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- - HOW am I still not losing? (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weight-loss-support/303753-how-am-i-still-not-losing.html)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koshka (Post 5159333)

This! Using a kitchen scale is a really good way to learn portion sizes and track accurately.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koshka (Post 5159333)

I eat about 1200 calories a day. I also track my food. My sense is that you don't have the calorie deficit you think you have.

1. Weigh and measure your food. It is better to weigh it than use a measure of volume. I was once eating some popcorn from a bag. The serving size was 3 cups or 1 once. I always measured 3 cups. One day I couldn't find my cup measure so I weighed it. It turned out that 1 ounce was about 1.5 cups! Don't eyeball. Weigh. When you are eating low calories, being off a little big matters.

2. Make sure what you are using to count calories is correct. I go by package when I have it. If a restaurant I go to the website for the most current data. I limit going to restaurants that don't post calorie counts. I count calories using MyFitnessPal. I scan in from the package bar code when I can. If I need to use something someone else has entered into MFP I check to make sure it is right. Sometimes it is old info and isn't right or the person just didn't do it right.

3. Do you have an activity monitor? I have a Fitbit Charge HR and it is super helpful to see how many calories I burn each day. I know it isn't exact, but it gives me a good ballpark. I sync MFP with it to see my calorie deficit. Again, it isn't exact but gives me some idea. Sometimes weight loss seems delayed from when you might expect it. That is, I have a week with a good deficit and lose little then the next week it all shows up.

4. On formulas to get your basal metabolic rate. I like to use the Katch McArdle formula because it uses body fat. Most formulas don't. You may find you have a lower BMR if you use it. If you don't have anything to measure body fat, you can use the Navy method (it uses measurements).

5. If you really want to know your BMR and body fat percentage find a place that does BodPod and metabolic rate testing. Some hospitals do it in their sports performance clinics.

6. Limit eating out. Restaurants are notorious for their calorie counts being understated. You can guard against that by not eating out much.

7. FWIW, the wait until really hungry to eat works for some people but not for others. I tend to eat before I get super hungry. If I wait until too hungry I get ravenous and eat too much. I do best when I fill in my expected day at MFP in the morning so I have a plan for the day. I leave 100 to 200 calories that I still have in reserve that I can use for snacks or small meals (yes, I snack a couple of times a day - usually nuts, berries or a square of dark chocolate).

I am pretty covered on a lot of these things. And keep in mind, I would have to be off by A LOT (like nearly 1500 calories a day) in order to be maintaining my weight, and I just don't see that being possible. Remember I've done this before being a lot less anal and lost 60 pounds.

I do weigh and measure my food. I also overestimate. If a package says a serving size is 1/4 cup, I will fill the 1/4 cup measure just under full to be sure that I'm not underestimating the calories I'm eating.

I go exactly by what packages say and I don't estimate anything. I cook all of my own food so I know exactly what is going into it and in what amounts.

I have a HRM - the polar ft4. But like I said, I don't eat back the calories I burn, they should all be extra. That's an extra 400-800 calories a day on top of my existing 1000 calorie deficit.

I calculated my BMR using 5 different calculators, one of which took into account body fat percentage. The one that took into account my body fat was actually one of the higher estimations.

I only eat out once every two weeks, for exactly that reason. I hate not knowing for sure if their calorie counts are accurate, so I only eat out on my long workout days where I burn an extra thousand or so calories, which I figure will count for any miscalculation in eating out.

I do worry about just eating when I'm hungry and not counting calories. I don't really trust myself to do that without slipping up. I'm not great at distinguishing cravings from hunger all of the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanG (Post 5159077)

Nice. Again, try to step back from the calories. They really do not matter. It's just a number. What matters is how you feel (aim for a little hungry) and whether you can sustain how you feel (e.g. without binges; serious fatigue etc.) to achieve what you want.

If you weigh daily, try cutting for one day and review the results. If it works and was not too bad, repeat. If not, revisit.

And keep a (mental) track of what you eat and how your weight is affected. Not losing is good experience for what to eat at maintenance.

Oh, LITERALLY step back from the calories. I thought you meant that amount-wise. Not like... stop tracking calories.

I'm not entirely sure I trust myself to do that. That is essentially how I put all of this weight back on after losing 60 pounds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rachel2writer (Post 5159798)

I've learned that with my Hashimoto's, I will not lose if my calories go too low. The wrecked metabolism just slows down further. I've played around with my calories and found a sweet spot of 1500-1700 per day works for me. I eat additional calories on days I exercise.

This is interesting. I'm playing with the idea of increasing my calories for a week to see if that changes anything. It's just hard to get over my paranoia that if I'm not losing at 1200, adding back calories is just going to make it harder to lose.

Have you taken body measurements? It's possible to lose fat without losing on the scale. Like Ian said though, follow the hunger. If you're not hungry then you need to eat less. I must say that there's something going on here, though. A woman with your height/size should be losing quite a bit at that calorie level.

VegTraveler,
You will lose weight with your plan! It just might not be in the time frame you expect. But you will lose. I also think upping your cals a bit to see what happens is a great idea if you can stand to do so. And consider having your thyroid checked. Hunger cues in some of us are utterly misleading so I would tread carefully there, except to avoid tanking your blood sugar on physically active days. Wishing you the best!

Quote:

Originally Posted by VegTraveler (Post 5160030)

I do weigh and measure my food. I also overestimate. If a package says a serving size is 1/4 cup, I will fill the 1/4 cup measure just under full to be sure that I'm not underestimating the calories I'm eating.

Go by the weight instead of the cup measurement - it's so much more reliable. If something says serving size 2T (30g) - go by the grams. You may be surprised at what a difference it is. I don't know who is estimating these measurements, but they're off! Weight all the way. If you try it for another few weeks and still have no weight loss, I'd say there is likely some other problem.

UPDATE!!!

Man, you guys. GUYS!

My parents have a pretty expensive and really accurate scale at home. I like to weigh myself on it when I'm at their house because my scale is cheap and I don't trust it 100%, so this weekend I hopped on to see if it thinks I'm still at the same weight I was when I last weighed myself two weeks ago.

Lo and behold... IT SAID I WAS NINE POUNDS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AGO.

Nine pounds.

My scale still says I am the exact same weight.

HAS IT SERIOUSLY BEEN MY SHITTY SCALE THIS ENTIRE TIME?! ARE YOU JOKING ME?!

I've lost nine pounds in two weeks and my scale sucks.

I'm so angry because I've been freaking out all this time, trying to figure out why I wasn't losing. Apparently I was losing. At a pretty great pace, too. GEEZ.

And now that I know I'm losing, I'm noticing that my clothes are fitting differently and that I look quite a bit smaller in the mirror. Wow. Who knew my brain had that much power? Maybe I thought I wasn't losing so I just didn't notice all of the differences? Is that real?

Who knows. Anyway, problem solved. I'm throwing out my scale and sticking to weighing in at my parents' house.

You guys all had really great advice, and I'm going to incorporate a lot of it. It's good to focus on being accurate and doing things correctly!

Thanks :)

^ Sounds like you should also invest in a tape measure ;) Congrats on the loss so far! Keep it up!

Could be. I had an old scale that reported the wrong weight and I lost 5lbs overnight when I got a new one.

For most people it works the other way so I got lucky!

I have heard that hunger may be your body's natural response to burning its fat reserves for energy.

That said, we all lose at different speeds, best advice I can give is to stay the course even if it is slow. I have lost only about 3 lbs in the past 3 months but that is OK.