Weight Loss Plateau within first two months?
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hiyomi
Posts: 906 Member
Hi everyone, I am female, starting weight was 281, current weight 273.6, age 23, lightly active and exercise about 3-5 days a week for the last month now. The first two-three weeks of dieting and exercise I lost about 7 lbs, which was great! And since the beginning of March, I have NOT been able to move past 274 lbs. It has stayed there and will not budge no matter what I do. I track my calories very well, I eat a little more on weekends but never go past 2,500 calories, during weekdays I eat about 1600 calories and exercise about 200 calories or so off. At first I was only dieting and lost the 7 lbs, but then it stopped so about two weeks ago I added exercise to hopefully lose more weight, but I still have not seen any change what so ever! I do track my calories honestly, I have been on this road many times of losing weight and tracking calories and exercising and have never had this problem of plateauing so early into my weight loss! I have lost about 30 lbs in two and a half months with the same method I'm currently doing of eating 1600 and exercising 200-300 a calories a day, but this time the scale won't budge! I have a bad habit of gaining/losing weight over the last three years or so, but I've never had a stall of weight loss like this that I can recall....Its been about a month already...Any tips, info, anything?! Thanks for any help.
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Replies
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Edit, I've been dieting since mid February, and dieting+exercise since mid March.**** I lost the first 7 lbs in mid february-early march.0
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At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.0
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At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
I do weigh my food at home and log anything/everything I eat, and I have a Fitbit Alta, it doesn't have an HRM, but it gives me an estimate of my activity/calories burned. I honestly feel like this should not be happening either. I've lost weight many times before and have never not lost weight like this.....0 -
I have a food scale at home, and I also use measuring cups, etc to measure what I eat at home.
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At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
I do weigh my food at home and log anything/everything I eat, and I have a Fitbit Alta, it doesn't have an HRM, but it gives me an estimate of my activity/calories burned. I honestly feel like this should not be happening either. I've lost weight many times before and have never not lost weight like this.....
Are you eating your exercise calories back?0 -
At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
I do weigh my food at home and log anything/everything I eat, and I have a Fitbit Alta, it doesn't have an HRM, but it gives me an estimate of my activity/calories burned. I honestly feel like this should not be happening either. I've lost weight many times before and have never not lost weight like this.....
Are you eating your exercise calories back?
Occasionally if I am really hungry, but no not really.0 -
At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
I do weigh my food at home and log anything/everything I eat, and I have a Fitbit Alta, it doesn't have an HRM, but it gives me an estimate of my activity/calories burned. I honestly feel like this should not be happening either. I've lost weight many times before and have never not lost weight like this.....
Are you eating your exercise calories back?
Occasionally if I am really hungry, but no not really.
Sometimes your body relaxes a bit and then you'll see a drop. Happens to my wife frequently. It's important to ignore the scale and keep at it, it will pass. 1600 calories is a decent deficit for your weight, if you stick to it you will see results again.0 -
At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
THIS.
I had a plateau after only 4 weeks on MFP, then I bought a food scale. I've been losing regularly ever since. The one I bought was only $13 on amazon.
I religiously wear a HRM when I exercise (even before I was serious about tracking/losing weight). If you want to eat back your exercise cals, forget using machine calories or MFP estimates. There are some pricey fitness watches out there, but I decided to forgo the fancy technology for a simple watch with a strap for $40. It hasn't failed me yet. Plus, it helps me make sure that I'm putting in the appropriate level of effort.
Also: be patient. I'm 11 weeks in and I've only started seeing visible results in the last couple of weeks (e.g. I can fit into pants that were too tight when I started). I know it's super hard to be patient when you feel like you've been working your butt off, but I promise you that if you stay consistent, you will eventually see results!
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At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
I do weigh my food at home and log anything/everything I eat, and I have a Fitbit Alta, it doesn't have an HRM, but it gives me an estimate of my activity/calories burned. I honestly feel like this should not be happening either. I've lost weight many times before and have never not lost weight like this.....
Are you eating your exercise calories back?
Occasionally if I am really hungry, but no not really.
Sometimes your body relaxes a bit and then you'll see a drop. Happens to my wife frequently. It's important to ignore the scale and keep at it, it will pass. 1600 calories is a decent deficit for your weight, if you stick to it you will see results again.
Yea, my boyfriend told me the same thing that I needed to step away from the scale for at least two weeks and just keep doing what I am doing. I lasted from Sunday until today on not getting on the scale, and when I did, behold! 274 lbs again! ~_~ Hopefully it passes soon..0 -
SpiderGwens wrote: »At 23 and 270 you shouldn't be plateauing if you're doing all of what you said accurately. Weigh your food and wear a HRM if you're counting on exercise calories.
THIS.
I had a plateau after only 4 weeks on MFP, then I bought a food scale. I've been losing regularly ever since. The one I bought was only $13 on amazon.
