Weight-Loss Someone please tell me why this isn't working!

Weight-Loss
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s32bauer

New member
Hi,

I'm not overweight, but have got a bit of a stomach on me, and wanting to trim up a bit. I an 6ft 2, and weigh 14st 2lbs.

I found that I couldn't keep motivated with exercise, or strict food specific diets. But I stumbled across a website that allowed me to enter foods, and the calories, and it would create a 'journal' for me. I used to eat probably close to 3000 calories a day, or certainly 2500, and most of the food I ate was complete junk - chocolate, crisps, etc.

So, I entered in my target weight, how much I'd like to lose a week, etc. It told me that dropping to around 1200 calories a day would assist me in that level of weight loss. So, I've been doing this for almost two weeks now, and I'm still the same weight!

I weigh myself the same time each day, wearing the same. The scales work fine, but have tried on two different sets just in case.

I just don't understand how my weight was holding the same at over 2500 calories a day, and now it's down to 1200 a day it's still staying the same!

Does anyone have any possible explanations?

Many thanks,
 
Might I suggest human error? I'm just saying this because we all underestimate just how much food we are eating. Portion sizes, those little snacks, etc..
 
Jericho said:
Might I suggest human error? I'm just saying this because we all underestimate just how much food we are eating. Portion sizes, those little snacks, etc..
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I don't think that's the case in this instance. I've made myself stick to foods that clearly have the calories, etc on the front of the pack, so as to make sure I don't go over.

I'm wondering if the calorie intake might just be too low. I mean, I've gone from eating over 2500 calories a day, down to just 1200. I'm wondering if my body might be panicking?
 
I don't think your body would adjust that quickly. I think you'd see rapid weight loss for a while with such a low calorie diet, and eventually it might slow down or stall.

Are you sure you were eating 2500-3000 calories before? That being the case, I would say you should eat no less than 1500-2000 a day and you should be able to lose 2lbs per week if you were maintaining before at the higher level.

How sure are you of the 1200 calories? Do you measure your portions, or do you estimate? Like, say you have cerial and milk for breakfast, do you measure how much cereal and milk you put in, or do you estimate?

What do you eat in a typical day?
 
MAR1984 said:
I don't think your body would adjust that quickly. I think you'd see rapid weight loss for a while with such a low calorie diet, and eventually it might slow down or stall.

Are you sure you were eating 2500-3000 calories before? That being the case, I would say you should eat no less than 1500-2000 a day and you should be able to lose 2lbs per week if you were maintaining before at the higher level.

How sure are you of the 1200 calories? Do you measure your portions, or do you estimate? Like, say you have cerial and milk for breakfast, do you measure how much cereal and milk you put in, or do you estimate?

What do you eat in a typical day?
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I must have been eating well into that region before. For my lunch I used to have prepacked sandwiches which were about 500 calories per pack, at least two bars of chocolate which were at least 200 calories each, and for dinner I used to have a massive meal. I would snack in the evenings on chocolate bars, whole bags of popcorn, etc right up until bed. Yet somehow I always kept about the same weight of 14 st 2 lbs.

Since I started doing it, I ate only things with clearly labelled calories. For example, a fruit salad at lunch instead of the sandwiches, which show 85 calories per pack. For dinner, I eat Weight Watchers meals that show the exact calorie amount for the pack. Basically, everything I eat at the moment I only eat if it's got the exact 'per pack' calories, etc so I know exactly how many I'm eating.

A typical day, since I've started doing it, would be a fruit salad and a small yogurt for lunch, a Weightwatchers dinner at dinner, which are typically around 300-400 calories for the pack. And then perhaps a Weightwatchers snack bar, which are about 115 calories each. To make it up to 1200 calories I sometimes had a bowl of healthy cereal, such as bran, etc.
 
One thing you might have to watch out for. Some foods, mostly those that come in single serving packages, may actually contain more product then what it lists.
That is just the minimum that has to be contained in the product.
So, if something says it 3oz and has 300 calories, if they have really given you 4.5oz of product you are eating 450 calories.

This may not be your problem, but it's hard to rely completely on packaging as well.

You could always make and weigh your own food...
 
Maybe this will shed some light on it.

Question: If someone is looking to reduce body fat and is not showing progress at 20% below their calorie maintenance level, what would be the next logical step to induce fat loss? This person engages in regular aerobic and resistance training.
Answer: The first question I would ask this person is if they had just started their diet and exercise program. I have often see this sort of weird ‘delay’ in fat loss when people first start a new diet/exercise program. And this tends to be far more so the case for women than for men (men always have it easier).
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Kayshiz said:
One thing you might have to watch out for. Some foods, mostly those that come in single serving packages, may actually contain more product then what it lists.
That is just the minimum that has to be contained in the product.
So, if something says it 3oz and has 300 calories, if they have really given you 4.5oz of product you are eating 450 calories.

