Advice please - stall

Seffell

It maybe just a stall (water weight). Before my last low dip I went through 6 weeks of deficit and zero loss. Zero. And then one day bam - all my accumulated deficit right there. The weight was gone in the course of 3 days - 4% of my weight. (I'm 134lbs now).

I love how you take statistics. I've done this too in the past. I used to keep excel tables and graphics. All I've ever seen in my tables for more than a year is proof of cico. So sooner or later you'll see the dip.

Psychgrrl

me0231 wrote: »

Huh no idea, but it should be open now.

So, I had my RMR tested this morning. I still need to go in for a consultation next week, but they measured my RMR at 1305. That seems depressingly low, especially with another 20lbs to lose and it'll be even lower. Online calculators put my maintenance at 1620 based on this RMR, so I take it to mean that I do in fact need to eat under 1200 to lose a pound a week? I know it may be half a pound a week as I get closer, but I still have 20 to go and my body fat was measured at 31% today as well, so good amount of padding left. Thoughts?

Your RMR is fine—this is pretty much the daily calories needed to sustain the most basic bodily functions like breathing and divesting food. You’d burn this if you were in a coma. Even a setting of “sedentary” would add to this number.

You have less than 25 pounds to lose. Plan on .5 lbs per week which is a deficit of 250 calories a day. Or you can go lower with less of a deficit. The last few pounds come off really slooooooooowly.

Are you sure you’ve determined your TDEE correctly? I ask because I’m smaller than you (5’3 and 120) and maintain on about 2000/day. I am very active throughout the day and choose to be that way, which helps. I average at least 10,000 steps outside intentional exercise.

VintageFeline

If you were losing 2lbs per week eating 1300 calories, maintenance is not 1500 for you. 2lbs = 1000 calories per day.

So your diet break wasn't a diet break, your leptin will be shot from too aggressive a loss goal and cortisol through the roof at this point. I have waited up to 6 weeks for whoosh. Plus you had two weeks in the middle where you ate more. I think, aside from perhaps a retry at a diet break, you need to just knuckle down for another couple of weeks.

ETA: My bad, I see you said 1500 average for the month. What were your calories for the two weeks maintenance?

me0231

gebeziseva wrote: »

It maybe just a stall (water weight). Before my last low dip I went through 6 weeks of deficit and zero loss. Zero. And then one day bam - all my accumulated deficit right there. The weight was gone in the course of 3 days - 4% of my weight. (I'm 134lbs now).

My lowest weigh in was in July though, so I've been waiting for that woosh for a long time. Cico has definitely worked for me until July, it was remarkably linear. Not day to day of course but averaged out it was pretty steady.

Psychgrrl wrote: »

Your RMR is fine—this is pretty much the daily calories needed to sustain the most basic bodily functions like breathing and divesting food. You’d burn this if you were in a coma. Even a setting of “sedentary” would add to this number.

You have less than 25 pounds to lose. Plan on .5 lbs per week which is a deficit of 250 calories a day. Or you can go lower with less of a deficit. The last few pounds come off really slooooooooowly.

Are you sure you’ve determined your TDEE correctly? I ask because I’m smaller than you (5’3 and 120) and maintain on about 2000/day. I am very active throughout the day and choose to be that way, which helps. I average at least 10,000 steps outside intentional exercise.

I went with Alan Aragon's formula to add daily expenditure on top of the RMR to come up with a maintenance amount, I know that RMR isn't the same as maintenance. I'll go for a consultation with the clinic that measured it so I'll see what they come up with.
Online calculators put my RMR way higher though. I'm not as active as you are. I work a desk job and spend a good amount of time on grad school. I know there's room for improvement there, but there's no way I could maintain on 2000.

VintageFeline wrote: »

If you were losing 2lbs per week eating 1300 calories, maintenance is not 1500 for you. 2lbs = 1000 calories per day.

So your diet break wasn't a diet break, your leptin will be shot from too aggressive a loss goal and cortisol through the roof at this point. I have waited up to 6 weeks for whoosh. Plus you had two weeks in the middle where you ate more. I think, aside from perhaps a retry at a diet break, you need to just knuckle down for another couple of weeks.

ETA: My bad, I see you said 1500 average for the month. What were your calories for the two weeks maintenance?

When I was losing 2lbs a week I was over 200lbs so I'm sure my maintenance was higher than it is now. I ate 1800-1900 for maintenance for two weeks which is what mfp gave me. Like I said, my lowest weight was in July. I stalled for 2 months, took the break and back to the pre diet weight for 6 weeks now. I'm just at a loss.

sarahbrown314

Hi OP, apologies if I missed this but do you set your calorie goal and then adjust for exercise? I know a lot of folks on MFP like to add back a certain % of their exercise but you might benefit from just calculating your TDEE inclusive of exercise (I like the website sailrabbit as an example) and then that way you take out the messy business of estimating your calories burned which could possibly be an issue.

RoxieDawn

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ckozl81

What did you learn after your consultation?

quiksylver296

I'm 5'9, currently 177 lbs, and lose slowly but easily on 2000 calories a day. 1300 is blowing my mind, to be honest.

me0231

ckozl81 wrote: »

What did you learn after your consultation?

They confirmed that my maintenance is just over 1600 calories a day right now. They recommended to step up the cardio and cycle the calories. So now on exercise days I eat about 1300 and on the rest days I go for a greater deficit. In any case it has worked and I've lost a two pounds over the last three weeks. The scale is finally moving again.

Long-term the goal is to build some muscle and get more active once grad school is done so I can raise my maintenance calories a bit.