Nothing happening

[Coffeemonster1]

I have been using MFP to log everything the last 2 weeks and my calorie intake is anywhere between 850 (unintentional, was so busy it wasn't until dinner time I realised I was starving hungry) up to 1800. I have started x3 swimming sessions each week, 1 hour each and x2 20 min treadmil workouts a week. On top of three days a week at work where I do 7.5-12 hour shifts on a hospital ward so on my feet all day walking from patient to patient and some manual work too. Yet I still weigh the same as I did when I was eating 2500 calories a day and doing no swimming or running?

[snickers251]

Are you eating back your calories from your exercise/walking?

I'm surprised because I thought the first week or so you lost water retention then slows down but to have no loss is strange!

[Coffeemonster1]

Nope I haven't eaten calories back, I've literally been living on bare minimum. I though I'd be starving after swimming. I have a cup of tea first thing in morning, swim for an hour and just drink tea or coffee through the afternoon and have fruit maybe 2 weigh watchers biscuits, then main meal for tea. So was really expecting a good loss, now I feel like giving up :( is the less you have to loose, harder to loose?

[snickers251]

Without sounding like a total bore, it's better to eat back your calories (or at least your 1200 ) as you could damage your metabolism, your body might be struggling as it's not getting enough and so delay any weight loss.

Yes it's harder when you've got less to lose so it's probably gonna be slow.

Maybe try upping your intake for a couple of days and see if it has any affect? Might confuse your body a little and kick start some loss

[Coffeemonster1]

Thanks that's a good idea, will give it a go. I just assumed that by not eating back calories, the weight loss would be quicker.... I am 5ft 7 and my bmi is 20.8 so am certainly a healthy weight, yet have a nice fat layer over my belly. As you can't spot reduce weight, I am trying to loose a bit along with core exercises/cardio to tone my belly up again. The muscles are solid just hidden :(

[snickers251]

You sound perfectly fine weight wise. I'm 5ft 6 but I've got a fair bit more junk in trunk at 12 st 1 I'm aiming for a healthy bmi so 1 stone to go

Maybe some ab work out? I found a great little app called home workouts which had a set of ab workouts but don't forget to eat them back lol

[EhricLovesTheBhrothers]

It's really hard to lose weight when you are not overweight, you won't lose weight quickly by any means.
Also, you shouldn't try to eat as little as possible. Ordinarily it would lead to rapid weightloss for a time but it will mess up your metabolism after a short while and it's also silly and unhealthy.

[Sleepwhenidie]

coffee I would forget about calories, focus on the quality of what you are eating - what is typical dinner and, given your name, how much caffeine do you drink ? Its not true for everyone but by starving your self all day, instead of eating a balanced breakfast and lunch, you will be stressing your body out (caffeine will make this worse) and then overeating in the evening (if you are having the majority of 1200 calories in the evening then its probably too much food in one go and at the time of day you least need a big meal naturally. Stress means a compromised metabolism and if your body isn't getting food regularly then the 'starvation response' - ie a strong signal to store fat, is likely to be triggered. This leads to a damaged metabolism as Ehric says, added to which, a much higher proportion of any weight lost will be muscle rather than fat, further decreasing your metabolism. Eat three meals, make good fat and protein the priority and have small portions of wholefood carbs rather than white/processed ones - sweet potato, lentils, quinoa, chickpeas, beans, brown rice all good...

[Sleepwhenidie]

Oh and try adding some HIIT rather than loads of cardio to your workout, this will burn fat fastest.

[Coffeemonster1]

See I wasn't very clued up when I started and just assumed the least calories possible was best. So I need to plan a healthy balanced small meal each time instead of nothing.... Thanks for all your advice. Lol caffine hmmm yes I drink about 4 cups of tea and 2/3 coffees a day. I was previously having 2 sugars in EVERY ONE. Now I have no sugar so big improvement for me ... Is swimming 3/4 time a week actually going to achieve much. It's only continuous breaststroke for 45 mins - 1 hour so nothing majorly getting my heart rate up but more than I was doing before? Thanks again !!!

[Sleepwhenidie]

You clearly aren't overweight with your BMI. Stress is closely related to belly fat retention so if the caffeine is stressing your body then it may be contributing. It may be worth cutting down, preferably eliminating for a while, just to see if it makes any difference (some people are perfectly fine with it but you only really know when you get off it and then try it again ). Some resistance exercise would also be good to build up a bit of muscle, so along with planks do some side planks, tricep dips and push ups at home regularly. It's possible to do HIIT in the pool but IMO hard with breaststroke as its very hard to swim fast and get your heart rate right up - can you do front crawl?

[cremedecacao]

Coffee, I am finding the same thing. My BMI is 21 but I just want to loose a couple of vanity pounds and tone up ready for summer. Have lost a total of 1lb in over two weeks (so nothing really) and that's eating 1200 a day and exercising. My clothes are looser and I feel slimmer, so I'm trying to look on the bright side. If you are exercising a lot maybe you are gaining some muscle? Don't eat any less. I refuse too regardless of no weightloss. Not worth being unhealthy for the sake of a few lbs that you don't need to loose anyway.