Protein.. plateaus and gaining weight...

Spliner1969

I've been using Myfitnesspal.com since February to lose weight. It's been working for the most part, so far I've lost 38 lbs. The problem I'm having the last couple of weeks is that I've started increasing my exercise daily and myfitnesspal.com keeps increasing my protein goals. So, I've been increasing my protein either through protein drinks/shakes or protein bars. I stay under my daily calorie goal 99% of the time, and if I do go over it's not by more than 100 calories or so. I do not eat back my exercise calories at all. I made that mistake early on and fixed it pretty quick.

Here's the issue, as I increase my protein intake I tend to stop losing weight and/or sometimes gain weight. I try to weigh once a week or so, but lately since I started trying to keep up with myfitnesspal's protein intake (because I've also been strength training) I've been watching the scales every other day sometimes every 3 days. If I gain a little bit here or there I ignore it, but try only to count the weight on the same day of the week each week.

Right now my exercise routine is 3.5miles/day power walking (around 4mph)
Strength training 3-4x per week (no more than every other day).

So from last week to this week I've gained weight, 1.8lbs to be exact. I've never gone over my calorie goals since February so what gives?

I tried this once before (keeping up with myfitnesspal's protein recommendations) and the same thing happened. I stopped losing weight and started gaining. Bottom line is I could stop tracking exercise calories and likely go back to losing weight, but I don't want to loose lean mass. I don't care as much about gaining muscle at the moment, but would like to tone.

I weigh everything if possible. If I can't find anything but volume measurements then I'll still weigh it and make sure I don't go over the volume for the calories. Even my own recipes we (my wife and I) have started adding into myfitnesspal so we could control portions and calories.

I'm getting discouraged, I have about 40-50 lbs to go on my weight loss journey and going backwards is not something I like to see. For now I'll stop tracking exercise calories and I'm sure that will drop me out of my plateau but can anyone tell me if what myfitnesspal.com is doing with he protein gains is accurate? It certainly doesn't look like it to me.

For instance, I have a desk job. So my lifestyle is sedimentary, and before starting my diet I did not exercise at all. So I set my goals at 225lbs with no weekly exercising at all, and started at 305lbs. Right now I weigh about 267 and still have a goal of 225lbs. Myfitnesspal.com (using the wizard) sets me at 1710 calories a day.

From what I've read, since I am doing both strength training and exercising about 6 times a week (sometimes 7, even though I know I shouldn't), I figure I need about 1g of protein per pound of fat. I figured that on my goal weight, not my current weight, so for 225lbs that's 225g of protein a day?? Myfitnesspal.com normally sets me at around 87g of protein a day for a daily goal until it starts adding exercise calories. Then, in the evening after I've done my walk for the day and settled in to rest I usually am sitting at myfitnesspal.com telling me I need around 150g or so of protein. That's completely fine, but even though I've been eating lean meats, fish/etc. I can't seem to get enough protein, so I started eating more greek yogurt and drinking protein supplements to get up to 150g of protein. But when I do that, weight loss stops. What gives?

If I don't log exercise, and stay at 87-90g of protein a day aren't I losing muscle with fat?

I'm sure I don't have a good enough grasp on weight loss and nutrition, but I'm honestly trying to diet responsibly, lose around 1.5-2lbs a week and not lose muscle mass. If I could gain muscle as I go that would be great too. Obviously I'm doing something wrong.

Anyone have tips? Sorry for the long post, this stuff has been bugging me a while now.

Spliner1969

FYI: I figured out part of my incorrect calculations.. I should be consuming 1g of protein per KG of body weight. So should I be basing that calculation on current body weight or my goal weight? If it's my goal weight then that is 225lbs which equals around 102kg right? That means 102g of protein a day? If I go by my current weight (267lbs) then that's 121kg, or 121g of protein a day.

So does that mean by eating up to 150g of protein a day I'm making myself gain weight? Could that be where my problem lies?

kwtilbury

Generally speaking, protein consumption doesn't determine weight gain/loss. A calorie surplus/deficit will do that.

Michael190lbs

You and I are very similar in weight well at least were-I'm 186 now and was 293- I would get away from MFP calculations and move to TDEE do .8 grams of protein per body pound ..4 fat and adjust carbs to your calorie goal. You can still track your food here just don't count your exercise calories as extra food. Your going to lose muscle size no matter what as there is fat where there is muscle in our bodies..

