# I dont understand



## wanttobe4

Im losing all motivation :( I dont get it, I have been exercising every day almost every day burning 500-700kcal a time and also having a low xcalorie diet with no carbs. I had one bad day when I had a chinese but even tthen I only had 2000 calories. Since sunday (chinese) I somehow pu on 4 lbs and after a week of all this I am the same as when I started the week!

Beyond gutted how can I put on so much with one meal? Ill never be fit eniugh to have my baby :(


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## MrsRH

Are you drinking enough fluid?
If you are doing more exercise than normal, your muscles may be retaining fluid.

Also, are you weighing and calculating calories or using mfp or estimating?
Or TOTM
Also chinese food is very salty... could be xs fluid
X


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## Bevziibubble

It could be water retention. Make sure you're drinking enough water and don't have too much sodium.

Also make sure you're eating enough calories. I wasn't eating enough and my weight loss stopped. Once I ate more and regular snacks I lost more weight. 

Hopefully you will lose weight soon. Don't be disheartened, sometimes we hit a plateau one week and then lose more the next week :hugs:


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## Ceejay123

Agree with PP. Give it another few days... You could even be building muscle from exercising?. How many calories are you sticking to each day x


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## ZoMo

I am exercising and doing slimming world. My first week I lost 5.5lbs then ramped up the exercise and in 2 weeks I have lost 1lb! It is really disheartening but I can feel my fitness has improved. Can you do things now that you werent able to do before? Focus on that, if your body is getting fitter then sooner or later the weight will start moving again. You may well be building muscle instead. I know whenever I exercise my weight loss virtually stops, my mum said after she started regularly exercising her weight didnt really change but she noticed her body firming and toning up loads and she felt good for it. 

I know its really hard, I have hit the brick wall with my motivation this week after my 0.5lb loss per week and eating really well (rather than the junk food I crave!), but I am trying to tell myself that if I am fitter, it doesnt matter so much about the weight as I know I am becoming healthier and the inches will start shifting as a result. 

Also, if it is your period you may be struggling more to lose it, if you are wearing different clothes to when you last weighed yourself, if you weigh yourself at a different time of day - I can put on lbs in the daytime but it disappears overnight. I always weigh myself butt naked as soon as I get up, before I have anything to eat or drink so I get an accurate reading, as otherwise my weight fluctuates like mad during the daytime.

It sounds like you are working really really hard so try not to get yourself down as it will pay off. Measure your inches and see if it starts coming off there instead and make sure you drink loads of water and eat enough to burn or your body may think its starving and start storing the calories.

Hope you feel better about it soon xxxx


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## choc

I would say you are definitely not eating enough. Take a read on myfitnesspal, search for the road map thread.


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## wanttobe4

MrsRH said:


> Are you drinking enough fluid?
> If you are doing more exercise than normal, your muscles may be retaining fluid.
> 
> Also, are you weighing and calculating calories or using mfp or estimating?
> Or TOTM
> Also chinese food is very salty... could be xs fluid
> X

I have maybe 4 pints a day? more than i used to but maybe not enough still? I do have a history with water retention so that could be it too. I hate myself for eating that chinese! thank you very much for your reply x


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## wanttobe4

Bevziibubble said:


> It could be water retention. Make sure you're drinking enough water and don't have too much sodium.
> 
> Also make sure you're eating enough calories. I wasn't eating enough and my weight loss stopped. Once I ate more and regular snacks I lost more weight.
> 
> Hopefully you will lose weight soon. Don't be disheartened, sometimes we hit a plateau one week and then lose more the next week :hugs:

Thankyou hun i appreciate your reply. I am eating between 400 and 100 cals a day, i have myfitness and it does keep telling me im not eating enough. but im scared to eat any more in case i put more weight on! :hugs:


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## wanttobe4

Ceejay123 said:


> Agree with PP. Give it another few days... You could even be building muscle from exercising?. How many calories are you sticking to each day x

Thankyou for your reply! My hubby said that but there is so much fat to burn through first i would be suprised lol. I am eating between 400 cals and 100 cals a day, on the chinese day i had 2000 x


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## ILoveShoes

You're not eating anywhere near enough.
x


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## wanttobe4

ZoMo said:


