6 weeks in, still the same weight

[s9mc9]

Hi guys, for 6 weeks ive been eating 1200 calories daily, skipping for 10 mins 5x a week, hiit workouts for 30 minutes 5x a week and jogging for 30 minutes 3x a week.
Im getting very disheartened really not sure as to why im not seeing the number of the scale move down, its still the same as when ive started does anyone have any idea what the cause may be? thank you

 

[Llama]

Hi s9mc9 and welcome. Sorry to hear you're struggling, let's try and figure this out. I'm going to be nitpicky here: please don't take it as a personal attack, I'm just trying to find things you might have missed. Almost everyone should lose weight at 1200 kcal/day. Do you weigh out your food or do you rely on volume measurements like cups and tablespoons? Do you count liquid calories like juice, milk, beer, soda? Sauces, "0 calorie" sprays, and veggies? Do you have cheat meals you maybe don't count as accurately? How tall are you, what do you weigh, how old are you and what gender? Are you sure the calories you are looking at are for the amount you eat and not a random tiny amount the manufacturer thought looked good on the nutrition label?

 

[s9mc9]

Hi s9mc9 and welcome. Sorry to hear you're struggling, let's try and figure this out. I'm going to be nitpicky here: please don't take it as a personal attack, I'm just trying to find things you might have missed. Almost everyone should lose weight at 1200 kcal/day. Do you weigh out your food or do you rely on volume measurements like cups and tablespoons? Do you count liquid calories like juice, milk, beer, soda? Sauces, "0 calorie" sprays, and veggies? Do you have cheat meals you maybe don't count as accurately? How tall are you, what do you weigh, how old are you and what gender? Are you sure the calories you are looking at are for the amount you eat and not a random tiny amount the manufacturer thought looked good on the nutrition label?

Hey LaMaria, thank you so much for replying! I track everything on myfitnesspal, i measure them out with my food scales and make sure everything is strict i do not have cheat days, but if i want some chocolate i include that within my 1200 calorie intake for the day. im 24, 5'3ft and currently weigh 67kg aiming to drop to 55kg. Its very odd that im trying to hard and being as active as i can, but my weight is still 67kg, within those 6 weeks thought i have lost only 1lb!

 

[Llama]

That sounds pretty thorough! The only thing I can think of in that case is that you might be retaining water, either because of hormones or because (it sounds like) you're a lot more active than normal. Are your muscles sore? I also retain water when I drink a lot of diet soda (or eat a lot of sodium), but that's a whole different can of worms. I assume you always weigh under the same circumstances, too? Time of day, amount of clothing, fullness of guts? Are your clothes fitting more comfortably than before?

 

[s9mc9]

That sounds pretty thorough! The only thing I can think of in that case is that you might be retaining water, either because of hormones or because (it sounds like) you're a lot more active than normal. Are your muscles sore? I also retain water when I drink a lot of diet soda (or eat a lot of sodium), but that's a whole different can of worms. I assume you always weigh under the same circumstances, too? Time of day, amount of clothing, fullness of guts? Are your clothes fitting more comfortably than before?

Seems like a tough one doesn't it, my muscles do tend to ache that's also the only thing i could think of otherwise not sure why there's no change on the scale and yes every Saturday morning are my weigh ins, my clothes are fitting the same at the mo!

 

[Llama]

If your clothes are fitting the same and it´s been 6 weeks then I´m inclined to say you really are losing very little for the small amount you´re eating and the large amount of exercise. Can you post a day or a few days of your food, so we can have a look if there might be any clues there?

 

[s9mc9]

If your clothes are fitting the same and it´s been 6 weeks then I´m inclined to say you really are losing very little for the small amount you´re eating and the large amount of exercise. Can you post a day or a few days of your food, so we can have a look if there might be any clues there?

Yes of course! So on a normal day I’d have, 2 eggs 2 hovis Wholemeal breads for breakfast, porridge with protein powder chia seeds and banana for lunch cod fish fillet with roasted veggies and 250g potato which all adds up to 1,200. I keep the menu very similar I alternate between pastas, salads, veggies and quorn products. But everything up to 1,200

 

[overlandflyer]

could you go over a daily menu once more, but add the times you eat?

one other thing... i find the BMI scale handy to reference. if you were at a BMI of 30+, i would be willing to say with what you are doing, you would be losing weight. but that's not the case. you are at a BMI of ~26. from experience, i can tell you that once you hit 26 and want to continue to lose weight, it's a different ballgame. i'd like to hear your answer to my first question, though. basically, how early do you eat breakfast and what time of day do you quit eating? after dinner? later night snack or drinking?

 

[Llama]

Looks like you´re getting your protein and veggies in, and I trust that you´re capable of using those kitchen scales appropriately. Honestly: I don´t know why you´re not losing weight. At your age and weight 1200 kcal/day should have you losing weight even if you lay in bed all day. I´d give it another week or two because of the water weight possibilities (you should be around the time the water weight from your muscles starts going down) but if nothing happens in that time seeing your GP might be a good idea. I hate that I have to add "if you have health insurance" to that...

 

[Err2]

The average dieter undercounts their calories by 400. Even trained nutritionists undercount by over 200, so it is very very common. A lot of it is just forgetting things or mis measuring, but some of it is because nutrition labels can be off by 20%.

Yes of course! So on a normal day I’d have, 2 eggs 2 hovis Wholemeal breads for breakfast,

2 eggs: 160
2 slices whole wheat bread: 180
------
360

porridge with protein powder chia seeds and banana for lunch

1 cup porridge: 300
1 scoop protein powder: 100
1 tbsp chia seeds: 70
1 banana: 100
-----
570

cod fish fillet with roasted veggies and 250g potato

Cod fillet: 190
roasted veggies: 50
250g potato: 260 calories
-----
510

which all adds up to 1,200.

