Weight loss plateau for months?!

Jay9201

When I first started my weightloss journey I was 215lbs 98kg and in two years being on a low carb high fat diet I lost 35lbs. I lost weight so slowly. I was eating around 1,500 calories.

I’ve just hit 2 years and 3 months and I am not losing weight anymore. I’m eating around 1,300 calories doing weights 3x and cardio once a week.

I’ve been seeing a dietitian for a few months who looked over my diet history. She said my exercise and diet overall is fine but I need to relax with my diet and I’m on the verge of getting a binge eating disorder. I was screened for it and they have to monitor me closer because I’m too controlling with my diet so I’m also seeing a psychologist with my dietitian.

My Dietitian and psychologist have mentioned that it may be my body has reached its set point. But I’m 45lbs away from reaching my goal weight so I’m not sure what I need to do to lose weight again.

Any tips would be great! Oh I’m also 5’4 female currently at 180lbs.

janejellyroll

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

kommodevaran

There really is no set point. Did your dietitian specifically recommend you to up your calorie goal, or just generally to relax? Are you really sticking to 1300 calories per day, or do you have binge episodes that bring the average up? How do you log your intake?

Jay9201

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

I did open my diary on a previous post and some of the feedback I received was to watch the carb and fruit intake closer. I could be miscalculating my calories. However my dietitian is trying to encourage intuitive eating which I’m finding hard.

Jay9201

kommodevaran wrote: »

There really is no set point. Did your dietitian specifically recommend you to up your calorie goal, or just generally to relax? Are you really sticking to 1300 calories per day, or do you have binge episodes that bring the average up? How do you log your intake?

My dietitian is working on a calorie goal for me but has asked me to relax and ease off controlling my diet and exercise so much. I stick to 1,300-1,350 per day I don’t eat more than that. My binge eating episodes have decreased since I’ve stopped cutting out food groups i log food through MyFitnessPal and show me how you eat which is a photo diary so I can see my portions.

At the moment my dietitian can’t seem to pinpoint why I’m not losing weight it seems my body is just happy at 180lbs but my goal is to be around 135lbs.

janejellyroll

Jay9201 wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

I did open my diary on a previous post and some of the feedback I received was to watch the carb and fruit intake closer. I could be miscalculating my calories. However my dietitian is trying to encourage intuitive eating which I’m finding hard.

Are you using a food scale for solid foods?

Why do you think it's possible that you are miscalculating your calories? Fruit and carbohydrates are only going to stall your weight loss if they're keeping you out of a deficit.

kommodevaran

Jay9201 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

There really is no set point. Did your dietitian specifically recommend you to up your calorie goal, or just generally to relax? Are you really sticking to 1300 calories per day, or do you have binge episodes that bring the average up? How do you log your intake?

My dietitian is working on a calorie goal for me but has asked me to relax and ease off controlling my diet and exercise so much. I stick to 1,300-1,350 per day I don’t eat more than that. My binge eating episodes have decreased since I’ve stopped cutting out food groups i log food through MyFitnessPal and show me how you eat which is a photo diary so I can see my portions.

At the moment my dietitian can’t seem to pinpoint why I’m not losing weight it seems my body is just happy at 180lbs but my goal is to be around 135lbs.

You could try to not exercise so much, and it's great that you aren't cutting out food groups anymore, but by not controlling your calorie intake accurately, you're obviously eating more than you think. I don't think you've explained how you're using MFP to log your food.

Your body can't be sad or happy. You may be more or less happy with your current eating and exercise habits, that's something else. If you're overweight, your health might improve if you lose some weight. You can do that if you tighten up your food logging.

Jay9201

I struggle with carbs because I can’t cut back on it. I eat quite a bit of fruit around 2-3 pieces a day, I use a salter food scale for my solid foods.

Nony_Mouse

Have you taken a diet break at all during your weight loss, and more importantly, recently? I know this will sound counter-intuitive if you're not losing weight, but have a read of this: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/ and also take a look at the thread here titled 'Of refeeds and diet breaks' (it's really long, don't be put off, you just need to read the first few pages to start, and the handy synopsis on p.6, tons of good stuff after that, including testimonials from those incorporating diet breaks and/or refeeds).

kommodevaran

Jay9201 wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

janejellyroll wrote: »

If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot potential logging issues.

