ok, seriously, what is going on?!

Geekyfatgirl

Im very confused about my weight. I'll explain what I've experienced and what's been going on.

At first I was stuck on a plateau, I was stuck at 173 for a while. So then people had been telling me that I was nit eating enough with my lifestyle that was pretty active. So I took a break from journaling and started to eat more. I was losing weight much faster and got down to 170.6 which I was super close to 169! Then I got that infamous monthly visitor and gained 2 lbs, which I just shrugged off as water weight and bloating. After that was over I could not drop below 172 and even got up to 173. I continued to still work out and eat healthy food and make sure I was at least consuming 1700 cals as recommended. I was actually starting to gain .2 lbs almost every day.

So then I was like ok, lets try working out a bit more. I added weight lifting and cardio along with my regular active job. I calculated my TDEE and subtracted 20 from that and figured I'd be right on track...I went from 174 to 177.8!!! What the *$€÷*#; is going on here?

I was told that it isn't gaining muscle, because you cant simply gain a pound of muscle at the same rate of losing a pound of fat. I was told that gaining muscle is a long term event and to build a pound of muscle takes a while. I was told im just not losing any fat, and this is frustrating! ! What am I doing wrong? I want to cry and just give up, but I've come so far to go back to 240... I just want to continue to head in the right direction when I feel like I am going backwards.

Now I know I havent been writing in my diary, reason being because Iit tells me tonsume 1350 when I am eating 1700 for my tdee-20% (which was working out for that time). I have however been eating home cooked meals like sweet potatoes, lean meats, air popped popcorn, corn and brown rice to name a few. So im just not sure what is going on or what to do.

jwdieter

Well, giving up is for sure the worst option.

Track your food again.

melaniecheeks

You can alter your calorie goal on MFP using the goals-custom option. Do that, and track your food as accurately as you can.

cwolfman13

You can customize your calorie goal. Do that and start logging...chances are you're over eating and don't know it. Just because it's nutritious, home cooked food doesn't mean you're not over consuming. If you're not logging it, you don't really know if you're hitting 1700 or not.

BTW, the two methods come out pretty much 6 of 1. If you did 1350 per MFP, that is NET calories...supposed to eat those exercise calories back...so you burn say 350 calories exercise...1350 + 350 = 1,700 gross calories...same as you're getting with TDEE - 20%.

Geekyfatgirl

Ive been tracking cals just not on mfp, only because I didnt know I could change it. So I was making sure I was eating the 1700. Thats why I was confused over what was going on.

deksgrl

Did you calculate your TDEE for your increased activity that you added after you weren't seeing results? Also, how long did this go on for?

melaniecheeks

But if you fill your diary here on MFP and make it public, then we can make more helpful suggestions about what you're eating!

BlueInkDot

1. Customize your caloric intake on MFP

TDEE minus 20 percent. In other words, 80 percent of your TDEE.

If that's difficult, try 85% instead - I usually hit about 90%.

2. Quality over quantity

This applies to both FOOD and EXERCISE.

I don't know what you're diet is now, but eating cleaner, getting your protein from a variety of sources, making sure that the carbs you eat are COMPLEX carbs, getting your healthy fats - are good things to focus on.

And I don't know what your workout regimen is, but if you're going to do cardio, make it HIIT cardio - avoid steady state. If you're going to lift, lift so you can't do very many reps (high weights). You have to be sweating and wheezing by the end of your workouts, and sore the next day.

3. Do NOT give up.

Measure your successes by your GOOD DECISIONS. Every good decision you make is a SUCCESS. DO NOT MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS BY THE SCALE.

4. Contact me (if you want)

I have a spreadsheet that can help you track your caloric intake and caloric burns and try to get an accurate TDEE. I can email it to you if you want.

Geekyfatgirl

I will start to adjust my caloric goal on mfp. And I just started my intense work outs. I think I'll start this over for a week and see how things go after that. Im trying my best to not get my hopes down.