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

If you can, start lifting heavy weights in the gym and try to eat more protein if you can. Protein will help to keep you full and as you build muscle, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat so the calories you burn at rest will increase and it will give you nice shape and in the long run, allow you to eat more!

Don't take the advice to eat 1600 calories a day. You'll put weight on. 30 minutes walking will do absolutely nothing to aid weight loss either. Dieting is tough and brutal and you will have real lows of being hungry and fed up but if it was easy, everyone would be skinny.

What you eat makes a huge difference for me. As I got older I cant lose weight if my diet includes refined carbs like noodles/bread… but I can even if I am eating quite high fat/calorie dense foods (olives, mackerel, tuna..) because I get full and don’t crave the bits that you don’t notice you are eating. Plus it gives me more energy so I end up moving more without really noticing. 30min walking is great but to tone you need something else - make it easy and start with a 10min home body weigh workout?? - that will probably make a huge difference if you have not done it before. As others said quit the lollys and squash - eat an extra apple? Or berries? Or snack on veggie sticks (no one got fat on chopped peppers!)

I think I must have weighed at a bad time. Weighed myself this morning and 5 pounds lighter. So only 1 pound lighter than when I started the diet but at least its not going up again. I also took my measurements yesterday to check so see if I am losing inches will check in next couple weeks.
Also started orlistat. That was not fun being at work!
I do log everything, the two glasses of wine I had, hadn't drank in 2 weeks and won't again for a while. The lollys, maybe one or two a week. Milk, butter etc.
My day yesterday was:

Late shift so got up at 11am.
Lunch at 12:00 ham salad with reduced fat coleslaw- 280 cals on mfp

Tea- leek and potato soup 1 can morrisons 110 cals
Salt and vinegar rice cakes -118 cals

Supper- bacon and chicken rissotto-380 cals

Snack- 1 ice pole - 42 cals
Cup of tea_semi skimmed milk and 1 sugar 60 cals
As you can see coming in around 1000
With my exercising it deducts 200.
But mfp won't let me complete diary since it's under by over 200 with exercise so I don't always log in.
I'm on a day off today so will have time to eat a bit more and healthier.

Oh and I'm waiting to get paid tomorrow when I will buy so much more fruit and veg. Have been skint for a few days having to eat whats left. As I know someone will pick up on lack of fruit and veg.

My Fitness Pal is notoriously bad at calculating calories for weight loss and many recommend keeping it at 'maintenance' if using it to track foods.

You are getting the calories recommended for a toddler. Your body doesn't go into 'starvation mode', but does downregulate calories burned from just existing (the largest amount burnt) if not getting enough. This can also be upregulated, the body responds to the environment.

After checking for thyroid and other issues like nutritional deficiencies, I'd recommend increasing your calories and/or setting a protein target for the day and add in strength training as muscle will help upregulate. Cardio is great for cardiovascular health, but it contributes little to upregulation and adding more onto a 30 minute brisk walk is unlikely to have that much of an impact for weight loss.

I do think starvation mode is a myth. Weighing yourself daily at the same time, it helps understand your ups and downs. For example, I know it's pointless to weigh myself on Monday because of the weekend. The week before my period (and up to a few days after I start) I'll gain around 5lbs. As long as you're more or less sticking to it a glass of wine won't make much of a difference. Try to eat the same everyday boring, but then you know exactly what you're eating. Oh and I would think about it as averages rather than daily (that way you can indulge on some days).

Youre definitely not in starvation mode.
your weight will fluctuate naturally.
you do need to be getting more nutrition from your diet though, you can do frozen veg, beans and pulses and lots of other things that are cheaper and easier but you need more than you’re getting. There’s not an awful lot in yours and it sounds high salt and very processed. If you’re high salt you’ll hold water which will show on the scales

my fitness pal can’t calculate how many calories you need to eat. You need to work out how many you burn in a day and then make sure you’re eating less than that. For example, my fitnesspal can say 1200 to you, but if you naturally only burn 1200 -1500 anyway then you won’t lose weight very quickly, if at all.

If you are cold and tired while dieting, that's your body fighting your attempt to lose weight by burning less energy.

Weigh everything. Record everything. Continue the exercise.
Consistency is key,

Based on your day yesterday you're not eating enough. May sound mad, but it's true.

Also make sure you are logging your food - looking at labels of what you have, and not using already made entries on mfp (unless they match the labels) - anyone can add so a huge number will be totally inaccurate!

Also ignore the fact that you've burnt 200 cals walking - as if you then eat this back, that's then 200 over what you should be having and negates the exercise.

Good luck you can do it 😊. Once you've got the hang of tracking/logging it's easy, but takes some getting used to.

No such thing as starvation mode, otherwise people wouldnt starve to death.

Your body flucuates in weight and you only have to weigh yourself on the day that you have inexplicably gone up in weight due to water to think that you have 'put on' 4lbs

You would need to be eating thousands and thousands of calories for your body to put this on in 10 days and remain on.

Were you ovulating? I put on 4-5 lbs around ovulation and lose it straight after. Hormones can make a huge difference (I think it's to do with water retention but I could be wrong).

You are not having enough protein, check your macros on MFP and see how far below target you are

Eating salty food can lead to water retention (and look like weight gain). Processed food is usually high in salt, so that might explain your lack of weight loss.

Yeah I'm aware my diet isn't the best just now but doing one thing at a time so I stick to it long term. Have ordered much healthier food on this week's shop. I've been working a lot so hoping to up my exercise too. On holiday soon so more time for longer walks,swims and cycles.

Not ovulating at the moment but I'm on the mini pill.

My appetite is so small today I've barely eaten anything but I've gutted the house and been so busy I've not even though of food. Had a chicken salad for tea and that's about it so today is a bad day for under my calories. No doubt ill be hungry tomorrow first thing but back to work so soup for lunch again. I'm coeliac so soup is my go to when I work. I'm rubbish at making home made soup. I know the tins are high in salt.
Thanks for the info so far and motivation to keep going x

Just looking through your food log, it doesn't look like you eat enough.
Are you scanning things through the app? If it's the same Morrisons soup Ive e had before, it's not 110 cals for a can. Its over 150

I'm currently trying to lose weight and finding it a struggle too 😭

Just looking through your food log, it doesn't look like you eat enough

This is ridiculous. On the OPs sample day she ate a ham salad for her first meal, soup for her second meal and then a risotto in the evening, plus snacks on top.

How on earth can three decent meals, in anyone's book, be so little food that the body is in "starvation mode"? Especially when the OP does no exercise aside from walking?!

I don't see a meal which is less than 250 calories as 'decent', I also don't see a cup of tea as a snack.

Sorry, I think you should up your daily calories slightly and eat more fulfilling meals. I understanding the quality may not be so great as it's nearly Payday but something must be going amiss as you cannot eat that little amount of calories and not lose weight regularly. Calories in vs calories out is what it boils down to.

@ladlady725516 I didn't eat the whole tin as it was horrible so put 0.6 of a tin.

Thankfully since starting the orlistat I've lost a lot of weight. 9 pounds in 5 days. Obviously it will slow down. But I'm.encouraged by this!

9 lbs in 5 days will not be fat loss, just your bowels emptying.
but I’m glad your encouraged.