Weight loss stalled ~2 months?

gweep

I'm actually baffled, I've maintained a deficit nearly every day for 230ish days. I haven't really lost anything substantial (like 3 lb) since before thanksgiving. I weigh and measure everything I put in my mouth unless it's a small snack with a barcode, then I just scan those and double check the package to make sure the numbers match.

Info about me: I started off pretty heavy - 382ish last May. My highest was 394, so my ticker should show roughly 100lbs lost. The problem is, I lost most of the weight in the first seven months and now it doesn't seem like whatever I do, the scale won't budge.

My measurements haven't changed, and I'm just getting more and more frustrated as each week goes by. I have lymphedema in my left leg - so exercise is pretty difficult currently, but it is slowly improving. Just keep in mind I can't exactly go HAM with exercise. I don't have PCOS or hypothyroidism.

I am on several medications. I'm anemic, so I take 65mg of iron/day. 2,000 iu vitamin d3/day. Two antidepressants/anxiety medications. 75mg effexor & 150mg welbutrin/day. 1,000mg metformin split into 500mg twice a day. Then 10mg cetrizine for allergies and a generic women's multivitamin. (The iron & vitamin d3 are doctor's orders, so I can't stop those.)

I've tried cycling my calories. Eating closer to maintenance one week, then having a bigger deficit the next. Maintenance/TDEE should be around 2,500 for me at my current weight. 292 5'7 29 years old, female So I have more than a 1,000 calorie deficit with my 1,300/day plan. If I'm ravenously hungry I'll go over by ~150-200 calories, but still it shouldn't be anything that would cease weight loss by any means.

I aim for 140oz of water a day.

I even bought a fitbit this thursday to just see if I'm not trying hard enough in my exercise routines. My heart rate is always in the fat burning range when I look back later. I'm just confused.

seska422

The first place to trouble-shoot is your food diary. For instance, yesterday you had Body Lab - Fat Burning Protein Decadent Chocolate Fudge, 2 heaping scoop for 180 calories. A "heaping scoop" is very imprecise and it might have been twice the amount of calories listed - and that's assuming that the food entry has the correct nutritional information.

I'm also seeing units such as tablespoons and muffins. For things like muffins and patties, the nutritional information will say how many grams they are supposed to weigh. They might weigh more than stated and you need to account for that extra. Peanut butter weight (and anything else from a jar) can be determined by putting the jar on the scale, zeroing the scale (using the tare button), and removing what you want so that you are left with a negative number to show how much you removed.

If you have a food scale, you need to use it for all solids and powders and any liquid that gives its nutritional info in grams. You need to double-check the accuracy of the database entries you are using and switch to entries that use grams for solids/powders/available liquids or create your own entries in My Foods without sharing them with the database so that you know that the entries are accurate and can choose grams for the unit.

I think that tightening up your logging will get you back to losing weight.

callsitlikeiseeit

malibu927

I agree with tightening up your logging by weighing everything, even your prepackaged snacks. They can legally be off by up to 20% of the weight listed.

On top of that, it may be time to consider taking a couple weeks off from a deficit to give your body a rest. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks

mitch16

If you have lymphedema, are you not predisposed to water retention?

bcradio1

Eat less and move more is all you will need to lose weight. Your body works exactly the same as everyone else on the planet.

PAV8888

How much edema/water retention/swelling do you have?

FlyingMolly

What they said, and also congratulations on your loss so far! 100-ish pounds is really amazing; please don’t lose sight of that. Weight loss gets harder and harder the closer you get to your goal—small discrepancies in logging make a bigger difference, and the weight’s just going to come off slower anyway, but your calorie goal keeps going down, and also your exercise has been restricted, and by the way “since before Thanksgiving” includes a number of food-intensive holidays.

So if it turns out you’ve lost some steam in the last couple of months, I mean...who can blame you? And if you’re fed up and ready to see movement again, it’s time to shake things up. Move more (a lot of low-intensity activity throughout the day can burn even more than an intense 1-hour workout), measure more carefully, consider introducing some new recipes or foods to keep things interesting. Pretend you’re starting fresh, except this time you have the advantage of already knowing you’re tough as nails.

jennrissa

Don't stress too much about it. I finally got off of a plateau that lasted a bit over 4 months. I have a food scale and measured and took exercise classes. I ended up in bed for a couple weeks because I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I stuck to meal replacement shakes and ate like a bird. I was finally able to check last week and I got past my plateau. It will come off. Keep tracking your calories, weigh/measure food if you can, and don't give up . Good job on your progress!

gweep

Well, it's been a few more weeks. I've been eating an extra 500 calories a day, but still hovering around 292 in the mornings.

On the positive, I did lose a few inches since last month. I'm reluctant to hang onto hope that it's muscle cancelling out the fat loss, but I have been able to reach my steps goal of 8,000/day pretty easily now.

I might see if I can make an appointment for a sleep study since my fitbit said I wake up around fifty times a night, which is probably sleep apnea.

I'll wait a few more weeks to see if my general practitioner can give me a referral to an endocrinologist or something.

PAV8888

Congrats on the obvious fat loss (if you're losing inches). Have you discussed with your doctor how much water you might be retaining with your edema?

On the "there is some possible hope" side, I was told many times that I would snore extremely loudly, choke, and even stop breathing during the night. All of the above symptoms went away with weight loss from class 2 obese to normal weight (they were already gone by low overweight)