Cannot Lose Weight

[CathyVee]

You're not losing because your eating too much. Watch this video and start weighing everything.



http://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY

[MrM27]

I saw this thread had 30 post and figured maybe it's something good.

Alas, just another f'ing snowflake who has managed to have at least 3 of the more well versed people on this site chime in but doesn't get it.

OP, make excuses and have a pity party. But no one likes pity parties because there's usually no cake. Unless, Its On The weekend, Where Calories Dont Count.

[lee__d]

You're not losing because your eating too much. Watch this video and start weighing everything.



http://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY

And imagine people who just pour oatmeal or cereal in a bowl and use regular silverware to scoop PB.

Nice video.

[ezb0012]

So everyone here is 100% strict 100% of the time? Every day... no soda or alcohol or cheat meal or snack? Ever? You count every single meal you eat, every thing that goes into your body? You bring a scale to a restaurant or bar? I highly doubt it.

I live how I want to live and I changed a lot to get to where I'm at because I was unhappy with how I looked. I am not trying to become a power lifter or body builder or get hounded by *******s because I don't have a "perfect diet" I was not trying to have a "pity party" or "whine" about anything. I was asking advice from what I thought would be some normal people who went through a similar situation. Not some health freaks who think having a few beers and a cheat meal here and there screws the entire thing up. I have read countless articles about how cheat meals actually help with weight loss. Yes, I UNDERSTAND that not being perfect all the time will not yield me the fastest results, forgive me for having a life and enjoying it from time to time. I like to enjoy a dinner out and a few drinks FROM TIME TO TIME. Not Friday night, ALL day Saturday, Saturday night, and all day Sunday like most of you are assuming.

The focus of this post was to ask why I dropped weight and then stopped. While continuing to stick to the same "semi-decent" diet and workout routine. No, I don't do the exact same workout every week, I know what muscle confusion is. Hounding me about a couple of nights a month of eating "not perfect" doesn't help anything.

[ezb0012]

I saw this thread had 30 post and figured maybe it's something good.

Alas, just another f'ing snowflake who has managed to have at least 3 of the more well versed people on this site chime in but doesn't get it.

OP, make excuses and have a pity party. But no one likes pity parties because there's usually no cake. Unless, Its On The weekend, Where Calories Dont Count.

Extremely helpful.... thanks a bunch.

[mavajo]

So everyone here is 100% strict 100% of the time?

No, not at all. But when we're not being strict, we don't come here and act like it's some big freaking mystery about why we're not losing.

E.g., I haven't been strict the last few weeks. I've had a ton of days at or over maintenance. And guess what? I haven't lost any weight the last few weeks.

In truth, you don't HAVE to count calories to be fit. There are any number of people on the planet that have never been fat in their lives and have never counted a single calorie. Their natural appetite and relationship with food is such that they naturally eat only the calories they need to maintain a healthy size. without ever giving a moment of thought to it. But obviously that's not you, or else you wouldn't have gotten fat to begin with. It's not me either. My natural appetite puts me at a weight of around 210 pounds. If I removed all restraint, it'd probably put me around 230. So if I stopped counting calories and stopped paying attention to my weight, I'd likely balloon back up to 210.

And so I track. Every day and every item? Pretty much. Do I stay within my goal every single day? No. And when I don't, I stall. And then when I'm ready to get serious and start making progress again, I get back on track and stay within my limit. Do you have to stay within your limit EVERY day to reach your goals? No. But every day you miss your goal is just going to slow your progress. And if you overshoot your limits by enough, you'll actually undo all the work you produced on the days that you DID keep to your goals. And that's where you're at.

Obviously, your natural appetite when you don't track is so out of control that you're undoing the work from the rest of your week. So in your case, YOU need to track. You really need to stop worrying so much about what other people are doing and what they can get away it. You're not them.

[dmacdonal9]

So everyone here is 100% strict 100% of the time? Every day... no soda or alcohol or cheat meal or snack? Ever? You count every single meal you eat, every thing that goes into your body? You bring a scale to a restaurant or bar? I highly doubt it.

Well, according to MFP, I've counted every scrap I've food I've eaten for the last 638 days. Most of it was weighed, and what wasn't came from a trustworthy label/package. I enjoy having complete and accurate control over my body composition. It's like a dial to me that I simply turn up or down for the result I want.

I'm not that atypical I don't think. Some people find a way to make some amount of estimation work for them. Other don't count at all and "eat clean" to create an incidental calorie deficit. If that works for them, great.

But for a guy that is having trouble losing fat, the best advice anyone can give you is to crack down on accuracy. Take a few weeks and be 100 percent accountable. Find the errors and fix them, then you can ease off. Or find some other way, like eating clean, as a proxy for calorie counting. Or stay fat.

