Need help - not losing weight

[Rach2308]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if someone could help. I have recently started a LONG weight loss journey (i want to lose a minimum of 35kg and even then i'd still be overweight!).

I've done a lot of research this time as I've tried so many times before but never stuck to it and wanted to find a sustainable approach.

This time i've decided to follow the calories the BMR or TDEE calculators show (calculated a few and averaged out) rather than trying to only eat 1,400 because that's what most fads tell you.

At the minute i am eating 2,000 calories (or just under) and am exercising (either cardio or weight YT videos) for 30 minutes a day. I'm also making sure i do 10,000 steps a day, even if that's marching at the side of my computer as I have a WFH desk job!

In the first week i lost around 3kg but over the last 2 weeks i'm just bobbing around a 0.5kg variance and can't seem to lose anymore. I am weighing absolutely everything i eat and tracking in MFP and drinking 2-3ltrs of water a day. I can't figure out what im doing wrong! As i said i have a lot of weight to lose so surely it should be coming off faster! I'm also weighing daily to get data points which i find useful to see fluctuations but getting annoyed that over a 14 day period im practically the same!

I appreciate anyones help!

Rach

Moderator edit: subject for clarity 

[Atomic77]

@Rach2308 Weight loss is a sensitive subject. For all I know the only way to lose weight is to maintain a healthy diet and eat less calories than you burn. Its a long process but I have lost some weight. I used to be a lot bigger and part of my issues were that my thyroid wasn't working the way it should. I have Hashimoto's.

[Baltoscott · Accepted solution]

Hi @Rach2308 --- I don't know how big you are, but 3kg in a week is quite a bit for most folks. When you lose that much in just a week after a diet change it is mostly water. But, water weight tends to go up and down a lot, and you report that you've kept it off for the two weeks after. That's an indication that you've lost some fat too. You are on the right track! Stick with daily exercise and your 2000 calorie plan for a few more weeks and see what happens. You are not likely to see big weekly drops like you did at first, but -- as an overweight person -- if you are dropping around 0.5-1% of your body weight a week, you are right where you want to be. Not too far off from your long-term eating and exercise patterns.  If you are still stuck a couple of weeks from now, try dropping down to 1800 calories for a month and see how that goes.  One more tip:  Whatever your calorie target, try to avoid processed food and instead try to make sure your diet has plenty of whole foods, veggies, fruit and protein at each meal. It is more filling and makes cutting calories a lot easier.  Keep at it!

[Atomic77]

I think weight loss and calories also depend on if your a girl or a guy on what you need to do and what your ideal would be.

[Steventonysmith]

Those ~2000 calories you are taking in, a few questions:
What types of foods are you eating?  2000 calories of McDonalds, and 2000 calories of baked chicken are widely different in nutritional content.

When is your last meal or snack for the day?  I personally set a goal to stop eating anything past 5pm, to give my body enough time before bed to digest and burn off as much as possible before bedtime.  It also helps me sleep better.

[Kris111]

No idea how old you are but our menstrual cycles as women don't help,thats for sure i tend to retin a lot of water and i'd assume other women are the same.

Big suggestion is don't pay attention to your fitbit calories that you so called burn. fitbit trackers can be way off. They are more of a guideline then anything. ALWAYS ALWAYS put your body first and listen to it first before your tracker. Always keep this in mind. Also balance your food. You must have carb/protein and full fat to stop you from overeating.  Personally for half the day i will consume liquids to keep me full until about 3 pm ...sort of intermittent fasting but not really because i always have calories in drinks so i feel full...usually lots of coffee..judge all you want,it works for me,lol. 

Also try to do weights as well as your steps. That's my 2 cents.

[Heybales]

Your Fitbit is giving you a daily TDEE reading, but of course for planning it may be easier to do the standard avg Weekly TDEE method so you eat the same amount daily.

No need to be guessing from probably 5 levels of activity on probably TDEE calcs based on tired 1919 study by Harris when you have a device on you ready to give you about 1000 levels of activity.

Just keep a running avg, I'd suggest 2 week running avg.

With that much to lose, if otherwise healthy, you could do 1000 cal deficit until 50 lbs left to go. Then 750 down to 30 left, then 500 to 15, then 250.

Manually set daily eating goal if the 2 wk avg changes.

If you want to skip the Fitbit because you don't trust it for some reason, at least use a TDEE calc that allows differences in daily activity and exercise type and time.

