Scale stall

dgobbett

So here is the coles notes of my story for six months now I have been going to the gym 4-6 times a week. Focusing on heavy weight compound exercises and mixing in with LIT and HIIT cardio each week. I started at 370lbs and quickly dropped to 355 and for 4 months the scale hasn't moved anywhere.

I was a bit off my diet around Christmas but still kept exercising and weighing in every week. I've seen measurements get better but scale is still holding at 355. I have a BF calculator on my home scale and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere either (I know they are not the most accurate)

I am presently doing about 2300 calories a day with a 40/30/20 (carbs, protein, fat) macro ratio. TDEE calculators put me at like 2800 per day which I know I rarely if ever go above.

I understand water retention, newbie muscle gains, to a point. But even taking them into account I should be seeing a decrease on the scale even a 1/2lb a week. At most I only see it going up a few pounds then a day or two later normalizing at 355.

Where am I going wrong?

Cynsonya

How do you know how much you're eating? Do you weigh your food on a digital scale?

MommyMeggo

Did you recalculate your caloric needs when you went from 370 to 355(good job by the way)

My guess is you are eating more than you think and/or eating at maintenance.

StaciMarie1974

Options are: you're eating more than you think; you're burning less than you think; some combination of the two.

Tighten your logging. If you're not already doing so, use a food scale for anything solid. Account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages, etc. Enter your own recipes - and be careful to choose correct entries in the database. Decrease to 2000-2100 calories per day. Monitor progress over the next 4-6 weeks.

strong_curves

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

Options are: you're eating more than you think; you're burning less than you think; some combination of the two.

Tighten your logging. If you're not already doing so, use a food scale for anything solid. Account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages, etc. Enter your own recipes - and be careful to choose correct entries in the database. Decrease to 2000-2100 calories per day. Monitor progress over the next 4-6 weeks.

All of this right here.

dgobbett

MommyMeggo wrote: »

Did you recalculate your caloric needs when you went from 370 to 355(good job by the way)

My guess is you are eating more than you think and/or eating at maintenance.

I have recalculated a few times using sedentary as my activity level and this is the calorie limit I am provided.

Cynsonya wrote: »

How do you know how much you're eating? Do you weigh your food on a digital scale?

No I haven't weighted my food in over two years. I found when I first started my journey I was doing it each meal and it was tedious and frustrating. I stopped after about two weeks and using the same portion control logic I am using today I was able to go from 425 to 370. I am quite strict on my portions and never eat back exercise calories.

dgobbett

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

Options are: you're eating more than you think; you're burning less than you think; some combination of the two.

Tighten your logging. If you're not already doing so, use a food scale for anything solid. Account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages, etc. Enter your own recipes - and be careful to choose correct entries in the database. Decrease to 2000-2100 calories per day. Monitor progress over the next 4-6 weeks.

I am confused, so if I am losing inches but not weight this is an intake problem? I have been far more diligent the past week or so in logging. I do not drink any calories outside of milk which I always account for. Oils is only place I do not track, but I do use very limited amounts in my cooking.

sllm1

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

Options are: you're eating more than you think; you're burning less than you think; some combination of the two.

Tighten your logging. If you're not already doing so, use a food scale for anything solid. Account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages, etc. Enter your own recipes - and be careful to choose correct entries in the database. Decrease to 2000-2100 calories per day. Monitor progress over the next 4-6 weeks.

Agreed

StaciMarie1974

The logic stream: if you've stayed 355 for ~4 months then your intake matches your total expenditure. Meaning you are not eating at a deficit (you'd be losing) or eating at a surplus (you'd be gaining). So when you say you eat 2300 per day, and you burn 2800 per day, there is an error in one or both of your numbers. I've got nothing on changing body composition (changing shape without changing weight) but if your goal is to lose weight, then you need to eat at a deficit. You can't know you're eating 2300 per day if you're estimating portions. And any total daily expenditure is an estimation.

So again, improve your logging accuracy and/or reduce your intake by a few hundred calories per day. Monitor your results over time.

MommyMeggo

StaciMarie1974 wrote: »

The logic stream: if you've stayed 355 for ~4 months then your intake matches your total expenditure. Meaning you are not eating at a deficit (you'd be losing) or eating at a surplus (you'd be gaining). So when you say you eat 2300 per day, and you burn 2800 per day, there is an error in one or both of your numbers.

Very well put.

middlehaitch

Basically if you are not weighing and measuring your food, or taking exercise calories into account, you have little data to work from.
Spend a month working MFP in the way it has been built to work.
Measure food with a digital scale using grams, use liquid measuringcups and spoons for all liquids.
Log all exercise, and eat back the calories. If you are using the MFP estimates eat back 50%. They overestimate the burn, so 50% is a good starting point.
At the end of the month you will have a much more acurate picture of you CICO, and be able to extrapolate your own TDEE from the data in MFP.

Tedious yes, but you will get a better picture of what you have to do to start losing again.

Cheers, h.