[ezb0012]

No, not at all. But when we're not being strict, we don't come here and act like it's some big freaking mystery about why we're not losing.

E.g., I haven't been strict the last few weeks. I've had a ton of days at or over maintenance. And guess what? I haven't lost any weight the last few weeks.

In truth, you don't HAVE to count calories to be fit. There are any number of people on the planet that have never been fat in their lives and have never counted a single calorie. Their natural appetite and relationship with food is such that they naturally eat only the calories they need to maintain a healthy size. without ever giving a moment of thought to it. But obviously that's not you, or else you wouldn't have gotten fat to begin with. It's not me either. My natural appetite puts me at a weight of around 210 pounds. If I removed all restraint, it'd probably put me around 230. So if I stopped counting calories and stopped paying attention to my weight, I'd likely balloon back up to 210.

And so I track. Every day and every item? Pretty much. Do I stay within my goal every single day? No. And when I don't, I stall. And then when I'm ready to get serious and start making progress again, I get back on track and stay within my limit. Do you have to stay within your limit EVERY day to reach your goals? No. But every day you miss your goal is just going to slow your progress. And if you overshoot your limits by enough, you'll actually undo all the work you produced on the days that you DID keep to your goals. And that's where you're at.

Obviously, your natural appetite when you don't track is so out of control that you're undoing the work from the rest of your week. So in your case, YOU need to track. You really need to stop worrying so much about what other people are doing and what they can get away it. You're not them.

See, that was actually helpful. Thank you for that. I get that when I am not perfect with it, it stalls. But when it goes from working great to not working at all... for 6 months... that's what brought me to ask on here.

[davidolson22]

I'm going to make it as simple as possible OP.

You need to eat less and move more. I don't care what your reasons/excuses are for why you think it's impossible to do so. If you want to continue losing weight you need to eat less and move more. All the math and calorie counting is just a scientific way to approach the problem of eating less and moving more, but it's still simply eating less and moving more.

(Here hoping you got my "subtle" message)

[ColoDano]

Just one comment on the workouts from me . When I switched from doing cardio first and a small bit of weights, to more weights first, and cardio after, I found that my cardio felt like a much better workout in a shorter time, as I was already in a state of elevated heart rate from the weights, and was already sweating.

After losing the big chunk of weight I needed to, I have almost stopped cardio at all during my workouts. I do play lacrosse an hour or more a week, so I get quite a bit on an HIIT workout with that however.

[ChesterGillette]

Pay extra close attention to what you are eating and move more.
When u go out drinking stick to something on the rocks to mimize calories. If you like getting drunk that will do the job quicker too.

[rjw43]

I'm no expert but I can tell you that from my experience 5 days a week and 2 days of not paying attention will only work to a certain point. Those 2 days are, many times, enough to negate the other 5 if you just go haphazardly. It sucks that you can undo all of that work in 2 days but it can certainly happen.

I've found that if you are going to cheat you have to surround it with the same structure you use on the weekdays and try not to exceed your TDEE too much. So if you are indeed cutting at -500 each day just replace one of your normal meals with a cheat meal that is 500 more than your standard etc... instead of just winging it relying on the previous 5 days to keep you cutting.

I've found that this can recharge the craving batteries and do negligible damage to your cut. I used to have the same mindset of being "loose" on the weekends and I ended up spinning my wheels once I hit a certain point.

[MarcoBazinet]

"Cannot Lose Weight"

...

[MrM27]

Well, according to MFP, I've counted every scrap I've food I've eaten for the last 638 days. Most of it was weighed, and what wasn't came from a trustworthy label/package. I enjoy having complete and accurate control over my body composition. It's like a dial to me that I simply turn up or down for the result I want.

I'm not that atypical I don't think. Some people find a way to make some amount of estimation work for them. Other don't count at all and "eat clean" to create an incidental calorie deficit. If that works for them, great.

But for a guy that is having trouble losing fat, the best advice anyone can give you is to crack down on accuracy. Take a few weeks and be 100 percent accountable. Find the errors and fix them, then you can ease off. Or find some other way, like eating clean, as a proxy for calorie counting. Or stay fat.

Mavajo had a great response to the question about being strict 100% of the time. But word for word I wanted to say what dmcdonal said above. I'm at 671 days today and have my days i log it all and days i don't.

[lee__d]

Flushing^?

<<Works (and grew up) in College Point crew.

[MrM27]

Flushing^?

<<Works (and grew up) in College Point crew.

I know. We talked about that like a year ago. I'm not very memorable lol

[lee__d]

I know. We talked about that like a year ago. I'm not very memorable lol

. Lol I'm just absent minded.

[MrM27]

. Lol I'm just absent minded.

