Stuck!

sheloves89

Hello all,

I'm 30 years old, 5'7", currently weigh 155 lbs, goal weight originally was 160 (yay!) but I've knocked it down to 150. Started from 180 back in September of last year.

Sedentary lifestyle, set to 1200 calories/day but usually I'm eating closer to 1300-1400. I'm okay with going over, as long as the "projected weight in 5 weeks" number is lower than what I weigh now, and that's been working out just fine for me.

Until this month!!

I have been bouncing between 155 and 152 lbs all month long (since Feb. 22nd). I weigh myself daily (and I have since September, pretty much), so I'm familiar with my weight fluctuations, but this one has been particularly stubborn. I'll climb may way down from 155 lbs to 152 lbs and then I'll have a day that's maybe closer to 1500 calories than 1400, and it'll shoot right back up to 155! And sometimes my weight will drop back down to 152 in the course of just a few days. But almost like clockwork, it will be back to 155 within a week (sometimes with no changes in my calorie intake)!

I'm not comfortable opening my diary, but I can assure you that I weigh and measure everything that passes my lips. I make my meals from scratch and include all of the ingredients (including cooking oils, etc - on a per weight basis). I don't eat takeaway.

Because the weight will change so erratically in just a matter of days (it really will bounce up and down three pounds in the matter of four or five days), I don't think it's an accurate reflection of "my weight," as it were, it's just bizarre that it's been consistently doing this for as long as month. Usually by now it's kept to a downward trend overall. I shouldn't be maintaining at around 1400 calories, should I?

tinkerbellang83

sheloves89 wrote: »

Hello all,

I'm 30 years old, 5'7", currently weigh 155 lbs, goal weight originally was 160 (yay!) but I've knocked it down to 150. Started from 180 back in September of last year.

Sedentary lifestyle, set to 1200 calories/day but usually I'm eating closer to 1300-1400. I'm okay with going over, as long as the "projected weight in 5 weeks" number is lower than what I weigh now, and that's been working out just fine for me.

Until this month!!

I have been bouncing between 155 and 152 lbs all month long (since Feb. 22nd). I weigh myself daily (and I have since September, pretty much), so I'm familiar with my weight fluctuations, but this one has been particularly stubborn. I'll climb may way down from 155 lbs to 152 lbs and then I'll have a day that's maybe closer to 1500 calories than 1400, and it'll shoot right back up to 155! And sometimes my weight will drop back down to 152 in the course of just a few days. But almost like clockwork, it will be back to 155 within a week (sometimes with no changes in my calorie intake)!

I'm not comfortable opening my diary, but I can assure you that I weigh and measure everything that passes my lips. I make my meals from scratch and include all of the ingredients (including cooking oils, etc - on a per weight basis). I don't eat takeaway.

Because the weight will change so erratically in just a matter of days (it really will bounce up and down three pounds in the matter of four or five days), I don't think it's an accurate reflection of "my weight," as it were, it's just bizarre that it's been consistently doing this for as long as month. Usually by now it's kept to a downward trend overall. I shouldn't be maintaining at around 1400 calories, should I?

As you get closer to goal, the weight loss can appear immensely slower than when you had more weight to lose. Water weight will much easier cloud your weight loss. Have you tried using a trendweight app? Happy Scale for iOs and Libra for Android are quite good, it'll help with seeing past the fluctuations.

brenn24179

I started losing weight in July and weight came off easy for 4 months, closer I got to goal weight it slowed down a lot. I lost 30 lbs in 4 months and it took me another 4 months to lose 5 lbs for some reason, off of a sudden whoosh, weight went down. I just kept keeping on.

Panini911

the other thing i have done in the last few minutes is second guess my logging.

- i double checked i was weighing foods properly (i was wondering if my food scale was good so i had two out for awhile to confirm all was good)
- logged things like gum (urgh, so sad, i really cut back on gum chewing - but this has reduced my gum budget (financial))
- double checked all my entries. awhile back i realized i was really off with my chicken. sure i weighted it but i weighed it cooked and used a raw entry. i've been logging a long time but the last few months i found all kinds of errors.

