Not Losing Weight

[SunsetRunner]

Good afternoon!

I've been going at this by myself, but I finally decided to stop in and see what others may say.

In the past (while I was in college), I was very active, but a couple of years ago I got a full-time job, marriage and all the fun responsibilities, so I stopped working out like I used to (7 days a week, with breaks only if I had a cold).

I've been bringing myself back into it, but the weight doesn't seem to be coming off. It's frustrating! I only weight myself once a week on a Monday, to log it before I start the week off. For the past 3 of those, I barely saw any change, apart from 2 pounds initially.

Hence, a question of how accurate is FitBit tracking. I tend to presume it's not AWFULLY accurate, in terms of calorie burn during exercise, but what about other aspects?

I work out 6 days a week for 1.5 hours (intensive circuit for 30 minutes & elliptical for 30 minutes before and after that), my average calorie intake for a day is around 1500, which is a comfortable range for me, and allows me the benefit of eating a bit more on the weekends, when I want to have a meal out with family, for example.

Still, the fact that the weight isn't coming off is frustrating. What could be an issue? Just looking for feedback from people who've been through the process.

My averages / day:

Steps - 12000

Floors - 7

Miles - 5.2

Calorie Burn - 4000

Active Minutes - 125

Stats:

Height - 6ft

Weight, atm: 262lbs

To note after all that: I do have a lot of muscle. I did close combat martial arts for a while, so I have absolutely zero issue with exercise in terms of intensity (it's hard as hell, but my body can manage it still). Obviously, it's not perfect and I want to die after each workout, but I don't feel like I'm working at max capacity, yet.

I don't feel restricted with food, either, but I am wondering if FitBit tracks calories well. I eat almost the same thing every day though, and it's fine accourding to MyFitnessPal, as well.

Any ideas?

[Mukluk4]

Count your calories.  You've got output down but nothing about your input.

I wouldn't use the scale as an indicator of success.

Are your clothes fitting different?

Are the workouts getting easier?

[SunsetRunner]

Hey, I've mentioned that I eat about 1500 on average a day.

Workouts are getting easier, but I wouldn't really say that clothes fit that much differently - so it seems like I am getting some stamina, but not actually losing weight.

[Baltoscott]

Hi @SunsetRunner.  

It is too soon to know what is going on.  You've indicated that you are losing something between .5 - 1 lbs/week over the past 3 Mondays, which would be 2.5 weeks.  1500/day even without all the exercise you are doing (good job all that exercise, BTW), should result in losses in that range over time.  According to this BMR calculator, you probably expend close to 2000 calories/day even without exercise, which would be around the 500 cal/day deficit that equates to loss of about a pound per week.  Of course those numbers are averages and none of us are really average, so expect your mileage to vary.  I think 4-8 weeks is a better time frame to evaluate whether what you are doing is really making a change.

Some other thoughts.

1. Weigh yourself the same time of the day whenever you weigh -- and either the same day of the week or every day (weekend and weekday eating patterns are different for everyone; weekend is usually a LOT more).  Most folks weigh in after they wake up in the morning, which gives the last meal you had time to pass and it makes measurement over time more accurate because you've kept the circumstances as similar as you can.  I weigh daily (always first thing in the morning) and it is not usual to see changes of multiple pounds due to changes in water weight.  You cannot really get a sense of fat loss until you look a trend of multiple readings over weeks and months.  On that note, I've linked my fitbit account to TrendWeight, which shows a trend-line that smooths out your daily changes and also gives you a report of your calorie deficit based on actual weight loss.  It is a good check on the projected weight loss that fitbit and myfitnesspal come up with.  Actual seems to be lower than projected for just about everyone.  

