Plateauing for almost 2 months. Tips?
Syre96
Posts: 28 Member
Hello all! Long story short, I have not lost weight in almost 2 months. I practice intermittent fasting, and I try to eat 1500 calories a day, although a lot of the time I struggle getting that high. I go to the gym 5x/week and I strength train primarily with about 10-20 minutes of cardio at the end. I'm also 21 yrs female if that matters. Since Dec 2017, I have not been able to dip below 158 and it is getting quite frustrating since I feel I am doing a lot of work in the gym to not see results on the scale. Does anyone know any tips to break this plateau or maybe if I'm not eating enough calories? Like I said, sometimes I can't quite make it to 1500 and might be around 13-1400 on a normal day. My diet usually consist of the same 3 meals everyday because I don't have time to cook/shop new recipes. meal 1 will be a turkey burger on wheat bread with 2 boiled eggs, meal 2 is a 40z chicken breast with greens, and meal 3 is salmon w some kind of vegetables. I will also have a protein bar before workouts and snacks like yogurt cups. Could use some insight here
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Replies
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If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot your logging.4
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What “schedule” or fasting window are you using for your IF?0
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Two month's at the same weight = eating at maintenance calories.
Time to tighten your logging, no second guessing of your intake but use a food scale and log every single thing you eat. Stay within your allotted calories consistently and the scale will move.
All the best.5 -
janejellyroll wrote: »If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot your logging.
How do I do that? Im new to the discussion boards0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »If you open your diary, we may be able to help you troubleshoot your logging.
How do I do that? Im new to the discussion boards
If you're on the webpage, you can go to "Settings" (top of the screen) and then to "Diary Settings." You will be able to set your diary to open so others can see it. If you prefer, you can switch it back to private after you get feedback.0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
Is that a different account? Everything you log on your phone should show up on the website.2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.2 -
janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
If that were true, it should show here. It does for me.
You say you only have 8 pounds to lose. You're going to have to be very accurate with your food weighing, and log everything, no skipping, cheating or forgetting.
The online calculator is counting exercise calories. MFP does not. MFP expects you to add your exercise, which then adds more calories overall to your day. If you exercise very regularly, you can eat a set number of calories and 1500-1600 is probably close. If you don't exercise on a regular schedule, it's better to follow MFPs calorie recommendations.2 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
OK, hmmm. I checked your Sedentary TDEE and it should be around 1700. This would be maintenance calories for you during a day of sitting or lying around with minimal walking. So on a day with minimal physical activity, and you manage to eat 1500 calories - that puts you at a 200 calorie deficit, which is a pretty minimal margin of error.
Fitness trackers can be notoriously bad at calculating calories burnt, so those numbers could be inflated quite a bit.
So on a hypothetical day... your Sedentary TDEE is 1700, you go to the gym for a 30-minute workout. The tracker tells you you burned 300 calories, but you actually only burned 150 calories. You go eat your calories for the day, including those 300 you thought you burned at the gym. You think you're eating 1500 net calories, but you're actually eating 1650 - which is basically your TDEE, resulting in no weight loss.
Make sense?
You might want to either:
a.) Only eat back 50-75% of your exercise-earned calories
b.) Lower your daily net calorie goal to 1200-13000 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.
Oh woops yeah I just realized the app on my phone is using a different email. Should I make a new account under that email?0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.
Oh woops yeah I just realized the app on my phone is using a different email. Should I make a new account under that email?
You should already have an account under that email. If you want to log into that account online and comment here (letting us know it's you), we should be able to see your diary.0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
OK, hmmm. I checked your Sedentary TDEE and it should be around 1700. This would be maintenance calories for you during a day of sitting or lying around with minimal walking. So on a day with minimal physical activity, and you manage to eat 1500 calories - that puts you at a 200 calorie deficit, which is a pretty minimal margin of error.
Fitness trackers can be notoriously bad at calculating calories burnt, so those numbers could be inflated quite a bit.
So on a hypothetical day... your Sedentary TDEE is 1700, you go to the gym for a 30-minute workout. The tracker tells you you burned 300 calories, but you actually only burned 150 calories. You go eat your calories for the day, including those 300 you thought you burned at the gym. You think you're eating 1500 net calories, but you're actually eating 1650 - which is basically your TDEE, resulting in no weight loss.
Make sense?
You might want to either:
a.) Only eat back 50-75% of your exercise-earned calories
b.) Lower your daily net calorie goal to 1200-1300
Any idea what my macros should be? currently Im at 127g protein/148g carbs/66g fat. I am a fulltime student, so my daily activity is whenever I have to walk around campus or at work until I go to the gym towards the end of the day if that factors into anything0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.
Oh woops yeah I just realized the app on my phone is using a different email. Should I make a new account under that email?
You should already have an account under that email. If you want to log into that account online and comment here (letting us know it's you), we should be able to see your diary.
Hello everyone! This is the account with my food journal. I have been traveling the past few days so I didn't get a chance to log meals0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
OK, hmmm. I checked your Sedentary TDEE and it should be around 1700. This would be maintenance calories for you during a day of sitting or lying around with minimal walking. So on a day with minimal physical activity, and you manage to eat 1500 calories - that puts you at a 200 calorie deficit, which is a pretty minimal margin of error.
Fitness trackers can be notoriously bad at calculating calories burnt, so those numbers could be inflated quite a bit.
So on a hypothetical day... your Sedentary TDEE is 1700, you go to the gym for a 30-minute workout. The tracker tells you you burned 300 calories, but you actually only burned 150 calories. You go eat your calories for the day, including those 300 you thought you burned at the gym. You think you're eating 1500 net calories, but you're actually eating 1650 - which is basically your TDEE, resulting in no weight loss.
