why are the scales not moving??
 

would someone please help me shed some light on this issue....
I have drastically cut down on calorie intake (avergaing about 900-1000 per day) im female 35 years old, 5 foot 6 and 14 stone
excersising for 50 mins every other day and 30 mins walking everyday
I have been doing this for 2 weeks

AND STILL THE SCALES SAY NO WEIGHT LOSS!!!!!!!

they are electronic so its not like they are broke I just dont seem to be loosing any weight at all and I dont understand why

if someone can help me please do!!! :eek:

Have you been losing right along? Plateaus happen (that would make a good bumper sticker :D) from time to time during weight loss.

At ~196 pounds you should be losing at a decent pace. Now, are you SURE your calorie count is correct? Sometimes I have to go back to weighing/measuring my portions for a while.

You can try a number of things to get the loss going again--basically change something as the body gets used to what you're doing. Drink more waters, eat more protein, change up your exercise. Or do all of these.

If you're consistently burning more calories than you are taking in, you WILL lose weight (eventually).

Regards,
Michael

im eating pre packaged meals with the calories on them so that should be right, maybe my body is just putting up a bit of a fight at the minute and clinging on to the blubber.

i will not quit, I feel smaller and my clothes are looser, but no actual weight loss..I suppose its all a bit of a "dark art" and i should stop over analyzing, if my body is shrinking does actually loosing weight matter, may be that will come in time???

I would highly recommend you cook from scratch. I saw a TV show on those packaged diet meals and NOT ONE OF THEM WAS EVEN CLOSE TO ACCURATE!!! All of them had tons of sodium, higher calories and higher fat contents than what was printed on the box, and in most cases it was significantly higher. I don't know if the same is true in Europe, but here in the States the regulatory agencies that oversee these things doesn't have enough man power to keep up with every product and the fines and penalties aren't enough to offset the profits they make catering to the diet crowd.

I also had trouble a time or two sitting at a plateau when I was doing everything else right, so during those times I boosted my protein to 40%-50%, dropped the calories by 100-200 and waited for the scale to show me the money. Weight loss = burn more than you take in + time. Another thing I can't stress enough is water, 64 oz baseline + an additional 8 oz for every 10 lbs you want to lose. Get yourself a water bottle and glue it to your hand.

Also you might want to increase the intensity of your workouts, walking is great exercise, but jogging burns 3-5 times more calories for the same time commitment. So maybe you walk a minute, jog a minute, etc etc. Get that heart rate going and keep it up there. And keep the workouts interesting, change it up weekly/daily whatever, and push yourself to a sweat as quickly as possible.

thanks for all the advice... I dont actually drink a great deal of water, i tend to drink coffee (no milk or sugar) all day long.

have just done a little research and founf this article, its quite usefull

...head off to get a glass of water!!

Why drinking water helps with weight loss - Drink Water to Lose Weight and Burn Fat

Yes, I think if you up the water intake you'll see some results. I used to eat prepackaged meals (Nutrisystem, Lean Cuisine, WW, etc.) but this time around I've opted not to. They taste good, and they do limit your portion size, but they are just so full of sodium, preservatives, etc.

I do eat a few processed food items, but I keep them to a minimum. Kinda funny, and a 180 degree turn from my previous lifestyle where we lived out of cans and boxes, I now cook most every meal.

Regards,
Michael

regarding water intake
 

I am new at this forum thing...but the water intake questions go right along with what I have learned. I am doing a 30 minute ab workout every morning (after a glass of water and two aspirin). Hey, third day and already I am seeing painful but good results; the interesting thing is I am drinking lots of water at the computer and at dinner and do I get 8 glasses a day - hardly; but I am hydrated and really not bound up in muscle pain. Lots more energy too, like I am hyped all day.

One question though. I cannot find an ab workout in activities list. Calesthentics is the closest I can get and that does not come close to the energy expended in an ab workout.

192 and headed for 130:rolleyes: if only I could wean myself from half and half in my tea!

First, I always heard that you should not go below 1200 cals a day. Your body do not get enough nutitions and go to a starvation mood which it hold on to every bit of fat that it has try to survive.
Second, If your clothes loose and you feel smaller, just be patient, don't give up. I have heard some situations that "the weight not change but the inches does". And be patient, your hard work will pay off.
I am in the same situation sometimes before (though I couldn't go below 1200 cals, I will be too hungry. I also love food.) I got lot of compliment, but my pounds not going down.
Good luck
Mai

Water
You are right. I have to measure my water every morning 64 oz. I have to finish that by 6 pm. I did not measure my water I hardly get enough.
Mai

I use light almond milk in my coffee, it's yummy and has only 60 calories per cup. So long as you aren't allergic to nuts it's very healthy as well.

Mai has a good point. I can't lose at all on 1000 calories a day, but I lost steadily on 1300. It may be that you aren't eating enough and your body has slowed down its metabolism to compensate. This is true for some but not others, though. Also, take a look at your pie (protein-carb-fat) chart and make sure you're pretty well balanced there.

Don't despair
 

Hey there,

I was in the same boat until just this week, this is my 3rd week in to my new healthy lifestyle. I was really disappointed i was not seeing any result for my efforts. yes i felt great and my body felt tighter but the scales wasn't having any of it. So I didn't panic or lose hope rather I made some changes to my diet. Brought my daily cals intake from 1400 up to 1800 (yes up) and tried to eat more regularly rather than going the whole workday without eating which i was doing. I too have heard that eating too few cals can put your body into starvation mode. Think of your metabolism as a fire- you've got to keep refueling it to keep it burning if you don't feed it enough and often enough it goes out.