2. Eat what you make yourself as often as possible.  The calorie count for prepared foods (whether from eating out, or frozen prepackaged meals) ranges widely for similar items.  You are far more likely to get an accurate calorie count when you eat what you make yourself from whole foods (example, put "muffin" into MyFitnessPal and you get a calorie range from 58 to 570).  Weigh all your food for a couple of weeks and log it before you eat it.  Almost everyone underestimates portion size and it takes a lot of practice to get it right.  And waiting to enter food into MFP after the meal, or worse, at the end of the day, gives you time to forget some items and underestimate the amount of others.  (You can take a picture of it if you absolutely don't have time to log it contemporaneously).

3.  Regarding exercise.  I probably do around 90 minutes of aerobic/day plus weights 3 or 4 days/week, which seems similar to what you are doing, and is more than most folks.  But for me it is sustainable only because most of it comes from a bike commute and is therefore built into my day.  If you've only recently started doing that much exercise after being a couch potato for years, be wary of injury and burnout.  Make a promise to yourself that you'll do maybe 15 minutes of focused exercise every day and keep your step count above maybe 5K/day no matter what.  Lower those numbers if necessary to the point that you KNOW you can do it every day.  The idea is to set the goals low enough to get you started exercising every day; an amount that you can do even when you have other family obligations, even when you are sick, and even when you want to kick it on the weekends.  Everything over the minimum is a bonus that will make you fitter, and will burn more fat.  But doing the minimum is more important because it will help you build back the habit of daily activity that kept you fitter and thinner when you were younger.  

[Esya]

You did not see a change for 3 weeks, to me that does not sound disturbing. Seeing you are a woman our cycle also comes into play. I would suggest to keep doing what you are doing for two weeks longer.

You can also estimate your calories burned using this calculator.

But if you burn (close to) 4000 and only eating 1500, your body might be revolting against you. That is a very large calories deficit. I would rather look to make that a bit smaller to make it more managable and easier to maintain.

[chappy78rva]

I agree with Esya, you need to increase your caloric intake to see a difference!  

Count some macronutrients instead of calories!

[SunsetRunner]

That's all some really sound advice! Thanks!

In terms of some other points - I didn't expect to see a massive change, considering that hormonal cycles also come into play, but it seemed unreasonable for me that there was such little difference. Though - I will sure see how it is in another month, hopefully more results!

I do weigh myself just once a week because more seems unreasonable. I don't want to track day to day changes (plus I hate battling our Health-o-matic scale, thinking it served it's time), since it fluctuates a bit and frankly, I think weekly for me shows a more sustainable result rather than a daily weigh in. I'll try that app to see what it shows, too!

I generally avoid all foods that I can't attach a calorie count to. So, anything that I can't specify, I don't really eat. I make my own breakfast and dinner, but rely on frozen meals for lunch because of time - though I was thinking about cutting them out. I get the Healthy Choice ones, though, so you'd think they'd be okay... I'm in no way perfect with my diet, since I do throw in things like a frapuccino every once in a while, but always stay within 1500.

Re: exercise, I wish my commute consisted of something active, but I start too early to actually put that extra 45 minutes in the morning! I do all my exercise after work, and it's not that much of a chore. I'm fairly used to being active, though I've never really done this amount of 'girly cardio' as I call it, before. Sadly, place I live now doesn't have a BJJ studio since that was the absolute best.

However, with that, I also know that even at my most active and healthiest (I was competing in BJJ), I weighed about 175lbs. I looked darn good, but the weight never went below that. This makes me question whether doing a strength-based circuit might be counter productive?

[SunsetRunner]

The main reason I stay at that deficit is because I have a sneaking suspicion that my tracker way overestimates the amount of calories I use per day. 4000 seems a very large number, so I tend to subtract quite a bit from it.

With BMR at about 2000, I don't think I'm burning more than 3000-3200 a day if I include exercise.

Generally, 1500 is enough calories for me. I usually come in at right about that value with all I eat (I don't snack at all, so that's three pretty filling meals). I'll try upping it after a couple of weeks, though, to see what happens and if FitBit keeps telling me I burn that much, given that hopefully my fat/muscle ratio changed.

[Baltoscott]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

... 