I do around 200 grams protein 100 grams fat and adjust my carbs to my calorie goal but the food I like to eat contains a lot of protein.

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

Spliner1969

GuitarJerry wrote: »

Have your overall calories decreased since you have lost weight? Have you reset them to make sure? Sometimes, MFP doesn't automatically reduce calories as your weight decreases. So, you have to go into your profile like your going to change your goals, but don't change anything, just hit save and that will force the calories to reset to your lower weight.

I have reset my goals about four times since February. I've tried resetting them each time I lose 10 lbs. So they don't change a lot, but at first I was inputting exercise 3 times a week for 30 minutes and MFP was telling me to eat somewhere around 2000 calories a day. That's all fine, but there was no weight loss at that deficit. I'm a big guy, 6'2", but even so I wanted to lose at least 1lb a week, so I took off the exercise from the wizard and it dropped to 1710 a day. It's pretty much stayed there for a while. And, as I said, if I don't eat the recommended calories I tend to lose weight regularly.

As far as water retention it's possible, however with the heat lately I've been forced to do my 3-3.5mile walk in 90F weather. It's been brutal with humidity in the 70% range. You'd think I'd lose more weight but that hasn't been the case. In general I may be weighing too often, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to know what impact exercising myself into the ground for 3 days makes on my weight. Then I weigh and see a gain and it's depressing. I'm going to bed each night with a calorie deficit of somewhere around 800-1000 calories deficit. You'd think I'd be losing weight. Could it be lean mass gain? I've heard that's crap, and that if I am gaining it's probably incorrect measurements of my calorie deficit. That's why I'm weighing everything.

/shrug

Michael190lbs

A 1000 calorie deficit is 2 lbs per week of loss..

Spliner1969

Michael190lbs wrote: »

You and I are very similar in weight well at least were-I'm 186 now and was 293- I would get away from MFP calculations and move to TDEE do .8 grams of protein per body pound ..4 fat and adjust carbs to your calorie goal. You can still track your food here just don't count your exercise calories as extra food. Your going to lose muscle size no matter what as there is fat where there is muscle in our bodies..

I do around 200 grams protein 100 grams fat and adjust my carbs to my calorie goal but the food I like to eat contains a lot of protein.

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

I will take a good long look at that. If I may ask, how long did it take you to go from 296 to 186? Did you strength train the whole time? My personal goal is a year to lose about 85 lbs, I'm ahead of that goal so I can't complain, and certainly am not giving up, but it gets discouraging to see weight loss stop in its tracks frequently. Lately it seems like I'll plateau for a week, then lose for a week, then plateau, drives me bonkers. Doesn't seem to matter how hard I work.

I had major knee surgery about 10 years ago, and a L4-L5 discectomy about 8 years ago. When I had the discectomy the doctor said it was the worst bulging disc he'd seen in his career and had to remove a lot of the cartilage. He said it was a tossup whether or not to fuse, but he opted to not fuse the vertebrae. He said my weight limit would be 25lbs. I asked how long I would be limited to 25lbs, he said simply "yes". Meaning I may never be able to lift more than that without further surgery. When I had that surgery recovery was difficult and lengthy.. luckily I had a desk job then too, so I could go back to work within 6 weeks. Here's the deal though.. recovery (full) took a long time, and my insurance didn't cover a lot of physical therapy so after about 5 sessions they cut me loose and I spent 7 years not doing much physical activity at all. I still have back pain to this day, but most of that is because instead of being physically active for those 7 years I ate what I wanted and spent my evenings in a recliner. Big mistake that I'm trying to correct before I turn 50. I can never run again, not without major surgery, so I walk as fast as humanly possible to burn calories. I also spend a a few minutes 3x a week on top of everything else on my Bowflex M5. I have not worked up to a full 15 minutes on it yet, but I'm hoping to get there before winter when walking outside is going to be out of the question. I bought it in hopes of keeping my physical activity going all winter long.

I quit smoking (was 2 packs a day for 22 years) six years ago using electronic cigarettes. I also quit nicotine all together about six months ago (I had been tapering it down for about a year or more). I reduced caffeine, and have almost quit all refined sugar in my diet (it's hard to quit it 100% when it's in just about everything). Honestly I'm doing everything I can to be more healthy. I exercise even on days when I am in pain. I simply find an exercise that doesn't hurt, whether that's lifting or using the Bowflex exclusively (it does not hurt my back or knees). This is probably what makes it that much more aggravating when I see gains, even short term ones.

