Can you help? Frustrated with lack of progress

[MonsteraCheeseplant]

I am calorie counting and am trying to lose a stone to a stone and a half. I'm 5 foot 9.5inches and 11 stone 7. I did a profile from IIFYM and got:

Your BMR (and RMR) is 1472
This is the number of calories your body needs just to survive. This doesn't include any energy output whatsoever.

Your TDEE is 1766
This is the total number of calories you burn during your daily activity.

Your Weight Loss Calories are 1419
This is your TDEE, with a small percentage subtracted to trigger immediate fat loss.

I'm on My Fitness Pal and have been scanning barcodes and weighing ingredients. I've also been out for a walk everyday. MFP gave me a goal of 1370 to lose a lb a week which i've now adjusted to 2 lbs a week and it's now 1200 a day. According to MFP though, i'm eating only 800-1000 cals a day anyway. Only 2 days over the last week were over 1000 cals with Sunday 1,523 and Wednesday 1,010.

Everyday I have:

Breakfast 100-150g Greek yoghurt = 125-188cals

Lunch Chicken soup = 135cals

Dinner = 328-490cals

Occasional snack of cucumber or a banana or maybe 1 slice of bread with 1tbsp jam. Not every day. Most days no snacks.

I'm a bit suspicious of how low in calories my dinners really are, but i've tried really hard to weigh stuff and be accurate so I don't know what else to do there. Anyway, i didn't lose any weight this week. Not a lb. Any thoughts?

[Haveitheright]

Is your calories total after your exercise has been taken off? On another thread a pp said don’t log exercise as it really doesn’t calculate correctly, just do the calories total so if has incorrectly taken off the exercise cals you may be eating more than it’s saying.
Also be aware that the calories on MFP are what people have inputted and may be incorrect. I was happily eating something that was logging as 60 calories. When I actually weighed ingredients, inputted the recipe & calculated the calories it was actually 272 cals per portion!
Plus weight fluctuates depending on cycle, how much salt you have had, water intake etc so don’t be disheartened.
Do you log your occasional banana, bread & jam? Do you weigh the jam? Do you log drinks? Tea/coffee/alcohol? it all adds up.
My banana the other day was 119 calories!

I'm a bit suspicious of how low in calories my dinners really are, but i've tried really hard to weigh stuff
It could be that your dinners are higher. I weigh everything, even the gravy. If you aren’t weighing everything then what you think is ‘only 100 calories worth’ could actually be much more. I have lost almost 2 stone using MFP but there are still weeks where I go up by 3/4 lbs but then it drops down again. I’m the same height as you but was a couple of pounds heavier btw.
Search some threads for tips, here’s a few.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3702369-Has-anyone-lost-a-lot-of-weight-using-My-Fitness-Pal

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/2298424-Those-of-you-using-my-fitness-pal-calorie-counting

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/1215685-My-Fitness-Pal-has-made-me-realise

[MonsteraCheeseplant]

Thank you for replying. I had another look at one of the recipes I inputted and I did do it wrong, it increased a bit but still nothing above 1200 a day. That's including any snacks btw as I log everything at the moment.

Thanks for linking the threads, i'll have a look.

[MonsteraCheeseplant]

Yes I have been logging exercise but those numbers are before exercise. I'll stop bothering to log the exercise though if its inaccurate.

I'll persevere trying to make sure I weigh and log accurately.

[agteacht]

Hey Monster
What's the daily carb intake, you can see it in MFO in nutrition

[agteacht]

MFP sorry!

[HundredMilesAnHour]

It actually sounds like you're starving yourself as your calorie intake is quite low. Your body is probably holding on to what fat reserves it can. You'd be better off eating a little more plus eating your bigger meal at breakfast or lunch rather than in the evening.

[meuca]

If the numbers are right, trust them and be patient. Weight loss is, sadly, not a linear process. It's only been a week! Unless you're cutting carbs, which will cause a huge drop in water weight, you may not get off to a dramatic start, especially if - like you - you don't have a huge amount to lose.

Some people talk about the "whoosh" effect when, after your weight has seemed stable for a few days, it suddenly drops. There's a lot of pseudoscience about this, but nobody really seems to know why it happens.

Any number of things - amount of sodium in your last meal, toilet habits, and very commonly for women, hormonal fluctuations - could be to blame. Just keep at it!

I would take care on very low cal days, though - not because of "starvation mode" (nonsense), but just because they can make it more difficult for you to stick to the diet, and cause the desire to binge.

[MonsteraCheeseplant]

Carb intake from the lowest at 65g and the highest 128g. Most days around 100-120g.

Aah that makes sense meuca. When I did BIWIs Boot camp last year I saw a big drop so expected the same this time.

The thing is Hundred, I don't feel like I'm starving myself and I'm loath to eat more just for the sake of it. Having said that, my lunches for the week are more substantial than last so that should do the trick.