Hi,
I"m frustrated now, I'm at the point at WW where i want to give up. Knowing that's not a option, I'm plugging through but unhappy about it!! So i was curious, went on and calculated my BMR. Its said i burn about 1700 calories/day doing nothing. So how am i not losing every week when I'm eating approx 1200-1500 calories a day? Makes no sense. Is that not enough of a deficit? I weighed yesterday and was the same as the week before. I track everyday and now have also incorporated MyFitnessPal to see what the calories are each day. Ugh!!! I don't want to quit but this shouldn't be so difficult.
Also, do any of you believe that your body gets very screwed up if you try different diets over the past 20 years? Does my body not know what to do anymore? I'm so discouraged that I seem to be the only one on here without steady or big losses what gives?????
I think that every body is different. I know that calories out vs calories in makes sense on paper, but we all know that isn't how it really works. Some of our bodieslose well when we eat carbs, other don't. Some have to exercise, others don't. Some can go without friuit or veggies, other don't.
I know that in order for my body to lose weight I must eat fruit and vegetables every day. I also have to drink lots of water. Don't get discouraged with small losses. It will add up. Take the time to look at your journals and find the weeks you seemed to lose best. See what the comon factor was. Take the time to learn what makes YOUR body lose.
I can understand your frustration since it seems to bed a common theme with me too. I can eat below my points, not touch my weeklies, eat some of my activity points (I usually ave 5-7 per day) and gain weight. And other weeks I can eat all my points, all my ap's and lose....go figure?
I think our bodies have their own system and just are not going to clue us in until we do some investigating on our own. I have discovered for me that I have to get in all my veggies and then some everyday & drink 10-14 glasses of water each day to see any movement on the scale. My weekends are the hardest and I usually see a slight gain or little to no loss on weigh in Mondays but by Wednesday there is a loss so I know what is going on. It only took me 8 months to figure it out
i too am at a stand still. seems i am slowly going through a stop sigh right now. i know if i exercise allot i need more calories. so i eat back half my APs. just dip into my weeklies by about 5 or so. i am now readjusting my points and exercise again. i too am on myfitnesspal. i like just checking to see where i am at. just keep at it. i was surprised i lost 1.8 last night. so lighten up on my exercise helped this week. i think because i didn't add more food to compensate. it has to balance.
sorry to ramble, really tired.
Nononono... look, if your BMR is 1700 cals and you are gaining weight you are obviously eating more than that... please, forget the "my body is different stuff"... the only option is you are not making good accounting.
It was the same for me with MyfitnessPal, it overrates burned calories and it lies upon you, so I started with balancek, and at the beginning it was hard to admit I was only burning 1500 calories a day, but when i started weighting myself it all made sense.
COUNT CALORIES the right way and it will all make sense.
Yeah, there is in fact some metabolic variability across populations of matched gender and size. However, it's not massive.... maybe 15% plus or minus. Which implies that there can be a 30% difference between the top and bottom. That's significant.
But still, the calculators out there shoot you an average. So all things being equal, your basal energy expenditure may be lower than that by 15% or so.
Beyond this, if you've been dieting for an appreciable period of time, something known as adaptive thermogenesis is very real. You can read more about it in the article linked in this thread:
Lastly, as someone mentioned above... the vast majority of times where people are stalled, the stall is being fueled by a miscalculation of calorie intake. Humans really stink at tracking calories.
Lastly, as someone mentioned above... the vast majority of times where people are stalled, the stall is being fueled by a miscalculation of calorie intake. Humans really stink at tracking calories.
A very good reply Steve... 30% seems to much (is that sourced somewhere?) but I agree with the rest
COUNT CALORIES the right way and it will all make sense.
I am counting my calories the right way! I'm on WW and Myfitnesspal. I"m not hundreds of calories off to not be losing weight! Something else is going on, doesn't make sense.
A very good reply Steve... 30% seems to much (is that sourced somewhere?) but I agree with the rest
Thanks.
And yeah, I did grab that figure from a paper a long while back. I believe it was this one, but I could be wrong. It's been a while since I dug into the data about this.
I am counting my calories the right way! I'm on WW and Myfitnesspal. I"m not hundreds of calories off to not be losing weight! Something else is going on, doesn't make sense.
Are you weighing your food using a scale? Not that I advocate doing that indefinitely... but I definitely think it's the first measure one should take when they're stalled. Especially seeing as how in the vast majority of cases the underlying issues is an underestimation of calorie intake. Start with the most likely and then work backwards.
Yes I weigh any meat that i have for dinner and am always accurate about that. I don't guesstimate, and if I eat out, i tend to overcompensate using my points.
Yes I weigh any meat that i have for dinner and am always accurate about that. I don't guesstimate, and if I eat out, i tend to overcompensate using my points.
You weigh your meat but what about everything else? Obviously you're not weighing the foods you eat at restaurants, but I'm sure you're eating more than just meat at home... right?
Sorry if this is rudimentary... I don't mean to offend. I deal with a lot of people, is all, and 95%+ of the time, the issue lies in actual calorie intake vs. assumed calorie intake... hence my reason for focusing on it here.
No, i understand. I eat the portions per serving and calculate that way. If it's rice, i measure rice. If it's a potato i calculate the size. If i eat baked chips, i actually count out the chips lol!!!! Like i just had an english muffin with natural peanut butter. Measured the pb and calculated the eng muff.
In Weight Watchers, it's impossible to know how many calories i'm eating as its' a points system so i also calculate my calories to see where i'm at on another site. For the most part it's 1200 +/- a few calories.
Last edited by pointspluspioneer; 04-26-2012 at 11:01 AM.
Sorry for the double post here, but another major consideration is this...
How long have you been plateaued? You asked why you're not losing every single week if you're always eating your BMR. And that's a logical question since you're obviously expending more than your BMR each day unless you're pretty much in a coma.
But firstly, that question assumes the BMR you're calculating is actually accurate for you.
Secondly, that question assumes the number of calories you're consuming is actually accurate.
And we've covered those things above.
Lastly, the question implies that a calorie deficit will lead to a loss on the scale each and every week. This isn't the case. Weight loss is not a linear process, deficit or not. Remember, weight factors in a variety of variables that are just that - independently variable. Meaning some variables can be rising while others are falling.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen with my female clients water weight masking true fat loss. Which means in any given week, fat loss might be happening which is undetectable on the scale.
So in short, I just want to make sure you're truly plateaued rather than simply working with unrealistic expectations.
BMR Calculations
what gives?????