Make sense?
You might want to either:
a.) Only eat back 50-75% of your exercise-earned calories
b.) Lower your daily net calorie goal to 1200-1300
Any idea what my macros should be? currently Im at 127g protein/148g carbs/66g fat. I am a fulltime student, so my daily activity is whenever I have to walk around campus or at work until I go to the gym towards the end of the day if that factors into anything
Macros are mostly personal preference. I'd recommend focusing on hitting your protein goal first and foremost, which should generally be 0.6g - 1g x your body weight. 0.6g is generally good for most people, 1g is recommended more for very athletic people. Carbs and fat are more personal preference. Don't skimp too much on fats, as they're great for brain health.
Maybe try setting your daily goal to 1300 net calories, eat back 75% of exercise calories and really focus on tracking accurately. Ex: If you usually eyeball the size of your apple - try slicing it up, putting a plate on your scale, tare it, then place the apple slices on the scale to find the gram weight. Gram weights for solids tend to be the most accurate.
And don't forget to take measurements too, don't just rely on the scale. You may be putting on some muscle, so your measurements may be going down but the scale isn't moving.
Good luck!!0 -
roderickal96 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.
Oh woops yeah I just realized the app on my phone is using a different email. Should I make a new account under that email?
You should already have an account under that email. If you want to log into that account online and comment here (letting us know it's you), we should be able to see your diary.
Hello everyone! This is the account with my food journal. I have been traveling the past few days so I didn't get a chance to log meals
Travelling how? I always retain water when I travel, especially when I fly.
Things that cause water weight:
Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.
In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues.
Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)
Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.
Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.
Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.0 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »roderickal96 wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
Your diary is open, but I don't see anything logged. How are you tracking your food intake?
Also, are you eating back all your exercise calories, some of them, or none of them?
I have been tracking my food intake with the myfitnesspal app on my phone. I am trying to see if I can link them. Also, I workout at the end of my day around 7 once I'm done with classes work and will usually have a meal of a 4oz chicken or fish w vegetables if I did not eat before my workout and it is still my eating window. I mostly do weight training, but I used an online calculator to calculate my caloric need for the day which is supposedly 1500/1600 calories. Do you think that might be too much?
I'm thinking that maybe you have two different accounts? For the account that you're using in this thread, there is no information in your diary (at least for the past several days that I looked).
Based on what you are saying, I don't think that 1,500-1,600 calories is too much. But it's possible that something about the way you're logging is resulting in you accidentally eating more than you think.
Oh woops yeah I just realized the app on my phone is using a different email. Should I make a new account under that email?
You should already have an account under that email. If you want to log into that account online and comment here (letting us know it's you), we should be able to see your diary.
Hello everyone! This is the account with my food journal. I have been traveling the past few days so I didn't get a chance to log meals
Travelling how? I always retain water when I travel, especially when I fly.
Things that cause water weight:
Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.
In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues.
Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)
Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.
Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.
Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.
I've just been traveling by bus/car0 -
What's your height and current weight?
Do you use a food scale to measure all your solid foods, and measuring cups for your liquids?
Do you track your calories every day?
How do you calculate the exercise calories you burnt, and do you eat them all back?
I'm 5'2 and 158lbs currently. I have a food scale I use to measure my foods and add them into my food journal. I use my fitness watch to calculate calories I burn during a workout, and its usually around 200-300 calories with my max ever being 420 calories
OK, hmmm. I checked your Sedentary TDEE and it should be around 1700. This would be maintenance calories for you during a day of sitting or lying around with minimal walking. So on a day with minimal physical activity, and you manage to eat 1500 calories - that puts you at a 200 calorie deficit, which is a pretty minimal margin of error.
Fitness trackers can be notoriously bad at calculating calories burnt, so those numbers could be inflated quite a bit.
So on a hypothetical day... your Sedentary TDEE is 1700, you go to the gym for a 30-minute workout. The tracker tells you you burned 300 calories, but you actually only burned 150 calories. You go eat your calories for the day, including those 300 you thought you burned at the gym. You think you're eating 1500 net calories, but you're actually eating 1650 - which is basically your TDEE, resulting in no weight loss.
Make sense?
You might want to either:
a.) Only eat back 50-75% of your exercise-earned calories
b.) Lower your daily net calorie goal to 1200-1300
Any idea what my macros should be? currently Im at 127g protein/148g carbs/66g fat. I am a fulltime student, so my daily activity is whenever I have to walk around campus or at work until I go to the gym towards the end of the day if that factors into anything
Macros are mostly personal preference. I'd recommend focusing on hitting your protein goal first and foremost, which should generally be 0.6g - 1g x your body weight. 0.6g is generally good for most people, 1g is recommended more for very athletic people. Carbs and fat are more personal preference. Don't skimp too much on fats, as they're great for brain health.
Maybe try setting your daily goal to 1300 net calories, eat back 75% of exercise calories and really focus on tracking accurately. Ex: If you usually eyeball the size of your apple - try slicing it up, putting a plate on your scale, tare it, then place the apple slices on the scale to find the gram weight. Gram weights for solids tend to be the most accurate.
And don't forget to take measurements too, don't just rely on the scale. You may be putting on some muscle, so your measurements may be going down but the scale isn't moving.
Good luck!!
Alright thank you! I will try reducing my net calories to 1300. Which is actually kinda relieving since I stress about what else to eat to reach the 1600 I was trying to do before. I'm thinking maybe the issue is I'm not too active during the day so I don't need to eat that much. I used to be more active at my old job which included walking all day, but now I just work in an office0
This discussion has been closed.
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