What am I doing wrong?

I have been faithfully tracking my calories and activities for four weeks now.  I very much want to lose about 15 pounds and tone for a trip in April and have yet to lose a single pound since November.

Calorie expenditure:

1800 (sedentary for my height and weight) * 7 = 12,600

373 (moderate elliptical for 1/2 hour) *6 = 2,238

Total calorie burn = 14,838

Calorie intake:

1400 (business week eating) * 5 = 7,000

2000 (weekend eating) * 2 = 4,000

70 (wine) * 12 (2 bottles) = 840  :)

Total calorie intake: 11,840

Deficit: 2,998/500 = 6 pounds expected loss

0 ACTUAL LOSS!  What's going on?  I hope someone can offer advice...

first, your math is wrong 1 pound fat=3500 cal. you shoulkd have lost just under one pound not 6.

I'm not a fan of looking at averages over an entire week.  You have to look at each day.  It seems that I can very easily put on 3-4 lbs and it will be very hard to lose it.

So 1 day of being "bad" will outdo 2-3 days of being "good".

What are the details of your eating?  You say "business eating".  Is this brown bagging it, eating healthy at the company cafeteria, or eating out with co-workers each day?  What types of calories are you eating?

Also, are you drinking enough water?

I assume 1800 is your maintenance intake?  So you are burning 370 per day of that off, which does not equal 6 lbs.  You would need to burn a min of 500 of those off with exercise in order to hit the 1 lb per week.

And as said, your math is off.

1 lb = 3500 calories

2900 calories = 0.8 lbs

Oh if it were as simple as working the numbers...

I'll just shoot out some ideas for you to think about.

At what times do you eat?  Breaking up your meal times to five meals of smaller size will get your metabolism going.  Keep your calories under 300/meal, and make sure its a balanced meal incorporating whole grains, veggies, a little fat and some protein.  Your body will burn off the carbs at an even rate.  And make sure to eat breakfast. And get your calcium daily in the form of a glass of milk or a cup of plain yogurt with fruit.

Be conscious of ingredients in prepared foods.  Read labels, taking note of serving sizes.  A package might say there's less than 100 calories in something, but the serving size listed might be a tiny amount that no one ever eats.

Are you getting in enough water?  Not soda, coffee or tea, etc.  8 8-oz. glasses of water...minimum.

Add some weight training to your routine, low weights and lots of reps to start off, and only 3 times/week for a complete body workout.  Do your aerobic cardio stuff earlier in the day (and perhaps increase by 15 minutes), and then do the weights in the evening before going to bed.  Make sure to eat some protein after the work out so your muscles have something to grow on.

Hope this helps.  For me, just increase the number of meals and eating a good balance helped.  Got my metabolism going again.  I was eating about the same calories as you, but mostly late in the day.  My body had no fuel to work on during the day, and then I slept when I had the most nutrients in me.  Not good!

HA!  It definitely helps to use correct math.  Thanks to both of you. 

Math being correct, I would expect approximately 3.2 pounds considering the last four weeks. 

I am much better behaved during the business week actually eating exactly the same thing daily for many months now. (How boring!)

Lunch = Turkey sandwich with whole wheat bread and mustard only, carrots and brocolli with a serving of fat free ranch, granola bar

Dinner = Healthy choice soup and 1/2 can of beans or vegetable.

3-4 .5L water/day, 3 cups of black coffee, 1 Coke Zero

My "bad days" would be the weekend.  I love a bottle of wine and cooking at home, generally grilled chicken or fish.

Eating out occurs once every two weeks and is either a lunch at Chickfila or similar OR nice restaurant for dinner.

I am sure the answer is that I simply do not realize how much my weekends are affecting my overall goal.  I sure hate to give up the wine.

Thanks for the replies.

Maybe it would help up your metabolism if you split up your standard lunch into, lunch and a couple of light snacks through the day.  You could have the granola bar between breakfast and lunch and save the raw veggies for a mid-afternoon snack. 

Seems to work for me, plus it keeps me from feeling hungry or eating one meal that is too large.

Good luck!

one of the things I have found is you need to shake up your diet now and then.

I'm a creature of habit also, compulsive is what some would say, and I ate the same thing day in and day out.  By changing it up a bit I seem to have kept more to my weight goals and made it more interseting.

plus you need to look at the macro-nutrients and make sure that you are getting the carbs, fat and protein you need in the right portions.

Fellow wineaux (that's french for wine lover!) -

Drop the wine.  Here's the deal from what I understand (any diabetics please set me straight) and I am living proof of not losing weight while drinking and losing weight immediately when I quit...Alcohol metabolizes as sugar in the system, it gives you a heavy load of sugar at once.  When your body gets the sugar it metabolizes it into glucose.  Glucose is what your body gets it's immediate energy from (~20 minutes worth of sugar energy is retained in the bodies blood).  The blood can only carry so much glucose before it needs to stash it somewhere - - - store it for later.  This is where it gets icky...Stores it for later as FAT.  Well, if you are a casual drinker you can get away with a 3 ounce glass of your choice of wine and walk away with no huge glucose load.  BUT me...I can't drink only one glass (the bottle will only retain quality for 3 days and I swear it degrades within 24 hours) so if I open it I have to drink it today.  I have tried those little bottles but they are not quality enough and a box of wine may have quality, but then the temptation is there all week long.