I also up'd my protein intake as i am a veggie and really wasn't getting enough despite eating lots of meat substitutes and egg whites. I now try to balance my meals out to 30% fat, 30% protein, 40% carbs (similar to The Zone).

Hey presto this week I've lost 5lbs and 5% body fat. Fingers crossed this continues.

Have you used the tools on the weight goal tab? I recommend setting yourself a realistic weight loss goal & time scale. The tools will help you determine how restrictive you should be with your calorie deficit (burned - eaten)

Hope this helps.

I'm thinking a lot like bettmrr. In fact, my posts a few months ago are sooo similar to yours!
My doc suggested that I change what I was eating. I started to juice vegetables several times a week. Here are the main things she suggested and the weight is now coming off:
1. Juice vegetables (make like a smoothie/but NO dairy) several days a week.
2. Eat vegetables at every meal. Eat LOTS of vegetables.
3. Eat protein throughout the day...small portions..3-4 ounces
4. Drink water throughout the day.
5. Eliminate sugar, dairy and bread.
(Feta cheese is ok)
6. Very healthy, fat free crackers in tiny portions is ok. (1/2 a cracker) and a total of one cracker can be enjoyed daily.
An ocassional 1/2 sweet potato is also ok. Same with tiny amounts of brown rice or whole wheat pasta...but these three things are not to be eaten often.
7. Have fruit for dessert or snack.
8. Greatly limit alcohol.
9. Eat nuts (with the exception of peanuts) in small portions several times a week. Use as a snack.
10. Moderate exercise. Increase only as appropriate.

I've been doing the above. This entailed a slight increase in calories. It ended up being much closer to what Fit Day recommended. The scale is FINALLY moving downward! :D

Don't know if any of this makes sense to you or is helpful. Sending good thoughts for success.

I'm looking at all the responses and thinking... simpler is better. There's no fine tuning to be done here. Your body's not 'starving'; you'd have to be eating half the calories you're eating to even think of being 'starving.'

So forget eating more - IF YOU'RE COMFORTABLE eating what you are currently eating.

Then be brutally honest with yourself about faithfully only eating the prepackaged meals. They say they are so many calories? Then believe them.

If you're drinking enough, the color of your urine (a regular, light color) will show it. If you're NOT drinking enough, your urine will get darker and that is not good. Also, you'd be thirsty, I'm guessing. Pre-packaged meals are not known to be particularly low in sodium so you're probably drinking water just because you get thirsty in that case, anyway.

Eating the calories you're eating, you don't even have to knock yourself out exercising to lose weight. You WILL lose weight. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say your scales are wrong, you're weighing yourself too often and getting all stressed out about the numbers, and in fact, you're losing weight comfortably at the rate your body wants to.

You have a time clock and you're impatient that x pounds don't fall of in y time? Good luck with your mind telling your body about that. Relax about it. You already said your clothes feel better. So feel good about that. Continue what you're doing, stop being in a hurry. Be faithful to the food diary accuracy and you'll be fine. There's no fine tuning necessary, no magic fixes. Calories in and calories out - it's not anything miraculous that happens. So take your time and relax.

Hey There,

At the risk of sounding over sensitive (truely I am not) I just wanted to clarify that by saying 'Hey Presto' I wasn't suggesting there was anything magical about what I have changed just that I am finally beginning to see some results as it seemed like it wasn't going to happen as I'm sure the Original poster may be feeling. These few changes are working for me so far and are more in line with the guidance given by the fitday tools. (Also I must say that 1800 cals is my maximum allowance, I usually tend to hit in at around 1600)

No, its not rocket science but can feel confusing when your doing all the right things and nothing is happening.

As others have said hang in there it will all come good.

I agree with what others have said about cooking your own food and increasing your water intake.

IMO, the problem with a prepackaged food plan is that it is a diet. What happens when you stop the meal plan? What are the macros averaging per day?

Another factor to consider is the nature of your exercise. It's possible that you have been losing fat and gaining some lean muscle. Since muscle is denser than fat you can become leaner without losing any weight.

That's what I'm doing:- I'm currently eating better and exercising harder than I've ever done but I've barely lost any actual weight. I'm stronger, leaner and more toned than I've ever been but not much lighter.

Do you keep track of your body fat %? If that's going down without you losing any weight then that indicates that you're building lean muscle. Don't worry... you won't suddenly bulk up into a bodybuilder because that takes a huge amount of determined effort. Lean and toned muscle is a great thing to build.

Well said! IMHO this is spot-on. In any event, don't even think about giving up--the weight loss will happen.

Regards,
Michael

I've got news for you. You are eating too FEW calories. You have put your body into starvation mode and it's fighting back.

My wife and I started seeing a dietician three months ago and she is constantly on our case about making sure our caloric intake is high enough. She says your body needs fuel to burn calories.
You (being female) should be consuming 1600-1700 calories a day with complex (good) carbs making up about 60-70% of your total and the rest protein and (good) fat.
And like someone else said, start cooking from scratch and throw the processed stuff away.
Of course exercising is a must which you are doing.

Good luck!

How are your clothes fitting though?
 

I would worry less about the scale and more about how your clothes are feeling. Better yet, do tape measurements to gauge progress as well if you can't get a body fat measurement once or twice a month at the gym. As you can see, my weight has plateaued at 197, but I can tell I'm still losing body fat and getting healthier. That's the more important thing.