I've plateau help!

MSonica25

Hello ladies
I'm new to MFP and this might not be the correct group so I apologize but other groups are not really current so I didn't know where to go.
I've started my weight loss journey 1/10/16 and I weighed 277 pounds. As of today I am 194 pounds but I have been this exact weight since 7/31 no matter what I do I can't seem to lose more.
At the beginning I did 1200 calorie diet that was no access carbs or sugars. Currently I do about 1450 calories and have added a little good carbs like wheat bread.
I work out hard just about 6 days a week. I do weight lifting for about an hour and some type of cardio for 30 minutes it usually is running.
I would love some suggestions on how I can break through the next loss.
I've been told that I'm probably gaining muscle so not to pay attention to the scale so much but it's just frustrating when I'm used to seeing a loss each week. I would like to lose about 50 more pounds.
Thank you
Monica

sceleratis

Can you provide a little more info? Like age and height? Also, are you weighing all solids and measuring all liquids? Are you eating back exercise calories?

It's fairly unlikely you're gaining enough muscle mass to offset weight loss unless you're eating either at or above your TDEE.

MSonica25

Oh yes sorry. I'm 45 yrs old and 5'4 tall. And I have not been eating back my exercise calories. Yes I weigh my food and only thing I drink is water

sceleratis

I plugged your data into a few different TDEE calculators and according to all of them you could be eating as high as 1800 a day and still be losing weight at your current weight and height.

When did you start re-incorporating carbs versus when your weight plateaued? Also how recently did you increase your calories? Water weight due to replenishing your glycogen stores is a real thing and could be responsible for the scale being stuck.

When did you start working out? Exercising, especially if you were previously sedentary, is a really good way to make your body retain water since it needs the additional water to repair the muscle tissue. Something similar to this happened to me last week. My weight had been plateaued for close to a month. I did a deload week (decreased the amount of weight I'm lifting to maybe 50% of my max) and I ended up dropping almost 2 pounds. Water weight is tricky like that.

Lastly, it is possible that you're not logging as accurately as you think you are and you've fallen victim to calorie creep. I know that's the answer that people LEAST like to hear, but 9 times out of 10 it is the correct one.

MSonica25

Thanks for all the info. I literally log everything I put in my mouth I'm very strict with that .
I started working out in end of January but started lifting around April.
I honestly don't think that I eat enough. I'm just so scared that I will gain all the weight back.
I will try going down on the weights and see if that will do anything.
As far as adding carbs back I just started that this week. I've been told that I need good carbs if I lift. Thanks

sceleratis

You're correct that you could be eating more. As a female, I know we are constantly told to eat LESS, but in your case an increase of calories wouldn't hurt you if you're truly sticking to the 1450 a day with your current activity level. Keep in mind if you do bump up your calories, it is likely you'll see either a gain or another plateau since you're increasing the volume of food. Over the course of a few weeks that SHOULD even back out. Psychologically I know how hard it is to see the scale go up when you want it to go down, but it is a mental hurdle you have to work on. I've been there, I know how tough it is.

I've also read the increasing calories when severely plateaued can aid in breaking it by 'boosting' or 'shocking' the metabolism, but I honestly don't know how much of that is crap and how much is true, so take that with a grain of salt.

Adding back the carbs will definitely result in your weight loss stalling, especially since carbs are what causes you to create and store glycogen (and thus water) in your muscles. If you went from a very low carb level say 30g-50g or less a day, and bumped it up to 100g or more a day, you WILL see that on the scale. It is almost certainly all water weight though.