I mean, i still get super annoyed about the scale going up or not going down ;P it's a huge tease, randomly giving me a super low number then bouncing back up higher for a week before actually going back down for good :P i'm in an up right now but i assume by next week i'll see the lower numbers again.

MichaelK1007

I have always said that nutrition can get you to 85% maybe even 90% of your goal and excerise can make up the remaining. Not sure if this is always the case but I know for me I was working out regularly and not seeing any results because my nutrition wasn’t on point. Now that my nutrition is on point I have found reaching my goals was attainable. As another poster suggested the last few pounds can be difficult and for me it’s required a lifting program and cardio every day. It’s a process but don’t give up. Also I know you don’t share your diary but do you track macros or just calories. If so what is your macro breakdown. For me it’s 55p/25c/20f. My diary is open so feel free to add me if I can help.

sheloves89

mkgoodson1007 wrote: »

Also I know you don’t share your diary but do you track macros or just calories.

I keep an eye on my macros but I'm not as stringent about those as I am about my calories (except for the protein; I'm recently back on a pescatarian diet but for budget issues I'm basically 95% vegetarian).

The current is 50c/30f/20p, which is what MFP set for me. Although I think I had the protein higher, because this has me taking in about 75g protein/day and I'm pretty sure I had set it manually to 90g/day, but I just went back through my settings and had MFP re-calculate a calorie goal for 0.5lb/week loss and it recalculated my macros for me.

MichaelK1007

Got it. Carbs are my downfall so I alway incorporate more protein that anything else. I try to stay close or under 100g of carbs a day when in a deficit. Not sure if it works into your budget or diet but if you like Greek yogurt Costco sells a 2 pack for around $5. And cottage cheese and tofu are other good options although not sure if they are expensive.

mstarks01

sheloves89 wrote: »

Sedentary lifestyle, set to 1200 calories/day but usually I'm eating closer to 1300-1400. I'm okay with going over, as long as the "projected weight in 5 weeks" number is lower than what I weigh now, and that's been working out just fine for me.

First, congratulations on your success. Nice job!

You mention weight but do you have any idea what the distribution of that weight is? You may or may not be overfat.

You also mentioned that you have a sedentary lifestyle. Resistance training will not only burn calories, but build muscle, and with more muscle you will be more efficient at burning calories.

Increasing the protein in your diet relative to other macros will help somewhat, as protein is not as easily converted to fat.

I am also pescetarian and have a spreadsheet with a few dozen quality vegetarian protein sources if you would like to see it.

sheloves89

mstarks01 wrote: »

sheloves89 wrote: »

Sedentary lifestyle, set to 1200 calories/day but usually I'm eating closer to 1300-1400. I'm okay with going over, as long as the "projected weight in 5 weeks" number is lower than what I weigh now, and that's been working out just fine for me.

First, congratulations on your success. Nice job!

You mention weight but do you have any idea what the distribution of that weight is? You may or may not be overfat.

You also mentioned that you have a sedentary lifestyle. Resistance training will not only burn calories, but build muscle, and with more muscle you will be more efficient at burning calories.

Increasing the protein in your diet relative to other macros will help somewhat, as protein is not as easily converted to fat.

I am also pescetarian and have a spreadsheet with a few dozen quality vegetarian protein sources if you would like to see it.

Thank you!

I'm back within a normal weight range for my height, and I'm lucky enough to carry most of it on my butt and my thighs (which is exactly where I want it! ) - I'm very happy with the way that I look, the 150 target weight is just to give myself a little bit of breathing room in terms of a weight range for maintenance. I don't mind bouncing between 153 and 155, but I'd be happier bouncing between 150 and 153, if that makes sense. Especially since I think my home scale is just a few pounds off calibration... it'll just make me feel a little bit better. Just those last few pounds are hanging on!

Yes, please, if you're willing to share that spreadsheet I would love to see it! I subsist mostly off of eggs and beans at the moment, and I'm not sure how many friends that earns me.

sarabushby

Have you read this? It might help you to understand the fluctuations better. For sure a weight trend app sounds like a good solution for you.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/