Because I'll bet most if not all the TDEE calcs you found would give the same TDEE to say a mail route carrier 6 hrs a day and family man nights and weekends who workouts 4 x weekly, and a single desk jockey who games nights/weekends but also does 4 x weekly workouts - if their BMR was the same they'd be given the same TDEE.

And that just ain't the case.

As well as - is 30 min of walking 3 x weekly the same Lightly-Active level as 1.5 hr intense bike ride 3 x weekly?

Hardly.

Try this. Can track results at the bottom - and most important for any estimate you get (they all are anyway), with accurate food tracking it sounds like you are doing, you can adjust the calc based on results.

Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing 

[emili]

@Rach2308 but how much are you burning? If there is very little to no difference on a weekly average of how much you eat vs burn. then you won't be losing a significant amount or you would be staying put where you are. Weight loss is a test and learn adventure until you work out the formula that works best for you. You can either try to reduce your intake a bit or increase your burn a bit to see if it makes a difference. It is finding the sweet spot that your body agrees with. Good luck on your adventure and kudos to you for making a positive change to your lifestyle. 

[Lornate]

If you can afford it I would consult with a dietician who can tell you your caloric needs.  That way you aren’t guessing and will know exactly what you should be eating. 

[Heybales]

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@Lornate wrote:

If you can afford it I would consult with a dietician who can tell you your caloric needs.  That way you aren’t guessing and will know exactly what you should be eating. 

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If you can afford the time and effort to log you won't need a dietician - who frankly has no idea "exactly what you should be eating" for caloric needs.

They are going to ask the exact same questions as any site, what is your daily activity and your exercise, they will get stats, and they will make an educated experienced estimate.

Even a lab setting could not know "exactly" how much you should eat, because in a lab is no longer daily life, therefore not burning the same amount.

If one wanted to drink some double-labeled water and collect all their pee and poop for a week during normal daily life they could know.

But I'll bet most would rather log their food accurately for 4 weeks and then just go off results on the scale using valid weigh-ins.

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello everyone and thanks for your input! @Rach2308 welcome to the community forums! 

@Rach2308 I also want to share with you a blog where you can get more information about how to lose weight fast. Please click here to get more details: How to Lose Weight Fast (the Healthy Way)

Hope this also helps!

[Lornate]

There is a test called resting metabolic rate that a dietician can perform to calculate how many calories someone needs just to live. This is done with a breathing machine that measures multiple things. It gives an idea of where someone’s metabolism is. That’s why I suggested a dietician. I guess I should have been more specific. I had mine done recently and I need 1150 calories to just function ( live) that gives me a guide as to how many calories I should consume to lose weight.

Sent from my iPhone

[Heybales]

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@Lornate wrote:
There is a test called resting metabolic rate that a dietician can perform to calculate how many calories someone needs just to live. This is done with a breathing machine that measures multiple things. It gives an idea of where someone’s metabolism is. That’s why I suggested a dietician. I guess I should have been more specific. I had mine done recently and I need 1150 calories to just function ( live) that gives me a guide as to how many calories I should consume to lose weight.

Sent from my iPhone

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Yes, an indirect calorimeter (RMR - Resting Metabolic Rate) test can start you off with a better number than calculated BMR based on gender, age, height, weight, or maybe BF%. Replaces the first figure in the normal math done.

But to be clear, it is the number of daily calories ONLY if you lived exactly like the test was performed - laying still slightly awake all day.

Unless in a coma - most people don't live that way, so their daily calorie burn would be much higher (though that is the biggest factor in daily burn).

All they did was take that figure, and use the normal formula/table from probably the 1919 Harris study to now ESTIMATE your daily burn.

It is your estimated daily burn (by formula, table, or Fitbit or other tracker) that you then eat less than.

And since that eating goal is based on still an estimate, you would adjust as needed based on actual results.

What that test can be very useful for is finding out if your dieting has crashed your metabolism due to making the diet extreme.

Of course then you don't crash it into the ground even more by eating even less and less, but rather attempt to recover back to where normal could be.

I shouldn't say crashed either, but rather many cause their bodies to adapt and metabolism lower than it could be, which means burning less, which means making the diet lower, which means even harder to lose weight probably.

Still a useful test and relatively decently priced now, as long as someone experienced explains the results, and not just a tech that got 30 min training on how to hook it up.