[FunWheelDrive]

I've been dieting hard for 2 weeks and I have zero to show for it. I am 6 foot and weight 275lbs. I have been keeping my calories at 1600-2000 every day ( I keep track of everything I eat) I have completely taken pop and sugary fluids out of my diet. I don't drink alcohol. I work out 5-6 times a week and every work out I burn 800-1000 calories doing cardio. I do weight train a little bit but only 2-3 times a week and upper body only. But every time I step on the scale (once per week) I am at 275lbs or like last week 275.5lbs! I am 21 years old and have never had really bad eating habits all my life but always have been over weight. I'm so confused as to what to do or what I'm doing wrong? I always eat a healthy breakfast which includes: Banana, yogurt, fiber 1 bar, apple and half a cup of cereal. Some days not even that much food, I never eat late at night. Please help, there is nothing more frustrating then working this hard 5-6 days a week and watching your diet to show zero results.

[ERHR]

I suspect you just need to give it some more time! It sounds like you're starting a lot of great habits! Please don't despair and just keep it up.

The only little suggestion I might make is to consider 1) eating more calories and 2) cutting down on carbohydrates. You're so tall and with such an intense workout schedule you really might need more calories to sustain your body (even while losing). And I know you only gave a sample breakfast, but it has a lot of sugar and is basically all carbs. (If the rest of your meals are similar) I would recommend eating much more fat and protein and cutting back on the carbs.

[indiblue]

Hey! Welcome to 3FC!

There's a bunch of info in your posts so I'll try to break it down one by one

1. How do you know you eat 1600-2000 calories a day? Do you weigh your food? If you are measuring it or eyeballing it you could be wayyyy underestimating how much food you are eating.

2. There's no way to know how many calories you are burning from exercise. Personally I don't think it's worth trying to figure it out Just exercise for fitness' sake and bank whatever calories you burn as a nice little addition to your deficit. If you are super hungry on heavy exercise days, add 100-200 additional calories through healthy snacks and that's IT.

3. How much water are you drinking?

4. Your breakfast looks pretty large. I have no idea quantity but I'm going to take a stab at counting the cals. Banana = 120 cals, Yogurt= 150 (depending on how much, full fat versus fat free or 2%), fiber one- 160 apple = 130 cereal = 70. Total= 630, but could be as much as 700+ or more depending on the size of the fruit, what type of cereal (and do you add milk?) and how much yogurt.

Nothing wrong with a big breakfast at all, it just needs to fit within your caloric limits. Are you sure your lunch and dinner each are no more than 500-600? (No way to know for sure unless you measure )

5. Your bfast looks all carbs and sugar. Some carbs and sugar are fine, and perhaps you are eating tons and tons of protein and veggies later in the day for a well-rounded diet. But if you have a sandwich for lunch and mashed potatoes + pasta for dinner you could be not getting enough protein. A lot of people see great results after increasing their intake of lean protein and reducing how many grains and carbs they get. Just a thought. It could also help you eat a smaller breakfast- cut out the Fiber One bar, replace the cereal with an egg, and instead of banana + apple do banana + 1 tbs peanut butter. It would give you a bit more protein to keep you fuller longer.

Maybe some other folks here will have some other great advice. Keep up the good work!! You can do this.

[Lovely]

Welcome to 3FC!

First of all, congratulations on making some changes and adding in activity!

I have to get some groundwork out of the way before I start making suggestions.

1) You've only been at this two weeks. That's not a long time to always assess changes.

2) Not all changes will show on the scale. I'm not sure if you're male or female, but some changes will take longer than others. Have you started measuring yourself with a tape measure? Have you started taking some pictures to compare?

3) It's really difficult to actually tell how many calories you've burned during a workout. Estimators on equipment & online are notorious for, well, overestimating by a lot.

4) Weight loss and changing habits are trial and error. This is natural for everyone to get to a point where they need to switch some things up or take a look at what they're doing. It happens all along the journey. So, while you might be frustrated now, there are solutions ... but they will take time to find. (Kudos for reaching out for help instead of just throwing in the towel!)

