Diet and Exercise 1 month and no change in weight.

[SammyHowell]

Okay so for the past month I have been logging all of my calories in MFP. I also decided to start doing 10,000+ steps every single day and I’ve hit that goal every day for the past 3 weeks. I currently eat 1550 calories, give or take 100. I just got my Fitbit a couple days ago so I could start monitoring my stats better. My Fitbit has shown around 18,000 steps (with elliptical workouts included) the past couple days. I’m skeptical of this number, however, so I keep my phone on me as well to count my iPhone steps, too. IPhone tells me it is around 11,000, so at least I’m still getting a good number of steps in. Calories burned is around 3000 when I also go to the gym in addition to my walks with my dog. So what i don’t understand, is how I’m eating a 1,500 calorie deficit supposedly, and still not losing weight. I’ve been so proud of myself for being more active, but this is really discouraging. Any tips or advice? 

P.S. All my profile settings are correct, so that’s not the issue. 

[Daves_Not_Here]

Welcome @SammyHowell -- assuming you are logging all your eating fairly accurately, including snacking, and you truly have a 1,500 calorie deficit, your situation is perplexing to me.

(Kudos for having the numbers.  Many are convinced they have a calorie deficit, but can't say by how much.  I target 1,500 calories of food per day, and it's quite an adjustment - I feel like I hardly eat and it would be very easy for me to overshoot if I wasn't tracking)

Could you share how close you are to your ideal weight and what your meals consist of?  Also, did you already have a high level of fitness when you started a month ago?

[SammyHowell]

Thanks for the response @Daves_Not_Here! I’m currently at 148lbs. I’m a 5ft 7 female at age 22. My goal weight is 135. I’ve been watching my calories for a long time. My heaviest weight was 172 but that was a few years back. These last 15lbs have been very hard to get rid of. I feel like I’m barely eating most of the time. Yesterday I had a breakfast sandwich (English muffin, egg, ham, cheddar cheese) that is about 300-320 calories. Lunch was a turkey wrap from Trader Joe’s (420), and then had thai curry soup for dinner. I measured the ingredients out and it was about 500. I also had a payday fun size since it was Halloween a couple days ago. So I get that its not the healthiest foods ever, but regardless I have been counting all those calories.

Maybe I’m getting too many carbs throughout the day? Or maybe my Fitbit is just way off on how many calories I actually burn. I work at a grocery store and am on my feet for 8 hours, so do my stats seem far off?

[WavyDavey]

You're in good hands with @Daves_Not_Here.

I suspect the food logging. It's very easy to underestimate calories consumed.  3000 calories burned seems reasonable, assuming your workouts are fairly intense and since you're on your feet during work hours. The calories burned is calculated from your heart rate and exercise, and there's not much we can do to adjust that. So any adjustment would have to be on the calories in side.

Personally, I think your calorie deficit may be too much, and could be flattening your metabolism. You're looking at 50% reduction in calories, which is 3 pounds expected loss per week (more than I would do given your weight/age) . So before you make a bigger deficit, you might try reducing the deficit from what it is for a week or two.  I just can't bring myself to recommend you going into a deeper deficit.

@SammyHowell, about how many days a week are you in the gym?

[SammyHowell]

@WavyDavey Thanks for your input! Im really hesitant to up my caloric intake. Everywhere I have read on the internet says to lose a steady 1lb a week I should eat around 1500-1700 calories, seeing how my BMR is supposed to be around 2100-2200. The only reason I am hesitant is because I’m new to the Fitbit, and im not sure how accurate my readings are. IPhone tells me 10k, while Fitbit tells me 18k. Today I got 17k steps(it counts a great deal of steps when I’m stocking shelves and even blow drying my hair) and burned 375cal on the elliptical, so I allowed myself a bit more food. I’m really bad about going to the gym regularly, but that’s why I started going for really long walks with my dog. My goal was to get 10k steps logged on the iPhone Health app, but then i decided to get Fitbit. I’m gonna start going to the gym more regularly. I just don’t understand what im doing wrong. Maybe my results will just be slower since I’m at a more ideal weight now for my height and age?

Is it possible that my walks with my dog weren’t fast enough? Maybe I’ll only lose weight if my HR is in the cardio zone? My HR during my walks were around 90-110.

[Baltoscott]

@SammyHowell — I ran your BMR on this calculator and it came in at about 1500.  Guessing you come in at “lightly active” based on what you’ve said means if you are an ‘average’ 22 y/o female 5’7” 148 lbs, you need around 2200/day to maintain your current weight. (If fitbit is estimating more, it is probably overestimating — just figure out by how much and adjust accordingly). And, of course, you may not be average.  Your metabolism may be little slower. 