I come up with 1430, but I'm guessing some of your quantities. Still, that is without any added oils, butters, or condiments or any juices, sweetened/creamed coffees, alcohol, candy, etc - and that is where hidden calories often add up fast.

As for energy expenditure, I'm estimating you are burning 1550 a day without exercise - roungly 1 calorie per minute. You're doing 290 minutes a week of pretty intense exercise that I'm estimating has an average MET of 9. That means you're burning an extra 8 calories for each of those 290 minutes - about 2500 calories a week. Combined with the 840 calories per week (130 calories per day) from your diet, you should be burning an extra 3340 calories a week or 0.95 lb of fat per week.

So if you ate like this every day and exercised consistently, I would estimate that you'd lose about 6 lb of fat and potentially gain some muscle to offset that weight loss. So I'd expect the scale to maybe 1-4 lb lower after 6 weeks, which is within the daily fluctuations of water retention, colon load, muscle swelling, etc.

 

[s9mc9]

Looks like you´re getting your protein and veggies in, and I trust that you´re capable of using those kitchen scales appropriately. Honestly: I don´t know why you´re not losing weight. At your age and weight 1200 kcal/day should have you losing weight even if you lay in bed all day. I´d give it another week or two because of the water weight possibilities (you should be around the time the water weight from your muscles starts going down) but if nothing happens in that time seeing your GP might be a good idea. I hate that I have to add "if you have health insurance" to that...

Thank you so much for your advice I’ll keep a look out for a few weeks if not I’ll make a trip to the GP!

 

[s9mc9]

could you go over a daily menu once more, but add the times you eat?

one other thing... i find the BMI scale handy to reference. if you were at a BMI of 30+, i would be willing to say with what you are doing, you would be losing weight. but that's not the case. you are at a BMI of ~26. from experience, i can tell you that once you hit 26 and want to continue to lose weight, it's a different ballgame. i'd like to hear your answer to my first question, though. basically, how early do you eat breakfast and what time of day do you quit eating? after dinner? later night snack or drinking?

Hi thank you for your reply!
I eat breakfast at 10am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 5/6pm. Throughout the day I drink 2-3 litres of water to keep me full

another example of a meal plan is: 2 boiled egg with a protein shake for breakfast, small potato baked beans and salad for lunch, 1 salmon fillet with 60g rice and veggies for dinner

I also just calculated my bmi it is stating I’m 26.9 - overweight

 

[s9mc9]

The average dieter undercounts their calories by 400. Even trained nutritionists undercount by over 200, so it is very very common. A lot of it is just forgetting things or mis measuring, but some of it is because nutrition labels can be off by 20%.


2 eggs: 160
2 slices whole wheat bread: 180
------
360

1 cup porridge: 300
1 scoop protein powder: 100
1 tbsp chia seeds: 70
1 banana: 100
-----
570


Cod fillet: 190
roasted veggies: 50
250g potato: 260 calories
-----
510



I come up with 1430, but I'm guessing some of your quantities. Still, that is without any added oils, butters, or condiments or any juices, sweetened/creamed coffees, alcohol, candy, etc - and that is where hidden calories often add up fast.

As for energy expenditure, I'm estimating you are burning 1550 a day without exercise - roungly 1 calorie per minute. You're doing 290 minutes a week of pretty intense exercise that I'm estimating has an average MET of 9. That means you're burning an extra 8 calories for each of those 290 minutes - about 2500 calories a week. Combined with the 840 calories per week (130 calories per day) from your diet, you should be burning an extra 3340 calories a week or 0.95 lb of fat per week.

So if you ate like this every day and exercised consistently, I would estimate that you'd lose about 6 lb of fat and potentially gain some muscle to offset that weight loss. So I'd expect the scale to maybe 1-4 lb lower after 6 weeks, which is within the daily fluctuations of water retention, colon load, muscle swelling, etc.

Hi thank you for your response! I appreciate your detailed calculations and it makes a lot of sense, but I’ve made sure I’ve been completely strict with my calorie intake although yes I agree sometimes the calories can pile on from other things
This is why I’m slightly concerned as to why I’ve only lost 1lb within these 6 weeks

 

[Llama]

I agree with Err on pretty much all the above but this bit:

I would estimate that you'd lose about 6 lb of fat and potentially gain some muscle to offset that weight loss.

is sadly not true. A woman who isn't doing a perfectly optimized diet and exercise plan for hypertrophy is not gaining any measurable amount of muscle in 6 weeks.

 

[overlandflyer]

... I eat breakfast at 10am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 5/6pm. Throughout the day I drink 2-3 litres of water to keep me full...

if you eat between 10am and let's say 7pm, you are very close to an intermittent fasting day ... 15/9. frankly if you are only eating 1200 calories during those nine hours, you should be dropping some weight. i would suggest you keep up the effort. when i weigh myself i don't look for a certain number because i know i can vary by as much as 5-6 lbs even within a day. if i eat a lot of salty food (popcorn is kryptonite with me on that point), i know i will see +2lbs for a day or two. 8oz of water weights a pound.

this might help... find your daily sweet spot for weighing yourself and start keeping a log or a spreadsheet if you have that capability. day to day the numbers will not tell you much, but after a few weeks you should notice a trend. on my way to BMI =26, it was easy to see. every week i would stop seeing some highs and start seeing new lows. after that is slowed considerably, but still you will be able to see if you are indeed just stable.

one thing i could suggest... if you don't eat breakfast until 10am, knock off some exercise before breakfast. i don't eat until around noon. by 10am the next day i know my body is in fat burning mode. i've run out of stored glycogen so the only place energy can come from at this point is stored fat.