Frustrated no weight or inch loss

[Weightsandmeasures]

Hi. I'd be grateful to hear your experience of your first week in the process to lose weight.

I've gained almost 30 pounds in the last 18 months and I'm finally doing something about it. This is mainly because I stopped my previously active sporty lifestyle and I was drinking and eating far more than was healthy.

I'm slowly getting back to being more active and reducing my alcohol intake. This past week (starting last Friday) is my first dedicated and structure attempt at losing weight.

I'm 5 foot 5 and 44 years.

I'm doing intermittent fasting - I stop eating at 8pm in the evening and have something to eat just after 11am the next morning.

I've also exercised everyday this week - cycling 60 mins, 3 times and doing 30 mins high impact aerobics 5 times. I've kept my total calorie intake at average of 2000. My net calories (accounting for exercise) is about 1500.

I've not lost any weight and not a smidgen of inches.

Any advice? How long did it take you to see a movement in measurements?

Stop fasting. Your body is holding onto fat because you aren’t giving it enough fuel.

Eat earlier in the morning to begin with.

What are you actually eating?

Firstly I would say stick with it, it's only been a week.

Secondly I think your calorie intake may still be a bit high. I use My Fitness Pal to track my intake and that has me on 1200 cal per day with a view to losing 2lb per week and I'm a bit taller than you. That said I think if your going to be successful whatever plan you follow needs to be a sustainable lifestyle change rather than crash / yo yo dieting but then the weight loss can be a bit slow.

Good luck

I'm eating 2000 calories on average so I'm not fasting in the general sense. I'm doing intermittent fasting. I fast from 8pm the night before to 11am the following morning.

In terms of what I eat, for example yesterday: I had:

Late morning: 1 small americano and a breakfast bar
Lunch: Chicken sandwich
Mid-afternoon: 1 small americano and popcorn
Dinner: Potato, veg, salad, and 2 baked pieces of chicken
Snack: 10 pistachio and 1 cup green tea

I track the calories on these. Yesterday was 1985 calories.

Thanks Endoflevelbaddy. Is 1200 total or net calories (ie net of calories burned during exercise)? I think my net is about 1500 on average.

You need to be in deficit to loose weight and not eat back calories you’ve supposedly burnt.

My basal metabolic rate is 1987. So my net is roughly 500 less that my daily needs. I am burning more than I am eating.

Maybe I need to increase calorie burn by an extra 100 or 200 and then drop 100 off my daily calorie intake?

Ignore the calories you may or may not bum while exercising. Those are notoriously difficult to accurately calculate and are likely to be less than you think.

I cycle for 6 hours per week, lift weights at the gym for 30 mins per week and walk the dog for an hour 5 times per week. I ignore all,of this for the purposes of weight loss and keep my calories below 1500 per day. With all this, I average 1.5lbs loss per week.

I find that my body takes a couple of weeks to play catch up both for losing and gaining weight so I wouldn’t worry too much about not losing the first week, but I suspect you are eating a bit too much just now.

Burn not bum!

Thanks WickedGood, that's interesting. That's a pretty good level of exercise.

I usually halve the calories normally given per hour cycling and running. I also round up by at least 25 on calorie intake for everything I eat.

I'll try to drop the calorie intake to 1500. I think that would be manageable. I want to do something I can maintain for the foreseeable future.

I must be doing something wrong because even if the scales do not move, surely I should see at least something off the measurement. At least point something off an inch.

How long did it take for you to see a reduction in your measurements?

Americano black? Anything on the potato?

Yeah black American. No sugar or milk.

The potato was chopped up and mixed with the salad. I use home made dressing - garlic, lime, oil and salt.

Maybe I'm expecting to see results too soon? I'm particularly interested in measuring inches as I know weight in the early stages isn't always reliable.

I agree that you need to disregard the calories “earned back” through exercise and also reduce your calories overall. I am 5’8, exercise for at least an hour daily (mixture of cardio, hiit and weight lifting) and I keep my calorie intake at 1300-1400 max if I want to lose 2-3lbs a week. To maintain I’ll have 1600 max, normally I’ll stick to 1300 in the week and have a blow out at the weekend.

A week is far too soon - if you are still not seeing a loss after a month, then you could cut your Calories more.

You're taking in too many calories. It's really that simple.

You are eating too many calories it needs to be around 1200/1500 with all the exercise to loose.

I’m the same height as you and need to eat 1200 per day to lose weight (not including the 5/6 hrs exercise I do per week). I think you need to drop down a bit.

Remember to lose weight its 90% what you eat and only 10% exercise....although the exercise is very good for you.

I am 5 ft. 4 and a similar age and have to not eat any 'white' foods to maintain a reasonable weight...no bread,pasta,rice,flourbased foods.

Basically mostly plant based with 100g of lean meat/fish per meal.

The fasting won't work if you are eating up to 2000cals.

I have to stay below 1400, and l am pretty active.

Try the Louise Parker book for really healthy meals.

I've finally worked out what the problem is: my scales are broken. I was beginning to think I have a medical condition because none of it made sense. I'm fairly knowledgeable about the bardic science of weight loss, etc. I just couldn't understand why on a net calorie bad us nothing was happening.

Yep, turns out scale is broken. It only ever gave 2 readings.