Even so, 1550 cal/day seems like a pretty good target for losing weight.  Does it seem like enough, or are you always hungry? Being hungry for 30-60 minutes before your next meal is normal and something to shoot for, but constant hunger leads to binges and you can really wreak your average calorie count if you go off the deep end a couple times/week. (Binges are really hard to record in MFP accurately, if they get recorded at all, your brain just doens’t want to cooperate).   Constant hunger also leads to underestimating portion size and a few spoon fulls of this and that throughout the day.  Never enough to record in MFP, mind you, except ... well, you know how it goes.

If you ARE hungry much of the time on 1550 cal/day, try changing what you eat.  Instead of the ham/egg/chess sandwich, dump the bread and processed cheese to save 200 calories and replace them with something more filling.  Maybe scramble a couple of eggs, 1/4 avocado, half an onion, some bell peppers, some salsa ... .  Keep the turkey from the turkey wrap and put in on top of a spinch salad, add some tomatoes and olives, maybe some walnuts.  (The soup sounded good.  If you make extra it could be part of a base for an omlate the next morning).  Nothing wrong with a little Halloween treat at the end of the day, but don’t forget to count the calories for that too.  Everything goes into the log if want to get a handle on this.

[Daves_Not_Here · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the kind words, @WavyDavey.  @SammyHowell, thanks for the clarifications.  I have some thoughts, that you should take as "unqualified musings by a crank on the internet, proceed with caution".

• Given that you walk around 8 hours a day, I believe you probably are much more physically fit than the average person of your age and weight.  If so, you will burn less calories for a given activity level, and I think Fitbit will tend to overestimate your calorie burn.  By how much I don't know, but if Fitbit is projecting a 1,000 calorie deficit, your actual might be half that.  If it projects a 500 calorie deficit, you might be at break-even. 
• You don't have much more weight to lose (unlike a certain internet crank who shall remain nameless) and are closing in on your goal weight.  You have less blood in the turnip, and these last pounds will be the most stubborn.  Your metabolism is lower than it's been if only because of your reduced weight.  Therefore to maintain the same calorie deficit will require further reduction in eating (just what you wanted to hear, I know).
• I have to agree with @Baltoscott that changing up your eating routine and meal composition will help.  I believe that to lose weight aggressively, you cannot just reduce the portions of the same foods you've been eating while you've been stalled, you have to change what you are eating.
• Do you have hunger?  If so, I'd learn and use all the tricks to reduce appetite (water, sleep, fat, low-carb)
• I think it helps to vary your calorie deficit.  One day at -1,500 and the next day at 0 beats two days at -750.  This is only my opinion, but I think it breaks things up,helps you avoid diet fatigue, and might bump your metabolism a little bit. 
• As to increased intensity of exercise and walking faster, yes.  You will burn more calories and elevate your metabolism.  And, if you've had a calorie deficit for awhile, your natural tendency will be to conserve energy, which you need to overcome.
• You asked about low-carb.  It works for me, particularly when I eliminate breads and sugars.  At a minimum, you'll drop some water weight which may help you get jump-started again.  Most importantly, it's a change in routine that will shake things up.
• Last thought and the hardest to accept:  if you are not losing weight over time, it is pretty strong evidence that you no longer have a calorie deficit, regardless of what the Fitbit dashboard may say.  The likeliest cause is unrecorded snacking that creeps in as a result of diet fatigue.

Hope this helps.  You are a new poster to this forum -- we want to hear your results!

[SammyHowell]

@Baltoscott @WavyDavey @Daves_Not_Here You guys have been sooo helpful! Thank you so much. I will try and change up the foods that I am eating and see if that helps. I tried a low carb for a while, lasted about a month, but it’s just not for me. Bread is my favorite food, so I’ll just have to tone it down a bit. I will let you guys know my results after about a week or so 🙂 Good luck on your fitness journeys!

[Baltoscott]

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@SammyHowell wrote:

@Baltoscott @WavyDavey @Daves_Not_Here You guys have been sooo helpful! Thank you so much. I will try and change up the foods that I am eating and see if that helps. I tried a low carb for a while, lasted about a month, but it’s just not for me. Bread is my favorite food, so I’ll just have to tone it down a bit. I will let you guys know my results after about a week or so 🙂 Good luck on your fitness journeys!

---

Hmmmm, BREAD ... Hot, sourdough with some real butter ...  

Yeah, that can be pretty hard to cut back on. 

Thanks for starting the thread @SammyHowell, and do keep us in the loop. 