I did open my diary on a previous post and some of the feedback I received was to watch the carb and fruit intake closer. I could be miscalculating my calories. However my dietitian is trying to encourage intuitive eating which I’m finding hard.

Who gave you that kind of feedback? Or was that just the conclusion you made from the feedback? Miscalculating calories shouldn't be an issue - you weigh the foods you eat, log those amounts, and MFP calculates the calories. I don't think "intuitive" eating should be the first approach for someone who is overweight. First you have to learn and accept what appropriate amounts of food (for you) is, and look like, and how that feels, in your stomach, in your head, in your body. This also means that you need to deal with the emotions that used to be silenced with food, in a totally different way, and that's not always fun.

janejellyroll

Jay9201 wrote: »

I struggle with carbs because I can’t cut back on it. I eat quite a bit of fruit around 2-3 pieces a day, I use a salter food scale for my solid foods.

Can you explain more? Saying you "can't cut back on it" doesn't seem to match your report that you are consistently eating 1,300 and not losing weight. Clearly you *can* cut back on it or maybe you are sometimes going over your goal?

Not trying to be snarky at all, but I feel like we need some more context here to better help.

kommodevaran

Jay9201 wrote: »

I struggle with carbs because I can’t cut back on it.

What does this mean? What do you mean by carbs, why can't you cut back on carbs, why should you cut back on carbs?

I eat quite a bit of fruit around 2-3 pieces a day,

That's pretty normal and good, provided those pieces are the size of a normal apple and not a watermelon.

I use a salter food scale for my solid foods.

Any scale is fine as long as it's electronic and display weight in grams and has a tare button. It still has to be used correctly.

Jay9201

So me eating 1,300 calories I can currently fit things like a bagel for breakfast or some starchy refined carbs. I’m struggling with eating good carbs for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lunch is always protein and veg so I pick at my food quite a bit which leads to my binge eating episodes. My binge eating is mostly carbs because I restrict it so much.

When I say I restrict I mean completely not eat it at all then I binge on it. So my dietitian has asked me to not cut it out and eat carbs but in moderation which has reduced my binge eating episodes.

The feedback I got from the last time I opened my diary was that I’m not counting my fruit calories properly.

Basically I can’t find a medium balance with my diet I went so hard with my diet and exercise I didn’t lose weight quickly but I went so hard on my body it struggled to lose weight then and now I’m struggling.

janejellyroll

Jay9201 wrote: »

So me eating 1,300 calories I can currently fit things like a bagel for breakfast or some starchy refined carbs. I’m struggling with eating good carbs for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lunch is always protein and veg so I pick at my food quite a bit which leads to my binge eating episodes. My binge eating is mostly carbs because I restrict it so much.

When I say I restrict I mean completely not eat it at all then I binge on it. So my dietitian has asked me to not cut it out and eat carbs but in moderation which has reduced my binge eating episodes.

The feedback I got from the last time I opened my diary was that I’m not counting my fruit calories properly.

Basically I can’t find a medium balance with my diet I went so hard with my diet and exercise I didn’t lose weight quickly but I went so hard on my body it struggled to lose weight then and now I’m struggling.

You don't have to eat "good carbs" (however you define that) in order to lose weight. Assuming you're in a deficit, then you'll lose weight even eating the carbohydrates that are commonly stigmatized as "bad." If thinking you have to choose "good" foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner makes it harder for you to stay on plan, then know that you can ditch this goal. I ate refined carbohydrates, within my calorie goals, relatively often while I was losing weight. I had things like bagels, french fries, pizza, pasta, chocolate cake, stuff like that.

If you find that you "pick" at meals made up of "protein and veg" because they aren't as palatable to you and this causes you to binge later, know you don't have to limit yourself to those.

If you aren't logging your fruit properly, consider tightening up your logging. If you aren't logging accurately (not sure if you've changed this behavior since you opened your diary last) or if you are having binges, I wouldn't consider you to be in a plateau, it's just that you're engaging in some behaviors that are keeping you from a deficit.

If you improve your logging and reduce the number of days when you go way over on calories, you may even find that you can lose weight on more than 1,300 calories a day. Once I understood my intake and consistently hit my goal, I found I was able to plan on eating much more than I thought I could (not that we will be exactly the same, but I know that others have had this experience as well).

