Long time listener, first time caller here...

ctlaw74

Hello,

I have to say using this APP has been the most usefull tool for health I've found in a decade. I finally counted my calories, etc... and have seen the results first hand.
I went from about 175lbs to 161lbs since the beginning of August. I set my caloric intake at 1,550 per day, have thrown in about 30 minutes of Eliptical Cadio which roughly burned about 400 to 450 calories. By the end of the day that combination along with sufficient proteins has consistently left me with net calories under my 1,550 goal. Hence caloric deficit.

After 2 months I can't seem to dip below the 161lbs. My goal is 155lbs. Any suggestions? It seems my diet has stalled.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

jenna_nicolo

Hi there! Congrats on your weight loss, you've done incredibly well. The thing that immediately jumps out at me is you haven't lowered your daily calorie goal yet. I'm not sure how much of a difference 14lbs makes on your TDEE, but at the very least you might have crept into maintenance. Smaller bodies need less calories to function. Maybe drop your daily goal by 100-150 calories and see if you can get the dial moving again?

BodyByButter

Yup, time to recalculate.

noon1200

You're not burning 450 calories in a half hour of cardio, probably more like 200

cmriverside

jennazembower wrote: »

Hi there! Congrats on your weight loss, you've done incredibly well. The thing that immediately jumps out at me is you haven't lowered your daily calorie goal yet. I'm not sure how much of a difference 14lbs makes on your TDEE, but at the very least you might have crept into maintenance. Smaller bodies need less calories to function. Maybe drop your daily goal by 100-150 calories and see if you can get the dial moving again?

What? No. 14 pounds may change his goal by 10-20 calories. 1550 for a male is way low already.

@ctlaw74 - with five pounds to go, expect it to be slow.

Also, this:

noon1200 wrote: »

You're not burning 450 calories in a half hour of cardio, probably more like 200

Are you eating some of those exercise calories? I don't know how tall you are or how old, but you should be losing if you are logging accurately - I would say if anything you need to eat a lot more.

It's common to not have weight loss for a couple/three/four weeks especially when you are close to goal. And you may have messed up your hormones a little by under-eating, depending on how long you've been doing it and how big you are and how active you are in your daily life.

Set your Goals for "Lose 1/2 pound per week." EAT THAT amount. I don't know why you are set at 1550. I'll bet you need to be at more like 2000-2500 to lose.

Tighten up all your logging - it's super important you log everything accurately at this point.

Patience, persistence, nutrition, good records.

Mithridites

noon1200 wrote: »

You're not burning 450 calories in a half hour of cardio, probably more like 200

Being roughly in the same weight class as the OP, I have to say this statement is likely accurate.
Or OP is an absolute cardioBEAST doing this workout at level ELEVENTYthousand

lorrpb

Time for the flow chart to help a newbie!

BusyRaeNOTBusty

ctlaw74 wrote: »

Hello,

I have to say using this APP has been the most usefull tool for health I've found in a decade. I finally counted my calories, etc... and have seen the results first hand.
I went from about 175lbs to 161lbs since the beginning of August. I set my caloric intake at 1,550 per day, have thrown in about 30 minutes of Eliptical Cadio which roughly burned about 400 to 450 calories. By the end of the day that combination along with sufficient proteins has consistently left me with net calories under my 1,550 goal. Hence caloric deficit.

After 2 months I can't seem to dip below the 161lbs. My goal is 155lbs. Any suggestions? It seems my diet has stalled.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Your goal of 1550 calories should already be a deficit. You probably burn 2000+ calories a day just by living. You should NOT be coming in 1550 UNDER your goal. You should eat to your goal, assuming your exercise calories are correct, which they probably are not. Can you make your dairy public?

How long have you been stuck at 161lbs? How tall are you?

fiddletime

Whatever you're doing if you aren't losing I'd say that it would be hard to think that you are really under eating. When I get stuck I cut 100 cal and see how it goes. I always start dropping. When I try to up my calories, I gain a little. Learning this is really useful in figuring out what "maintenance" means. It looks like you've figured that out, even if your logging is a little inaccurate. Nice job! You get to tweak things from here.

ctlaw74

Wow thank you all for the replies and info. I'm M, 43 and about 5'-9". I agree I should probably be around 2K daily which is how I came up with the 1550 daily for calorie reduction. I used an online calc to give me a dietary figure to reach my goal on caloric deficit alone. With that being said I then look to add negative cals by exercise, around 400 daily calculated. I've been eating close to the 1550 daily and exercising which is giving me about 1,200 net calories a day.

I am not logging any other activity that might be burning calories. I have definitely notices the weight reduction and with just the basic bio-electrical fat calc scale I've dropped about 4% from my before exercise reading. I know the scale is not accurate but the delta figure change for the weight and fat% does reflect a reduction and it's noticeable. I'm just wondering if this plateau means I need to change up the caloric intake or exercise?

ctlaw74

BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »

Can you make your dairy public?

How long have you been stuck at 161lbs? How tall are you?

I just changed the setting so you can see the diary.

kimny72

If you aren't losing you are most likely making some common logging errors that are causing you to miss calories.

1. Get a food scale, and commit to using it for all solids for at least a couple of weeks. It's a lot more accurate than cups or eyeballing, and the volume serving size on packages is a vague estimate - it's the grams that are accurate. Many of us choose to use a scale all the time, but even a couple of weeks will probably show you where you are missing a bunch of calories.
2. Double check the entries you are using in the database to the package or the published usda info. Many entries are user entered and incorrect.

When you have more to lose its easier to get away with estimating and still lose weight, but once you're almost to goal you don't have much wiggle room. Hang in there and good luck :drinker:

Graelwyn75

noon1200 wrote: »

You're not burning 450 calories in a half hour of cardio, probably more like 200

I would agree, in most cases, although it is possible to burn 350 in 30 minutes if pushing really hard. I tend to average 685-717 per 64 minutes on the elliptical, but we are talking working at a very high intensity.(88-93% of max) I use a chest strap based Polar hrm and have not gained weight eating back what I presumably burn so I am guessing it isn't that far off.

Orphia

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner

ctlaw74

As for the exercise my heart rate averages 155-169 for most of the time on the elliptical and the caloric count is just coming from the built in bio-electric meters on the handles.

collectingblues

ctlaw74 wrote: »

BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »

Can you make your dairy public?

How long have you been stuck at 161lbs? How tall are you?

I just changed the setting so you can see the diary.

You need to tighten up your logging.

Just as one example: You say three slices of French toast with syrup are 300 calories ... You'd be lucky to hit 300 if you just ate plain bread, never mind bread dipped in egg and milk, then grilled up, and then topped with syrup.

Another: Two eggs, for 120 calories? Most large eggs average 70 calories each, so 140 calories.

ctlaw74

I've just been either scanning the upc with the fitness app or using the data presets in the app for the calorie counts

Seffell

30min cardio at similar stats I used to burn ~130cals.

collectingblues

ctlaw74 wrote: »

I've just been either scanning the upc with the fitness app or using the data presets in the app for the calorie counts

You're using packaged French toast with syrup?

Itisneeded

Orphia wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner

Thanks! That was helpful.