This may not be your problem, but it's hard to rely completely on packaging as well.

You could always make and weigh your own food...
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In addition (and maybe this is what you are saying and i am misunderstanding it) often prepackaged foods give a calorie value for 1/2 a package, or 30g, or whatever. It is a horrible rule with nutrition labels and hopefully will be changed in the future. The one that really bugs me is for a juice bottle for example. It will be 591 mL and they give nutritional information for 250 mL.
 
shygemini said:
In addition (and maybe this is what you are saying and i am misunderstanding it) often prepackaged foods give a calorie value for 1/2 a package, or 30g, or whatever.
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That's still a good valid point, but not what I was referring to.

Lets say you bought a pre-packaged 8oz deli sandwich. It says the serving size is 8oz (this size of the whole sandwich) and 8oz of sandwich is equal to 400 calories.

So what if they really gave you 10oz of sandwich? You are now eating 500 calories instead of 400.

They only have to give you 8oz, but things like sandwiches, salads, and baked goods, are often prepared, cut and packaged by people, not machines, so human error comes back into the equation.
 
Kayshiz said:
That's still a good valid point, but not what I was referring to.

Lets say you bought a pre-packaged 8oz deli sandwich. It says the serving size is 8oz (this size of the whole sandwich) and 8oz of sandwich is equal to 400 calories.

So what if they really gave you 10oz of sandwich? You are now eating 500 calories instead of 400.

They only have to give you 8oz, but things like sandwiches, salads, and baked goods, are often prepared, cut and packaged by people, not machines, so human error comes back into the equation.
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Ok good, what you describe here is what i thought you were referring to, but i wasn't sure :) The error you speak of will only occur with goods packaged 'in store', not ones made by a large company and shipped off, since they have rules to keep the amount of product to the limit stated on the package. But certainly, for in store goods it is quite possible to get 'more than you asked for'
 
shygemini said:
The error you speak of will only occur with goods packaged 'in store', not ones made by a large company and shipped off, since they have rules to keep the amount of product to the limit stated on the package.
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Usually not large companies like Kraft or Nabisco, becaause things are weighed electronically. But even fairly large companies that have several smaller distribution centers, especially bakeries that make cakes, muffins, cookies... , can still have misappropriate labeling.

The last time I showed someone was with one of those honey buns you usually get in vending machines:



It was almost 2oz more then what the package said it would be.

So it's not just food wrapped in the store it's being sold in.
 
Kayshiz said:
Usually not large companies like Kraft or Nabisco, becaause things are weighed electronically. But even fairly large companies that have several smaller distribution centers, especially bakeries that make cakes, muffins, cookies... , can still have misappropriate labeling.

The last time I showed someone was with one of those honey buns you usually get in vending machines:



It was almost 2oz more then what the package said it would be.

So it's not just food wrapped in the store it's being sold in.
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Right, but it depends what the package said. Did it say "X calories for X grams" or did it say "X calories per package"?
 
shygemini said:
Right, but it depends what the package said. Did it say "X calories for X grams" or did it say "X calories per package"?
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"Serving size 1 package"

If you have a food scale try it sometimes. It's not always so far off, but it happens often enough for me to show people.
 
I have to toss in that while I haven't yet hit the vending machine for a sticky bun, to say that you don't care about calories if you're eating it isn't necessarily true. I've definitely eaten say, cake at an office party, and then wanted to know the calories so I could plug it in and make adjustments to mitigate after the fact.

I've even managed to have both red velvet cake and cheesecake in the same day and still be under my target calories and over my protein target for the day by tracking. Not that I claim it was good self control that got me there, but still ;)
 
Kayshiz said:
"Serving size 1 package"

If you have a food scale try it sometimes. It's not always so far off, but it happens often enough for me to show people.
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Hm, in my experience even when it says "serving size 1 package" it STILL has to say how many grams, or mL, or whatever. like "Serving Size 1 package (30 g)". I have never seen a package not say the grams. As long as they say how many grams it is supposed to be, then it is fine if it is more.

I am not disagreeing about there being more or less in a package then there should be, more about labeling laws :)

EDIT: just realized, we may not even be in the same country LOL...i'm in Canada. That could explain the difference.
 
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Bauer, just out of curiousity what's your fluid and salt intake like? Maybe you are retaining water....
 
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