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I had a similar experience in the first 2 years of weight loss. There were a few times when I just stopped losing despite eating at a deficit. During those times, I still had the typical day-to-day fluctuations of a few lbs. up and down, but I was hovering in the same range for months... as long as 6 months in one case. I tried some extreme tactics to try to get that weight to come off, but nothing seemed to work. Every time, I would eventually experience a "whoosh" of loss. There was nothing that obviously triggered it, but over a few days time, I would lose several lbs. and then not regain them as would happen with typical fluctuations. In the case of 6 months, the "whoosh" took about 3-4 days and was somewhere around 9 lbs.

In those cases, I was using a food scale and logging everything meticulously (as I had done long before and still do). I knew I was eating in a deficit and the weight was just not coming off. If you are logging everything with intense precision and you know you are in a calorie deficit, then don't worry about temporary stalls. From a fellow slow loser: it requires a lot of patience and dedication.

davidylin

Jay9201 wrote: »

When I first started my weightloss journey I was 215lbs 98kg and in two years being on a low carb high fat diet I lost 35lbs. I lost weight so slowly. I was eating around 1,500 calories.

I’ve just hit 2 years and 3 months and I am not losing weight anymore. I’m eating around 1,300 calories doing weights 3x and cardio once a week.

I’ve been seeing a dietitian for a few months who looked over my diet history. She said my exercise and diet overall is fine but I need to relax with my diet and I’m on the verge of getting a binge eating disorder. I was screened for it and they have to monitor me closer because I’m too controlling with my diet so I’m also seeing a psychologist with my dietitian.

My Dietitian and psychologist have mentioned that it may be my body has reached its set point. But I’m 45lbs away from reaching my goal weight so I’m not sure what I need to do to lose weight again.

Any tips would be great! Oh I’m also 5’4 female currently at 180lbs.

Based on what you've said, if you're not losing weight you are consuming more calories than you are metabolizing and expelling.

The primary suspects as to why:

• You may have a metabolic disorder that makes your base metabolic rate lower than what would be considered healthy.
• You may not be accurately estimating/tracking your calories.

And some less likely suggestions that may help to explain:

• You may be very constipated or retaining an unhealthily abnormal amount of fluids.
• You may be sleep-eating or unconsciously eating more than you know.
• Preggers?
• Scale broken, only displays one number.

Not a single person on a controlled and calorie restricted diet has failed to lose weight in any legitimate experiment. From that assumption, you're either taking in more calories than you think, or, you're not burning as many calories as you should be.

Your medical professionals are correct about the dangers of obsession and control over your diet, however. I would not obsess over it - the good news is that you are not gaining weight or putting on additional body fat and that might be a good thing. Repeat: that is a good thing. It's not what you want and I get that, but remember that it's not hurting you.

I recommend that if you're not getting the results you expect over a period of more than a month - there's a couple of things you'll want to do:

1. Make an appointment with your doctor, relay your concerns, and ask if there may be things that need to be tested to ensure you don't have a health issue that is complicating your metabolism or life.
2. Consider the possibility that some of the stranger things are happening to you: broken scale, sleep-eating, etc.
3. Relax, be yourself, don't sweat the results for a while. Even if you can control everything about what you do - it can take a toll on you if you do it all the time.

kommodevaran

Jay9201 wrote: »

So me eating 1,300 calories I can currently fit things like a bagel for breakfast or some starchy refined carbs. I’m struggling with eating good carbs for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lunch is always protein and veg so I pick at my food quite a bit which leads to my binge eating episodes. My binge eating is mostly carbs because I restrict it so much.

What is good carbs? Do you eat any fat and starch with your protein and veg? If not, why not? Maybe if you aim to make your meals tasty and delicious, you eat up, and then you won't get the urge to binge so much.

When I say I restrict I mean completely not eat it at all then I binge on it. So my dietitian has asked me to not cut it out and eat carbs but in moderation which has reduced my binge eating episodes.

That's good - you just have to work on that moderation. I personally like to be able to eat anything I want, but I know that I can't eat anything at once and not all the time (and I'm fine with that). Do you think you can you find a similar peace with food? Or at least a truce?

