Help not losing weight despite low cals and exercise

[jd88123]

Hello, does anyone have any ideas why I'm not losing weight, infact gained 4 pounds in 10 days on a low calorie diet.
I'm using my fitness pal which calculate my calories as 1287 per day. I'm often around 200 under and not over on the amount of fats, carbs etc allowed per day.
I'm drinking water/squash and exercising at least half an hour walking a day.
I know they say if you eat too little your body goes in to starvation mode. I feel like I'm full from what I'm eating and snack on ice lollies when I feel I need something sweet.
I was so shocked to find this morning after 10 days following this plan that I've gained 4 pounds! So disappointed as I've tried hard. I have about 3 stone to lose so it's not encouraging me to keep going. I will but I'm so annoyed.
Any ideas? I'm thinking of phoning g.p tomorrow to get thyroid checked as I had some problems with it a few years ago where tsh was going up and down randomly.
Any help would be great. Thanks

The squash and ice lollies are just sugar and pretty much empty calories so I'd cut those out for starters.

How did you calculate your calories? It seems pretty low. If you calculate your TDEE and BMR you could find a more reasonable calorie number

TDEE - tdeecalculator.net/ This tells you how many calories you burn each day taking into account activity levels.
For example, my TDEE is 1895 calories

BMR - www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html
For example, my BMR is 1223 calories so that is the absolute bare minimum my body needs to survive each day

In order for me to lose weight I should consumer somewhere between my BMR and TDEE. To maintain my weight, I should consume around my TDEE

Are you scanning and logging everything?

Starvation mode is a myth. Makes me wonder what other things you have wrong.

Losing weight is a simple science. To loss weight you eat less or (burn off) calories then your body needs. It's simple and works for 99.99 percent of the world's population.

If you really are telling the truth I would recommend the doctors to find out what the under lowing issue is.

Weigh yourself everyday, and watch how much your body weight fluctuates over a couple of months, my weight goes up just before my period.

Try not to get disheartened, you're doing the right thing by your body in lots of ways rather than purely weight, more fibre so your gut transit feels better, more water so your skin will be clearer, more exercise so you have more endurance.

Starvation mode is a myth.

hormones, menstrul cycle will play a part and you will weigh more / less based on where you are in your cycle. Water retention may look like weight gain on the scales. Progress pictures and measurements are often a better indicator.

are you weighing everything out and are you logging absolutely everything on MyFitnessPal? If you are logging food as medium X your calorie range could be out by a considerable margin.

30 minutes walking is a great start but won’t burn many calories

Yep scanning and logging everything even butter. Also making sure it's correct amounts from the packets I.e chicken or rice noodle packs. I did have two glasses of wine on Saturday so don't know if this has caused the weight gain. 30 miss exercise is what I do at work. I am going to start cycling in the evenings and my days off. Also remembered I ordered orlistat a while ago so have started taking this.
I'm definitely being truthful pp. Wouldn't lie on here, no reason to.
Thanks for the replies.

Can I ask how old you are OP?

34

Starvation mode is not a myth.

Calories in/out fails to allow for the significant control your body has over the calories out part (through metabolism).

Read the book 'Why we eat too much' by Andrew jenkinson.

Also exercise is good for you and builds muscle but won't normally help much with weight loss (except that eventually your increased muscle will burn more).

As you said OP, if your thyroid is out of wack, (hypo)then you may find it really hard to lose weight. I have hypothyroidism and take levythyroxine. I have been on a diet for a couple of months and it is slow as hell. I have a couple of stone to lose but I'm not giving up. Good luck !

Cut out the lollies and squash (did you count those calories?) Are you weighing all food or just doing a guesstimate?

cronometer is more accurate than mfp which accepts input from members.
salt (soy sauce/teriyaki and such) will have me retain water for up to two days.
stay focused weight each morning and log your food. eventually you will understand what the issue is (more calories consumed than expected or less calories burned than assumed).

Ah ok. I found it impossible to lose weight despite my best efforts but when I started HRT, my hard work finally paid off!

What are you typically eating in a day?

You need to do some proper exercise that gets the heart rate up; stop drinking alcohol; and stop the sugary snacks.

Might sound harsh, but how do you think you're going to lose weight if you're not moving aside from a half hour walk each day, and you're still drinking wine?! The cycling you suggest is a good starting point, and cutting out all the sugar will help a lot too.

Run us through what you ate yesterday to give us an idea of what sort of food you are having

Calories in vs calories out.

Literally nothing else matters, nor is it measurable or directly controllable outside of a physiology lab beyond a rough estimate. You can adjust for it indirectly later.

Weigh and log absolutely everything you eat. Every cup of tea, glass of water, boiled sweet and stick of gum.

This will not be a 10-day exercise. don't weigh yourself every day, there's too much variability from fluid shifts, hydration, defecation, pick the same time every week - i used to pick Thursday am, after a shower.

This is the bit where metabolism comes in - pick a desired weight and time to lose it - be realistic - I chose 20kgs over 9 months. Work out the daily calorie deficit - and stick to it. After a few weeks reassess - if your BMR and daily energy expenditure is lower than average - you'll be behind schedule, if it's higher you'll be ahead... Recalculate and work out how many fewer calories you need to eat, or how many extra you need to expend. Repeat, Repeat , Repeat.

Weight loss is not a target, for it to work, and to stick, it's a complete behavioural reprogramming.

Are you weighing and measuring absolutely everything? And as others have said, don't forget to log your lollies, squash and wine! Wine is around 100kCal for a 125ml glass.

If you have 3 stone to lose I can only guess you're calories should be higher than 1200! Probably nearer 1600+. I have about half a stone to lose and mine are 1600.

Try another calculator online (mfp is notorious for being inaccurate at guessing)

Make sure you log EVERYTHING - even butter you put on bread for a sandwich, milk in tea, etc. All adds up and is extra calories. Also portion size - it's easy to underestimate a portion, e.g. pasta, rice, etc.

If you're happy to share weight/height can advise on what cals you should be on! Also look into macros - splits down how much fat/carbs and protein you should be having.

Depending on my cycle I can gain 5lbs over night.

Weigh every morning to capture any fluctuations.

Weigh everything and be honest with yourself when logging. I have been known to just log 1 med banana or a small portion of potatoes but if I weigh it out the calories can be vastly different.

Make sure you include everything, milk in tea, squash, veggies etc it can soon add up.

Well, lose the squash , lollies and wine.

What do you have as a main meal? A few things that will help generally.
-Change from white bread/pasta etc to wholemeal.
-Ensure that half your plate of food is veg, a quarter carbs and a quarter protein.
-Cook from scratch - pan fried fish fillet with salad and new potatoes for example. 10 mins max to prepare.
-avoid shop bought snacks and eat fruit or nuts instead.

30 mins walking is very little. What else do you do in a day? An hour cycling will help. Or An hour's hoovering? Mow the lawn? Window cleaning?

Are you sticking to it all of the time?
I was feeling the same as you and couldn’t get my weight down but I was being good Sunday- Friday and going mad on a Saturday, which was undoing all my good work.

Have now been properly calorie counting every day for a while and weight is coming off nicely.

Ps I track everything. Even one of the kids sweets gets logged in mfp. It’s surprising how all of the ‘add ons’ make a difference.

You don’t need to cut out ice lollies and squash and even treats. Anything that brings you joy and can make the journey more sustainable long term, do continue, just ensure you factor it in!

OP is probably drinking sugar free squash and having low calorie ice lollies, Mr Freeze Freezepops are 14 calories per pole.