I think I've plateaued
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It's actually because I care about my body enough to want to feel healthy and by the time I'm 30 trying to get rid of it then when its easier for me to lose weight now and maintain. I'm trying to be responsible about my body and make changes now.midwesterner85 wrote: »Why did you change your goal from 130 to 120?
I'll field this one. Probably because she's 20ish and needs to fit in a smaller bikini for Chad's awesome pool party.
Since you care about your body and well being, don't be in such a rush to lose these last 10 pounds. I think you need to listen to your body...you have lost a lot of weight already fairly quickly, sounds to me like your body is telling you to slow it down a little bit.
If your TOM is going wonky, it might be time to get a general physical. My college had a med serve clinic that was very cheap. Does yours?
For what it's worth, in my opinion, if you are eating only what you listed in your original post, you are not eating near enough. You workout ALOT, walk everywhere, and seem to eat as though you are afraid to. Don't be!! Fuel yourself adequately and you will still see great results, maybe even better than you are now.
Caring about your body should be less about how it looks and more about how it functions and feels. Honestly answer yourself.....which are you more concerned with?
(FYI: Our campus fitness center also had a trainer who would test your body fat percentage/help develop a workout routine, etc. If your campus has one, call and check it out. Once per semester for us was free.)
I actually was just at the clinic for a obgyn appointment. I was very stressed last week and i think thats why it started so early. TBH, I'm trying to transfer colleges right now because i'm very homesick and far far away from where I'm originally from. So I get very stressed. The exercise helps a lot.
I'll try eating more. it makes me nervous but I'll definitely try.
It costs us money for a personal trainer.
Or I'd definitely do it!
Stress can do funny, awful things to your body and mind. From here on out, when you feel the anxiety coming on, remind yourself of your amazing accomplishments so far and be proud of them! Smile and laugh even when you don't feel like it. Find the good and happy all around you, instead of only thinking about what you are missing......I guarantee you are missing out on a lot by letting the stress/homesickness take over. Until you are able to sort this all out, practice focusing on what you do have that is positive. Attitude is everything, not location.
Also, remember that these moments, this time in your life, is not the-end-all-be-all-if-I-don't-get-this-perfect-my-whole-life-is-ruined-time. This should be learning & living time! Don't let anxiety get in the way of living your life. Have fun!
I'll try! I do stay very positive on the outside for everyone. I just miss my family very much.
And there is nothing wrong with missing your family and making the decision to return home. Until you are able to get there, just make the most of what you have!0 -
As you lose weight your body needs fewer calories to maintain your current weight, so you need to eat fewer as you lose. That's what most plateaus are caused by. The best way to keep losing reliably is to count your intake vs output as accurately as possible. Update your weight in mfp as you go as well. If you're still not losing, either try eating a bit less, or moving a bit more till you do.0
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To put it into perspective OP. I lost 24lbs in 4mths relatively easily. Now I'm down to my last 8lbs I'm losing roughly 2.2lbs a month. Very sloooow, but I'll get there eventually, and I refuse to cut my calories down even further.0
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I ate quite a bit tonight. Didnt make the healthiest choices but thats bc its that TOM and i crave like no other during it. Im going to definitely try eating healthy tomorrow and more. I also took a break from the exercise tonight. Im trying to take you guys advice and stop stressing my body so much. Afterall this is my 2nd period in a month and if thats my body telling me to loosen up a bit then I should listen to it.0
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after losing 20 pounds from january 1st until like the 28th, my weight stopped falling off even though i'd reduced my calories and upped my cardio.. my trainer told me to get losing the pounds again to have one cheat day eating as much carbs as I wanted then go straight onto a juice diet for 5 days...... I had then dropped another 7pounds by feb 7th and still losing more and more despite eating what i initially did to start
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I ate quite a bit tonight. Didnt make the healthiest choices but thats bc its that TOM and i crave like no other during it. Im going to definitely try eating healthy tomorrow and more. I also took a break from the exercise tonight. Im trying to take you guys advice and stop stressing my body so much. Afterall this is my 2nd period in a month and if thats my body telling me to loosen up a bit then I should listen to it.
