Help me break through a plateau...

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    prettysoul1908 wrote: »
    Kimegatron wrote: »
    I eat high carbs and lose, however at the moment, I am exercising a LOT less now, and am maintaining. I know what I'm doing to myself, and have come to the conclusion that I probably have a lot less will power with food in the winter. As in, I'm not willing to eat less at the moment because I get HANGRY. Either way, I ate high carb and consistently lost when I was exercising. Now I'm in a much much smaller deficit, and I accept that. You should too :)

    This is me right now. I think it's the holidays for me. Where I used to be able to bank a nice amount of calories for the weekend... I'm now eating all of my daily calories. And sometimes plus some.

    One of my friends said her goal is to not get fatter during the holidays... Lol. I think I'll live a little and adopt her thinking. For my peace of mind I'm not going to record my weight until after the new year. Lol.

    That's what I do -- Thanksgiving through New Year's, just maintain. I did that last year, and then lost 5 lbs in Jan, which was great given how close to goal I was. (Oddly enough I exercised fine in Dec, just ate too much. Exercise was more of a struggle in Jan, but I ate well.)
  • ZeroTX
    ZeroTX Posts: 179 Member
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    Thanks all. Anyway, I'm down slightly today. I should be in good shape after eating good the rest of this week and getting adequate sleep on Saturday (I tend to lose weight when I sleep 8-10 hours).
  • Lucille4444
    Lucille4444 Posts: 284 Member
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    prettysoul1908 wrote: »
    This is me right now. I think it's the holidays for me. Where I used to be able to bank a nice amount of calories for the weekend... I'm now eating all of my daily calories. And sometimes plus some.

    One of my friends said her goal is to not get fatter during the holidays... Lol. I think I'll live a little and adopt her thinking. For my peace of mind I'm not going to record my weight until after the new year. Lol.

    There can be a huge gulf between deliberately choosing to eat at maintenance, and eating all you want without plan or goal.
    I ate at maintenance for a week or so when I was hungrier than usual, then went back to a deficit. That meant, that while I didn't lose, I didn't gain either.
    One can gain a lot when eating all one wants, and even more when one tells oneself that it is back to the dieting after the holidays. Eating should be a way of life, not a 'diet' to be cast aside; controlled eating at maintenance allows for room to eat a little more without sacrificing goals or hard won losses.
  • itsflaccoi
    itsflaccoi Posts: 69 Member
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    You need to have a refeed day your killing you metabolism always stay at a caloric defict I suggest 1 day every 3 weeks to eat some carbs and eat at you calories to maintain your weight because when you stay at a caloric defict your metabolism get used to it and adopts eating at your maintain weight will not affect your weight loss at all and will help you lose even more weight
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    itsflaccoi wrote: »
    You need to have a refeed day your killing you metabolism always stay at a caloric defict I suggest 1 day every 3 weeks to eat some carbs and eat at you calories to maintain your weight because when you stay at a caloric defict your metabolism get used to it and adopts eating at your maintain weight will not affect your weight loss at all and will help you lose even more weight

    Refeed days aren't REQUIRED for weight loss.
  • ZeroTX
    ZeroTX Posts: 179 Member
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    I hadn't previously heard of the "refeed" concept... I do occasionally (rarely) have a "cheat meal," (not a full day, just one meal), but I usually feel gross afterward, so I avoid it.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
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    itsflaccoi wrote: »
    You need to have a refeed day your killing you metabolism always stay at a caloric defict I suggest 1 day every 3 weeks to eat some carbs and eat at you calories to maintain your weight because when you stay at a caloric defict your metabolism get used to it and adopts eating at your maintain weight will not affect your weight loss at all and will help you lose even more weight
    I ate at a steep deficit for a year and I'm burning as many -- probably more -- calories as would be predicted for someone with my stats. My metabolism made it through just fine. I did lift, though.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    ZeroTX wrote: »
    No changes in eating (low carb).

    That says nothing to the amount of calories you are eating though. How you are eating has not changed but how much is not quantifiable at this moment in time.

    Have the portion sizes of your meals changed at all? Are you snacking more? Are you eating a greater proportion of calorie dense foods? Any unaccounted for consumption? Have you factored in the less you weigh the less calories you need to maintain weight and so on?

