Plateau?

bueale

Hello,
I need a bit of help. I started using MFP in Nov 2014 and when I originally started on it, it recommended at 1500 calorie diet to meet my goals. Between then and March I lost about 20 lbs with very little exercise because of my work, school and family schedule. At that time it suggested I increase calories to 1720/day and starting in May after my semester ended I have been working out 3-4 times a week and virtually every day i'm in a calorie deficiency but I fluctuate weight. Sometimes i'm 5lbs less and sometimes I gain those 5lbs and go up another lb or so. Even though i'm eating more calories I did it while eating better. Instead of .5 cups of black beans I eat 1 cup and a few minor changes for the extra 220 calories it suggested. Any whoot I'm not sure what I should do. Like i said i'm exercising much more and eating right just with a slight uptick in calories. Any ideas?

strong_curves

Food scale.

madhatter2013

You're over estimating calories somewhere. Don't measure solids. Use cups and spoons for liquids only and even them be weary. Do you have a food scale that measures mL and grams, and/or oz? That's how solids should be weighed out. You're eating more than 1720/day. On top of that, if you lost 20 lbs, the recommended calories should go lower, not higher.

diannethegeek

Setting your diary to "Public" might get you more specific advice. Otherwise, here are my really general tips:

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs. This is especially true for those getting close to their goal weight.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.