5) There are some really popular myths out there that when you eat has to do with weight loss. There's absolutely no research that proves this fact. It does not matter if you eat late at night. I often do, and I've lost 45 pounds. What does and can matter, though... how many calories total you're eating.

6) Exercise, when we first begin it can actually cause water retention. It makes it look like we've gained weight when in actuality... it's not FAT. So that could affect what you're seeing on the scale.
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Now that those things are out of the way, here's what I see.

You mention what you eat for breakfast, and while you say you cut out sugary drinks I have to wonder if you noticed that there's sugar in each and every item that you listed you eat for breakfast. Yogurt... Fiber One Bar... Cereal... very often have sugars or high fructose corn syrup in them. You don't mention what brands for all, but a lot of these things do have sugars in them so it's just something to at least be mindful of even if you don't want to change it.

Now, some people have sugar sensitivities, etc. Some people prefer to cut it out as much as possible. I don't personally have a huge problem with sugar, but it is something I like to take note of, and I have cut out a lot of brands from my life that had HFCS in them... simply because sugar does not need to be every single thing I eat.

Do you have that half a cup of cereal with milk? Remember to count the milk.

The banana & apple are fruit and contain a lot of natural fiber and nutrients so those things don't set off any alarms. If you really wanted to change something about them, eat one or the other at breakfast time and not both, but again, fruit doesn't really affect me in a bad way.

Where is your protein and when are you getting your vegetables? You did give us a glimpse of your breakfast, but maybe the rest of the day would help us give a more detailed feedback.

You're probably going to get a lot of suggestions and ideas. We may not be able to give you concrete answers about what's going on inside of your body (we're just online, we can't see everything), but we will be able to point out what we see from what you post. And hopefully, you'll be able to get some good advice for your situation

[FunWheelDrive]

thanks for the tips to answer some questions. I have the "lose it" app on my iPhone and put everything I eat on it. I don't drink milk with cereal. I normally go for an hour or more 5-6 days a week on the treadmill running 4-5 miles and a solid heart rate of 160 for an hour. I am the most psychically fit fat person I know lol. Lunch I normally have a sandwich 600 calories and dinner is normally like a stir fry or something simlar, pasta ect, love steak but nothing bigger then an 8oz ever.

[Unna]

indiblue: your calorie estimation was quite high (and I'm a known OVER-estimator). That would be a HUGE apple and banana. I weigh my bananas and apples and banana: 90 - 100, apple 50 - 60. I dunno.... maybe the fruit in America is currently gi-normous because of all the crazy genetic engineering.

Anyway, FunWheelDrive, since you are confident that you are doing everything quite well, then just keep at it. Your plan sounds reasonable. Maybe cut out salty things for a few days or buy a new scale?

[indiblue]

My Fitness Pal spits out 120 for a large banana (which most in the US are) and 110 for a large apple (which most in the US are). So perhaps the apple was an overestimate by 20 calories.

As I mentioned in my post, I went with the size of the OP's fruit was, I went with the upper caloric range based on the size of fruit in the US. So yes, OP, please feel free to adjust downward if you are eating less.

[yoyoma]

For long term weight management success, you will have to wrap your mind around this...

Even though a single day, a single meal, and sometimes each darn minute can be a struggle, you really can't assess weight progress in time scales of less than a month. This is especially true for women, but also for men.

The scale could be intransigent because you are retaining water from the exercise, or maybe some extra salt snuck in your diet the day before, or maybe you ate a lot of bulky vegetables that were still in your gut when you stepped on the scale. Seriously, these can up your reading by several pounds IN THE SHORT TERM. But in the longer term, exercising and eating healthy high fiber food will sustain weight loss.

I say keep at for another couple weeks and then see if you are making scale progress. Even if not you are still making healthy/fitness progress, and that's great! But since you also do want to make scale progress, then it would be time to look at your diet with a microscope and brainstorm some more.

[bargoo]

Welcome . I suggest giving it more time. Rate of weight loss varies from person to person. Good luck !