Good intake, Low net, But maintaining?

VegetalienPleurnichard

I've been eating around 1200 - 1700 a day and my net is normally pretty low (generally less than 1000) though since I don't eat back exercise calories, I eat when I'm hungry or when I know that I haven't eaten enough that day. I'm normally on point with my macros, I get a lot of fiber, and I eat very healthy (I'm vegan and don't eat many processed foods) I get a good amount of protein, water, and vitamins (I take a multivitamin) I measure out everything I eat so I log accurately and I log a tad less amount of minutes in my exercise since I know that MFP has a tendency to overestimate the amount of calories burned. I've been doing this for around 4 months now, but I haven't lost any weight, I've just maintained!! I can't eat less since my net is already pretty low but if I eat more I'll gain weight! Why is this happening and what does this mean?? I'm 5'4" and 135lbs (61.2kg) which means I'm at the higher end of the 'normal' weight range, I don't feel happy where my body is at and would like to go back down to around 120-115 where I was 2 years ago, I liked how I looked a lot better at that weight, but then I stopped counting calories and also stopped exercising and ate a lot of gross processed foods, anyways, I was just wondering what I could do to stop maintaining and start losing, I've tried calorie cycling and detoxing, with detoxing I only lost 1lb of water weight so I know that I don't have much of that.....Any help or suggestions?

Psychgrrl

What kind of exercising are you doing--have you tried strength training? More muscle means more calories burned overall and there's a greater "after burn" for strength training that with cardio.

Maybe you need to try sticking closer to 1200-1400 calories for a couple weeks and see if that makes a difference.

Are you measuring your food, or weighing it? If you're not weighing your solids (and only measuring them) your logging will be off--you'll be eating less than you think you are.

LKArgh

Open your diary. If you have seen no change in 4 months, you are eating more than you think (regarding calories) and not calculating properly or burning less calories than you think you do.

VegetalienPleurnichard

Psychgrrl wrote: »

What kind of exercising are you doing--have you tried strength training? More muscle means more calories burned overall and there's a greater "after burn" for strength training that with cardio.

Maybe you need to try sticking closer to 1200-1400 calories for a couple weeks and see if that makes a difference.

Are you measuring your food, or weighing it? If you're not weighing your solids (and only measuring them) your logging will be off--you'll be eating less than you think you are.

I've do both strength and cardio, the strength that I do isn't at the gym though, it's mostly push ups, sit ups, crunches, squats, lunges, that sort of thing, when I work out my arms it's on the rower. My cardio includes fast paced walking, hooping, biking, hiking, and running.

I haven't been weighing my solids, but I do measure them in a fancy dry measuring thingy that has liquids on the other side, I just assumed it was more accurate than the normal cups and stuff but anyways, I don't have a food scale no.

VegetalienPleurnichard

aggelikik wrote: »

Open your diary. If you have seen no change in 4 months, you are eating more than you think (regarding calories) and not calculating properly or burning less calories than you think you do.

I don't really want to open my diary bc I post pretty personal stuff in my food notes (It's literally like a diary) so only my friends are allowed to see it!

I measure out everything I eat. I know I"m not eating more because more often than not I over estimate what I've eaten (If for some reason I hadn't measured it out or if we went out to eat I'd choose the highest calorie option listed on the database just in case)
... And even if I was burning less calories than I think I do, my BMR is 1379 and my TDEE is 1654 at 'Couch Potato' and on normal days (not rest days) I work out! I generally eat under my TDEE, but on the days I don't I've definitely exercised, so that shouldn't be a problem....

malibu927

IAteAllTheVegans wrote: »

aggelikik wrote: »

Open your diary. If you have seen no change in 4 months, you are eating more than you think (regarding calories) and not calculating properly or burning less calories than you think you do.

I don't really want to open my diary bc I post pretty personal stuff in my food notes (It's literally like a diary) so only my friends are allowed to see it!

I measure out everything I eat. I know I"m not eating more because more often than not I over estimate what I've eaten (If for some reason I hadn't measured it out or if we went out to eat I'd choose the highest calorie option listed on the database just in case)
... And even if I was burning less calories than I think I do, my BMR is 1379 and my TDEE is 1654 at 'Couch Potato' and on normal days (not rest days) I work out! I generally eat under my TDEE, but on the days I don't I've definitely exercised, so that shouldn't be a problem....

If you're measuring rather than weighing, then it's likely you are eating more. A food scale is much more accurate than cups.

cheshirecatastrophe

Please forgive me if I'm doing that thing where "when you assume you make...", but: it looks from your profile like you may have struggled with either eating issues or eating-related symptoms of other issues in the recent past. That can mess up a body right good. The normal "rules" don't always apply. Your doctor or nutritionist is probably the best resource to help address your concerns about apparently doing things right but not making progress.

And on the other hand, I'd just add, I am just a little smaller than you and it is really, really hard to shift the weight when we are so close to ideal. Especially because exercise just doesn't burn the calories we want it to, no matter how hard or long we go.