Never ending plateau

tboothe33

Hi all. I'm so frustrated. I am 48 and was on ww for several years. I went from 212 to 182 in that time. I am 5ft 7. I wore a tight size 18. Then I actually started exercising. I take Zumba twice a week. Spin class twice a week. Yoga and body pump too. I also added a HIIT class. I now wear a comfortable size 12/14 but I have not lost any more weight. In stuck between 185 and 182. I log my food. I drink my water. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. People tell me it's muscle weight. I don't care what kind of weight it is. I want to lose 25 more pounds. I'm afraid to stop my workouts for fear I'll go back up in size. Has anyone else had similar problems? Am I destined to be this weight? My bp is good. All my blood work came back clear. Dr says I'm healthy. Bmi says I'm obese.
I'm not doing ww anymore.

DemoraFairy

How long have you been stuck? Do you weigh all your food? Do you eat back your exercise calories? Can you open your diary, would be easier to give specific advice then.

4legsRbetterthan2

Whats your calorie goal? Do you weigh your food? Do log every single day or are you taking cheat meals and days? How are you estimating your calories burned from exercise?

tboothe33

I have a fit bit and I set myfitnesspal to adjust negative. I do 1400 per day. Sometimes I eat back but not every day. I have been between 185 and 182 since August 2014. I log. I scan and weigh.

TiffanyR71

Btw - 5'7" at 185 is BMI of ~29, which isn't considered obese. I only know because I am actually obese with a BMI of 32...
Keep working out! Use a measuring tape as another measure of success! Good luck and keep up the great work! Make sure you're tracking accurately... Maybe play with adjusting macros...

StaciMarie1974

As for your food log: since August, how accurate & complete have you been about logging? Every thing, every day? Or do you have days, weeks where you log only partially or not at all? How much do you use the food scale?

I ask because if you've been eating 1400/day for 7-8 months, and have no medical reasons, you should be losing weight.

One warning: scanning food labels is not always sufficient. Do you also weigh the foods? Many items have nutritional information based on 'each' but then the pieces are often heavier than one serving. Such as bred... Its often listed as 1 serving = 2 slices=45grams, 100 calories. Then when I weigh the bread - its often 50-52grams for 2 slices. Many items like this are 10-20% higher in weight than a 'serving' is supposed to be.

tboothe33

Interesting on the scanning info. Thanks. I do weigh but only what I can't scan. I stay with 1400 about 5 days and might go over after a big workout because I'm usually famished by then. Not always though.

Thanks Tiffany for the encouragement. This is such an eye opening journey. My life is so different. I actually can run on a treadmill for 15 or more minutes now. That was never in my life before.

PeachyCarol

Weigh everything. All solids, every bite you eat. Measure all liquids. I've never used the scanner, so don't know how accurate it is, so I have no advice on that. I do know that using a food scale gets you results, though.

Be careful when selecting entries from the data base. Double check everything with either the USDA website or nutritiondata.self.com.

What are you using to estimate your exercise burns? You're getting a lot of exercise, try to eat back half of those calories to fuel your workouts.

Congratulations on the weight you've lost so far and on your fitness gains!

meghanduprey

I am in the same boat
I'm 5'6" and have been 180 for about 6 months now. I started doing bodypump, bodystep and working with a trainer about 6 weeks ago along with having been walking 10,000 steps/day for the last 2 years and not seeing any results. I would have thought i would have seen SOMETHING over the last 6 weeks with the new classes, shaking things up so much but nothing. I started using MFP to track instead of the fitbit website too. learned my sodium intake was really high, changed that, lowered my sugar intake and carb intake. i stay within or below my calories, and still nothing. it's frustrating but i'm trying not to give up. I like the classes so that helps. it can be really discouraging though. i feel ya.
i'm on some anti-depressants/anti-anxiety meds so i wonder if that has anything to do with it, i also notice a difference in how hard it is to see any progress since i turned 30. i used to be able to just increase my walking and lose weight. ahhh, the good old days.

cblue315

Watch this:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=287422958048345

meghanduprey

thanks! that was a good video. i think i knew most of it, it was good to get validation though. the part i didn't know was about how it was harder to lose weight/keep it off because you can't lose fat cells. good to know it doesn't matter what you eat, just how much because i'm stuck on greek yogurt like you wouldn't believe right now!