Why am I not losing weight

[Titsntats]

I recently decided it was time to finally make changes to myself and my lifestyle as I’m fed up of being overweight! I have around 4 stone to lose in total. I have started the C25K programme, doing that 4 times a week. I repeated week 1 and am now on week 2. I’ve started walking my dog between 4-8 miles every weekend, and I’m using a calorie tracker to track everything I’m eating. I make sure I’m in a calorie deficit every day, and I drink 2L of water each day. In the last 3 weeks I haven’t lost a single KG is there something I’m missing!?

Sounds like you're doing everything right.

You can try a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar stirred into a big glass of water before each meal.

You can try green tea, or plain black coffee.

You probably just need to be a bit more patient. For me, very little happens in the first couple of weeks and then I start losing pretty quickly.

Are you “eating back” your exercise calories? Most trackers seem to have a very optimistic view of how many you’ve burnt during sessions.

Forgot to ask, are you weighing your food to make sure your calorie counting is accurate?

So something is off. Either uour calorie burn count or how many calories you eat.

As a pp said, these counters can hugely over estimate how much you burn. Are you eating the calories back that you burn as a pp asked?

Because to not loose weight means you're eating as many calories as you burn,

How many calories are you allowing yourself?

MFP recommends 1500 per day but I think that’s too much so I’ve been having around 1150-1200. I don’t pay too much attention to calories burned on exercise days as I don’t feel they’re always accurate, but I don’t eat any more on those days than I do on others, I still keep to the same amount

Weight loss is a calorie deficit, takes time so stick with it! A deficit of 3500 calories a week (500 a day) will lose 1lb of fat.

Things to avoid-

Dont log your exercise with myfitnesspal, it notoriously over estimates exercise calories. I dont 'eat back' my calories when losing weight

Log everything. A tiny bite of this, an added tbsp of mayo etc. Fats contain a lot of calories so track accurately.

Have patience, I bet you're already feeling much better for being more active!

That’s honestly way too low. Even 1500 is likely to be too low if you have 4st to lose. Even if you start to lose weight now, which you inevitably will as that will be a huge calorie deficit, your body will eventually get used to that many calories per day and you will need to cut calories again in order to continue losing weight. It’s not safe or sustainable.

Then the answer op is you're not consuming 1200 calories a day, in fact to maintain four stone over weight you're likely eating closer to double that.

So something is off in your calculations, be it portion size or how you cook it.

Also you need to take into account what you drink, and any treats, say at the weekend.

But if you were consuming 1200 calories a day with four stone to loose you'd be dropping weight fast. As you're not, it tells you you're eating way more than that.

www.jamessmithacademy.com/macro-calculator/ use this to calculate your calories. Choose "lightly active" as a good starting point. If after a couple of weeks if you're still not losing weight, then drop by 50kcal.

1150 is too low. I dropped to this once last year when I was desperate and my PT had a huge go at me. I used the calculator I've linked to which gave me about 1500kcal (I'm short and weighed 60kg), weighed everything and logged it on MFP (literally everything, even down to a splash of milk in tea). Lost weight, and visibly so, without depriving myself of anything.

No @Bluntness100 I am NOT eating double that!

@chillychicken just used that calculator and it recommends 2000 calories

Op, you are simply eating too much and not burning enough off
Some people put on weight when they exercise because they eat back the calories

Because weight loss is more than eat less move more. I've said it so many times on here but it gets lost in the low calorie brigade.

There are very different hormonal and metabolic reactions depending on what you eat. If you eat 1500 calories of high carb it has a completely different metabolic reaction than 1500 calories of high fat and moderate protein for example. One drives fat storage because it triggers high blood sugar and subsequently high insulin levels to clear the sugar form the blood i.e fat storage through a process called lipogenesis.

What you eat is far more important than how much you eat. Counting calories and calorie deficit works in the short term but for some of us it doesn't work at all.

Can you give an example of what you eat and drink on a typical day?

It must be so frustrating making a big effort and not seeing any results. Maintaining motivation is hard enough when it's all going well, let alone when you're not seeing results.

Op, whichever way you cut it, you're eating the required amount to maintain your weight. I'm sorry but you are.

And agree it's frustrating, but if the calculator says 2000 which with a significant amount of weight to loose this would seem accurate. So to maintain you're eating more than this over the course of a week, averaged out. So likely double.

Honestly if you want to loose weight then this is what you need to address.

Can you post a typical days menu? Not a particularly good one, but an honest one, with Comments on any treats etc you may have, say at the weekend?

I eat the same thing every day during the week, as I find it easier to prepare it all and bring it to work with me.
Mornings I have 50g of porridge made with water instead of milk. No sugar or sweetener. If I’m hungry mid morning I eat grapes, again weighed out as I know too many can be a problem.
Lunch I have homemade soup, a fat free Greek yoghurt and a banana.
Tea is usually something from the pinch of nom book, or plain chicken breast with veg and rice. I weigh all ingredients/portions. I have stopped drinking any tea/fizzy drinks and drink only water. Saturday just gone I had breakfast as usual, did an 8 mile walk and then had a carvery around 2pm with nothing for tea.
I used to struggle with emotional eating, but find it easier to cut out completely rather than eat in moderation as I wouldn’t be able to stop, so I have cut out biscuits, chocolate etc

@NonUrinatInVentum this is exactly why I am asking for help as there is clearly something I’m missing or doing wrong

You're not moving enough I think. Even 20 minutes in the evening doing some basic exercises will help.

It sounds like you are doing everything right which must be so frustrating. I would say give it another two to three weeks then it may be worth a trip to the Gp to see if there is anything that could be preventing you from losing weight. Have you always been around 4 stone over or did it come on quickly ?

Maybe a trip to the gp? The human body should not be reacting like this, you should be loosing weight. If your diet posted is honest, from drinks, through to how you cook food ie how much fat, through to snacks and portion sizes. Then scientifically you should loosing weight quite fast.

@EmmiJay I’m doing C25K for 30 minutes 4 nights a week.

Are you sure your scales are accurate?

Weirdly mine seem to give a different reading depending on where they are in the bathroom! So maybe you have lost weight, but the initial weight reading was wrong? Clutching at straws, but I can't understand why you're not losing weight on that diet either!

Do you have any idea how many steps you do each day? I'm guessing that if you have a dog you must get in at least 10k a day?

Have you checked the calories of the food you’re eating against non-biased sources? Sometimes I find the food in MFP can be way out! Also, check the weights of things in there as sometimes they can refer to cooked weight rather than raw weight, which for things like rice makes a massive difference.

Also when are you weighing yourself? I find first thing in the morning just after I’ve been to the loo is the best time. And I always wear the same thing so there can’t be any fluctuations due to that.