So my tip to you is to not bring it in the house.  Save the dinner out for a once per month treat and enjoy one glass of the BEST wine (by the glass) on the menu with your low GI/low cal entree.

Also, exercise has been proven to immediately boost ones metabolism, so try to do a 20-30 brisk walk or other cardio before eating your light/low GI evening meal.  It will also help you resting metabolism stay up all night while you sleep, so you burn more calories while snoozing away the night.  In an ideal world I would do 20 minutes of 4-4.2 mph walking 3 times a day.  Once before each meal.

Good luck and do post back on your results over the next 4 weeks!

>>>Fellow wineaux (that's french for wine lover!) - <<<

Really?  Hmm... I'm french and thats not a word.  =)

Maybe a fancy english word that is somewhat made to sound kinda like a french thing so that people can put it on a t-shirt and sound sophisticated, but really, it doesn't exist. 

Although they have added "week-end" to the french dictionnary, so who knows.

lol I love french :) and cognates

Enjoyed all the responses.

Here's another thought - maybe you're not eating enough for your metabolism, and you're in starvation.   How tall are you?  I calculate 1691 calories average.  You burn 10% to process the food:

1691 - 169 = 1522

How much fiber are you eating?  Calorie-Count .com has a neat analyzer which tells the number of grams.  Multiply that by 4 and subtract:  For 20 g fiber, for instance: 

1522 - 20(4) = 1442

Subtract average exercise:

1442 - 320 = 1122.  It is not enough to support a metabolism.  Dieticians say, don't go under 1200 for the most sedentary person.

IMO

I've been known to spend a little time in the "whine region" myself!  (Especially when I'm not losing weight as quickly as I think I should be!)  LOL!

What fun responses! 

Since my original post (two whole days ago <giggle>), I have changed a few things.  I have cut one piece of bread from my sandwich, split my lunch into three small meals, purchased Dexatrim Max, AND increased my elliptical to 45 minutes daily with added weight training (albeit small amounts of weight).  Has anyone tried the Dexatrim pills with success? 

I am distraught about giving up my wine, afterall, it's the only time I can smoke.  In my head, if I burn more calories I can still drink and lose weight <so says the addict>.

I am interested in gypsyfan's comments.  I went to the analysis on Calorie-Count.com <crazy that's where we are> and looked at the info. for all of January inputs.  It states a daily fiber intake of 26 grams (what is the daily recommended amount?).  Also, to lay it all out, I am 5'10" and 164 pounds of sit at my desk all day woman.

Look forward to your comments!

Are you eating breakfast?  I didn't see that on your food list.  There has been a fair amount of research showing that people who eat breakfast tend to lose weight more easily and also tend to not overeat during the day.  I eat a lot of small meals all day long rather than three standard meals. 

I forgot to include breakfast above.  I have drank an Ensure in the morning for several years now and switched as of today to Slim-Fast (the lactose free kind).

According to your height/weight your within range depending on your frame size. And if your looking to lose 10lbs (depending on frame size)... well thats the hardest 10lbs to lose.

http://www.healthchecksystems.com/heightweigh tchart.htm

Wow!  I loved all these posts.  Here's my experience so far.  I have lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks on CC.  I used all the tools.  I don't exercise outside of work though. That's coming next week. (yeah) My work is my excerise (cool get paid to walk around for 4 hours).  I eat breakfast (real food) lunch, 2 snacks and dinner.  I drink the 64 oz of water. Calorie intake is 1567. Give or take a few.  I'm small frame. 5'8 and now 147 pounds.  Maybe your not really burning 1800 sedetary Chantell.  Also wow 2000 calories on the weekend....that right there will gain you weight.  You should still eat the same calories on the weekend as you do during the week.  Idealy anyway.  Works for me. Anyway good luck.  These people know what they are talking about Trust them.

You may subtract fiber calories.  If you estimate 26 g /day, it is 26 (4) = 104 calories for the day.  The suggested amount is 35 g /day, I believe.

You don't eat enough healthy food.  What is the grade on your analysis?  Why not add vegetables and beans to bring your calories up to 1800?  1800 sounds ridiculous for a 5'10" person.  Sorry.  You should exercise, build muscle, which weighs more than fat, so you might gain muscle weight, then lose the fat - you'll feel great!

Here is the premier exercise for core strengthening/building muscle density:  http://www.t-tapp.com  There's a 15-minute workout you could learn, called Basic Workout Plus, which may be ideal for you.

Take care!
gypsyfan

thanks so much gypsyfan.  I appreciate your replies.  I receive a A to an A- during the week. 

Interesting you mention beans.  I am going through a bean phase right now (as in the last 4 months).  My poor husband would just like a nice meal.  What's for dinner, honey?  Canned beans!  No joke.

Out of curiousity, how long does it take to build muscle mass?  My family insists that is why I haven't lost any weight, but I don't believe.  I am sticking with the wine/weekend splurges as my main problem.

I will explore the website.