And that's the attitude to have. Listen to your body and make smart choices.
You've accomplished a lot. You should be proud of that. Don't feel like one bad day is going to undo all the good ones. I remember feeling that way too and being "afraid" to eat because I didn't want to ruin my diet. To be honest, in the beginning of my journey, that sort of thinking DID help me just because it got me under control. I learned to pay attention to my calories and establish limits, things that were new to me. Once that became a habit, I stopped worrying about the odd day here or there where I lived off of gas station food or decided that an extra dessert was what I really wanted. I just logged it, moved on and did better the next day.
What I try to do now is once a month or so, just dedicate one day to eating whatever I want. During our Super Bowl party, for example, I kept eating pretty much all day. I ate until my stomach hurt and when it stopped hurting, I ate again. I gained weight, yes, because I ate an enormous amount of calories but here we are, two weeks later and I weigh less than I did before the SB. Never feel guilty about eating. Just dust yourself off and make the next day better.0 -
I had a cappuccino and a few chocolate chip cookies along with a serving of teddy grahams and peanut butter. I also had a few french fries. Most people i know eat like that daily, so i dont feel too bad because i was craving it. So far ive had 195 calories today from breakfast and im not hungry. I feel guilty for eating dessert but my weight didnt go up at all and i was craving something sweet. I just hate the feeling of guilt.BruceHedtke wrote: »I ate quite a bit tonight. Didnt make the healthiest choices but thats bc its that TOM and i crave like no other during it. Im going to definitely try eating healthy tomorrow and more. I also took a break from the exercise tonight. Im trying to take you guys advice and stop stressing my body so much. Afterall this is my 2nd period in a month and if thats my body telling me to loosen up a bit then I should listen to it.
And that's the attitude to have. Listen to your body and make smart choices.
You've accomplished a lot. You should be proud of that. Don't feel like one bad day is going to undo all the good ones. I remember feeling that way too and being "afraid" to eat because I didn't want to ruin my diet. To be honest, in the beginning of my journey, that sort of thinking DID help me just because it got me under control. I learned to pay attention to my calories and establish limits, things that were new to me. Once that became a habit, I stopped worrying about the odd day here or there where I lived off of gas station food or decided that an extra dessert was what I really wanted. I just logged it, moved on and did better the next day.
What I try to do now is once a month or so, just dedicate one day to eating whatever I want. During our Super Bowl party, for example, I kept eating pretty much all day. I ate until my stomach hurt and when it stopped hurting, I ate again. I gained weight, yes, because I ate an enormous amount of calories but here we are, two weeks later and I weigh less than I did before the SB. Never feel guilty about eating. Just dust yourself off and make the next day better.
I worked out this morning and had extra energy so i did better than usual. I'll post my journal in a moment.
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A juice diet? Im not sure how one of those work.PrincessARose wrote: »after losing 20 pounds from january 1st until like the 28th, my weight stopped falling off even though i'd reduced my calories and upped my cardio.. my trainer told me to get losing the pounds again to have one cheat day eating as much carbs as I wanted then go straight onto a juice diet for 5 days...... I had then dropped another 7pounds by feb 7th and still losing more and more despite eating what i initially did to start
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christinev297 wrote: »To put it into perspective OP. I lost 24lbs in 4mths relatively easily. Now I'm down to my last 8lbs I'm losing roughly 2.2lbs a month. Very sloooow, but I'll get there eventually, and I refuse to cut my calories down even further.
I refuse to cut mine down too. I feel like i need to increase them.0 -
And my schools menu. Its hard to eat. Its not whole grains so i just dont eat anything like the noodles or bread. I'll occasionally have chicken noodle soup but all the sodium makes me feel gross. And the salad bar here is not kept up with and causes people to get sick a lot.