Your bread comment reminds me of the first step I took toward losing weight this year.  I realized I was having a couple of drinks almost every night -- usually a beer when I got home after a long day, and maybe another or a glass of wine with my wife once dinner was done.  Not that big of a deal, I thought, given that I bike commute about 15 miles every day.  But I was over 200 lbs, which was +15-20 over the 180 to 185 I had come to accept as normal for me.  And a couple of good beers can easily get to 400 calories.  And after two beers, you feel pretty good and might even have a third once or a couple of times a week.  I really enjoy beer ... local IPAs, making my own from beer kits, german hefe weizen, and so on.   

But I realized it was low hanging fruit and I really don't need it.  That doesn't mean not ever having it.  I gave it up for a month to prove to myself that I could, and after that I committed to taking off every other day from alcohol.  So far it has worked out great.  Odd numbered days are "drinking" days and even numbered days are not.  I thought I might adapt by consuming more on "drinking" days, but I really seem to drink a bit less on those days too; and I'm not so rigid as to completely avoid drinking with friends on even numbered days, though it is usually only one because I'm conscious of breaking my rule.  That little trick alone likely dropped 1000 - 2000 calories out of my diet each week.  No small feat, yet hardly missed.  Indeed, I think I enjoy it more now that I do it less.

For you, maybe bread is the low hanging fruit.  Toning it down makes a lot of sense, but I throw my story out there to suggest that you need a strategy for toning it down.  Elimination of something your really like doesn't make any sense to me.  What is the point of living?  But just saying I will do it less without a plan of how makes success hard to measure.  So maybe every other day, or maybe only with dinner, or some other mindless strategy/rule that makes a significant cut in what you are doing now.  At least for a month or two just to prove to yourself that you can, and to see if that helps you get unstuck in your weight loss journey.  And in the end you might appreciate it more by having it less.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Whoa, let's not get crazy on the whole alcohol reduction idea.  I mean, I'm willing to limit myself to a six-pack one night per month, provided it has 31 days and ends in the letter B.  Otherwise, my strategy to avoid hangovers is to remain drunk.

Seriously, there is a lot of wisdom in what @Baltoscott suggests -- if there is some food you "can't" give up, but that is frustrating your weight-loss progress, that's a reason in itself to determine how you will control it, if only for reasons of self-mastery. 

Breads are a special case:  they spike your blood sugar, which spikes insulin, which spikes appetite (and a proportionally higher conversion of blood sugar to adipose fat), which spikes bread consumption -- truly a vicious circle that spikes your weight-loss progress.  I'm suggesting that to continue to enable such a vicious circle in the face of a weight-loss stall is to guarantee frustration of the type you are currently experiencing.

I have a weakness for crunchy carbs, such as pita chips and breakfast cereals.  If I eat one pita chip, I'll tend to mow through the whole bag.  Since I can resist anything but temptation, it's a lot easier for me to prevent overeating pita chips by eliminating the craving on the front end.  And the confidence I gain in seeing that I can do what I formerly was convinced I "can't" drives other virtuous choices.

Such as my choice this morning to stop procrastinating and start drinking early.

[Willow2017]

I have the same situation and have posted on here a few days ago regarding this.

here is my post 

Hi,
thanks for your response. I get that. Now, the new thing which I am noticing over the course of 5 days I have been using it. I think it is estimating too higher calorie burn.
Bear with and I will explain. I think I also have evidence to prove this.

I did MFP for 1 year. My weight stagnated about 3 months ago when I decided to give my body a rest from reduced calorie intake. So I lost 35 pounds from november 2016 to August 2017.
I worked out my TDEE online and it averaged between 2,100 - 2,200 this seemed to be in keeping with MFP projection of a daily calorie intake of 1,450 for a 1.5lb weight loss per week 2,200 - 750 = 1,450. It averaged out at 1.1lbs weight loss a week ( which I was happy with). So this has led me to believe my TDEE was somewhere between 1,950 - 2,050.

So, I have been eating for the last 3 months around 1,700 - 1,900 per day.... so more of a maintaining state really and I have maintained. Not lost and not gained.

So, i have had a Fitbit and been wearing it for 5 days now. I am generally burning TDEE between 2,650-2,850 calories per day! I know all about BMR and the calories I will burn for just going about my daily business.
My question is...... going by the evidence I have laid out above this seems incorrect. Because
1.) if my TDEE was this high then I would still have been losing weight the last 3 months because 2,650-2,850 - 750 would have worked out between 1,900 - 2,100 and I have been eating just under this.
2.) if my TDEE really is 2,650-2,850 then I am in a deficit of 1,250 as a minimum! 2.5lb weight loss a week! I don’t think so. This is impossible.

