Ugh...I can't believe I'm going to doe this but....

StarChanger

Desperate times, call for desperate measures...

First, the required questions will be answered below, but for more specifics, I have my diary open AND I have a lovely PDF report generated by the data from BodyMedia armband which will show that I TRULY am at a LARGE deficit, pretty much every day. The PDF for this past 28 days (which also happens to be exactly the same amount of time that has passed since my lowest weight to date...and then bounced right back up). I can email the PDF report....

Second, I do my best to eat home prepared meals, which means I bring a little lunch pail with me to work every day. Unfortunately, I work about 12-36 hrs / day / 5-7days a week (i.e.: I take overnight call and often don't go back home until the following afternoon), so anything after about 3pm has to be done via "fast food" because my little pail is out of ice. Luckily, I have a Panera close by and I can get decent salads, soups, etc. This happens at LEAST once a week, often twice, and then I have an entire call weekend once a month where I'm in a hotel for the duration. I have a horribly stressful job....

I am currently on Session 11 of Strong Lifts. I'm lifting every other day. Currently I'm at:
Squats 85
OHP 50
DL 135
BP 65
BR 85

I'm due to lift again tomorrow. I'm also doing yoga routines...currently 30 minutes because I'm so inflexible that it makes me sweat profusely and gets my HR in the 140s just trying to "relax", and body weight exercises from the YAYOG app when I'm in the hotel. I'm walking ~4-6x weekly for 30-60/min night....plus I spend a large part of my day at work walking. I average 8000+ steps daily, and routinely 10,000-13,000/day on the weekends, when I'm even more active. I have a burgeoning home gym with an olympic squat rack, women's olympic bar (35#), ~200lbs in olympic weights, adjustable dumbbells, medicine balls, and hopefully in the VERY near future (and certainly before the rainy season starts again) a nice treadmill. I USE my room.

When I started MFP, I set my profile to sedentary because I figured, at the time, I pretty much was (especially compared to now). It gave me 1400-odd calories, which I rarely exceeded. At the same time, I was consistently expending 2400+ calories daily, according to my armband. I lost about 5-6 lbs immediately (when I upped my water intake) and then plateaued for 6-odd weeks after that.

I did a ton of reading, research, TDEE-20 calculations, etc....and determined I was eating WAY too little. I upped my calories by 500/day and BOOM, lost another 10 lbs in about 2 weeks. For the past 28 days, I have been eating at that higher calorie level because I started the strong lifts. I went back to my armband reports (since it syncs with here, I can compare ACTUAL calories spent...not what MFP "guesstimates" for me...with my food/calorie intake). I am CONSISTENTLY at a deficit of ~900-1000C/day....and have been for over FOUR MONTHS.

I am not "eating clean", as we do tend to eat out a bit, but I am not eating junk, either. For example, if we go out to dinner, I'll have a salad with dressing on the side that I dip my fork into, or I'll have a small (less than 6oz) steak with broccoli, etc. I drink NO less than 80oz of water (not "drinks"...actual H20....plus other no-calorie/low-cal drinks) daily.

On 6/21, I weighed exactly 215.0. On 6/22, I started StrongLifts (and kept doing all the other stuff I was already doing). I put back on 5lbs the first week, which I attributed to water weight secondary to muscle repair. I haven't lost it yet. On any given day I'm 217-220....and completely and utterly demoralized after completely changing EVERYTHING about my eating habits and exercise over the last 5 months. As of 8/10, it'll be FIVE months and still haven't lost 15lbs....

Yes, I have PCOS...but I do not think that is the issue, tbh....

ok, on to the official questions

Provide your stats (height/weight/age/bodyfat% if you know it/etc)

Ht: 5'8"
Wt: 217.5 this morning, I think...was 216.5 4 days ago
Age: 43
BF: 101.1lbs (sorry, that's what the scale gives me)..46.4%???

What's your current gross intake of calories, on average?
*1500-2000 for the past 28 days

What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams? (GRAMS, not percent!)
*In report...but basically, I'm a little high in carbs and fat, low in protein. I think I'm set at 40/30/30.

Do you use a food scale and measure everything?
*At home, everything is weighed and measured on a digital scale...or scanned with the phone app if it has a barcode. Out to eat, I try to only eat at places / meals that have online, published dietary values for the meals, and then I have a tendency to OVER estimate how much I eat, just in case...ie: if I eat a half a burger, I'll log 3/4.

Do you track all of your intake, daily? (Everything?)
*Yes, every freaking morsel. I'm sure I've missed a crumb or two, but not often.

Do you take cheat days or days off?
*I don't limit my food choices, so no...because nothing is off limits. I'm just trying to eat less and better.

How much weight have you lost so far and over what time period?
*11 lbs in 4 months......(SOB!)

Describe your activity (exercise and non exercise) and did you change that activity withing the last couple of months?
*see above

How long have you been stalled and if it is not a complete stall please be very specific as to how much you have lost over the stalled period.
*28 days

Are you breastfeeding?
*gah, no

Do you have thyroid issues/risks or PCOS?
*No, thyroid. Yes, PCOS

ps-don't use my exercise log to judge...I just started logging anything at all in it because my armband auto-syncs my exercise calories for me....logging just gives me "credit" on my feed, which I've needed for morale's sake, lately.