The feedback I got from the last time I opened my diary was that I’m not counting my fruit calories properly.

You have to count all your calories properly.

Basically I can’t find a medium balance with my diet I went so hard with my diet and exercise I didn’t lose weight quickly but I went so hard on my body it struggled to lose weight then and now I’m struggling.

Yes you can find the balance, but you have to accept that weightloss takes a long time - and maintenenance takes forever.

aeloine

kommodevaran wrote: »

Jay9201 wrote: »

So me eating 1,300 calories I can currently fit things like a bagel for breakfast or some starchy refined carbs. I’m struggling with eating good carbs for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lunch is always protein and veg so I pick at my food quite a bit which leads to my binge eating episodes. My binge eating is mostly carbs because I restrict it so much.

What is good carbs? Do you eat any fat and starch with your protein and veg? If not, why not? Maybe if you aim to make your meals tasty and delicious, you eat up, and then you won't get the urge to binge so much.

When I say I restrict I mean completely not eat it at all then I binge on it. So my dietitian has asked me to not cut it out and eat carbs but in moderation which has reduced my binge eating episodes.

That's good - you just have to work on that moderation. I personally like to be able to eat anything I want, but I know that I can't eat anything at once and not all the time (and I'm fine with that). Do you think you can you find a similar peace with food? Or at least a truce?

The feedback I got from the last time I opened my diary was that I’m not counting my fruit calories properly.

You have to count all your calories properly.

Basically I can’t find a medium balance with my diet I went so hard with my diet and exercise I didn’t lose weight quickly but I went so hard on my body it struggled to lose weight then and now I’m struggling.

Yes you can find the balance, but you have to accept that weightloss takes a long time - and maintenenance takes forever.

I wish I could "awesome" each one of these individually!

davidylin

Oh, and don't forget, high quality sleep and a regular sleep schedule are immeasurably important to weight loss efforts.

Jay9201

Doctors have done all tests so I don’t have any medical reasons why I’m not losing weight. So I will look at my login more closely and see if that changes things.

MegaMooseEsq

I'd second the recommendation to look into taking a diet break for a couple of weeks at least. You've made amazing progress, but it sounds like it's taken a lot of effort. Just because you're not at your goal weight yet doesn't mean you're a failure. Diet breaks can be great for you mentally as well as physically, and help you practice maintenance, which is where so many people struggle.

From what you've written above, I'm assuming that you are not including binges in the 1300-ish number? I'm 5'2" and have lost from 208 to 171 in ten and a half months never going below 2000 net calories on average (I generally eat four to five days at 1200-1600 calories, then two to three days at or above maintenance). I suspect my BMR/NEAT is on the high side and yours is on the lower side, but it still seems like your average calories are probably higher than 1300. A lot of people focus on their primary day-to-day goal, but if you're regularly going over that number, you need to factor that in.

In any case, good luck, and check out that diet break link above!

Jay9201

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I'd second the recommendation to look into taking a diet break for a couple of weeks at least. You've made amazing progress, but it sounds like it's taken a lot of effort. Just because you're not at your goal weight yet doesn't mean you're a failure. Diet breaks can be great for you mentally as well as physically, and help you practice maintenance, which is where so many people struggle.

From what you've written above, I'm assuming that you are not including binges in the 1300-ish number? I'm 5'2" and have lost from 208 to 171 in ten and a half months never going below 2000 net calories on average (I generally eat four to five days at 1200-1600 calories, then two to three days at or above maintenance). I suspect my BMR/NEAT is on the high side and yours is on the lower side, but it still seems like your average calories are probably higher than 1300. A lot of people focus on their primary day-to-day goal, but if you're regularly going over that number, you need to factor that in.

In any case, good luck, and check out that diet break link above!

My binge episodes were around 500 calories back when I was eating 1,200 calories so since I’ve stopped cutting food groups binge eating has stopped and I’m staying below 1,400 calories. According to iifym my TDEE is 2,000 at the moment so deducting the 500 calorie deficit I should be eating 1,500 calories but I’m comfortable eating at 1,300.

I will look into the diet break.

kgb6days

Have you tried Intermittent Fasting???? I was on a plateau for months eating 1200 calories/day and running up to 20 miles/week. I switched to IF and started losing again and got to my goal weight.