> I am exercising and doing slimming world. My first week I lost 5.5lbs then ramped up the exercise and in 2 weeks I have lost 1lb! It is really disheartening but I can feel my fitness has improved. Can you do things now that you werent able to do before? Focus on that, if your body is getting fitter then sooner or later the weight will start moving again. You may well be building muscle instead. I know whenever I exercise my weight loss virtually stops, my mum said after she started regularly exercising her weight didnt really change but she noticed her body firming and toning up loads and she felt good for it.
> 
> I know its really hard, I have hit the brick wall with my motivation this week after my 0.5lb loss per week and eating really well (rather than the junk food I crave!), but I am trying to tell myself that if I am fitter, it doesnt matter so much about the weight as I know I am becoming healthier and the inches will start shifting as a result.
> 
> Also, if it is your period you may be struggling more to lose it, if you are wearing different clothes to when you last weighed yourself, if you weigh yourself at a different time of day - I can put on lbs in the daytime but it disappears overnight. I always weigh myself butt naked as soon as I get up, before I have anything to eat or drink so I get an accurate reading, as otherwise my weight fluctuates like mad during the daytime.
> 
> It sounds like you are working really really hard so try not to get yourself down as it will pay off. Measure your inches and see if it starts coming off there instead and make sure you drink loads of water and eat enough to burn or your body may think its starving and start storing the calories.
> 
> Hope you feel better about it soon xxxx

Thank you so much, got little teary reading your advice its nice to know other people struggle as i do, although im not happy to hear you got disheartened.. its a very horrible emotion to go through :/ i hope youre not so disheartened at next weigh in.. sounds like youre really focused!

Thats a good point about fitness, to be honest yes i think i am more fit, i managed 20 minutes of jogging without dying today! I also find the last two days i have done 1 hour 20/30 instead of the 1/2 hour i first started.


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## wanttobe4

choc said:


> I would say you are definitely not eating enough. Take a read on myfitnesspal, search for the road map thread.


Thank you, i do have myfitness pal but not really sure how to use it yet. I have worked out how to add what i am eating and the excercise and it does tell me im not having enough calories. x


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## sandilion

I haven't read all of the replies love, but if you are exercising then its best to 'measure' instead of 'weigh' 

Muscle is smaller than fat but weighs more!

So you very well could still be shrinking, and toning!

Also take into account our cycles. Its hard because when I ovulate, and when i have my period I weight more during that time due to the fluid retention. Its really frustrating.


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## Vickie

You aren't eating near enough food. Your body needs food for energy and needs more food when you are exercising.


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## choc

You are eating a dangerously low amount of calories. You won't lose weight in a wealthy way like that. Read the thread I recommend and it explains how to find out what cals you should eat. It will be more like 1500 to 1700 ish.


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## wanttobe4

Thank you all, I now realise eating so little isnt good, ive had 800 cls so far today and plan on finishing the day at 15-1600 I appreciate the honesty, I was going mad not understanding why but with so few cals no wonder my body is clinging on for dear life! Got a tape measure aswell x


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## Bevziibubble

You're eating nowhere enough. Your body is in starvation mode because it thinks there is no food supply, so it is hanging onto your weight. It's an instinctual thing the body does from caveman days when food wasn't always in plentiful supply. The human body is very clever :thumbup:. I would start eating more and I'm sure the weight will soon start dropping off, especially with all the exercise you're doing. :)


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## Vickie

Glad you are eating more now :flower:


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## ZoMo

Ah thats brilliant you are now eating more! Your body must have been in mega starvation mode, I am very surprised you had the energy to get up let alone do all that exercise!! You must have felt really miserable too xx

I am sure now that you will start to see a difference on the scales and you will feel so much better as you will have the fuel you need for exercise rather than running on empty! I was pleased this morning after my little grumble the other day, I have really pushed myself on the treadmill (though I cant jog anywhere near as long as you can!) and 2lbs had come off this morning :)

Another way to eat healthily without becoming obsessed with calorie counting is slimming world. You can use loads of 'free' foods that you can eat in whatever quantities you want without having to analyse anything. There are thousands of really healthy meals you can make and feel guilt free about eating. It wouldnt suit everyone, lots of people like to weigh, measure and count points or calories but I dont get on with that. Just an alternative to think about if you are a bit iffy with using MFP. 

