Can anyone help me with why this weight isn't shifting??

[DakotaFanny]

hello all, I'm struggling to lose this bloomin' weight, even though I (think I) am working really hard to shift it. Last week I stayed the same, this week I put on a pound and a half. Mathematically, this isn't making any sense to me (I will explain in a second) so thought I'd post her to see if anyone has any clever ideas. I go from "maybe I'm eating too much" to "maybe I'm not eating enough". Below is my calorie input and output for this week. Any help sssoooooooooo much appreciated!

So, my TDEE is 2089 ( I am 39, 5 ft 6, 182 lbs). To lose 1 lb a week, MFP put me at a target of 1420 calories a day. I told it I was sedentary, so that my exercise would be added in as a bonus. i use Runkeeper and have a Fitbit, so these pieces of info all get added to MFP, which means that, by the end of the day, I have usually earned between 200 and 800 calories extra a day through exercise.

Anyway, I also aim to walk 10,000 steps a day (which accounts for some of the calories 'earned' every day), and I am also doing four 30 day challenges (the plank challenge, a slim thigh challenge, a butt lift and a slim arms) Ie; I move quite a lot and don't usually eat back the calories I have earned. Therefore, I should be losing a pound a week by calorie deficit of 3500 and then a bit more through exercise bonus calories, right??

Last week, my days looked like this

Saturday I consumed 2454 calories (bad start, I know). I burned 295 through exercise. In total then I was over target by 739....keep reading, it gets better!!

Sunday I consumed 1339, burned 857 through exercise. In total 938 under target (so Saturday should have been 'canceled out'.

Monday, consumed 1409, burned 285, total of 296 under target.

Tuesday, consumed 1383, burned 626, total of 663 under target.

wednesday, consumed 1422, burned 182, total of 180 under target.

Thursday, consumed 1427, burned 475' total of 468 under target.

friday, consumed 1478, burned 570, total of 512 under target.

in total, MFP wants me to eat 9940 calories a week, in order to lose 1 lb. this week I ate 10, 912....so 972 cals over....but I burnt a total of 3290. If you take those two bits of info together, I had a total calorie deficit/burn combo of 5818 calories, so should definitely have lost 1-1.5lbs. Does that make sense???

Food wise, the only things that might be imprecise AT ALL in my logging is milk in tea and coffee, but I can't see that that can account for more than about 50 calories a day, and is just as likely to be an undercalculation as an over calculation.

Phew, this has been long! Sorry! If you're still with me, thanks and any thoughts?

dakota.

Do you get your heart rate up to a fat burning level at all during your exercise or is it all relatively easy non sweaty stuff?

What did you do Sunday to burn nearly 900 calories?

I can do a spin class and sweat my bollocks off and only burn 500.

Most of it will be walking Madame, so not sweaty really, no.

Sunday, I went skating for two hours, went for a walk and a bike ride. It was an unusually actuve day!

One of my ideas is that maybe I should change MFP to lightly active to acount for the walking.....???

If you're not sure how much milk you are using, pour some into a jug so you can enter the amount measures and only take your milk from that jug.

Hormones etc will also effect weightloss, are you drinking much water?

Good idea re:milk. Thanks.

I drink a lot of water in the week (2-3 litres), much less at the weekend.

I do not think you are eating enough!!! We need around 1200ish cals a day to keep as alive. That is what you would burn if you were laying comaesque on a bed all day. If you are only eating 1300 cals then you are not leaving your body with enough fuel to function taking exercise into consideration and it will be desperately clinging to every ounce of fat.

I also think those exercise cals don't look at all right, I think you've really overestimated them! My advice would be to eat more. Around 1600. Stop calculating the exercise cals so religiously and just be active, you should see weight start to come off then.

Every single time I've needed to lose weight I've done that. Eaten around 1500/1600 cals, been active but not crazy killing myself HIIT and the weight has come off. Too little food, combined with too much exercise is just going to fuck up your metabolism.

