Been calorie counting for 3.5wks and am exactly the same weight every single day!

[Firefly45]

Started calorie counting 3
5wks ago. I use an app. I am eating so much less than I was.
I appreciate that people may say I am not recording exactly or maybe not quite measuring correctly but surely if I am eating so much less and more healthy something should shift!
(Cut out processed shit, sweets, biscuits, crisps, cakes, having smaller portions of everything).

My clothes feel no different and only measured last week so no change there.

I keep telling myself to keep going and eventually body will catch up?

Do you think this is true? Scales dont move up or down just exact same weight every day.
(Its not the Scales cos DH is going up and down on them)

Should I just keep on doing what im doing?

Yes, keep going. Be really honest with the tracking though. Maybe your deficit isn't actually a deficit but usually give it a month or so before making adjustments there

Keep going, it takes my weight ages to start moving and then it goes. Up your water, add 1000 steps, drop 100 calories and make sure you are getting good sleep and nutrition.

How tall are you, how much do you weigh, and how many calories are you eating each day?
Without this information, it's difficult to say.
Maybe you are already tiny, and don't need to lose weight? Maybe you have massively over-estimated how many calories you need to lose weight, so while you are eating better in terms of nutrition, you aren't prompting a loss.

I know it is frustrating. I once joined a new gym with a diet program. I followed the program FAITHFULLY. And I was over-weight. I couldn't believe it when, at the end of the week, I hadn't lost a single ounce. VERY DISHEARTENING. (Now, I think the calorie target was too high. It was very focused on protein shakes, in addition to food).

Im 5'7 and 16 stone and eating 1400 to 1600 cats.
I was eating well over 2000 so even if im slightly over im still in a deficit to what i was eating?

It doesn't work like that unfortunately. You may be eating way less than you were before, but you could possibly be eating just the right amount of calories to maintain the weight you are at now. You need to work out your calorie deficit (there are calculators online) and you need to weigh EVERYTHING.

It takes my body a while to get with the program - usually a couple of weeks. Then I'll drop 2lbs in one go, and the cycle starts again. Weight loss is never linear for me sadly! Best to look at overall trend over a few months.

Your body is maybe a bit stressed out by the sudden change. Stress can lead to poorer sleep and all together means our bodies hang onto water and stuff a bit more. Perhaps some of the lower cal foods are more salty, or slower to digest? Perhaps menstrual cycle is coming up in next week or so?

It's so hard - just keep at it and it'll 100% start coming off if you're in a cal deficit

You may not be in enough of a deficit.

I lost 0.5-1lb a week at 1400 cals a day (ish) but it stopped when I hit 9st and I’ve been the same weight for weeks. So I know I need to eat less.

You're still eating too many calories to lose weight. Unless you're doing loads of exercise to burn it all off.

There was a post recently with someone with your exact stats and an inability to lose weight even though they 'were cutting right back', but when they listed what they were eating it was still an awful lot of food unfortunately, they were having 3 large meals plus at least two snacks a day, even if you eat 'healthy' food, you'd still struggle to lose weight on that volume of food.

What does you typical daily food intake consist of?

Say you've been eaten 3000 cals of shit, and you drop to 2000 cals of healthy food, if your TDEE is actually 1600 cals, it doesn't matter for fat loss that you're eating less than you were. All that means is you're not gaining as quickly.

1400 to 1600 cals a day should be enough of a deficit for you to lose a pound or so a week, but that is if you genuinely are eating that amount of calories. It is so easy to underestimate and for the calories to be a bit more than you think.

I’d spend a week carefully measuring and weighing everything, and double checking that the values in the app are correct. If you don’t start losing weight on 1400 to 1600 cals then you need to reduce that amount by a bit and/or do more exercise.

1400-1600 kcal is a big deficit for your current weight and height. Unless you are very sedentary and not measuring everything (drinks are also calories especially fruit juices and anything with milk in) your weight should start shifting.

I am a grazer extraordinaire and a lot of my calories were consumed “in passing” without much awareness. It wasn’t even junk food - a dried apricot here, a slice of cheese there, and it all added up quickly. Once I got this behaviour under control I have been able to maintain healthy weight, including gaining within healthy limits in pregnancy and losing all pregnancy weight postpartum.

I found that I sabotaged all my good work during the working week at the weekends when I would 'reward' myself for being 'good' but in fact I was consuming a huge number of extra calories on those two days which undid all the good. Also I always underestimated how many calories I burned - walking the dog is a case in point. Thought if I walked the dog for 3 miles it would burn 300 cals - nope. More like 150 which is only 1.5 biscuits if that! With that and portion sizes I never managed to lose any weight!

I maintain on that many calories. I think you need quite a bit less. It doesn't really matter how massive the amount previously was, it still needs to go down to maybe 1200. I'd hesitate to go lower as it won't be satisfying enough to maintain.

I mean, that's a LOT of cats!!!

Thats actually probably too few calories for your height and weight, even in a deficit, are you fully tracking/weighing what you’re eating because that’s the likeliest issue? Please don’t go as low as 1200 that’s vastly too few and won’t be sustainable. I’m currently losing about a pound a week eating around 1800 calories and I’m shorter and lighter than you as a starting point.

From the TDEE calculator at 5’7” and 16 stone your maintenance calories are about 2000

You might well be eating less but are you perfectly tracking everything? You can easily add hundreds of extra calories with oil, condiments, too much rice or cereal. Are literally weighing your cereal?

A few glasses of wine and some crisps at the weekend can completely screw you over.

It can be hard to be in a deficit as a woman who isn’t super tall so you have to be very careful and also exercise as well.

I know I can only manage 1200 a day myself

Op, don’t start to eat more. Honestly 😂

look if you’ve not lost any weight then you’re eating to maintenance, it’s that simple, so you’re either under estimating your cals or over estimating your tdee, or both, but after this long, you’re eating to maintenance, you have stopped gaining though, and it is very unlikely you were only eating 2000 a day before.

Thd most likely reasonable here is that you’re not accurately calculating your intake. 1500 should be plenty of a deficit. If you’re pretty sedentary and around 40 then your maintenance calories are around 2000
my advice -measure/weigh everything.

What app are you using?

Your eating maintenance calories so there will be no shift, just maintaining your current weight, starting at a higher weight you need to be eating no more then 1200 calories and unless you are weighing your food then you could still be eating well and truly over 2000 calories. You will be surprised how small 1 portion is and unless you weigh your food you could still be eating 2 to 3 portion sizes.

Maybe the same poster? I thought the same

Are you weighing and measuring all your food, not just eyeballing it?

I have spent a lifetime not losing weight on 1000 calories a day and I felt hungry and miserable.

Since I started the Michael Moseley blood sugar diet it has really changed my life. It appears that the carbs were holding me back.

There are suggested weekly meal plan in the back of the book. For me eating twice a day works really well and once I have done it for a few days I never feel hungry.

Good luck .

Very unlikely at that height and weight though, her TDEE will be well above 1600