Spliner1969

Michael190lbs wrote: »

A 1000 calorie deficit is 2 lbs per week of loss..

You'd think so. I'm at 1710 daily calories, 6'2" tall, and don't eat back my exercise calories. I stay under the 1710 each day by at least 50-100 calories and exercise up to 1000 calories more a day. Weight loss should be a no-brainer. It's only when I try to keep up with the protein that MFP tells me to consume that I stop losing weight.

Spliner1969

Wow we are really similar Michael190lbs! Where you are at right now is where I want to be. When I started this journey I knew it would take time, but my ultimate goal is to be in the best shape of my life when I turn 50. That gives me a little over 4 years since I'll turn 46 this summer. I'll never be able to lift more than 25 lbs due to my back issues, but that doesn't mean I can't lift weight without putting the weight on my lower back. Seriously man.. I took a quick look at your profile, and it's inspiring.

kwtilbury

Spliner1969 wrote: »

Michael190lbs wrote: »

A 1000 calorie deficit is 2 lbs per week of loss..

You'd think so. I'm at 1710 daily calories, 6'2" tall, and don't eat back my exercise calories. I stay under the 1710 each day by at least 50-100 calories and exercise up to 1000 calories more a day. Weight loss should be a no-brainer. It's only when I try to keep up with the protein that MFP tells me to consume that I stop losing weight.

I don't know what to tell you. I'm 6'2", a little over 190 and consume 2,700-2,800 calories a day with 200-250 grams of protein a day and am able to maintain. Maybe you have a medical issue?

mwyvr

Perhaps there are a combination of factors at work here. Intake calories could be under-reported, although it sounds like you are doing your level best to avoid that. You could try notching your base down from 1710 by 100 - 200 calories and see how you do.

It's also possible if not even likely that your exercise calories are over-estimated. How are you getting the estimates? From a device or from MFP or ?

I'm currently stalled myself after losing 68 pounds. I'm not making a whole bunch of changes all at once to "fix" the problem as then I'll not know what the root cause was. At the same time I have noticed body shape changes continuing over the past two weeks I've been stalled so I'm not overly worried.

I'm sedentary at work (IT too) and don't use TDEE, rightly or wrongly, because my exercise routine varies enormously day to day. I may only burn 700 calories for a shorter 9km trail run or 1,600+ calories for a 20 - 25km run. So I eat (BMR - deficit %) + most but not all exercise calories unless I simply can't eat that much, which happens.

I've a rule of thumb about eating back exercise calories. If my calorie burn is only from walking I don't eat back any.

If it's a light running day day (< 400 burned) I also don't even try to eat back any. A medium day (> 400 < 800) I'll eat back some but usually leave a 400 calorie gap to cover any logging mistakes or a last minute glass of red wine. On long run days (> 1,000 calories) I eat however much back that my body feels it needs and rarely can I eat the entire amount.

As for protein, I shoot for .6g - .8g. For my LBM and 1350 base calories intact that works out to a manageable 84g. If I put in a big exercise day I don't fret if I don't reach the elevated goal. Over time I'm getting enough. I don't seem to be having any problems holding on to muscle.

Spliner1969

mwyvr wrote: »

Perhaps there are a combination of factors at work here. Intake calories could be under-reported, although it sounds like you are doing your level best to avoid that. You could try notching your base down from 1710 by 100 - 200 calories and see how you do.

It's also possible if not even likely that your exercise calories are over-estimated. How are you getting the estimates? From a device or from MFP or ?

I'm currently stalled myself after losing 68 pounds. I'm not making a whole bunch of changes all at once to "fix" the problem as then I'll not know what the root cause was. At the same time I have noticed body shape changes continuing over the past two weeks I've been stalled so I'm not overly worried.

I'm sedentary at work (IT too) and don't use TDEE, rightly or wrongly, because my exercise routine varies enormously day to day. I may only burn 700 calories for a shorter 9km trail run or 1,600+ calories for a 20 - 25km run. So I eat (BMR - deficit %) + most but not all exercise calories unless I simply can't eat that much, which happens.

