Stopped losing! Help needed please

pennybutton

Hi, I am a 54 year old women, 5'10, 195lb. I have MFP set to lose 1.5lb a week, which gives me 1220 calories. I walk at least 10,000 steps a day and eat back the calories that fitbit gives me. For the last 5 weeks my weight has stayed the same, and it's really getting me down. Any ideas at all please as to where I am going wrong. Thanks in advance.

editorgrrl

Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you do everything right but maintain—or even gain. Others you lose a whole lot in a "whoosh."

Set your goal for .5 lb. per week for every 25 lbs, you're overweight, and be patient: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

If you don't enable negative calorie adjustments, then you won't eat at a true deficit on days you move less than your activity level: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

If you want feedback about your logging, you need to make your diary public.

FishyK

Plateaus are normal. I'm a little discouraged myself today because my weight loss has slowed down. But I know it could pick back up. Did you lose the 8 pounds slowly or was there a big drop before the plateau? Another problem could be that you are eating too many calories. If you do not measure, weigh and log absolutely everything you consume, underestimating could be the issue. I measure carefully occasionally to make sure my eyeball estimates are on track. But they have to be rechecked because my tendency is to underestimate. For that reason I usually leave some calories uneaten, unless I'm really hungry.

Also try mixing up your fitness routine. Apparently when your body gets good at an exercise, it stops burning as many calories doing it. Fitbit isn't going to consider that in its estimates. Try something new.

Hey, I think I just solved my own problem.

heybales

Actually, that's a myth that if your body gets good at doing exercise you burn less.
If you are moving the same mass in the same way at same intensity - you are burning the same amount of calories.
When you become fit though, your heart and breathing rate can be slower to provide the same amount of oxygen to burn those calories, which is now more fat than carbs.

The only time it lowers is if doing complex moves that you have become more efficient at. So beginner at Zumba would burn slightly more at very start being all awkward, and depending on how easily they picked it up would burn slightly less as they got the movements down.

Even when say the weight on the bar feels easier, it still takes the same amount of energy to move 20 lbs in same movement, so same calorie burn. But now instead of asking body to improve to do that, it's maintenance lifting.

Now, what should happen in above cases - you can now walk faster, lift more, ect, and actually burn more calories than before.
The problem is when exercise becomes comfortable and you don't increase but the weight does drop. Now you are burning less - which Fitbit would reflect still.

OP - I doubt your food logging could be so bad that you are wiping out a 750 cal deficit, but good to confirm.
Weigh everything and be honest with all that goes in your mouth.

And good questions above about the initial fast water weight loss setting bad expectations.

And while you can get body to slow down by undereating, it's usually not going to be that fast for mild exercise. Big deficit and intense exercise can make it react fast, so weight loss slows way down.

You could just be having stress, and increased cortisol will increase retained water, upwards of 20 lbs.
So that could be hiding fat loss that is still happening. Depending on reasons for the stress, it sadly could include muscle mass too, so that's no good.
But that's a good reason to measure too.

I doubt your exercise is causing water retained for repair, sounds calm enough, just increased daily activity.

You may also want to confirm your stride length and distances that Fitbit sees, since ultimately calories burned is calculated off distance gone, which is based on stride length setting.

If you have treadmill available, the FAQ says how to get that value tested.

FishyK

Thanks for the correct information, heybales! That makes sense.