Not losing weight

[Jude-1]

I'm new to fitbit and have had it for a couple weeks.  I have logged everything and get in a good amount of steps.  I have started a Zumba class once a week a swimming class once a week and a yoga class.  My calorie deficet is as follows.  Monday -2061, Tues -1371, Wed -2045, Thurs -1495, Fri -723.  I weighed this morning and I gained 1 1/2 pounds.  I'm really upset about this.  So what do I do?

Thanks for any advice.

[Gord-n-Nancy]

Hi Jude 1

My daughter gave me a Fitbit for my birthday because she knows how committed we are to lossing weight.  The Fitbit is amazing.

We have also had great success in lossing weight since June 5th this year.  If you are interested I would be pleased to share our story.  

Gord n Nancy

[Jude-1]

Hi Gord and Nancy,

Sure, share your story.

Jude 1

[Gord-n-Nancy]

We have tried many weight loss programs in past...including diet and exercise with varying degrees of succrss.

My wife is having surgery in oct and daughter is getting married next year. ..so she is motivated. 

Started a nutritional cleansing and fat burning program june 5th.  Combined we are down 70+  lbs and over 72 inches lost...my wife has done no exercise

Best thing we ever did for our health and we feel amazing. 

Gord n Nancy

[Dominique]

Your daily deficits sound extremely high in absolute terms, especially given your activity level was fairly high during the past week (12 to 16k steps per day as per your profile, plus the non-step-based activities you mentioned). Are you new to exercising? If so, you could have put a lot of stress on your body by increasing sharply your exercise level while drastically restricting calories at the same time.

Anyway, two weeks is a short time. Better take smaller steps (increase your exercise level progressively, make your deficit more reasonable) and aim at longer term results.

[trainer]

One thing to try is to stop focusing on the scale and start focusing on losing inches. Use a tape measure and measure a few spots on your body (around your waist, bust, and one thigh would be a good way to start). Write these numbers down and then re-measure every few weeks or every month. Also, pay attention to how your clothes fit you. Lean mass is more dense than fat mass. If you are losing fat and building lean muscle (but not in the bulking up way!) your weight will not drop but your inches will. I have a client who is now in a size 12 (she was in a size 16) and looks FANTASTIC, but the scale hasn't dropped more than 10lb. Now that her body has all this healthy lean mass her metabolism will increase and her body will start to burn fat stores. Now that she has the muscle to fuel the workouts her weight will drop. In the meantime, she has lower BP, feels more energetic, looks great and is significantly stronger than she was in the past. My guess is your body is responding to working out in the same way. You also want to make sure you are fueling your workouts in a healthy way and not cutting too many calories too quickly. This will just mess up your immune system or cause you to get hurt working out because your body doesn't have the energy to push hard. Try to have no more than 1,000 calorie deficit every day.

[Heybales]

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@Jude-1 wrote:

I'm new to fitbit and have had it for a couple weeks.  I have logged everything and get in a good amount of steps.  I have started a Zumba class once a week a swimming class once a week and a yoga class.  My calorie deficet is as follows.  Monday -2061, Tues -1371, Wed -2045, Thurs -1495, Fri -723.  I weighed this morning and I gained 1 1/2 pounds.  I'm really upset about this.  So what do I do?

Thanks for any advice.

---

Are those figures literally the difference between what you ate and what you burned?

Yikes, talk about stressful to your body - while starting increased activity at same time.

Guess what stress does, diet, new exercise, about weight, lack of sleep, ect?

Elevates cortisol hormone constantly compared to useful spikes from good exercise.

That can cause up to 20 lb water retention.

You need to unstress the body before it does even worse than water retained, you'll regret losing muscle mass, which is happening right now.

Don't think bigger is better - if that's the case - why don't you just stop eating then, and really get the weight off?

Whatever reasons you can think of, there are more, and they'll still happen eventually if you keep that up.

Take the 1000 cal deficit if you have over 50 lbs to lose, otherwise 750 for 25 - 50, 500 for 10-25, or 250 for under 10 lbs.

Log that Yoga and swimming which is obviously not step based and Fitbit has no idea on decent calorie burn for.

And hit your goal eating level!

[TCG]

It may not look like you are loosing weight but your are trading fat for lean muscle. If you lost a pound of fat but gained a pound of muscle, you are not going to see change in your weight. I've been on a program since February and have lost only 14 pounds but I have gone down two pant sizes, have lost 2 inches on my waist and 2.5 on my legs. Measure yourself and see how many inches you have lost, also the time of day that you weigh yourself is critical. Do it in the morning after you empty your bladder, your body has had time to rest during the night and if there is any swelling from working out, it will be gone. Water retention also is reflected in your weight. Give it time, don't get discouraged, keep up the good work.

[Jude-1]

Thanks for your reply.  Yes those figures are the difference between what I ate and burned.  I have been eating 1200 to 1600 hundred calories a day and yesterday I ate 2000.  I thought I was doing good calorie wise.  I haven't been real hungry and I had no idea I was stressing my body.  I do have 52 pounds to lose, and I'm only 5'4".   So I just make sure I have a calorie deficit of 1000?

[Jude-1]

Thanks.  I will make my deficit more reasonable.  I thought I was really doing good till I saw the weight gain.

[Dominique]

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@TCG wrote:

It may not look like you are loosing weight but your are trading fat for lean muscle.