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So CICO, except for sometimes. For weeks or months. Randomly for no reason. Until how long. No one knows. But keep doing the same thing. Or try something different. Or lower your calories. Or raise them. But CICO for sure. Great. Thanks.
I've never understood this advice. If you're in a deficit then wouldn't you lose weight? People throw this around and I get daily fluctuations but if you're stuck at the same weight for several weeks, the whole while being in a deficit, why would you not lose weight. It's complete crap.2. You haven't given it enough time. You're not really stalled; you're just in the middle of a fluctuation. Weight loss isn't linear.
Because sometimes your weight goes up and down over the space of a couple of weeks. Time of day of weigh-ins, time of month, hormonal fluctuations, water weight, losing a bunch in a hurry and then stalling... Weight loss over the course of months or years can have these stalls sometimes. Our bodies aren't simple machines: CICO, sure, but the graph isn't 100% straight.
I eat 1200 calories, weigh/measure everything, work out and don't eat back exercise calories. I lost about 50lbs in less than 4 months and now the scale has barely moved (relatively speaking) over the last month. I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist. I am not delusional and eating red velvet cake in my sleep. I can tell I am getting smaller because my clothes fit better and things that used to be tight are now loosening up. But the scale is NOT moving the way it should based on my CICO. The only explanation is that weight loss is not linear and there are, for whatever reasons, unexplained fluctuations from time to time. I am on a high protein diet and drink so much water I am constantly running to the bathroom. I am currently about 187lbs and female so it's not like I am extremely lean with little fat left to burn. I do cardio and strength training. Every time I read comments about plateaus where people insist the person is overeating, it drives me nuts. I'm sure that is often the case but it is NOT applicable in my case.0 -
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I'm honestly starting to think CICO is BS. People SWEAR by it but when it stops working the best explanation they can come up with is "weight loss isn't linear." Huh? That's not even an explanation. So CICO when things are working. Weight loss isn't linear when you stall?
The two aren't contradictory. A data set that, when plotted on a graph, shows a statistically significant downward trendline, still counts as weight loss. If you're expecting a straight line with an exact amount of weight loss each day, you're failing to take into account factors like water weight and retention, food and digestion, and different energy expenditures each day.
Look, I understand your frustration. But that doesn't mean it's BS. We're not simple machines; we're complex creatures.
Over time, CICO does work. You just seem to want it to be simpler than it actually is.0 -
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OT, but the mother-of-a-college student in me hopes that you are as focused on your studies as you are on your weight loss
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I am! Doing extremely well.tracyannk28 wrote: »OT, but the mother-of-a-college student in me hopes that you are as focused on your studies as you are on your weight loss
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This just doesn't explain why you can be in a deficit for many weeks then randomly not be. All of sudden you're just not? And while this stall happens what exactly are you losing if you're supposedly losing inches but not weight as many people swear is what is happening. I mean if you're not losing fat, not gaining muscle, what exactly are you doing?
Because your deficit isn't static. As you lose weight, you require fewer calories. So your deficit gets smaller and smaller. Also, if you become a little bit lax about how accurate your logging is, that can eat into your deficit.
And because just because a deficit is trending doesn't mean that you'll see it every day or every week. The ups and downs can make it seem like you're not losing weight for a few days when it's really just scale fluctuation.
I know you really, really want this to be a linear simple equation, like feeding quarters into a vending machine. It's just not. I don't know what to tell you other than that.0 -
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Steady loss then suddenly nothing. Huge spikes after as I raised my calories after getting some advice to take a diet break. The trend seem pretty darn straight until it stopped.
Sure, the trend is downward (until it's not) but it's not linear. There are little ups and downs, exactly what people have been saying.
So if what you've been doing isn't working now, then it's time to do something different, right? Not just get frustrated and snarky about the process. If you're still doing the same exercises you have been, your body gets more efficient at doing the same thing. Up the intensity or try a different exercise and you'll burn more calories. You've also lost 20 pounds. You aren't going to burn as many calories every day as you were 20 pounds ago, so your calorie goal needs to go down to compensate.