IME MFP massively overestimates how many calories women need to eat, and also overestimates how many calories many exercises burn off.

I would ignore the exercise calories. I found I needed a net calorie target of around 1000-1200 calories a day to lose weight.

The exercise calories all automatically upload to MFP from my fitbit and/or Runkeeper. I am not logging them separately.

Someone at work was talking about the fact that she loses more weight at 1900 calories a day than at 1500....which is one of the reasons I posted here, hoping someone could explain that. Are you saying that, if I am eating 1400 but burning 400 then effectively I'm only eating 1000, which is not enough?

That makes sense to me, though I've only been doing this for around six weeks, which seems quite soon for my body to have gone into panic mode??

Thanks for your replies so far.

To be fair MFP puts skating at 500 calories an hour for me, which I halved because it seemed ridiculously high, what with the fact that for a significant amount if that time you're cruising rather than 'pushing'...

Confused!!!

Your body will go into "panic mode" after a week of not eating enough ... It's how our bodies coped with famine, illness etc. but yeah I am saying that - eating 1400, burning 400 leaves 1000 which isn't enough.

Re exercise cals, there is no way on this earth that skating is so high! Running for 20 mins burns something pathetic like 85 cals. Professional figure skater doing lifts might burn 500 cals an hour but not normal skating. This is why the key to weight loss is diet.

Do you still have periods? If so where are you in your monthly cycle?

Eating too few calories won't stop you losing weight or make you put weight on, it can make weightloss slightly slower though. I know you said you're sure you're logging right, I'm assuming that means you have an accurate food scale and log to the nearest gram?

Weightloss isn't linear, sometimes you put on weight due to your period or muscles retaining water after exercise to help them heal.

Generally people say to try new things for at least 3 weeks, so maybe keep going for a week then come back if you so haven't lost?

I think your TDEE is very high for someone who is 39.

I would totally ignore the fitness calories and just work on your daily calorie intake, keeping it at 1400 or below. Sometimes (I'm on 1200) I won't lose all week but the weekend at 1200 makes all the difference.

The starvation mode thing is rubbish by all accounts, there's a thread on here somewhere that explains why. You just need to soldier on with the calorie counting, get your 10000 steps a day but don't eat any extra exercise calories.

Work out your TDEE on iifym.com, it's one of the most reliable. You can then enter the calories it suggests into MFP.

Yes, I weigh everything that needs weighing, drink skimmed milk only and don't have periods (Mirena coil).

Seems like all of you are saying ignore the exercise calories, which makes sense to me. More divided on calories in though...

Mirena coil can give weight gain can't it? I'm on depro and nurse has estimated the length of time I've been in it I'm carrying a stone due to it. This weight is very hard to loose while still on the injection. Just a thought

Tdee- 2089

Bmr - 1519

what type of food are you eating?

80% of TDEE is usually suggested, so with your stats I'd eat 1670ish a day. Log exercise calories if you want (I do as they make me feel better!) but don't eat any of them back.

Usually have yoghurt with raspberries or similar and a bit of granola for breakfast, or porridge.

Lunch generally salads, soups or baked potatoes.

Tea will usually be whatever the family is having but with more veg or salad, or just smaller portions. Sometimes, this will be a healthy chicken/fish and veg type meal, sometimes lasagne, chilli type meal, occasionally something with chips, in which case I have less of....

Not the healthiest food consistently, but certainly not disastrous.

Exercise calories do make me feel proud GunShot. I like logging them, but yes, will definitely not eat them back, or count them within my 'what I should be losing' mindset.

I would go with your BMR and have 1519 calories per day. Try and have more protein as this will fill you up for longer.

"I do not think you are eating enough!!! We need around 1200ish cals a day to keep as alive. That is what you would burn if you were laying comaesque on a bed all day. "

This is the most moronic thing I have read in a long time.

Justone explain why that is moronic?