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Could be, but not very likely a net gain (muscle gain - fat loss) would be that big in just two weeks. Building additional muscle mass is a slow process, even for males (and it's even slower for females).

[Gord-n-Nancy]

So, what is it that you want to do / achieve?

[Heybales]

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@Jude-1 wrote:

Thanks for your reply.  Yes those figures are the difference between what I ate and burned.  I have been eating 1200 to 1600 hundred calories a day and yesterday I ate 2000.  I thought I was doing good calorie wise.  I haven't been real hungry and I had no idea I was stressing my body.  I do have 52 pounds to lose, and I'm only 5'4".   So I just make sure I have a calorie deficit of 1000?

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You feeling full, and your body being fully fed for your level of activity - are 2 totally separate things.

You can actually screw up the hormones and feelings of hunger by eating too little.

Fitbit should be making sure you have a 1000 calorie deficit to your eating goal - meet your eating goal. You can make your daily burn goal whatever you want.

Don't avoid fat - fat is needed, good fat.

Are you willing to miss your goal weight by 20-30% and say close enough and stop? No?

Then don't miss your eating goal by that much and more.

[caroljf]

Your story is similar to mine. The only way I cope is to only weigh myself once a day at the same time each day and keep trying. It took me 1 year to loose 5 pounds but now that I look back, I lost the pounds and I didn't gain any weight. I'm new to fitbit and I was good all week. I did the steps and ate right and gained 1.5 lbs. if I keep at it, the 1.5 lbs will dissapear and in a few weeks I'll be down a little. I just make it a weigh of life.

[Voodoogal63]

I have hit a wall again.  It's been 3 weeks since I lost a pound.  The only exercise I do (I have COPD) is walking and stairs.  I have increased my walking but nothing is helping.  I'm starting to get really discouraged!

[Heybales]

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@Voodoogal63 wrote:

I have hit a wall again.  It's been 3 weeks since I lost a pound.  The only exercise I do (I have COPD) is walking and stairs.  I have increased my walking but nothing is helping.  I'm starting to get really discouraged!

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As a woman you literally need to wait 4 weeks before you should decide if something is working or not, as your BMR literally changes through the month.

Outside of that fact.

How much weight do you have to lose for healthy weight, and how big a deficit from what you burn daily are you taking?

The Fitbit estimate of daily burn is likely really decent with that as only exercise.

Do you mean your daily eating goal, or are you imagining bigger is better?

Do you weigh all foods that go in your mouth, or how often are you estimating because of eating out?

And that is weigh, not measure.

Is your body dealing with some other stress - lack of sleep, life, disease or sickness beyond COPD (which is a stress obviously)?

[Slydevil]

Thank you for this information. I too have been GAINING weight. I do notice a difference in my clothes which is great. Did I understatnd correctly that over time I will actually begin to lose weight? I am hoping to pusue obstacle course participation and beginner level lifting.  Thanks again for the info...

[tinie]

i know how it is. iv been on this battle for many years. even when i weight 9st, for some reason i was piling on the weight even though i exercised 2x a day. in the end i over did it and have been off exercise for 6 years. ive  always tried to walk alot eat healthy and calorie count. but nothin seemed to work.

iv recently bought the fitbit hr, and surprised with the amount of calories i burn, and realised that my measley 1200kcal a day diet isnt enough. in the last week alone i have lost 2lb from increasing my food intake to match my basal metabolic rate which fuels my exercise, im feeling more energitic and feel that running has become easier.

for myself it was my restriction of food that cause the weight and prohibited the lose. 

it sounds like the activity you are doing is great, but you mayeed to tweek you nutrition. as the health industry says its 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. keep going with what you are doing 🙂

[Heybales]

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@Slydevil wrote:

Thank you for this information. I too have been GAINING weight. I do notice a difference in my clothes which is great. Did I understatnd correctly that over time I will actually begin to lose weight? I am hoping to pusue obstacle course participation and beginner level lifting.  Thanks again for the info...

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If you are truly eating less than you burn, yes, despite the water weight gains that newly started exercise creates, that will max out and you will start to lose weight.

Now - you pile too many stresses on your body - extreme deficit, too much exercise, life, lack of sleep - and the elevated hormone cortisol can cause upwards of 20 lb weight retained water.

That would take awhile.

[Heybales]

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@tinie wrote:

i know how it is. iv been on this battle for many years. even when i weight 9st, for some reason i was piling on the weight even though i exercised 2x a day. in the end i over did it and have been off exercise for 6 years. ive  always tried to walk alot eat healthy and calorie count. but nothin seemed to work.

iv recently bought the fitbit hr, and surprised with the amount of calories i burn, and realised that my measley 1200kcal a day diet isnt enough. in the last week alone i have lost 2lb from increasing my food intake to match my basal metabolic rate which fuels my exercise, im feeling more energitic and feel that running has become easier.

for myself it was my restriction of food that cause the weight and prohibited the lose. 

it sounds like the activity you are doing is great, but you mayeed to tweek you nutrition. as the health industry says its 20% exercise and 80% nutrition. keep going with what you are doing 🙂

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I'd suggest going higher than BMR if you are exercising.

BMR is what your body burns if you slept all day.

Even on your non-exercise days you burn more than that.

Why don't you just use the tool as designed, and merely eat less than you burn by a set amount daily, if that happens to be above BMR on a great workout day, then your body will like you better and transform from the exercise better.