I religiously wear a HRM when I exercise (even before I was serious about tracking/losing weight). If you want to eat back your exercise cals, forget using machine calories or MFP estimates. There are some pricey fitness watches out there, but I decided to forgo the fancy technology for a simple watch with a strap for $40. It hasn't failed me yet. Plus, it helps me make sure that I'm putting in the appropriate level of effort.
Also: be patient. I'm 11 weeks in and I've only started seeing visible results in the last couple of weeks (e.g. I can fit into pants that were too tight when I started). I know it's super hard to be patient when you feel like you've been working your butt off, but I promise you that if you stay consistent, you will eventually see results!
Yea, I have a food scale and a Fitbit Alta, and it helps a lot but just not seeing results. It really does suck but I'm going to keep trying and pray I see results soon. >.<0 -
You could be retaining water depending where you are in your cycle.0
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you dont weigh all your food and eat more than you think
I looked at your diary and you should be more accurate
1 sandwich? one cup half a cup etc etc
Really start weighing your food
I started at 272 ( 260 on here)
And the weight drops off at 1600 with pounds a week on a sedentary live style. No excersize.
Hate to tell you, but you should weigh in grams EVERYTHING.
So tighten up your logging
You can do it, good luck!
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I know I haven't been at this as long as a lot of ppl, but I don't have any days over maintenance calories and that's not been every week. I eat what I want within my calories and don't feel the need to splurge. You can undo some pretty serious deficit calories by one high calorie day per week:/ For me, it's just not worth it.0
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In the beginning you lose more weight at a faster rate because it is water weight that you are losing. After that you get into a normal weight loss pattern.
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sarahpedrys wrote: »In the beginning you lose more weight at a faster rate because it is water weight that you are losing. After that you get into a normal weight loss pattern.
Still 1600 calories intake for somebody who is over 270 lbs...the weight should drop off. or the numbers ( read logging) are wrong/off or there is a medical conditions which can make you lose slower...but still lose weight.
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BurnWithBarn2015 wrote: »you dont weigh all your food and eat more than you think
I looked at your diary and you should be more accurate
1 sandwich? one cup half a cup etc etc
Really start weighing your food
I started at 272 ( 260 on here)
And the weight drops off at 1600 with pounds a week on a sedentary live style. No excersize.
Hate to tell you, but you should weigh in grams EVERYTHING.
So tighten up your logging
You can do it, good luck!
I've lost over a 100 lbs while on MFP before, (Not all at once, but up to 40 lbs at once yes, I gained it back over time, but that's a different story.) I know how to weigh food, and I log everything I eat. If I logged one sandwich, I logged the bread by slice, the ham by ounces, and and the cheese by whats on the package. I weigh my chips/count them, as well as anything else. So I don't feel like its an issue logging how much food I eat. I don't know how much more accurate I could be as I scan anything that's packaged, and anything that is not packaged, I weigh it with a scale at home and/or look at website nutrition info. ^^0 -
tiffanifair wrote: »I know I haven't been at this as long as a lot of ppl, but I don't have any days over maintenance calories and that's not been every week. I eat what I want within my calories and don't feel the need to splurge. You can undo some pretty serious deficit calories by one high calorie day per week:/ For me, it's just not worth it.
I understand that, but if I do go over my calories, what I eat is usually barely enough to maintain my current weight. I've splurged so much more in the past, (I'm actually doing better now about not doing that ) and have still never experienced a weight loss stall like this. 
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BurnWithBarn2015 wrote: »you dont weigh all your food and eat more than you think
I looked at your diary and you should be more accurate
1 sandwich? one cup half a cup etc etc
Really start weighing your food
I started at 272 ( 260 on here)
And the weight drops off at 1600 with pounds a week on a sedentary live style. No excersize.
Hate to tell you, but you should weigh in grams EVERYTHING.
So tighten up your logging
You can do it, good luck!
I've lost over a 100 lbs while on MFP before, (Not all at once, but up to 40 lbs at once yes, I gained it back over time, but that's a different story.) I know how to weigh food, and I log everything I eat. If I logged one sandwich, I logged the bread by slice, the ham by ounces, and and the cheese by whats on the package. I weigh my chips/count them, as well as anything else. So I don't feel like its an issue logging how much food I eat. I don't know how much more accurate I could be as I scan anything that's packaged, and anything that is not packaged, I weigh it with a scale at home and/or look at website nutrition info. ^^
by weighing everything and not going by package sizes,slices or using cups and spoons.
Here an example of how unaccurate cups are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
But up to you.... not losing is 99% a matter or eating at maintaining or surplus level.
Good luck OP0 -
Be careful with your weekend eating. That possible extra 1800 cals over your Sat-Sunday is an entire extra day of calories each week. Which can be double killer if you're only active an average of 4 days a week.
Since you tend to eat a little more on the weekends, it will help to keep track of your weekly calorie allowance/intake as well. So 1600x7= 11,200cal/week to maintain your preferred defecit. I will check my intake vs this weekly number when I have special things coming up like birthday parties or date nights. (Example: Save just 50cals each day Mon-Fri and you have 250cals extra for Saturday and it's still within your defecit.)0
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