I've a rule of thumb about eating back exercise calories. If my calorie burn is only from walking I don't eat back any.

If it's a light running day day (< 400 burned) I also don't even try to eat back any. A medium day (> 400 < 800) I'll eat back some but usually leave a 400 calorie gap to cover any logging mistakes or a last minute glass of red wine. On long run days (> 1,000 calories) I eat however much back that my body feels it needs and rarely can I eat the entire amount.

As for protein, I shoot for .6g - .8g. For my LBM and 1350 base calories intact that works out to a manageable 84g. If I put in a big exercise day I don't fret if I don't reach the elevated goal. Over time I'm getting enough. I don't seem to be having any problems holding on to muscle.

I have been operating under the assumption that my exercise calories are most definitely over estimated. I use an iPhone 6 step counter for my walks, and I use the app that came with my M5 to update calories on MFP. So on average if I do 3.5 miles walk, and say 10 minutes on the Bowflex, or lift weights (I try to alternate weights and the Bowflex) instead of lifting I don't eat my calories back. MFP reports I am gaining 800ish calories a day on average from exercise. I assume that's at least 200 calories high. But since I don't eat them back, I figure it's a moot point; looks good on my diary but whether it's 500 calories or 800-1000 really doesn't matter as long as I don't go over my daily estimate of 1710.

So I'm pretty much following your rule of thumb as well. I think my problem is trying too hard to get enough protein each day using the MFP calculations. Sometimes on the weekends I will also mow grass or do an extra mile or two with the wife when she goes for her walk so I will sometimes drink a couple extra beers (Budweiser Select 55's) but I figure that's a reward I'm due if I've done that much in one day.

For now I'm going to go with your, and others suggestions and stick with .8g/kg on my protein intake, and not worry about what MFP says. I struggle with fiber as well, and that may be some of my issues. I started using Benefiber and other supplements to get that average up, but I've discovered that there's a big difference between soluble and insoluble fiber, and I believe I may be getting a higher percentage of soluble fiber and may need to increase insoluble types. I'm also going to get a better kitchen scale but keep up weighing everything.

If I use the TDEE calculation, that is IF I understand it correctly, I'm buring 2835 calories a day without exercise, and up to 4000+ calories a day with my usual exercise. Since I am not yet sure how to use those numbers correctly I don't think I'll use it for dieting. Once I hit my desired weight and begin more body sculpting using weight lifting I may switch to it for maintenance and see how it goes.

I've been looking at the diaries (ones who have them open anyway) of people who have lost a ton of weight in a year (like 100+ lbs) and most of those people went into starvation mode 3-5 days a week (by starvation I mean 1200 calories or less) in order to accomplish their goals. I can't fault them for it, I just don't want to do that. For one, I'd rather my skin have time to rebound a bit so I can avoid surgery later. The lowest calorie intake I've ever done is 1400-1500 calories in a day. I try not to do that frequently but maybe I should to get over this plateau.

Thanks everyone for the input!

Spliner1969

kwtilbury wrote: »

I don't know what to tell you. I'm 6'2", a little over 190 and consume 2,700-2,800 calories a day with 200-250 grams of protein a day and am able to maintain. Maybe you have a medical issue?

Possible. More likely I've abused my gut for so many years there's an issue with fiber vs protein vs volume vs whatever. I'm going look into some probiotics to go with the greek lowfat yogurt I'm consuming daily now. I'm an impatient dieter, so knowing that I will reserve judgement for a few more weeks to see where I am. If I'm still stuck I'll see my doctor about it.

mwyvr

While it doesn't seem relevant given you aren't eating back any of your exercise calories, I'm still curious as to what sort of calorie burn number are you getting for 3.5 miles of walking? Actually it will be ever more relevant as you step up your activity.

It takes a ton of effort for me to burn more than 1,000 calories. We're talking sweat-drenched hilly 60 - 90 minutes of running, so I rarely if ever even count a simple walk unless it adds up to more than an hour of activity. While I'm still "sedentary" I get more than 100 minutes of aerobic exercise on average each day and I suspect my body has adapted to this, which may help to explain my own personal stall of late.

