Also depends on your height and current weight??

Also the macros of your diet?

Also if you're eating high salt content you might get water retention

[silverous]

1) How strict are you being monitoring calories - everything including milk in tea/coffee etc. - I use myfitnesspal. I suspect the type of food also has a bearing, not just calories alone e.g. if they were all bacon sandwiches or chocolate or beer calories Also portion control - do you count a "typical" spaghetti bolognese meal calories and then polish off a massive serving plus finish off your partner/kid/dog's portion too? I was doing that.
2) Are you drinking water - apparently it helps both in terms of making you feel full ut also in the
3) Are you doing exercise, I'm not sure you can do it just on calories alone. I started out targetting 1,800 per day but droped it to 1,500 although typically I'm over.

With the above I've lost 3 stones and counting. If you have any interest in football I can highly recommend the ManvFat programme operating in many local areas - it helped me to lose weight by having the peer pressure of a weigh-in but also in terms of getting exercise through playing football.

Edited by silverous on Thursday 11th January 14:08

[S100HP]

dojo said:

Also depends on your height and current weight??

Also the macros of your diet?

Also if you're eating high salt content you might get water retention

Having looked back at them on MFP, carbs are about right but protein down around 10% and fat up 10% than target. Salt is constantly high too.

Clearly need to eat "cleaner" rather than focus on calories.

[HarryFlatters]

If your salt intake is high, you'll retain water like a sponge.

Change from bread and pasta to salad and veg. The weight should start coming off. What you eat is equally important as how much.