Really, please help. Calorie counting and going crazy. Not losing fat.

olegirl2000
olegirl2000 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've read the articles.
I've seen the blogs.
And comments.
And message boards.
Calories In Calories Out. I get it.

I'm 5"9, 22% BF, currently weighing in at 154.

I'm strong as heck, a Spartan racer, former crossfitter, cardio 5 x a week (Spinning, Tabata, rower, treadmill 3 miles at a time, HIIT) mixed in with strength training (BodyPump, conditioning @ gym).

Around August of last year, I was still training, eating approx 1800 cals and feeling really good.
At that time, I had stopped doing crossfit, but still doing my regular to my routine, however I started to gain weight. Went from 143 up to 150+ ...

So i hired a nutritionist who got me eating all sorts of grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens, sorghum, organic everything. And I gained more weight.

Fast forward 3 weeks ago, I went cold turkey and decided to go full calorie deficit, eating 1300 calories. Strict, cleaning eating, except for the occasional cheat meal. on a friday OR a Saturday. Never both. And that cheat meal simply included a glass of wine or two.
But it was always a lean protein, veggies or salad, limited carbs.

4 weeks later, nothing budged. My baby belly budge still there, Not breaking 150 pounds and getting very frustrated.
'
Then, I started using MFP to calculate daily cals needed and it brought me up to 1590, which i've started on Tuesday. This seems a little more do-able, and I don't feel like i'm starving my very active body.
I'm afraid i'm never going to budge out of 150lbs. I'm looking to get to a very lean 18% BF at 140lbs.

My workouts are predominantly in the AM, so I'm getting up at 445 to hit my 5:30 spin class and get to work by 7:15. I am trying to sleep and get about 6. I'm curious if my cortisol levels and adrenal levels are hindering this whole process, and if I should skip working out so much and simply focus on sleeping and eating well.

This seems like a good board to post things like this, so I encourage as many comments as possible. Thanks and God bless.
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Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Have you seen a doctor to rule out metabolic or hormonal disorders? You eat very little for someone of your size and activity level.
  • leooftheyear
    leooftheyear Posts: 429 Member
    Is it possible that you're looking more to recom versus losing weight?
  • Beansg66
    Beansg66 Posts: 4 Member
    Olegirl2000 you have read my mind. Last August I hit my ultimate weight and my 1/2 century birthday. My eating habits have not changed my 6 day workout routine has not changed (except the weight training routine is mixed regularly). I rarely drink alcohol and if so usually red wine. My food intake is substantially veg and fruit with variations of protein (little to no processed carbs).I seldom eat out as I prefer to cook for company. I enjoy sweets/dark chocolate but on occasion not regularly. I have been following this regime since my high school basketball/volleyball days. Nothing much has changed in my dietary needs or physical needs but for about 4 months my weight has crept up from 150lbs to 163lbs (I am 6'). As the weather is cold where I live, my outdoor cycling days are over until April but this is the only activity I have had to give up. I still spin 3 days a week and weight train the other three days. I do not have any answers but sympathize wholeheartedly with you and hope someone wise can answer our shared dilemma.
  • olegirl2000
    olegirl2000 Posts: 5 Member
    edited February 2017
    @leooftheyear RECOM? and @Need2Exerc1se I presume I could... I am convinced it's adrenal fatigue / abnormal cortisol levels. may seek dr council.
  • leooftheyear
    leooftheyear Posts: 429 Member
    olegirl2000 wrote: »
    @leooftheyear RECOM?

    sorry Recomp
  • olegirl2000
    olegirl2000 Posts: 5 Member
    @jemhh I could weigh my solids & measure my liquids, yes. But to be honest, my intake is based on single items like eggs, rice cakes, cups of broccoli, other veggies, single bananas. I have the 21 Day Fix portion containers that have helped me as well, especially when measuring fruit.

    My liquid intake includes water, no other juices or soda (except for that red wine, of course, which will happen tomorrow).
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
    Oh heck yes. You need to sleep more. 1590 still sounds low to me, but eat back a portion of those exercise calories.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    edited February 2017
    StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
    Solids in cups: are not accurate. That is likely the cause of your lack of weight loss.