However, with that, I also know that even at my most active and healthiest (I was competing in BJJ), I weighed about 175lbs. I looked darn good, but the weight never went below that. This makes me question whether doing a strength-based circuit might be counter productive?

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If you looked darn good doing strength-based circuit (and you felt darn good too), how could it be counter-productive?  Especially if you like doing it.  The scale is good tool for measuring progress, but the number itself is kind of arbitrary (if your scale doesn't give a consistent number - within a .1 to .3 lbs after getting on and off 3X in a row -- it is time to get a new scale). 

[SunsetRunner]

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@Baltoscott wrote:

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

... 

However, with that, I also know that even at my most active and healthiest (I was competing in BJJ), I weighed about 175lbs. I looked darn good, but the weight never went below that. This makes me question whether doing a strength-based circuit might be counter productive?

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If you looked darn good doing strength-based circuit (and you felt darn good too), how could it be counter-productive?  Especially if you like doing it.  The scale is good tool for measuring progress, but the number itself is kind of arbitrary (if your scale doesn't give a consistent number - within a .1 to .3 lbs after getting on and off 3X in a row -- it is time to get a new scale). 

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In terms of weight loss - I know muscle is great, but herein lies a question of how much does BMI really matter? 180 is right at the top of the 'normal' range of it, but it's already borderline overweight. I prefer strength-based workouts, though, since I don't really like things like running.

In terms of scales, I'm not sure about it's accuracy. Our scale shows 'e' a lot (I decided it means 'excellent'), and I'm the only one in the family with this issue. Me and my husband weight about the same but he can get it to weigh him and I have to re-step 10 times to get my weight, so I'm skeptical of how accurate it is - I check it against a very simple non-digital scale just to see that the numbers add up.

[DavidSchneier]

Your BMR is likely around 2,000 calories a day based on the numbers your provided. So, before working out you potentially have a 500 calorie deficit, which is good for an approximate one pound per week loss.

I do not agree with the "eat more to lose weight" strategy; weight loss is a numbers game, there's no black magic or counter-intuitive subtleties to it. Creating a consistent calorie deficit is the fundamental underpinning of any successful weight-loss journey and you are already on the right track.

I would suggest you double-check your calorie count, people are naturally bad at recording everything we eat and assigning proper calorie values. Also, give it a little bit more time. Cycles being what they are for women, you might see a three-pound loss in the next week.

[Baltoscott]

BMI is really a tool for evaluating healthiest part of a population; it is less useful when looking at individuals.  I don't think there is much of a downside building muscle if you can, especially since you prefer strength-based exercises and long term habits are much easier to establish around things we like to do.

Yes, "e" is probably for excellent. 😉

If you have any interest in getting a new scale, read this thread.

[JenniferinFL]

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@Baltoscott wrote:

If you have any interest in getting a new scale, read this thread.

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I will add that I really love the weight guru scale I ended up buying. I went with it because it was on sale at the time and had bluetooth. I step on it every morning and don't even have to look at the number or try to remember the number, it just gets automatically logged to fitbit and I can check it later when I'm more awake. I've kept my old scale for laughs.. lol  It's off by as much as 3 lbs over some days and 4 lbs under on other days. 

My old scale was trying to calibrate about every other day and also did an 'e' code followed by weight lower than I actually weighed. 

It's hard to figure out if what you're doing is working if your scale isn't trustworthy. 

[DJC_63]

@SunsetRunner  Well you've certainly got the exercise part down! I used to spend 2 hours in the gym easily, but never 6 days a week.

I am having a hard time losing weight myself, and I've been at it for almost 2 years now (I suspect that I'm much older than you, and it gets more and more difficult as you get older). I have learned some things, like it's amazing how your body's weight can vary depending on water retention, and what you're wearing when you weight yourself. I weigh myself every morning in my pajamas. I thought I was guessing the weight of my pajamas pretty well, but last week I decided to weigh them on a postage meter scale. They weighed a lot more than I thought!