So, it my Fitbit Alta HR giving me inaccurate calorie burns.

Thank you for reading. Looking forward to some opinions

[SammyHowell]

@Willow2017 This is totally the same thing that’s been happening with me. I lost the 1st 30 lbs over the course of about 3-4 years, simply by being more aware of my calorie intake and exercising more here and there. Fitbit has been showing me a lot of weird readings that I’m not too sure about. I think the best thing to do is stick to a certain amount of calories per day, regardless of what the calories burned says. Mine has said 3,300 calories burned the past couple days, but I also wake up at an ungodly hour (3:20) for work, and don’t go to bed until 9. My job requires me to be on my feet all day, and then i go to the gym after work. So I don’t know, maybe it’s not too far off. I think I just need to get a couple weeks worth of stats and adjust accordingly.

Good luck to you Willow! 🙂

[Baltoscott]

@Willow2017 -- I think different users have different experiences, but Fitbit seems to overestimate my calorie burn too.  For most of the six or seven months I was losing weight this year, fitbit's calculated caloric deficit was around 1000-2000/day for a 2-4 lb weekly loss.  (Lots of exercise in the equation).  My actual loss was usually about half that, so basically I just operated under the assumption that for me a fitbit calculated deficit of 1000 or 1500 was probably really only 500-750. By weighing in daily and keeping track of the trend I was able to make the necessary adjustments. 

@Daves_Not_Here has had a different experience in that it seems to underestimate his calorie burn. 

[WavyDavey]

Mine underestimates calories burned. The only guess is that my strength training is mostly anaerobic, and Fitbit is looking more at aerobic and heart rate. I don't think it can properly factor in effort that isn't reflected in heart rate. It ends up being about a 250-300 calorie deficit in itself.

[EmjayH]

@SammyHowell Calorie cycling might be a good idea for you. My trainer puts me on that when my weightloss seems to flatline a bit. As @Daves_Not_Here stated you need a couple of days at maintenance a week then the rest of the week at a calorie deficient. 

Eat ur bread and carbs on maintenance days then stay away from them the rest of the week. If ur eating at a deficient for the week then it might help to jumpstart ur weight loss. It's kinda like mixing it up to confuse ur body. Force it to do what you want it to do 

[Willow2017]

Ok, I have 8 days of stats from Fitbit Alta HR now. I am feeling a bit more positive.

I changed my stride length...... I worked mine out and input that figure..... 

I noticed my height was 5ft 5in on both but I am actually 5’4 1/2 so I input that on both. 

I did a 40 min walk with the dog just now and I took my iPhone and used my previous app ( it’s not connected to MFP) just to see any differences. I previously lost all my weight using this walk app so think it’s pretty accurate. Here is what I found. My Fitbit says I did 3,902 steps during this 40 min workout. My walk meter app on iPhone says I did 3,959 steps. I am happy with this as I would rather it undercount by about 59 than over count by  800 which is what it did yesterday ( before altering the settings). These odd 50 may even it out as *extra steps from just arm movements when not walking*.

Secondly,  I did some looking over my figures. My bmr is roughly calculated at 1,555.

So eating 1,440 may not be enough? I have heard you should not eat below your BMR.

so considering I only have 14-20 pounds left to lose 1.5lb a week might be a bit too aggressive. So I have changed it to a 1lb loss per week. Bring me just above my BMR.

Thirdly,  I have 8 days of Fitbit stats now so my average daily burn is 2,441 - 500 = 1,941.

I think MFP has me down as a TDEE of 2190. So out by 251. I am happy to take these figures at present and see what happens over the next 3-4 weeks. 

[SammyHowell]

@Willow2017 Glad to hear your Fitbit is adjusting! I changed my stride length too, not sure if it changed much, but I’m hoping it’s more accurate now. I’m having problems with the HR monitor now. It rarely ever peaks when I’m on the elliptical, even though I’m pushing myself really hard and sweating up a storm. Seems like my HR is anywhere from 10-30 beats off from the machine. Bummer 😞

[zoebray]

@Baltoscott Yes, I'm with you. Probably I do also think that everyone has a different experience on the journey to lose weight. In research, it proved that Yoga as exercise not only makes you healthy and fit but also makes you lose weight. Intense styles of yoga help you burn the most calories. This may help prevent weight gain. One study found that restorative yoga was effective in helping overweight women to lose weight, including abdominal fat. I have different yoga postures from Yoga Burn DVD which challenge me to lose weight.