    Much as I am a fan of non tracking approaches they can fall rather short in this type of scenario.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    itsflaccoi wrote: »
    You need to have a refeed day your killing you metabolism always stay at a caloric defict I suggest 1 day every 3 weeks to eat some carbs and eat at you calories to maintain your weight because when you stay at a caloric defict your metabolism get used to it and adopts eating at your maintain weight will not affect your weight loss at all and will help you lose even more weight

    Not true. If you kill your metabolism, your dead. Also, if you're not losing weight, you don't eat more food.

    The only way to lose weight is to eat at a deficit, but what you do to get there is indiviudal.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    ZeroTX wrote: »
    I hadn't previously heard of the "refeed" concept... I do occasionally (rarely) have a "cheat meal," (not a full day, just one meal), but I usually feel gross afterward, so I avoid it.

    Refeeding will not help you lose weight, especially if you are eating too much to lose weight.
  • prettysoul1908
    prettysoul1908 Posts: 200 Member
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    Lucille4444 wrote: »
    prettysoul1908 wrote: »
    This is me right now. I think it's the holidays for me. Where I used to be able to bank a nice amount of calories for the weekend... I'm now eating all of my daily calories. And sometimes plus some.

    One of my friends said her goal is to not get fatter during the holidays... Lol. I think I'll live a little and adopt her thinking. For my peace of mind I'm not going to record my weight until after the new year. Lol.

    There can be a huge gulf between deliberately choosing to eat at maintenance, and eating all you want without plan or goal.
    I ate at maintenance for a week or so when I was hungrier than usual, then went back to a deficit. That meant, that while I didn't lose, I didn't gain either.
    One can gain a lot when eating all one wants, and even more when one tells oneself that it is back to the dieting after the holidays. Eating should be a way of life, not a 'diet' to be cast aside; controlled eating at maintenance allows for room to eat a little more without sacrificing goals or hard won losses.

    Excuse me if I wasn't clear. I don't plan to have a free for all but I don't plan on being as restrictive. I am keeping my calorie aim at losing 1 pound a week. I may go a little over some days during holiday season where I used to be able to save 200-300 calories each week day to use on the weekend. So where I was losing weight at a 1-1.5 pounds per week rate... I may slow down to .5 or even just maintain.

    Throwing care to the wind is what got me unhappy with my weight. I have no intentions of doing that at all. Happy holidays!
  • Smoked33
    Smoked33 Posts: 186 Member
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    ZeroTX wrote: »
    I hadn't previously heard of the "refeed" concept... I do occasionally (rarely) have a "cheat meal," (not a full day, just one meal), but I usually feel gross afterward, so I avoid it.

    Hey Zero. I would 2nd the refeed. I started studying keto over 15 years ago and have used it when i've needed to get back up from falling off the wagon. Just came off 2.5 months keto and lost 31lbs as of last weekend and I can say that after about the 1.5 month timeframe I plateau on keto every time over the years(counting calories, strictly watching carbs, plus exercise) and what I need to bust through is a weekly re-feed. It works well to get the weight loss going again and also helps to fuel your muscles for some serious weight moving(although I see you don't really workout). My strategy was Friday carbs at dinner and then low again until Saturday dinner...then allow carbs for the rest of the day. Sunday morning back to low and I did that each weekend for the last month and lost 2 lbs a week each week after stalling....again that's keeping carbs under 60gms per day, calories in a modest 500 cal deficit and doing 3 days a week of weights and 3 days of cardio @ 30 mins a pop.

    Try it! For me it's also great for moral and to re-fuel my muscles for my next couple resistance training days.
  • Lucille4444
    Lucille4444 Posts: 284 Member
    edited December 2015
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    Smoked33 wrote: »
    I plateau on keto every time over the years(counting calories, strictly watching carbs, plus exercise) and what I need to bust through is a weekly re-feed.
    Many people have a temporary phase of a few weeks where they don't lose, if they do nothing, they will start to lose again. If one eats at a deficit, one will lose, period, but loss is not linear.
    To say the refeed was responsible for weight loss sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
  • Smoked33
    Smoked33 Posts: 186 Member
    edited December 2015
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    Lucille4444 wrote: »
    To say the refeed was responsible for weight loss sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

    It probably is, but it still has worked repeatedly with me over the years. Personally I don't care if it's a placebo if it works. We've all hit plateau's and felt frustration and while i'm not offering a magic pill I think it's worth a try on several levels(ie, kickstarting weight loss, relief of mental fatigue, re-fuelling of muscles..).

