I'm Feeling Stuck

cbills65

Hello fellow MFP folks,

I'd love some feedback on my concerns. I'm not overweight but I am definitley out of shape. I have fat/flab that I want to get rid of and replace with lean muscle. I've heard this referred to as skinny/fat. My goal is to be lean and toned. I was losing about 1/2 lb to 1 lb per week throughout September and October until about 3 weeks ago and I hit a wall. I haven't lost anything and am getting frustrated.

I am 6 lbs from my goal weight. I have a small frame and am at my best when I carry less weight that I am currently sporting. I am working out for an hour each day, 4-5 days a week alternating between cardio and weights. I am following the paleo plan and I'm not eating any junk. I eat lots of protein, veggies, fruit, nuts and drink only water and lots of it. I log my food meticulously and stay within my calorie goal, which is 1200 cal (MFP set this to help me lose 1/2 lb per week) per day. I try to get as close as I can without going over. I am usually under. I do try very hard to eat back the calories that I burn exercising in order to meet my goal, allowing for the deficit. I know it's just math and it should be easy. My progress report for last week showed that I burned 15,678 cals bs the 11,041 that I ate. That's 4,637 negative calories... shouldn't I have lost at least one pound?

I feel like I'm doing the right things by eating well and exercising diligently. I'm not obsessed with a number on a scale but I'm not seeing progress in other ways either (like body changing).

It occurred to me that I could be burning fat and building muscle. But let's face it, that sounds a bit like wishful thinking, right? My fear is that I am miscalculating somehow and not eating enough; losing muscle and slowing my metabolism. I cannot eat 900 calories at 10:00pm because I went to a kickboxing class at 8:00pm. Because of the type of food I eat, I simply can't compensate for a deficit like that when I'm not even hungry and about to retire for the night.

Perhaps someone has had a similar experience or just has a different perspective that I haven't considered. I would really appreciate some insight.

StaciMarie1974

Are you using a food scale? Accounting/logging everything, every day?

If you have a 1200 goal with a .5 pound per week loss rate, then that means your overall BMR and burn rate is fairly low. (I'm guessing your height/weight are on the petite side.) If you got 1200 then you hit the floor of what MFP will recommend. Being on the small side also means you don't burn as much when you do daily activity or even cardio, as say a 175 pound person.

If you have a reading that says you burned 2239 average per day I suspect you're over estimating your calories out. What is the burn rate based on? Machines, heart rate monitor, MFP?

Anyhow - I've said all that to say this: if you don't have many calories to work with, accuracy is very important. Weighing everything that goes in, no estimating or eyeballing. And if toning is what you truly need (rather than weight loss) you may want to figure out your maintenance level and eat there while focusing more on strength training & less on cardio. Then alternate every so often, working to build muscle and then cutting calories 250/day to lose fat.

cbills65

StaciMarie,
First, thank you for the great advice and for your quesitons. I do weigh, measure and count my food. I really am a little weird about making sure I am accurate on what I eat and how much, etc. I am 5'6" and weight 126. I have a desk job so my activity level is low during the day. I have a fitbit flex that is synced to MFP and it will post calories burned (earned) also, but I kind of don't count those because sometimes arm movements are counted as steps to determine "exercise" which is inaccurate. I stick to what I know I burned during exercise. I do go by the heartrate monitor and calores burned based on wt and age on the elliptical when I use that for cardio. I use a midrange calorie burn for cardio kickboxing class when I do that and the same on weight training class. I have asked instructors what they estimate calorie burn for their classes and then I researched the same activities online and I pick something in the middle. I like the idea of switching to maintenance and then cutting to lose fat. The order in which to lose fat/build muscle is confusing to me. I was trying to do them simultaneously which admittedly could be wrong.

StaciMarie1974

In case its not obvious - I do want to point out weighing and measuring are not the same thing. Measuring solid food could easily be off by 25% if not more. Even single serve items like slices of bread tend to weigh more than the label says.

I'm not an expert - far from it. But I've read here that its very hard (near impossible?) to add muscle at a deficit. Maintaining lean mass is about the best you can hope for. I've heard good things about the strong lifts program, but I am not structured enough to look into it for myself! Strength training is the area I am worst at (personally) but the idea of taking a few months to eat slightly over & build muscle, then slightly under to cut, makes sense and seems to be a common strategy.

I would not consider a weight training session/class to burn calories. Sure, it burns SOME but about what you burn during normal activity. Which means MFP is already counting it. You burn more in cardio because you're working/moving major muscle groups continuously. Strength training is a lot of starting and stopping, and generally moves limited muscle groups at any given time.

I'm 40 years old, 127-130 depending on the day, and 5' 5.5". So similar stats. I use a Fitbit One, seems better at not picking up random/non step activity. My daily total burn reading tends to be around 2000-2100 Tue-Sat. Mondays are typically a low day (1850-1900 due to 7 hours work and 5.5 hours in class) and Sundays high (2300) as that's my 'long' run day. Most days I hit 14k+ steps in order to hit 2000 burned. I have to work to burn calories that high. As in 30-40 minutes activity (running in place, walking outside) at lunch time. Also have a desk job and that makes being active a challenge! And then 40+ minutes on the treadmill most nights. Plus errands, etc. I do look to my One for total daily burn, but am 'checking' it by my weight loss. I'm now in maintenance and eating 1900-2000 a day seems to be holding me steady. Which tells me the One is close but probably a tad bit high by 5% or so. For a tracker to be within 5-10% though is pretty good in my opinion.

cbills65

I hadn't considered that building muscle in a deficit could be the challenge but that makes sense. Some days I feel like I have my act together and other days I feel like I don't have a clue how to do this. While I am in excellent health, my age is working against me. I'm 9 years your senior. Yeah, MFP has me at 1500 calories burned a day so it set me at 1200 to create a 300 cal deficit.

StaciMarie1974

My husband is has lost ~17 of a 60 pound goal. He likes to rub it in that his current BMR is higher than I burn most days. So I just remind him that I'm already at my healthy weight!

cbills65

wkwebby

cbills65 wrote: »

I hadn't considered that building muscle in a deficit could be the challenge but that makes sense. Some days I feel like I have my act together and other days I feel like I don't have a clue how to do this. While I am in excellent health, my age is working against me. I'm 9 years your senior. Yeah, MFP has me at 1500 calories burned a day so it set me at 1200 to create a 300 cal deficit.

I'd suggest to eat AT your maintenance and concentrate on getting your proteins at that count while incorporating heavier weights (if you were doing 20lbs, go to 25 or 30 and build from there). Building the muscle fibers to "tone" them takes sore and achy muscles and you need to feed those muscles with protein. For your last few pounds, this is what you should concentrate on.

cbills65

Thanks Wkwebby! Appreciate your feedback. Sounds like a good plan.