Advice required

Hi,
I am in need of advice as I seem to have slowed right down with my weight loss. I have lost 26lbs so far but in recent weeks this has only moved by ounces, I have set myself a limit of 1500 calories per day and cycle 7 miles per day. I know the weekends get in the way a bit, but even then I am still trying to be reasonably good. I work a permanent 1400 - 2200 shift and find that if I have breakfast I will almost definately go over my limit. I get up at about eight and have a cup of tea and then I eat at 1230, 1700, and when I get home at 2230 with some cereal bars etc for snacks at about 1530 and 2000. I seem to be eating nothing but chicken and veg or chicken salad and do not want to lose faith as I am happy with my weight loss so far just don't know what to do to keep it going.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Bob

Replies

  • mbochek
    mbochek Posts: 3
    Hang in there and congrats on the 26lbs ! That's amazing!

    Although I do not know your daily meal plans ect. Ect. I would revamp and evaluate the sugars, grain crabs. Eat more protein during breakfast and let that meal be your biggest of the day.

    I eat 3 meals 2 snacks a day. I almost feel I am constantly eating. I was on a diet program and still follow most of their recipes, I can tweak them a little now since I'm not on protocol, and still losing weight.

    http://www.liquidaminodiet.com/liquid-amino-diet-recipes/
  • Hey there! Congrats on the weight loss so far!
    Are you eating back the calories that you are burning? Maybe try eating every couple of hours to keep the metabolism going?

    I personally bumped up the frequency of how often I ate and tried to stay away from carbs sticking to protein mainly. Eating more frequently, eating back my calories from exercise, and sticking to proteins actually sped up my weight loss tremendously! I've lost 30lbs plus the 9lbs when I joined mfp.
    hope that helps!
  • RWS1807
    RWS1807 Posts: 3
    Thanks very much for the advice, don't really know how I am going to do it though. Should I be looking at protein shakes between meals? A standard day would consist of:

    08:30 - cup of tea.
    09:00 - 7 mile cycle ride.
    12:30 - Salad and 200g of grilled chicken or 200g mixed veg and 200g grilled chicken, cereal bar, green tea.
    17:30 - Salad and 200g of grilled chicken or 200g mixed veg and 200g grilled chicken, apple, green tea.
    20:30 - Green tea, cereal bar.
    22:30 - Green tea and anything I can eat to stay under 1500 calories.
  • RWS1807
    RWS1807 Posts: 3
    Thanks very much for the advice, don't really know how I am going to do it though. Should I be looking at protein shakes between meals? A standard day would consist of:

    08:30 - cup of tea.
    09:00 - 7 mile cycle ride.
    12:30 - Salad and 200g of grilled chicken or 200g mixed veg and 200g grilled chicken, cereal bar, green tea.
    17:30 - Salad and 200g of grilled chicken or 200g mixed veg and 200g grilled chicken, apple, green tea.
    20:30 - Green tea, cereal bar.
    22:30 - Green tea and anything I can eat to stay under 1500 calories.
  • 1ConcreteGirl
    1ConcreteGirl Posts: 3,677 Member
    I'm sorry, I only give advice when it is unrequested.
  • jim9097
    jim9097 Posts: 341 Member
    Congrats on the first 26. First, understand this is normal. Your body is adapting to the level of intake and output and therefore will level off. You need to shake up your routine a bit. Add some weight training, and other cardio, change you meals so that you eat smaller meals but eat them more often. In addition, play tricks on your body. 1 day eat your 1500, next day eat 2000, next day 1700, then 2000 or 1500. You just want to stay away from strict routines. YOUR BODY WILL ADAPT!

    Remember if you do the same exercise all of the time it becomes easy and really isn't exercise anymore. Your meal plan is the same way.

    Good luck
    Jim
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Hi,
    I am in need of advice as I seem to have slowed right down with my weight loss. I have lost 26lbs so far but in recent weeks this has only moved by ounces, I have set myself a limit of 1500 calories per day and cycle 7 miles per day. I know the weekends get in the way a bit, but even then I am still trying to be reasonably good. I work a permanent 1400 - 2200 shift and find that if I have breakfast I will almost definately go over my limit. I get up at about eight and have a cup of tea and then I eat at 1230, 1700, and when I get home at 2230 with some cereal bars etc for snacks at about 1530 and 2000. I seem to be eating nothing but chicken and veg or chicken salad and do not want to lose faith as I am happy with my weight loss so far just don't know what to do to keep it going.

    Any advice would be much appreciated.

    Bob

    Still estimating food just as good as you were?
    If you've gotten loose and sloppy, you may be eating more than you think now.

    With less to lose, you should be eating less than at the beginning too, if you have maintained muscle mass it may not be a whole lot less.
    But it also means your movements when lighter burn less calories, MFP should adjust every 10 lbs, did you accept those adjustments?
    Logging exercise calories should be less burned too and MFP bases that on weight too, meaning less is eaten back there also.
    So that bike ride will burn the exact same amount of calories if done at the same pace and same weight, but since you are lighter, the pace better have gotten faster to burn the same amount.
    Then again, with the auto MFP adjustment and estimating calorie burn on weight, that is already taken care of.

    And a deficit of a certain size may be taken by your body decently when you have a lot to lose, it may not be so good now.
    Is that 1500 a 1000 deficit with 2 lbs weekly goal. Might need to go to 1.5 lb weekly for more reasonable deficit now.

    And along those lines, your deficit from the beginning may have been too big, you didn't eat enough protein, and did no resistance training, so you have lost enough muscle mass that your metabolism is even less than your lost weight would indicate, meaning sadly you get to eat even less.
    Though, that can also compound the problem and cause more muscle mass loss - no a good thing.