Help with weight loss

dgobbett

Hello MFP community.

In June of last year I was 425lbs, I started my plan to get down under 300. I was eating 2500 calories a day, walking about 30k per week, swimming, stairs etc. I was exercising 4 days a week and I was seeing results by November I was down to 347lbs. Winter crept up and prevented me from doing a lot of outdoor exercises, flu season stopped it altogether. I fell out of my rhythm and stopped tracking.

March hit and I realized I had gained 20lbs and got back to it. I have been eating about 2300 calories per day now exercising daily (light weights, 4-5k walks per day - which include interval jogging) It has been four weeks and I am flip flopping on the scales and I seem to be gaining weight and maintaining it, now I am at 370 this week and it has been consistent for days. I have been monitoring my water intake to see if it is simple water weight but when I was at it before I would see water weight drop off in a day or two and that is not happening here.

Measurements haven't changed in four weeks, I have weighed my food, where am I going wrong? This exercise plan has worked for me in the past. Now I am getting zero results.

Any thoughts ?

sofaking6

Are you eating back your exercise calories? If so, how are you figuring your calorie burns for exercise? MFP default numbers are generally really high.

dgobbett

As a rule I do not eat back my exercise calories, if I am feeling hungry I may eat back 5-10%, once a week maybe. I use runkeeper and MFP to track when I do track exercises. I know they estimate high, and I tend to mentally subtract 10-20% off of the final count for exercise.

dgobbett

any other thoughts ?

taco_inspector

Maybe you could open your log for a look-see??

Just to give your thread a bump, 2500-cals/day seems pretty low (like below BMR values) for a 31-yr male @370-lbs, unless you're like 3-feet tall; by extension your current 2300'd be lower...



I'm sure someone brighter will pop-in with more, but at least it's a bump for ya.

futuremanda

I am going to guess water, especially if I take you at your word that you weigh and log all your food and know what you're doing (as you've done it before) and have been sticking to your target, etc.

You are larger than I am, and I can see fluctuations of like 5 lbs, so I assume you can see larger fluctuations than that. And I know 4 weeks is a decent timeframe, but if your measurements haven't changed, then they haven't changed, right?

I'd say give it another two weeks, and make sure your adherence is A+. If you want to feel proactive, take a look at your logs (open them if you're willing, people around here are good at spotting potential errors) and maybe re-read about logging accurately. Even the database -- getting the right entries -- can be really tricky. Not saying that I think you're having discrepancies large enough to wipe out what I assume is a sizeable deficit, but it doesn't hurt to double check through anyway.

Have you had a physical recently? Blood test, etc. If it is water, then these fluctuations are out of the norm for you (from the sounds of it). And if it isn't, if you somehow do not have a deficit or have a deficit small enough to hide under normal fluctuations, then you might want to get a check on the usual medical suspects, like thyroid.

Oh and for measurements. Do you measure in many places? The more places, the better. Neck, upper arm, forearm, wrist. Chest, waist, hips, thighs, calves, ankles. Not saying you must (I don't, but I'm not that fussed about progress right now) but it would be helpful in a time like this, as more data usually is.

Liftng4Lis

Are you using a food scale?

RodaRose

Drink more water.
Be patient. Some weeks, no weight comes off. The body has its own rhtymn not related to the scale sometimes.

dgobbett

futuremanda wrote: »

I am going to guess water, especially if I take you at your word that you weigh and log all your food and know what you're doing (as you've done it before) and have been sticking to your target, etc.

You are larger than I am, and I can see fluctuations of like 5 lbs, so I assume you can see larger fluctuations than that. And I know 4 weeks is a decent timeframe, but if your measurements haven't changed, then they haven't changed, right?

I'd say give it another two weeks, and make sure your adherence is A+. If you want to feel proactive, take a look at your logs (open them if you're willing, people around here are good at spotting potential errors) and maybe re-read about logging accurately. Even the database -- getting the right entries -- can be really tricky. Not saying that I think you're having discrepancies large enough to wipe out what I assume is a sizeable deficit, but it doesn't hurt to double check through anyway.

Have you had a physical recently? Blood test, etc. If it is water, then these fluctuations are out of the norm for you (from the sounds of it). And if it isn't, if you somehow do not have a deficit or have a deficit small enough to hide under normal fluctuations, then you might want to get a check on the usual medical suspects, like thyroid.

Oh and for measurements. Do you measure in many places? The more places, the better. Neck, upper arm, forearm, wrist. Chest, waist, hips, thighs, calves, ankles. Not saying you must (I don't, but I'm not that fussed about progress right now) but it would be helpful in a time like this, as more data usually is.

I wasn't sure how to make it visible, I set it to public.

I don't weigh my food everytime I do not have a scale, and I do not prepare every meal I eat. When I started back I weighed my food for the first week to get an understanding of portions but then returned the scale to my friend.

Measurements have only happened twice in the time I have been back on my plan, I measured the neck, check and and waist. Once when I started and once about 3 days ago.

I saw my doctor today and he ordered blood tests so we will see.

dgobbett

standenvernet wrote: »

Maybe you could open your log for a look-see??

Just to give your thread a bump, 2500-cals/day seems pretty low (like below BMR values) for a 31-yr male @370-lbs, unless you're like 3-feet tall; by extension your current 2300'd be lower...



I'm sure someone brighter will pop-in with more, but at least it's a bump for ya.

The calorie count was set by MFP for a 2lb per week loss. 2lb per week was chosen for me by a Doctor I was referred to who specializes in weight loss and said due to me being Obese my body could handle it. I don't see him anymore since the appointment schedule required of me interfered with my work so I couldn't keep it up.

dgobbett

Hopefully my diary is accessible now and someone can shed light on why I am still gaining weight.

janejellyroll

dgobbett wrote: »

Hopefully my diary is accessible now and someone can shed light on why I am still gaining weight.

It looks like you have some opportunities to tighten your logging up to understand what you're actually eating. Did you create the entry for "generic turkey meatloaf"? If not, it may not match up calorie-wise. You have some things like "generic almond butter cup" that may vary significantly, as they are calorie dense foods. You also have things like "4 slices" of ham (how thick was the slice?). Are you weighing your fruit? That can also change your calorie count significantly.

At a minimum, I would stop using generic entries until you get this cleared up. Also, you're not logging each day. I would begin doing that so that you can understand how much you are consuming.