SideSteel

Desperate times, call for desperate measures...

First, the required questions will be answered below, but for more specifics, I have my diary open AND I have a lovely PDF report generated by the data from BodyMedia armband which will show that I TRULY am at a LARGE deficit, pretty much every day. The PDF for this past 28 days (which also happens to be exactly the same amount of time that has passed since my lowest weight to date...and then bounced right back up). I can email the PDF report....

Tagging, but to clarify, the PDF will show that you are at a deficit according to the BodyMedia armband. This does not necessarily mean you are in a deficit (as this is just an estimation tool).

We will get to the details of this as soon as we can.

StarChanger

The armband syncs to MFP and my food log here. It then subtracts the two for my true deficit. Or at least that's the way I've understood it. Mayhaps there is a problem?

SideSteel

The armband syncs to MFP and my food log here. It then subtracts the two for my true deficit. Or at least that's the way I've understood it. Mayhaps there is a problem?

There may or may not be, I'm only clarifying that HRM's are estimation devices. They estimate your caloric expenditure and they can be accurate in some contexts and not accurate in others. Your post seems to indicate your belief that the HRM is actually telling you exactly how many calories you burn, and this isn't the case. It is an estimation device that can and will be wrong in some circumstances.

The_Enginerd

Tagging to follow.

StarChanger

Gotcha. Well, if it helps, I've been wearing the armband, pretty much 24/7 for almost 2 years.

On a "slow" day (go to work, come home, veg on couch, sleep) I'm at 2400 cals. Average days (work, 30 min walk, 8000 steps, no other workout) 2600-2800. Workout days w/ walk 2900-3100. Weekend with a hike, or lawn mowing / garden work I've hit 4000....

These numbers have stayed in this range for the duration that I've worn the device.

PriceK01

Can you open your diary?

StarChanger

Sorry, diary public now...was already open to friends

PriceK01

Thanks! First thing I notice when looking at your diary is that your protein is really low. For me, increasing my protein made a huge difference. Taking actual rest days between lifting days helped me, too

Sarauk2sf

Thanks! First thing I notice when looking at your diary is that your protein is really low. For me, increasing my protein made a huge difference. Taking actual rest days between lifting days helped me, too

Hi

Thank you for your input in the group, however, for intake questions we ask that people not provide input and leave it to myself and SideSteel.

See the stickie here for more explanation: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/861596-please-read

Sarauk2sf

Just to add to SideSteel's comments, these devices use algorithms to calculate estimated burns and they use 'averages' of populations as inputs. Individual factors will not be accounted for. This is especially true for people with metabolic issues such as PCOS. They will overestimate your burns.

Water weight increases can take a while to settle down when you start lifting - often up to 6 - 8 weeks. However, as you mention, your weight loss prior to that was slow also.

On checking your diary, your logging seems pretty consistent (with only a day or two missing). Over the last 28 days you have averaged about 1,800 calories per your diary. Your macros for c/f/p have been 183/77/72. Your protein is very low.

Your diary shows, as you noted, that you eat out a lot. While there is nothing wrong with it at all, this causes inherent estimation errors.

It appears that a combination of a slower TDEE due to PCOS, possible inaccuracies in your intake due to eating out, higher carbs and lower protein (people with PCOS do better on lower carbs) and the water weight from lifting have effectively caused you to stall.

I would like to set your intake at 1,700 (gross, no eating of exercise calories back) to get a baseline with the following macros:

Protein - 130g
Fats - 70g
as minimums with the balance falling wherever based on preference, satiety and energy levels.

Couple of tips for getting your protein up (as you eat out so much so it is harder). Instead of the bar you have in the morning, have a protein bar. Swap the sugary drinks for ones with less sugar and more milk. Make the sandwiches into salads and include more meat. Swap the popcorn for greek yoghurt as a snack. Swap the pesto you have with the baguette with cream cheese. These are just suggestions obviously on ways you can up the protein and decrease the carbs looking at your last few days of logging. Protein is generally more satiating and upping it should help with the decrease in calories.

I would like to point out however, that 11lb in 4 months for someone with PCOS is really not that bad, especially considering the fact that you likely have water retention due to the lifting.

We can adjust based on results, hunger, energy and adherence. Please could you get back to us in 2 weeks to let us know how you are doing. However, as we are dropping calories and you are active, please contact us via PM at any time if you have issues with hunger or energy.

StarChanger

Thank you Sara & SS....MUCH appreciated!! Will start making adjustments ASAP & update as we go.

Thank you for understanding with the "eating out". It's an unfortunate hazard with my current job. I am doing much better with making better choices, but there's still room for improvement.

Keto_T

tagging to follow up later

Sarauk2sf

Thank you Sara & SS....MUCH appreciated!! Will start making adjustments ASAP & update as we go.

Thank you for understanding with the "eating out". It's an unfortunate hazard with my current job. I am doing much better with making better choices, but there's still room for improvement.

It takes a while of 'experimenting' to get your macros easier to hit. What I find useful is to look back at the prior week and see what entries are causing the higher carbs for example - then try to think of things to swap them out with. No-one is going to be perfect and life happens, but it does get easier after a while.

Locking so we can keep better track of active threads. Please PM either myself or SideSteel when you are ready to give us an update or if you have further questions or comments, including a link to this thread, and we will unlock.