Are you doing a specific running plan or training yourself? I am doing the c25k and struggling a bit with it but will stick with it. I am just interested in learning about what others are doing that is working for them :)


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## Bevziibubble

Sorry, just seen your earlier comment. Well done on eating more! You will feel lots better for it :)


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## choc

Great decision!


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## aliss

I've got a bit of a different take on it.

There are a few reasons you are probably not losing/gaining

#1- Eating too much. Yes, you said you've logged about 800-1000 calories, how are you counting? Are you weighing down to the gram? Because the vast majority of people overestimate.

#2- Exercising too little, how are you coming to 500-700 cal burn?

If you were to eat 800 TRUE calories and burn 500-700 TRUE calories, you would be passing out, dizzy, ill, and losing fat/muscle at an alarming rate. 

"Starvation mode" is largely a myth, it may occur after prolonged dieting where one must re-start at maintenance calories to shift, but that's really not the case here. It is definitely NOT muscle as it generally takes a female a year to put on a few pounds of muscle at a calorie surplus.

Anorexics and prison campers do not gain weight at starvation level calories, the idea of starvation mode unfortunately confuses a lot of people when the real problem lays in how they track their calories. Of course, Chinese will be high in sodium (and likely more than 2000 calories for the day), that combined with a new training routine can also cause water retention.

Good luck. I know my post contradicts most here, but I would invest in a weigh scale and take much closer look at your counting.


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## aliss

Some details.

Q. Some claim that that your body will go into 'starvation mode' if you eat too few calories, preventing you from losing weight and that trying to lose weight by eating fewer calories doesn't work. What do you think?

A. Well there is no doubt that the body slows metabolic rate when you reduce calories or lose weight/fat. There are at least two mechanisms for this. 

One is simply the loss in body mass. A smaller body burns fewer calories at rest and during activity. There's not much you can do about that except maybe wear a weighted vest to offset the weight loss, this would help you burn more calories during activity.

However, there's an additional effect sometimes referred to as the adaptive component of metabolic rate. Roughly, that means that your metabolic rate has dropped more than predicted by the change in weight. 

So if the change in body mass predicts a drop in metabolic rate of 100 calories and the measured drop is 150 calories, the extra 50 is the adaptive component. The mechanisms behind the drop are complex involving changes in leptin, thyroid, insulin and nervous system output (this system is discussed to some degree in all of my books except my first one).

In general, it's true that metabolic rate tends to drop more with more excessive caloric deficits (and this is true whether the effect is from eating less or exercising more); as well, people vary in how hard or fast their bodies shut down. Women's bodies tend to shut down harder and faster.

But here's the thing: in no study I've ever seen has the drop in metabolic rate been sufficient to completely offset the caloric deficit. That is, say that cutting your calories by 50% per day leads to a reduction in the metabolic rate of 10%. Starvation mode you say. Well, yes. But you still have a 40% daily deficit.

In one of the all-time classic studies (the Minnesota semi-starvation study), men were put on 50% of their maintenance calories for 6 months. It measured the largest reduction in metabolic rate I've ever seen, something like 40% below baseline. Yet at no point did the men stop losing fat until they hit 5% body fat at the end of the study.

Other studies, where people are put on strictly controlled diets have never, to my knowledge, failed to acknowledge weight or fat loss.

This goes back to the under-reporting intake issue mentioned above. I suspect that the people who say, "I'm eating 800 calories per day and not losing weight; it must be a starvation response" are actually eating far more than that and misreporting or underestimating it. Because no controlled study that I'm aware of has ever found such an occurrence.

So I think the starvation response (a drop in metabolic rate) is certainly real but somewhat overblown. At the same time, I have often seen things like re-feeds or even taking a week off a diet do some interesting things when people are stalled. One big problem is that, quite often, weekly weight or fat loss is simply obscured by the error margin in our measurements. 

Losing between 0.5 and 1 pound of fat per week won't show up on the scale or calipers unless someone is very lean, and changes in water weight, etc. can easily obscure that. Women are far more sensitive to this. Their weight can swing drastically across a month's span depending on their menstrual cycle.

Thing is this, at the end of the day, to lose weight or fat, you have to create a caloric deficit, there's no magical way to make it happen without affecting energy balance. You either have to reduce food intake, increase activity, or a combination of both.

Since my Rapid Fat Loss Handbook actually uses an extremely large deficit, I discuss the issue of metabolic slowdown (and what to do about it) fairly extensively.

https://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/lyle.htm


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