The other thing I've learned is that most people underestimate how much of something they're eating. Especially when it comes to snacks. I've started paying more attention to exactly how many almonds or gummy bears I eat. It adds up so quickly!

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert, so I'll leave my answer at just those 2 little things.   Good luck!!

[DJC_63]

According to that calculator I'm not eating enough calories a day. Hmmm, might have to try changing some things.

Also @SunsetRunner  I forgot to mention you should factor in any medications you take. Unfortunately many of them have weight gain as a side effect. I suspect that is a big part of my difficulty losing weight, as I take several meds with that side effect. There doesn't seem to be any solution for that.

[Mukluk4]

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In terms of weight loss - I know muscle is great, but herein lies a question of how much does BMI really matter? 

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If you have significant muscle mass (to quote my favorite moving): Jack and S#@t, and Jack left town.

[aptivaboy]

To add to what others have said regarding muscle, muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue. So... If you're putting muscle on, then you could actually be losing fat, but the scale wouldn't indicate that. That's an issue I've been having - working out like crazy, eating right, etc., but the scale doesn't move. However, my pants and shirts all fit better. Go figure. It likely has to do with muscle growth and body reshaping. Anyway, I might suggest that you are getting fitter, but the scale isn't indicating it.

[waffle1]

If you're at a 1500 cals/day deficit, you should be seeing noticeable weight loss after a few weeks. If you're not, then the most likely explanation is that you're not actually at this deficit (other possible explanations are that you may have a specific medical condition, or science is completely incorrect). There is no way your "body revolting" against a low deficit can prevent weight loss -- if you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight, that's the way energy conservation works.

It sounds like you have your exercise routine down, which is great! I would recommend taking a closer look at your food intake -- maybe just take a week and be very disciplined about logging everything you eat, including quantity. It's possible you're underestimating some calorie-dense foods you eat, and more likely, underestimating the quantity of what you eat. (I know from my own experience, as someone who enjoys eating rice and pasta with meals, the first time I realized I was eating 600 calories of rice and pasta with dinner when I thought it couldn't be more than 200 was surprising).

[SunsetRunner]

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@waffle1 wrote:

If you're at a 1500 cals/day deficit, you should be seeing noticeable weight loss after a few weeks. If you're not, then the most likely explanation is that you're not actually at this deficit (other possible explanations are that you may have a specific medical condition, or science is completely incorrect). There is no way your "body revolting" against a low deficit can prevent weight loss -- if you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight, that's the way energy conservation works.

It sounds like you have your exercise routine down, which is great! I would recommend taking a closer look at your food intake -- maybe just take a week and be very disciplined about logging everything you eat, including quantity. It's possible you're underestimating some calorie-dense foods you eat, and more likely, underestimating the quantity of what you eat. (I know from my own experience, as someone who enjoys eating rice and pasta with meals, the first time I realized I was eating 600 calories of rice and pasta with dinner when I thought it couldn't be more than 200 was surprising).

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Although I log my food pretty rigorously - I did decide to take a look at it, and see if I can reshuffle either times at which I eat things or macronutrients that I happen to eat.

While this sounds unrealistic, I've cut out all snacking from my routine - I eat four times a day, and my routine in terms of what I eat doesn't change as much. I've been considering moving most of my dinner calories to lunch, though, since I have dinner after I work out and I wonder if that's a good idea. I'm going to say that sugar/salt take some effect, but as is with the weigh in this week, I lost less than half a pound.

That said, though, my body fat % has gone down by 5%, so little favors, I guess?

[EatingRight]

Hi!

I think maybe you need to be patient.  It sounds like you've got a good thing going, and I would recommend you keep it going!  Diet and exercise of course are the key.  However, that doesn't mean you can't indulge yourself once in awhile just as long as you don't get carried away.  Be selective with what you eat and watch portion control!  Losing weight is a slow process, and I think maybe more so for women.  Give it some time, and I'm sure you will eventually achieve your goal.  Just don't give up!