Someone had a little to much fun on the Blvd or on Bell.

[Mdenatale]

See, that was actually helpful. Thank you for that. I get that when I am not perfect with it, it stalls. But when it goes from working great to not working at all... for 6 months... that's what brought me to ask on here.

What I'm curious about is what took you so long to ask? You had 2 months of success then 6 months of no progress. What did you do to fix the situation in those 6 months. I suspect a major case of denial here.

[tcoed]

Then you know what else isn't possible for you? Losing weight. If it really bothers you so much, then man up and fix your calorie consumption.



You're not them. You don't know what else they eat the rest of the day/week. They don't have some magical device that lets them cheat the system. If they're fitter then you, then they're either A) not eating as many calories as you or b) are more active than you. That's it. Stop your whining and crying and do something about it. Your friends are subject to the same laws of thermodynamics as you. They're not playing with a different set of rules. You're playing the same game - you're just losing at it right now because you're whining on the sidelines because you played hard for 70% of the game and then threw in the towel for the other 30%. That last 30% of the game still matters. If you stop playing, you're gonna lose.

I really have no patience for people that know what they're supposed to do to lose weight, don't do it, and then whine that they're still fat and apparently just want to hear that it's not their fault - that the universe just has it in for them. Guess what? It's your fault and completely within your control. So do something about it or stop whining. Knowledge is worthless without application.

Thanks for this, mavajo, it's good to hear once in a while that you have no one to blame but yourself! I dropped from 250-190, then got lazy, even though I knew I had at least 40 lbs more to go. For the past year or two I've been taking things easy and giving myself excuse after excuse for why I stopped losing. I would tell myself that I worked out consistently, I ate clean consistently, I didn't really drink THAT much nor THAT often, all the while I had stopped logging food and workouts.

A few weeks ago I decided to stop with the excuses and start logging again. Food logging is difficult since I am in a deployed environment with just about NO control over what foods I eat, aside from choosing the chicken sauteed in oil as opposed to fried chicken, and bringing in a scale is not possible because we aren't allowed to bring in anything due to security concerns. However, even with the difficulties, I was shocked at how much I was consuming and how many calories I was going through once I started logging EVERYTHING, including the pats of butter, the pieces of cheese, the creamer in the coffee, the taste packets for the water, the seconds I took on potatoes, the second piece of bread I'd grab that I didn't really need, the hot chocolate I'd "let" myself get talked into at the last minute, the gravy I'd put over my turkey cutlet, all these things that I really didn't need and thought weren't big deals added up to an additional 900+ calories sometimes! And I THOUGHT I was eating clean because I was staying away from the fried chicken, the chocolate cake, the sugary sodas.

Logging my workouts for the past few weeks have also helped me a lot. I would give myself excuses in eating based on my perception of how much I was working out. Truth is, I would hit the gym for 3-4 days straight, but then I'd take off for up to 5 days! That is the definition of inconsistency! I would also give myself excuses based on the fact that I "probably" burned 600 calories in the gym because I was so tired; the reality of the logging would show that the workout lasted 30 minutes, and given my abilities, there's NO WAY IN HELL I was burning 600 calories.

I use MyPlate to track calories, Bodybuilding.com to track workouts, but I also keep an Excel sheet that I review daily. It's helping to keep me honest with myself, which is helping me with the denial, self-delusion, and straight out lying to myself that I have difficulty with. I didn't lose anything in the past two weeks; no wonder, the logs show that my workouts were inconsistent and while I was under in terms of calories 70% of the time, I was way out of control that past 30%, bringing my two week average right at my TDEE. No more wondering, the reason is there in black and white!

[Electricheadd]

And imagine people who just pour oatmeal or feral in a bowl and use regular silverware to scoop PB.

Nice video.

What!??!!! A tablespoon = as much as I can fit on the spoon right!?

[TheNormalMan]

What!??!!! A tablespoon = as much as I can fit on the spoon right!?

If that's the case, I get maybe 5-6 servings per jar then.

Damn manufacturers need to learn to label properly.

[TheChadF]

*sigh*

Having a beer or a cheat doesn't mean you don't weigh/record/track it. Even if I go out with friends and have drinks, I record everything so I know where I am at so I don't go overboard.

No one is telling you not to have a beer every now and then or pizza, etc. No one is saying they are 100% strict all of the time. We are saying that regardless of how strict you are, you need to track everything 100% (even if you don't eat clean 100%) of the time so that you know where you are truly at. It's possible to have some beers or a cheat meal with friends and lose weight if you track 100% what you are eating at all times and manage it accordingly.

We are saying that if you aren't losing weight, you are eating too much. If you are eating too much, you aren't weighing/measuring/tracking your first right, that's all.

Drop your ego and listen to others, brah.