    One of the reasons, I would also have to agree. Log everything, stay within your calorie goal, weigh solids and use the measuring cups for liquids (or weigh them too if you're scale will do it.. mine will). You will lose weight unless you have some underlying medical problem or have calculated your calorie goals incorrectly. You should also be logging the red wine and keeping within your goals.

  • olegirl2000
    olegirl2000 Posts: 5 Member
    @nowine4me sleep? what's that? LOL. and i thought 1590 seemed low too, since I was so active and getting toned at 1800 cals last year. but that's with very aggressive goals I set using MFP app.

    @Spliner1969, i will have to look more closely at my measurements.
    when i think of things like grilled or steamed chicken, i consider it to be something like a palm sized portion.
    i do log the red wine, as i know that's a huge calorie hog. i could drink in 1 setting more than half of my daily calorie requirement in wine. which only means, i just don't eat as much food that day. just kidding.
    i do see where you are coming from, though.

    just to clarify, i was logging my 1300/day calories in my fitbit app before switching to MFP.
    and still having no success. any weight loss may have just been water weight.
    thank you everyone.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Yeah you're not really "counting calories" if you're estimating portions. I think you'll notice a difference if you get that tight. You can always revert to estimation again if you prefer, weighing for a while can work like a refresher.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    In addition to the video above, I offer this one. It shows how we should even weigh our prepackaged items and why:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnnpUYmr0OM
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.

    This.
  • CasperNaegle
    CasperNaegle Posts: 936 Member
    I would highly recommend you weigh everything!! It is absolutely amazing how much you can be off, even pulling a bagel out of pre-packaged and using the single serving. Weigh it and compare to the grams in the serving size.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    Spliner1969 wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.

    Agreed 1000%. It made a huge difference for me.

    Same here
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    at 154 you are right in the middle of normal weight range for your height - so any deficits you see will be small in nature

    I ran your stats though a TDEE calculator and got maintenance calories of 2300 for your activity level - https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=38&lbs=154&in=69&act=1.55&bf=22&f=1

    you may want to focus on body recomp rather than losing weight
  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.

    Another vote for this.

    You don't have much weight to lose, so you will be running a pretty small deficit to lose weight. When your deficit is that small, you need to be as accurate as possible. A digital food scale can help you do that.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    olegirl2000 wrote: »
    @nowine4me sleep? what's that? LOL. and i thought 1590 seemed low too, since I was so active and getting toned at 1800 cals last year. but that's with very aggressive goals I set using MFP app.

    @Spliner1969, i will have to look more closely at my measurements.
    when i think of things like grilled or steamed chicken, i consider it to be something like a palm sized portion.
    i do log the red wine, as i know that's a huge calorie hog. i could drink in 1 setting more than half of my daily calorie requirement in wine. which only means, i just don't eat as much food that day. just kidding.
    i do see where you are coming from, though.

    just to clarify, i was logging my 1300/day calories in my fitbit app before switching to MFP.
    and still having no success. any weight loss may have just been water weight.
    thank you everyone.

    You only want to lose @ 11 pounds, yes? With this little to lose, "very aggressive goals" may do you more harm than good once you get a food scale and start accurately logging your intake.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/

    ...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.

    They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.

    And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).

    When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, let’s cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage... Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.
  • olegirl2000
    olegirl2000 Posts: 5 Member
    @kshama2001 this was awesome insight. Everyone has offered wonderful wisdom. This wracks my brain.
    It's exactly what I'm dealing with: Too much training and too little food and too little sleep. I need to boost the cortisol levels in a healthy way.

    If my maintenance calories according to @deannalfisher is 2300, how in heaven's name can my an 800 cal deficit (at 1500) be any good ?

    If I go down to an accurate 1700 or even 1800, would that be sufficient with properly weighing using a scale, of course?
  • microuch
    microuch Posts: 1 Member
    Have your doctor check your hormone levels. If that's not it look into a ketogenic diet, read the Obesity Code and rethink the whole CICO idea.
  • successgal1
    successgal1 Posts: 996 Member
    Sleep.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    CasperNaegle wrote: »
    I would highly recommend you weigh everything!! It is absolutely amazing how much you can be off, even pulling a bagel out of pre-packaged and using the single serving. Weigh it and compare to the grams in the serving size.
    This. Recently, I logged a St Viateur bagel. In the database, a sesame seed bagel was listed as 60 or so grams, but when I weighed the bagel, it was closer to 80g... big difference.

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