Why are the scales so stubborn?

[TeenLifeMum]

I’ve lost 4lb in a week and a half but that includes starting a diet and having a sickness bug for 2 days. But this week, I’ve continued the diet and lost nothing!

I’ve only ever lost before with strict calorie counting and reducing carbs / no bread.

Starting weight - 12st 4
11 nov - 12st
15 Nov - 12st 1lb (no obvious reason for gain)
18 nov - 12st

I expected loss to be slow but nothing in a week despite eating just under 1200 calories each day is so depressing.

I know it’s harder with age but short of starving myself I’m at a total loss what I need to do.

Oh yes. I sometimes have weeks where it doesn’t move at all. And I weigh myself everyday and I never ever cheat and have 1100 calories a day. So I feel ur pain.

The start of a diet usually sees a good loss and yours was combined with a stomach bug so you'll have lost a lot of fluid in addition due to that. Now you are better your body has rebalanced the fluid and you'll probably see a drop again next week. Weight loss isn't linear and slow and steady is always the best way to go for long term weight loss. Come join us on the LOSE IT thread for lots of support and encouragement through rise and falls.

I've been following Zoe nutrition on Instagram for ideas and trying to eat 30 different plants a week.

All I've been doing differently really is eating lots of different veg and salad based meals for lunch (ambitious kitchen page on Fb has some lovely recipes) and having normal meals at dinner time but swapping in extra veg instead of potatoes/rice. I've stopped buying cereal bars/little chocolate bars to have in the cupboard and have some dark chocolate instead.

I weighed myself after doing this for a couple of months and I've lost 11lb. I've not gone hungry at all.

Sorry that wasn't meant to sound smug at all, I'm just suggesting it as a different approach to calorie counting that seems to work quite well (and it's supposed to be very good for you generally)

Who knows! It's a nightmare losing weight.
I keep bouncing between 12s4 and 12s

@OnWhatGrounds 😂😂😂 yep, totally with you on those 4lbs! Grrr

I know it slows when dieting but not usually in the second week. I thought I’d have 3 weeks of loss before plateauing. Let’s give it another week and see where I get.

I always struggle when I get to the number at the start dropping to the number below. Just want the scales to start with an 11 😩

This is a common mistake. You are literally only just starting a diet and already a few days in getting frustrated and not seeing that you have already lost weight and made good changes but healthy normal weight loss can take MONTHS. Staving yourself is a terrible idea and you will fail the diet through misery. Look around here at threads we are losing weight for months maybe even a year or more very slowly. I had a plateau for 5 weeks. You need to be realistic about what is going to happen here. Keep going and be patient

@Menora i was expecting to lose 1lb rather than loads. I used to find it easy to lose a few lbs but since hitting 40 it’s like there’s a big wall.

Are you using my fitness pal or similar? Last September I was blaming my age of 46 for not being able to lose weight but once I put everything into mfp I saw that I was just in denial about how much I was eating as once I dropped my calories to between 1500 and 1700 I lost weight slowly and steadily.

@JustACountryMusicGirlInCowboyBoots i log everything in my fitness pal.

Do you get much exercise? That makes a big difference to me. I just walk but i walk on average 5 miles a day but most days it's around 8-10 and it's up big hills. If I didn't walk I'd have to eat considerably less.
This time last year I thought I'd never see below about 9 and a half stone (I'm short) then below 9, and now below 8 and a half stone but it happened eventually through being fairly consistent and keeping plodding on. It's easy to think sod it and eat more when I'm not losing anything but I know now that I just need to keep going. It sucks and you have my sympathy.

That’s not really how WL works. You probably lost 4lb of mostly water in week 1. You need a consistent calorie deficit to lose real fat and it is a slow burn of gradual loss over time, even fractions of lbs will be shifting until they make a whole one, this might not be within a 7 day window, it could be 5 days, 10 or 12 there is no rule, it’s just better to weigh weekly as to not get too obsessed with it. The body doesn’t wake up on day 7 and lose weight, it’s at the point where the calorie deficit is enough to lose instead of gain or maintain and you could lose a fraction of 1lb each day very slowly. Make sure you tracking your calorie intake exactly. I’ve lost 3 stone now over many months and I’ve had a wild ride of up and down weights that don’t make sense but if you are consistent you will see a change. Keep going and don’t get hung up on the scales too much.

i agree op, I got so tired of calorie counting and feeling miserable I went back to slimming world. I know it doesn’t work for everyone but I am eating properly and losing weight although still slowly. But 1/2- 1 lb a week consistently does add up over time and I am spared the misery of calorie counting.

It’s infuriating.

Upping my exercise helped me.