Strangly not losing weight anymore

It's been 3 months with 50 pounds down and my weight loss has essentially stopped, staying the same for 3 weeks now. I drink over a gallon of water of day and recently have been doing HIIT 2 times a week with a lighter cardio session in the middle (I'm a begginer) with a calorie limit of 1650 ( I estimate I have 80 pounds to lose at this point meaning, a weight loss plateau is unlikely) I try to eat very little processed or package foods, limit my grain, sugar, saturated fat, dairy servings and sodium intake. Still, the weight stays. Literally extremely frustrated with my body at this point. By the way, I count every little thing very very carefully.

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    These are my really generic tips for stalls. I know you've covered some of these already, but you might find some of the others help.

    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.

    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.
  • JDixon852019
    JDixon852019 Posts: 312 Member
    edited July 2016
    Recalibrate your goals on the MFP app. Your calorie intake should be lower than it was 50lbs ago.

    Smaller bodies require less calories
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    How do you determine your calories? Do you eyeball/estimate or do you use a kitchen scale? Can you open your diary, please?

    Have you decreased your calories as you were losing weight?
  • Bearbo27
    Bearbo27 Posts: 339 Member
    jrulo16 wrote: »
    Recalibrate your goals on the MFP app. Your calorie intake should be lower than it was 50lbs ago.

    Smaller bodies require less calories

    ^This

    If you haven't already, go adjust your goals again with your current weight. It will lower your calories down to what they should be. Also, any time I have ever stalled, (i used to log years ago) I would eat up to maintenance for a day or two and then just back into my deficit. I don't know why, but this always got the scale movin again. First though... Redo your goals to see if that is the problem.
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
    I stopped losing weight at 200 pounds too. Try adjusting your macros. I increased my calories to close to 2000 and adjusted my macros. Once I fixed my macros percentages and limited sugar and sodium from my diet weight started coming off again. For me I also had to limit carbs. For every gram of carbs the body holds on to approximately 2.7 grams of water. Don't use the MFP presets. They're too high. The same diet you used to lose weight in the beginning will not work the same anymore for you as you get smaller. Here's a macros calculator you can use: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutrients_calculator.htm?searchTerm=macro calculator
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,643 Member
    edited July 2016
    I stopped losing weight at 200 pounds too. Try adjusting your macros. I increased my calories to close to 2000 and adjusted my macros. Once I fixed my macros percentages and limited sugar and sodium from my diet weight started coming off again. For me I also had to limit carbs. For every gram of carbs the body holds on to approximately 2.7 grams of water. Don't use the MFP presets. They're too high. The same diet you used to lose weight in the beginning will not work the same anymore for you as you get smaller. Here's a macros calculator you can use: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutrients_calculator.htm?searchTerm=macro calculator

    Reducing carbs will cause you to drop water, but it won't cause an increase in overall rate of loss. Reduction in weight will cause you to need to reduce your calories to continue losing, not carbs. Use whatever macro split works for you, but it's not magic.
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
    edited July 2016

    Reducing carbs will cause you to drop water, but it won't cause an increase in overall rate of loss. Reduction in weight will cause you to need to reduce your calories to continue losing, not carbs. Use whatever macro split works for you, but it's not magic.

    Yes, that's why I said for every gram of carbs the body will will hold on to approximately 2.7 grams of water and mentioned nothing about carbs directly effecting weight loss. Depending how tall she is, she is probably already at a deficit in calories. Me being at 2000 calories, I'm still at a 500 calorie deficit.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,643 Member
    edited July 2016

    Reducing carbs will cause you to drop water, but it won't cause an increase in overall rate of loss. Reduction in weight will cause you to need to reduce your calories to continue losing, not carbs. Use whatever macro split works for you, but it's not magic.

    Yes, that's why I said for every gram of carbs the body will will hold on to approximately 2.7 grams of water and mentioned nothing about carbs directly effecting weight loss.

    Ok, so...
    I increased my calories to close to 2000 and adjusted my macros
    For me I also had to limit carbs. For every gram of carbs the body holds on to approximately 2.7 grams of water. Don't use the MFP presets. They're too high. The same diet you used to lose weight in the beginning will not work the same anymore for you as you get smaller. Here's a macros calculator you can use

    Macro presets are too high for what, then?