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.

You just need to cut 500 cals per day off your actual burns.

Ignore the scales - are your clothes feeling looser?

Yeah, why is that moronic? How rude! You're not on AIBU FFS.

Is it possible that your muscles are becoming more toned, ie heavier?
Take body measurements, neck, arms, chest waist, hips, thighs, the lot. Do this once a week. Stay off the scales.

Yes they are Turn. I think I look better, but it's so hard not to be ruled by the scales isn't it??m

What do you mena by off my actual burns?? Sorry if I'm being dim...

definitely needs more protein. porridge is okay for breakfast but yoghurt and fruit not so much, if you do have yoghurt make sure it's not low fat. what about eggs of some description?

salads soup or potatoes sounds very low on protein. are you having bread with soup?

in terms of calories your really not eating much, but I think it needs a reshuffle to be higher on protein/fibre.

do you find yourself feeling very hungry between meals op?

I except your muscles are toning up- they weight more than fat.

I wouldn't call that above post "maronic" but it isn't correct. You don't need 1200 calories just to lie in bed all day. I'm 5ft 2 and when dieting MFP recommends around 1200/1300 calories a day for me to lose weight.

Bake 1200 is the basic calorie requirement for a woman's body before getting out of bed in the morning, MFP is notorious for recommending this amount and generally it isn't high enough

Who is this "woman" you're talking about?

Sorry but I don't agree with what you're saying Wind

I'm a bit obsessive when it come to calories etc and also 5ft 2, if you do your research the info is out there.

Will rephrase to "the average woman" just for you ??

I have to agree that the pitfall a lot of people face when restricting calories is not eating enough.

In my own experience eating too little, and consuming calories made up of the wrong type of foods (I.e white carbs) doesn't work. All that happens is your blood sugar is like a roller coaster and you end up tired and grumpy and weighing the same as you did before. also restricting so much is unsustainable.

also I think it's highly unlikely your muscle mass will have increased, not enough protein.

I wrote a response then my internet went down so I screenshotted!

Oh and 1,200 is the average BMR I think. It's not good to eat at your BMR - you should be eating at a deficiet of your TDEE. Wind is correct!

I doubt 1200 is the average BMR now, I'm 5 foot 5 and I'd have to weigh less than 100lbs to have a BMR of 1200 (according to the calculator on IIFYM). Apparently the average woman in England in 2010 was 5'3 and 11 stone, which gives a BMR of over 1400 at 20 years old and over 1300 at 40.

You wont have gained a pound of muscle in a week accidently. Even if you were doing heavy weightlifting and eating plenty of protein you would find that hard. It is probably water weight and will suddenly disappear.

With all the exercise you're doing I wouldn't recommend eating at BMR. 1700 would be a good aim.

The thing that I think we sometimes forget is that every woman is different. Personally - at net 1500 calories a day, I gain weight. At 1300-1400 I maintain. At 1200 I lose. Which for other people doesn't work. It took me a few weeks of dieting to find out the right level for me.

I also found that if I ate a lot of carbs, I wouldn't lose weight even at 1200. So I kept carbs low.

Also, when are you weighing? What time of day and how often? And do you use the same scales on the same floor every time?

Sorry to be a bit crude, but if you'd already had a bowel movement before weighing the first time, and hadn't the second that could easily explain the difference. If you're sure you've eaten the calories in the OP then its very unlikely you have put on weight (as fat rather than water weight), the variation in the scales could be due to hundreds of things.

Hi, sorry went out. Lovely to come back to so many responses, although I'm not sure I'm much clearer!!

I think I probably need to change MFP to lightly active, which takes me back up to 1630 calories with a 50% carb, 20% protein and 30% fat target. I'm going to be a bit more mindful of these figures (never pay any attention to the nutrition stuff) and see what happens next week. i guess it makes sense that if I'm burning 500 calories, I really need to Eat more to counteract it. The comment about knowcking off my burn aslo makes a lot of sense.

If that deosn't work, then I'll have a couple fo weeks at 1200, although logically that doesn't sit so comfrotably with me.

Thank you so much for all your help. this is MN at its finest. to you all.

Sorry, lots of typos!

Is Fitbit double counting with the other app you are using? You need to take the Fitbit off whilst you are using something else to track. Likewise for skating -it will be an overestimate if Fitbit is counting at the same time.

Upping your calorie intake is totally illogical. The only possibilities here are that you are either underestimating your calorie intake, overestimating your exercise cals, or at the point in your monthly cycle where you are retaining fluid -in which case even more will come off next week. If you've eaten shed loads of salty food suddenly this week then that might have an impact too.

My guess is that you are overestimating your exercise cals.

I don't trust fitbit at all (was appalled with the one we had, a flex). I'd go with rules of thumb on line about calories burnt per hour of activity before I trusted a fitbit.

The fitbit only adds calorie burn if it estimates that the full day calorie burn will be bigger than MFP is saying. There are a lot of days where it doesn't add any.

Re overestimation of burn- I've just been for a 25 minute walk, which Runkeeper has put at a 139 calorie burn. Does that sound utterly implausible??

It's a fitbit one, someone asked. I only really use it as a step counter.

I think paying more attention to the nutritional side of things will make a big difference.

also, how long have you been dieting/exercising? it could take a few weeks of a particular regime to see progress, you can't try something for a week and then write it off, try something different for at least a month before judging whether it's working.

I think you are over estimating calories. You'd have to walk about 10 miles at 4 mph to burn 1000 calories.

What are you eating?

139 for 25 minutes is possible, how far did you go?

I've been tying to cut down all year. Did 5:2 for three weeks, realised I was counting calories anyway, so switched to calorie counting properly 4 weeks ago. Lost 3 pounds in first two weeks, nothing last week, gained this week.

My dh is saying he can see the difference (so can I if I'm feeling positive) and that I should give the current regime another week before I change anything at all....