If you truly believe it's not CICO, then do something different. No one is forcing you to stick to a specific way of eating. I had a similar issue a few years ago when I stalled out for two months. I switched to low carb and the weight started dropping again. Personally, I believe that low carb works for me because I don't eat as much junk and I'm more careful with my logging rather than that there's some magic in eating less carbs that lets me lose weight... but it does work for me.0 -
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may try choosing a new routine and swap it up. example would be instead of tricep pull downs. switch it up to skull crushers. keep squats but change the weight up 20 percent and do less reps and then add in lunges in place of leg extensions. .. basically switch excercises where you can and where you can't change the rep counts.
oh and throw in a very slow finish like when you drop the weight,. drop it very slow on your final rep. slow as you can even.
Studies show and have confirmed that lowering the weight is just as important as lifting the weight. Lowering the weight causes just as much muscle-cell damage as lifting the weight does.0 -
Steady loss then suddenly nothing. Huge spikes after as I raised my calories after getting some advice to take a diet break. The trend seem pretty darn straight until it stopped.
Sure, the trend is downward (until it's not) but it's not linear. There are little ups and downs, exactly what people have been saying.
So if what you've been doing isn't working now, then it's time to do something different, right? Not just get frustrated and snarky about the process. If you're still doing the same exercises you have been, your body gets more efficient at doing the same thing. Up the intensity or try a different exercise and you'll burn more calories. You've also lost 20 pounds. You aren't going to burn as many calories every day as you were 20 pounds ago, so your calorie goal needs to go down to compensate.
If you truly believe it's not CICO, then do something different. No one is forcing you to stick to a specific way of eating. I had a similar issue a few years ago when I stalled out for two months. I switched to low carb and the weight started dropping again. Personally, I believe that low carb works for me because I don't eat as much junk and I'm more careful with my logging rather than that there's some magic in eating less carbs that lets me lose weight... but it does work for me.
The TDEE different between 250lbs and 230lbs is about 100 calories. So that's 700 for a week. It seems like that would produce a slower loss but yet not a stoppage all together.
And that's all you got out of what I posted?
It seems to me like you're not really looking for ways to break a plateau, you're just looking for reasons why CICO doesn't work for you when it does for nearly everyone else. Again, if you don't think it works, try something different. There are plenty of people who swear by low carb, paleo, intermittent fasting, etc. Give one of those options a try and perhaps you'll start making progress again. But for your own sake, don't just sit there spinning your metaphorical wheels while blaming the process as the reason you can't lose weight.0 -
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I'm not saying you're eating much - it's just that you could be eating at maintenance. Since you don't have a scale, how can you know for sure that you're not, especially since at 130 with only 10 pounds to your goal, there wouldn't be much of a margin in-between? I know there isn't much to be done about this in your current situation, but unfortunately without the knowledge you need to know if you truly are in a deficit, it may mean that it'll come off a lot slower than you would like.marinabreeze wrote: »
130 puts you at a healthy BMI for your height. You already seem to be living a pretty healthy lifestyle anyway. Going from 130 to 120 doesn't mean you'll become more healthy anyway. And comparing your current body to your HS freshman body as you did in a different reply does you no favors. Even if you get to 120, you're not going to get that body back because you're no longer 14 and you're presumably a fully grown adult. Not trying to be snarky, just being realistic.
It's actually because I care about my body enough to want to feel healthy and by the time I'm 30 trying to get rid of it then when its easier for me to lose weight now and maintain. I'm trying to be responsible about my body and make changes now.midwesterner85 wrote: »Why did you change your goal from 130 to 120?
I'll field this one. Probably because she's 20ish and needs to fit in a smaller bikini for Chad's awesome pool party.
