Why aren't the scales going down?

Heather Sherwood

Oct 29

Do you're tracking calories but not losing weight. Why? Here's a few things to consider as you evaluate what isn't currently working.

You aren't logging everything. Sauces, the odd biscuit, left overs, these all have calories too.
You're underestimating your portion sizes. Apps like MyFitnessPal will bring up various portion sizes when you search and what you're eating may be more than this amount. That's going to mean you're eating more than you're logging and so not actually in a deficit even though you are logging everything.
You're free pouring things. Again this comes back to portion size, you could be roughly working out your portion but underestimating it. That one bowl of cereal your tracking could in reality be more like 2.5 bowls in MyFitnessPal
You don't log your drinks. Alcohol, coffee shop coffees, these can have more calories than a full on meal at times so if you aren't logging them your stats aren't going to be acurate.
You have cheat meals. Calling something a cheat mean doesn't mean it's calorie free, it does mean you're more likely to go over board and consume way more calories than you think because it's a 'free meal'. I'm not saying don't have it but you should log it so you know where you stand.
Your eating your 'exercise' calories. Your watch is telling you you've burnt 500 calories so you're adding an extra 500 calories to your daily allowance. Instead calculate your TDEE which will include your rough calorie expenditure including your normal exercise anyway..
Your picking the 'best' version of a food in MyFitnessPal. Be honest, when you search a food on MFP you will see some questionable entries. As tempting as it might be to go with that really low one to make your data look better the food doesn't have fewer calories in real life because you've done this.
You track daily rather than across a week and scrap a day if it's 'bad'. It's what we do over time that matters not one really good or really bad day. If you stop tracking on days where you know you're going to end up 'over' calories and then start again the next day you won't see you're true picture of how you did over the week. In the plus side the strategy of averaging over a week allows your more freedom on certain days.
Food on other people's plate doesn't count. In my head I live by this rule but it is of course bollocks
Your calorie goal isn't right for you. Maybe it's too low and restrictive so you keep ending up 'binging'. Maybe it was right for you but you've lost weight and now it's just a bit too high or you've changed your activity level and it needs adjusting.

The thing to remember is that if you are eating less than you are burning on a regular basis your weight will reduce. Regardless of what and how you track, if this isn't happening you are going wrong somewhere with tracking. We all under or over estimate our food intake at times but if you are serious about creating change you need to have an honest look at your habits and see where you are cutting corners and look to rectify those little habits.