Have lost no weight.

[POPPY83]

Hello people.

I'm 5ft 2, and weigh 186ibs.
I don't know what's up - i started healthy eating at the start of September this year, and now i'm on my fourth week, i still have lost no weight. I also have been to the gym 3-4 times a week and roughly do a 60-70 min workout. I brought a Kinnect last week and starting to play Dance Central a lot too. I also do a little weights on the days i don't go to the gym to tone my arms.

But i don't get why there has been no weight loss. I tried just healthy eating without the gym months ago and did loose weight - without going to the gym. My friend said that my body is just toning up first, but i'm not sure. I wanna train to eventually become a police officer and was so motivated, but it's really getting on my nerves now.
Any advise please?
Thanks for reading. x

 

[RachBlue]

It's never WHAT you eat - it's how much, in terms of calories. I put on 3 stone with HEALTHY foods - eating mainly whole grains, low fat dairy, healthy oils, tons of veg, fruit, etc... and yet there's a guy (story on this site, here http://www.minimins.com/news-please-read/176980-professor-loses-weight-snack-food-diet.html ) who LOST weight on snack foods like chocolate bars, chips, biscuits, pizza, doughnuts and sugary cereals.

"Healthy" food isn't healthy if you're eating just slightly too much of it, or (since you're maintaining your weight) eating the exact amount your body needs to stay at the same level.

 

[Konvictz]

do you feel thinner?

 

[POPPY83]

It's never WHAT you eat - it's how much, in terms of calories. I put on 3 stone with HEALTHY foods - eating mainly whole grains, low fat dairy, healthy oils, tons of veg, fruit, etc... and yet there's a guy (story on this site, here http://www.minimins.com/news-please-read/176980-professor-loses-weight-snack-food-diet.html ) who LOST weight on snack foods like chocolate bars, chips, biscuits, pizza, doughnuts and sugary cereals.

"Healthy" food isn't healthy if you're eating just slightly too much of it, or (since you're maintaining your weight) eating the exact amount your body needs to stay at the same level.

I never thought of it like that. I just assume that if you eat healthy, you lose weight. I will have to look at my diet and the portions ASAP...but i am sure i haven't eaten loads. But it must be this as i can't think of what else!
I don't feel thinner, but i feel much fitter, even though i'm still fat.

 

[tranquility]

Have you measured yourself? The tape will often show the results better than the scales especially if you are exercising a lot.

 

[RachBlue]

I never thought of it like that. I just assume that if you eat healthy, you lose weight. I will have to look at my diet and the portions ASAP...but i am sure i haven't eaten loads.

Things like rice or pasta especially, or breakfast cereal, can be really deceptive, and 60g doesn't LOOK much different to 35g... as I know to my cost!

The good news is once you start measuring them out, they don't FEEL that much different either, we just all tend to eat what's in front of us, and 35g of cooked rice on the side doesn't feel dramatically less than 60g when you're eating it.

*edit to add, you won't need to be tied to your kitchen scales, you'll probably be able to estimate amounts once you know better what the different portion sizes look like! But you need to get a good idea first and that way not be slipping up, because just an extra 100cals a day will mean you gain (or fail to lose) 1lbs every five weeks...

You're not going to need to start starving yourself at all, and especially with the muscles you've built up already, if you look at a reputable site that calculates your daily calories (a lot of people here use My Fitness Pal) and make sure you add in all the workouts, they're going to give you a decent figure of what you need to eat to still lose weight healthily.

And I second the use of a measuring tape, sometimes my scales stayed stuck (usually for 3 - 4 days) and yet I was losing inches, it's not a steady trickle like with an hourglass or something.

Good luck!

 

[POPPY83]

Things like rice or pasta especially, or breakfast cereal, can be really deceptive, and 60g doesn't LOOK much different to 35g... as I know to my cost!