It seems you're pretty hard on yourself in terms of being anxious about gaining weight, but remember you are in an adult body, not a teenage body, and you've are already putting in the work to be at a healthy weight.
If you want to have a more sculpted body, weights and strength training help. If you're just trying to look more slender - realistically without a scale you're not going to know how much you're truly eating, so it is possible you're eating more than you think in general - not overeating per se, just eating at maintenance. Being so close to goal with not much to lose, there's not much margin for error.
I want to look leaner and more sculpted. I definitely don't think im eating maintenance because I know that I don't put much into my body at all, even without a scale. Chartwells-the system used for our school- is teamed up with mfp and i don't really eat much.
I understand I am no longer a teenager but I also get extremely disappointed at the gym. I see people my age have much nicer bodies than I do and it just upsets me because I work very hard. I really shouldn't compare myself but I do.
I know it's really hard to compare yourself to other people. I try to say I'm beyond it myself, but after watching my sister and brother lose a lot of weight in the past year or so, I admit that one of my motivations to lose is to not be the "fat sibling" anymore. At the same time, try to remember that you have one body, it's the only body you'll ever have, and it's best to both care for it (which you're clearly already doing) and love it for what it is - not for what you wish it was.-1 -
Personally, I think my scale(s) have brains and are just f'ing with me! LOL, j/k. I am sure it's a variety of factors and I do believe that, over time, it trends downward if the person is truly in a deficit. I'm gonna guess that water retention is the biggest culprit for different reasons (e.g., TOM for females, sodium, retention due to exercising, BM's etc.). Another thought I have is that it may be some sort of "balancing out" after larger losses. It'll drive you insane, if you let it. My common sense tells me it will start moving again (even if it's a little slower since I'm smaller). I'm doing all the "right" things in terms of keeping myself at a deficit and this isn't my first rodeo, unfortunately.
OP, I agree with the comments you've gotten from others. Relax and stop stressing. Going from 171 to low 130s is amazing. I suspect the body of your dreams will be achieved by strength training vs. losing some static amount of pounds. Looking at your workouts, I think you might be doing too many reps. Try lifting heavier and less reps. I also think if you're doing all those at one time, you are overtraining. I know that if I have too many sets/reps/body parts, something will suffer. I think it's better to work a body part once a week to fatigue than to plough through dozens of sets and multiple bodyparts in one day for more than one day a week. I think that's an inefficient use of your time. In this case, less is more. At least that is what worked for me. I used to do a full body workout plus cardio 3-4 times a week when I first started working out years ago. I was in the gym for like 4 hours at a time. I didn't understand how other people spent so little time there (relatively speaking) and looked great. Then I started reading and asking questions. I would guess that I wound up doing half the effort for more than twice the result after my little education.
Good luck and congrats on your success so far...0 -
There's nothing "clear" about what you just posted. Survival mode and starvation mode are real. It doesn't mean your body magically finds calories where there are none, but our bodies are adaptive machines. When it doesn't get enough food for a sustained period of time, it absolutely tries to save energy wherever it can: it feels more sluggish, metabolism slows down, and you burn energy at a lower rate during regular activities (measured exercise notwithstanding). Someone at peak metabolism burns more calories standing, walking, sitting and sleeping than someone in starvation mode.Here's the solution to your plateu: EAT MORE. It will reset your body's metabolism. One reason you may be "plateuing" is that your body has slowed down your metabolism, gone into survival mode, and is storing everything it can.
I really don't know why people keep posting this advice. It's clearly not true.
"Survival mode" is a myth. You're not starving yourself unless you are REALLY starving. Not a term to use lightly when you look around the world and see people who are actually starving.
"Resetting your metabolism" is a myth. There's no ctrl-alt-del reboot switch on a body's metabolism.
As for resetting metabolism, that's real too. No it's not like restarting your laptop. It's more like slowly readjusting and retraining the body to expect more food - hence it takes two weeks of maintenance level eating and not one binge session.