PS I aim for 1kg a week loss and have been doing that fairly consistently until very recently. My intake has been at 1350 calories plus exercise burn based on my rule of thumb. While I'm only ~ 5'8" and now 188lbs, when I was still well over 200 (started at 255) I didn't find the reduced intake all that tough to manage... hardly starvation. While its true it takes a certain amount of energy to move mass 50786

Thinking out loud here for my own benefit I suspect the answer for my stall will be to incorporate more exercise that targets other parts of my body, which admittedly I have been not all that focussed on, and I may drop my base intake calories a bit too. Eventually math has to win here.

Michael190lbs

I would see a nutritionist before a medicine doctor unless you want diet drugs. Do yourself a favor bring your laptop or email the nutritionist your food log here so they can review it before your visit. Its difficult for both doctor and a nutritionist to help someone in a 20 min visit without REAL TIME info when it comes to weight.

My 2 cents

Not that its my business but do you drink alcohol?

Spliner1969

Thanks for all the great tips. Monday morning I finally hit 40 lbs lost since I started here on Myfitnesspal in February. I still do not know exactly what I should do in regards to protein intake but because I am needing to lose weight I am going to limit myself to around 120g of protein a day even if MFP tells me to consume 150ish or more on heavy exercise days. I do want to build muscle (don't we all?) but my goal right now is more weight loss than body sculpting. I'll keep lifting, and I'll keep walking. The one thing that seems to work for me (much like mwyvr suggests) is to mix things up a bit and simply work harder.

One thing I've found to be true is that my body fights me just as hard as any food addiction ever has. It gets accustomed to what I'm doing to lose weight. So I'll do something drastic like have a couple of days a week of 200-300 calories extra deficit coupled with more exercise that I am not doing daily (targeting other areas of my body). It seems to have worked so far to pull me out of a plateau. The bummer is though, that I seem to hit a weekly plateau now, with the most weight loss after the weekends due to increased physical activity on Saturdays and Sundays. But during the week as the desk job lingers on I tend to gain a little and lose it back slowly as I work harder. I know I shouldn't weigh every day but I've gotten to the point that I want to know how different daily diets affect my body.

In any event, I'm still on track with my weight loss. My ultimate goal is around 215 lbs (I'm 6'2" tall) but I have a large frame so that might not be a goal I'll reach if I continue to lift weights. But hey.. if I get anywhere near it by this time next year I'll be a happy camper and so will the wife! If the weight loss stops for more than a couple of weeks I'll go the nutritionist route.

Michael190lbs

I will go two weeks with no weight loss then BAM one moring I'm 2lbs lighter its crazy how it works and I agree on the monday morning weight I'm so active on the weekends!! You will get there also we can't build muscle in a neg calorie diet so don't kill yourself at the gym just try to maintain your current strength.. My 2 cents. I'm at my maintance weight now or with in 2 lbs of it so I'm really happy and I lost the wife on the way too... She needed to go..lol

Michael190lbs

I will go two weeks with no weight loss then BAM one moring I'm 2lbs lighter its crazy how it works and I agree on the monday morning weight I'm so active on the weekends!! You will get there also we can't build muscle in a neg calorie diet so don't kill yourself at the gym just try to maintain your current strength.. My 2 cents. I'm at my maintance weight now or with in 2 lbs of it so I'm really happy and I lost the wife on the way too... She needed to go..lol

Spliner1969

mwyvr wrote: »

While it doesn't seem relevant given you aren't eating back any of your exercise calories, I'm still curious as to what sort of calorie burn number are you getting for 3.5 miles of walking? Actually it will be ever more relevant as you step up your activity.

According to the step counter, walking 3.5miles at an average speed of 3.5-3.6mph (as fast as I can manage) with a mix of uphill/downhill (probably 40% steep grades) my MFP reports that I burn between 600-800 calories. Some of that is mixed in with normal walking calories during the day as the step counter is always active and the phone is usually in my pocket. I figure it's over-estimating by somewhere in the 200 calorie range, but as long as I don't consume those calories back, and stay below my daily calorie limit it really shouldn't matter unless I'm inaccurately reporting my calorie intake. I figure there's always human error, but I not only try to log every ingredient (including the butter/oil used when cooking something) I try to over-estimate what I'm logging whenever I have the chance.

ASKyle

Honestly I wouldn't be too concerned about a 1.8lb gain- That can easily be pooped out. Or maybe you drank a couple glasses of water. Or had a high sodium meal.