    There is a ton of literature on carb cycling and re-feeding while on keto all over the web written by people far smarter than me, and far more diligent than I am at producing research...it's there if he wants to read it. My experience is personal and thus anecdotal :)
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    itsflaccoi wrote: »
    You need to have a refeed day your killing you metabolism always stay at a caloric defict I suggest 1 day every 3 weeks to eat some carbs and eat at you calories to maintain your weight because when you stay at a caloric defict your metabolism get used to it and adopts eating at your maintain weight will not affect your weight loss at all and will help you lose even more weight

    Diet breaks are useful, but they're not needed because you "kill" your metabolism otherwise.

    The truth about them is that several hormones might react unfavorably to eating at a deficit for long periods of time. This is certainly longer than three weeks.

    The issue you're looking to address is adaptive thermogenesis, not metabolism "killing".
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    @Smoked33, if you truly agree that your suggestion "probably is" based on a fallacy or only works on the level of a placebo, it would probably be better not to offer it. There is no shortage of fallacious advice out there . . . this community is more helpful if advice is based on things that are grounded in science and known to work.
  • Smoked33
    Smoked33 Posts: 186 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    @Smoked33, if you truly agree that your suggestion "probably is" based on a fallacy or only works on the level of a placebo, it would probably be better not to offer it. There is no shortage of fallacious advice out there . . . this community is more helpful if advice is based on things that are grounded in science and known to work.

    I was just trying to share a positive experience from someone that uses keto because I saw a lot of advice from individuals that clearly haven't. Didn't catch the forum rule around the need for scientific backing of my posts.
  • Lucille4444
    Lucille4444 Posts: 284 Member
    edited December 2015
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    I use keto, my own experience is that loss is not linear but eventually, CICO means that if I eat at a deficit I will lose..
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Smoked33 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    @Smoked33, if you truly agree that your suggestion "probably is" based on a fallacy or only works on the level of a placebo, it would probably be better not to offer it. There is no shortage of fallacious advice out there . . . this community is more helpful if advice is based on things that are grounded in science and known to work.

    I was just trying to share a positive experience from someone that uses keto because I saw a lot of advice from individuals that clearly haven't. Didn't catch the forum rule around the need for scientific backing of my posts.

    I didn't say anything about you breaking a rule -- I'm not a moderator.

    If you read what I actually wrote, it's about what I think is helpful, not what is allowed or not allowed. You yourself said that your advice probably is based on a fallacy and that you don't care if it is a placebo. But OP probably does care whether or not what people tell him or her to try is grounded in science or not.
  • Smoked33
    Smoked33 Posts: 186 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    I didn't say anything about you breaking a rule -- I'm not a moderator.

    If you read what I actually wrote, it's about what I think is helpful, not what is allowed or not allowed. You yourself said that your advice probably is based on a fallacy and that you don't care if it is a placebo. But OP probably does care whether or not what people tell him or her to try is grounded in science or not.

    Understood...I know i'm not breaking any rules and you weren't telling me that I was. It was a dramatic statement to make a point. You are assuming the (by your admission here) that the OP wants advice based in science and that may be true but it was never stated. The post is called 'help me break through a plateau', and I feel like I was providing experience that could help just that.

    Anyways, way off topic so in an effort to get back on it...

    I found some science to back up the refeed on keto diets because as I said I didn't just make this up, i've done a lot of reading over the years.

    This is off a site I trust and references actual studies and analysis... http://www.simplyshredded.com/research-review-an-in-depth-look-into-carbing-up-on-the-cyclical-ketogenic-diet-with-lyle-mcdonald.html

    Lyle McDonald is very well known in the fitness and nutrition world and while not a doctor uses a science based approach to his material.

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