That posting by Segacs is very clear, and spot on.
Starvation mode is a myth as to the common dieter. To be in starvation mode, you must be emaciated and have lost a certain percentage of body fat and muscle. People who are fat or overweight, of normal weight, don't get starvation mode. Have you studied the Minnesota Starvation Experiment?
In the normal world of dieting, people telling others to stop starving themselves simply means to eat more. It in no way relates to starvation mode.
Resetting metabolism is a myth too. If your metabolism stops, you're dead. If it slows down, there is a medical issue that needs attention. However, it does not need to be "reset".
The only requirement to lose weight is to eat less calories than you burn. That's it. Everything else, such as diet type, food restriction, exercise, drinking tea teas, standing on your head while eating jelly beans, is preference only.0 -
I think there is something evil in these last 10 pounds
I am fighting just like you, from 130 to 120 for a pretty long time and it's going nowhere. That's why I joined MFP.
I don't think is what we eat (I've been keeping track of my food here and even blindly I have been doing good) and I don't think it's the exercise either (cause I am doing good on that too), I think it's the stress.
You are stressed and so am I. This alone screws with these last 10 pounds. You need to find your balance, your happy place and maybe try something different in terms of working out. Go join a Hip-hop dance club, or join a swimming club or a martial arts club. You need to stop thinking at these last ten pounds as if they are your prize and think more on life style.0 -
LucyAndKay wrote: »You need to stop thinking at these last ten pounds as if they are your prize and think more on life style.
So much this!
The reality is, 10 pounds isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. If you're not happy and confident with yourself today, you won't be happy and confident weighing 10 pounds less. That's just not enough weight to make that big a difference.
Find ways to be happy and healthy and confident at your current weight and size, and then focus on losing the last few.0 -
Thank you girl!Personally, I think my scale(s) have brains and are just f'ing with me! LOL, j/k. I am sure it's a variety of factors and I do believe that, over time, it trends downward if the person is truly in a deficit. I'm gonna guess that water retention is the biggest culprit for different reasons (e.g., TOM for females, sodium, retention due to exercising, BM's etc.). Another thought I have is that it may be some sort of "balancing out" after larger losses. It'll drive you insane, if you let it. My common sense tells me it will start moving again (even if it's a little slower since I'm smaller). I'm doing all the "right" things in terms of keeping myself at a deficit and this isn't my first rodeo, unfortunately.
OP, I agree with the comments you've gotten from others. Relax and stop stressing. Going from 171 to low 130s is amazing. I suspect the body of your dreams will be achieved by strength training vs. losing some static amount of pounds. Looking at your workouts, I think you might be doing too many reps. Try lifting heavier and less reps. I also think if you're doing all those at one time, you are overtraining. I know that if I have too many sets/reps/body parts, something will suffer. I think it's better to work a body part once a week to fatigue than to plough through dozens of sets and multiple bodyparts in one day for more than one day a week. I think that's an inefficient use of your time. In this case, less is more. At least that is what worked for me. I used to do a full body workout plus cardio 3-4 times a week when I first started working out years ago. I was in the gym for like 4 hours at a time. I didn't understand how other people spent so little time there (relatively speaking) and looked great. Then I started reading and asking questions. I would guess that I wound up doing half the effort for more than twice the result after my little education.
Good luck and congrats on your success so far...
Im trying to switch things up at the gym but a lot of the machines confuse me tbh. I guess I just need to educate myself more.
I havent ate since breakfast but im about to cook some chicken and im still way under my calorie goal so im unsure what to do. Im just not hungry after yesterday. And I need to go to the gym tonight. Knowing me I'll probably burn all those calories. I'm generally in an extreme cal deficit by the end of the week. I walk everywhere and have to go up this huge
Flight of stairs anytime i do anything. Then with my two workouts a day i usually burn the calories i eat.
All these people keep fighting over starvation mode but im pretty sure thats a myth. Why is my body holding onto this weight still?
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