A little frustrated and hoping for accurate answers and advice!

kaylatylersburns

Hello everyone!
Im asking for everyones advice amswers and input as im loosing my head with this plateou ive hit. Some background.. Im relatively new to loosing weight. I recall trying to loose once before about 2 years ago. I never had a weight problem prior so im still learning. Ive done a load of research but i am confused now as to what im doing wrong! I believe i was eating too little and excersizing too much. Ive heard various answers to the "starvation mode" on if its real or not.

Roughly 3 months ago i was 159 pounds and i had really bad gastritis and during it my stomach could only handle about 700 cals a day.. if that. I lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. I know this is incredibly unhealthy but if you knew the pain it was impossoble for me to eat more. Anyways, cleared that up and ive been gastritis free since. Right after the gastritis issue i declared im gonna get my body back to my pre pregnancy weight of 120 (this was 2 months ago). Im 5'5 and always never had a problem with weight.. i could eat whatever untill after pregnancy.
2 months ago i started going strong. My bmr is 1388 and my maintnance calories is 2200. I wanted to loose close to 2 pounds per week to start so i cut by 900 calories from the 2200. I was very strict on my diet.. i did not eat more or less than 1300 each day..sometimes rarely 1400. I excersized doing mostly cardio hiit and some strength training 6 days per week, 60 minutes per day 1st thing in the morning.. id walk 10000 steps a day and in the evening hope on the treadmill to burn an extra 250 calories. I went from 150 in pounds to 143 relatively quick.. in about 2 1/2 to three weeks. Than it stopped! It has been a month and my weight has not budged at all! The past 2 weeks i decreased my calories to 1200 and busted my butt burned 700 cals a day on top of that. It was untill these past 2 weeks i read about starvation mode and how eating too little calories can harm and cause you to come to a stall. I also learned you must factor in your excersize calories too.. which i wasnt doing leaving me at a net of 500 cals per day. Its been relatively frustrating for me! I didnt want to believe it and it wasnt untill last night i said what the hrck.. ill increase my calories to 1700 and burn 500 through excersize and give this a try ( i mean nothing on the scale has been moving... nor on my measurments i take each week).
So because of the month prior to the gastritis eating issue and and the month of me netting 500 cals.. could this month plateou really be a thing?! Is too little calories really can cause a plateou?! So many people answer this differently...
Nothing else makes sense. By the way.. i eat insanely healthy wholesome foods during this time!
I am going to give this a try the 1700 calories eating and burn 500 a day and see if it works.. i am hoping it does as im at the point of giving up!
I am open to any advice and suggestions aswell
Thanks!

spiriteagle99

Some of the quick weight you lost in the beginning was water. It usually is in the beginning, especially if you cut out a lot of carbs and sugar. Then when you increased exercise your body began retaining water to help repair the muscles. If your calories really were 1300, then you were losing weight, it was just masked by the water retention.

When I did low carb dieting the first time, I lost 14 pounds in the first two weeks. I was then on a plateau for several weeks as my body got back in balance. Every time I would have a sudden weight drop, it would be followed by a period where I didn't lose anything. I had to stop weighing myself often and just look at the long term trend, not the day to day or even week to week.

Your best option is to keep following the MFP recommendation for calories, log your exercise and eat back 50% of the calories for that, and weigh and measure every single thing you eat to make sure that your calorie counts are accurate. If they are, you should lose weight. But be patient, it can take time for it to show on the scale. One recommendation is to measure yourself now: hips, waist, thighs, etc. Often you will notice a loss there before it shows on the scale.

malibu927

Starvation mode is a myth. Most likely you're either retaining water from new/increased exercise or eating more than you think.

middlehaitch

You have little to lose.

Put your goal at .5lbs a week, 1 lbs maximum for the first 10 lbs, eat all those calories. Use a scale for accuracy.

Log and eat back your exercise calories.
If you are not losing at the rate you are expecting cut your exercise calories by 25%.

Cheers, h.

Your post was so in paragraphed and rambling it was very hard to read.
You may get more replies if you can just condense it to the facts and your stats.

Maxxitt

Head over to the refeeds/diet break thread - the gist of the research-supported advice is in the first 6 pages or so. "Starvation mode" is myth-y, but adaptive thermogenesis, down-regulated non-exercise activity thermogenesis, and water retention due to stress brought on by steep deficits are all real.

Need2Exerc1se

Looking to lose 2 lbs per week when you are already at a healthy weight is silly. You need to be more realistic.

MichelleSilverleaf

One thing you don't mention is how you're determining how much you're eating. "insanely healthy wholesome foods" is irrelevant if you're not measuring just how much of it you're eating. If you're not using a food scale, get one. Use cups/spoons only for liquids. With so little left to lose you have to be super precise in your logging. Bump your weekly loss down to 1 or .5lbs, like @Need2Exerc1se said 2lbs is just too extreme.

ugofatcat

Can you please open up your food journal?