The good news is once you start measuring them out, they don't FEEL that much different either, we just all tend to eat what's in front of us, and 35g of cooked rice on the side doesn't feel dramatically less than 60g when you're eating it.

*edit to add, you won't need to be tied to your kitchen scales, you'll probably be able to estimate amounts once you know better what the different portion sizes look like! But you need to get a good idea first and that way not be slipping up, because just an extra 100cals a day will mean you gain (or fail to lose) 1lbs every five weeks...

You're not going to need to start starving yourself at all, and especially with the muscles you've built up already, if you look at a reputable site that calculates your daily calories (a lot of people here use My Fitness Pal) and make sure you add in all the workouts, they're going to give you a decent figure of what you need to eat to still lose weight healthily.

And I second the use of a measuring tape, sometimes my scales stayed stuck (usually for 3 - 4 days) and yet I was losing inches, it's not a steady trickle like with an hourglass or something.

Good luck!

Thank you for the advice. I joined that website, and according to that, if i want to loose weight at the rate i want to, i have to consume 1200 calories a day. That sounds like so LESS!! to me!!

Does anyone know what i could eat to maintain that calories intake, because it's like i will be starving myself.

 

[tranquility]

No you can get loads of food for that. It's just a matter of wise use of cals and portion control.

Today I've had:
200ml semi skimmed milk
2 scrambled eggs
1 small slice toast
1 tsp spread & marmite
Homemade ham salad sandwich
Small orange & some raspberries
Dusted plaice fillet
Potatoes
Peas & Mushrooms

Which comes to around 1250 cals.

 

[RachBlue]

Does anyone know what i could eat to maintain that calories intake, because it's like i will be starving myself.

That is quite low - that's the tradeoff for speedy weightloss though, and only you can decide if it's worth doing it that way.

Mine was set at that but I can't hack having that little food every day, so I upped the amount (arbitrarily to be honest) to a more liveable amount... I've plateaued this week because I've not done much exercise, but the inches are still going down, and this way I don't feel ready to rip people's throats out... but everyone's different!

You could just try cutting your portion sizes for a week, and see if that helps - unless you have a specific deadline in mind and can't afford to lose a week, that is.

But if you can trial that and it works, you might have spared yourself a lot of faff and a lot of hunger and mental space given over to calories, weights, measuring, etc...

Things I do to cut cals:

swap out pasta and rice, entirely or reduced to one-third of the usual amount, for green beans or broccoli with sauces on;

ban pointless calories, eg biscuits, cookies, cake, and have very low-cal chocolate bars if I want something sweet (single Milky Way bar = 98cals, a Flake = 170cals, Maltesers = 190cals, etc);

ditch fruit juices and squashes etc, I only drink water, herbal teas, and regular tea and coffee with milk in at set times (so I'm not adding 50cals without meaning to) - on a limited calorie "budget" drinking your cals doesn't make sense, they're never as filling as eating something...

That's all I can think of, because how well you cope is down to a complex constellation of your personality, your metabolism, and the types of foods you like or can handle while dieting, it's not really possible to give a "one size fits all answer" but if you look round on here there's a forum section for people calorie counting, and others for diets like Slimfast etc which take away a lot of the hassle of preparing cal-counted meals 3 times a day, and you can probably find some other tips in there.

Good luck!

 

[POPPY83]

Thank you everyone for the advice.
I started fresh again on Sunday, and have been eating just under 1200 calories. I feel much better and more confident about it now.


Also FitnessPal is just brillant and is really helping me.
Thanks again and good luck with your weight journeys.xx

 

[PatchworkPuss]

I have to say that i feel that is too low in calories for the amount of exercise you are doing.

 

[LittleSis]

Don't forget to log your exercise as you'll earn extra calories that way, which you can eat back or not as you choose

Good luck.

 

[PatchworkPuss]

Can I suggest that you take a look at the date on the threads you are posting to. The ones you have replied to here are old threads and while your advice may well be helpful it is quite confusing