need advice....may seek professional help

dayner13

hi ya'll.....

i have been on mfp for almost 2 years. i have successfully lost 75 pounds after having my daughter and i am ALMOST happy with where i am.

i have also successfully maintained this weight loss since May, so 5 months. i would like to lose another 5 pounds and have been trying UNsuccessfully for the last couple months.

a few stats: female.....5'9" 39 years old and i workout 5-6 days a week for 40-60 minutes a day.

mfp says i should eat 1580 calories/day to lose 1 pound a week....problem is it is REALLY hard for me to eat that many calories. i generally hit somewhere between 1100 and 1400 a day.....on the lower end if it's a rest day.

i am starting to get frustrated...ok i am already frustrated and i don't know what to do to make the scale start going in the right direction.

i take measurements and those have pretty much stayed the same since may.

i don't know how to change things up to break through those last few pounds. i have a mindset right now that tells me if i workout more i should lose weight, but that obviously isn't working.

please help!!!!

thanks alot

dana

Jennbecca33

Hi Dana, welcome to the EM2WL group! Congratulations on your weight loss and maintaining your loss - what an accomplishment!

So, 1100-1400 calories a day is extremely low, even if you weren't working out - it would still be too low. Add on your 5-6 workouts per week (which is a lot at an hour each) and that really has you eating very very restrictive calories, even if you don't feel hungry. Your body and metabolism have just slowed down in response to your under eating for so long, and therefore you're not feeling hunger and not seeing any progress.

Just so you can get an idea of what you SHOULD be eating for weight loss, plug your numbers into this Scooby calculator here:

http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

When you enter your information, choose no greater than a 15% deficit for fat loss. You only have 5 more pounds to lose. A 10% deficit would be even better, since it is such a small amount. For your activity level, your workouts alone probably put you close to the 5-6 hour range it sounds like. Then you add your daily activity on top of that (depending on how active you are) may even push you up to the highest activity level. I don't know your current weight, but I'm guessing with your high activity level, it will tell you should be eating more than 2000 calories/day for weight loss.

If MFP has been telling you to eat 1580 calories, then you should have been logging your exercise calories and eating all of them back. That's how mfp is set up, unless you manually entered your own calorie goal. Also, with only 5 lbs to lose, you should not be aiming for 1 pound a week. Aim for .5 lbs per week at the most. Slower is better, especially when you only have a couple of pounds to lose. When you have such a large calorie deficit, your body will not respond the way you want it too. A smaller calorie deficit will work in your favor.

Adding more workouts is not going to help you at this point as you are already over exercising, which is actually working against you and stressing your body. My advice would be to cut back on some of your cardio and increase your calories. You should SLOWLY increase your calories so your body can adjust. Add 100 calories per week until you get up to that 15% deficit number. As you increase your calories and your body starts responding, you'll find your hunger levels returning to normal. Calorie dense foods like peanut butter, nuts, avocado, butter, olive oil - will help you reach your calorie goal. Get rid of all your fat-free and low fat food choices.

It will be a bit of a process because you have been under eating for so long, so if you choose to go this route, please be willing to give your body time to adjust. Usually for those who have been under eating for a very long time, we suggest a full metabolism reset, which means increasing calories all the way up to maintenance and eating there for 8-12 weeks minimum to give the body and metabolism time to heal. This may be something you need to consider as you increase your calories.

Feel free to browse the main EM2WL website at www.em2wl.com for more info and support forums. There are lots of great posts that go into detail about everything I've mentioned. Again, welcome, and be sure to post back if you have more questions!

heybales

Wow - this. For longer than 5 months minimum, including probably a good portion of when you lost weight.

http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/truth-about-metabolic-damage

dayner13

thanks for the responses.....i read the above article on metabolic damage and it pretty describes me to a key.....i think i am going to work on the whole eat more/exercise more approach.

simply because i am so used to working out now that if i don't i feel pretty tired....so i will work on upping my calories to my CUT calorie count and make sure i NET my BMR calorie count everyday.

i am hoping after a couple weeks i will be close to back on track and going in the right direction.

lindsayw79

75 pounds, that is fabulous!! What an achievement.

Have you tried any macro cycling? For example you try to get more of your carbs in before and after your workouts, then reduce them elsewhere. Refeeds are also important to keep things like leptin and thyroid from tanking.

If you really think you are in the metabolic damage zone (its is much more common with women) the check out Leigh Peele's Starve Mode. Its basically a how to for resetting your metabolism.

I would really invest some time in trying to rev up your metabolism before trying to get those last pounds. You don't want to be stuck down at 1200 calories your whole life. Its perfectly realistic to get the body you are after eating more than that.

Good luck. And well done on keeping it off. Your an outlier

mymodernbabylon

You want to net more than your BMR - that's what you should eat if you are in a coma. Minimum you should be working up to is TDEE, holding that for several weeks (8-12) to repair your metabolism and then the max you should go under TDEE is 15% (proably 10% as you are close to the weight you should be).