Everything was going well till it kinda stopped...what dont I know? Help sorry if its long!

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uberawesome666
uberawesome666 Posts: 3 Member
edited May 2019 in Food and Nutrition
So over the years i have struggled with my weight and yo yo diets, this year I decided was the year to try and do it right....to not diet but to get my portions right and make good decisions and see where I land. Starting the first of the year I stepped on the scale at 316 pounds, I am 6'1". I started getting up every morning 7 days a week for 30 minutes of brisk walking focusing on my target heart rate, I have not missed a day since Deceber 31st and feel so much better. I also started working hard on portions and decent choices, at first I felt deprived but after a few weeks my body adjusted and things went fine. I am a very busy single dad, my daughter is often gone playing softball so I dont often cook meals. For ease with my scedule my normal routine (dont make fun of my lack of diversity as I enjoy it) breakfast is a piece of whole grain toast and some grapes with coffee and some creamer. Lunch is most often progresso light soup and some oyster crakers, and dinner usually ends up a tuna fish sandwich on whole grain bread. Weekends sometimes I end up making a healthy choice eating out and of course from time to time I slip up or eat out during the week. So I understand that most often I am under calories, infact often I am under 1000 calories and i kept this in the back of my mind...but everyhting was working. As of today I weigh 253 pounds, I feel good, I dont feel hungry or tired....but about a week to ten days ago things started really slowing down from my pretty predicable pace of 2 to 3 pounds a week to the scale not moving at all or moving a few ounces. I know when you have alot of weight to loose its a bit easier, I am wondering if now that I have lost quite a bit if I need to start being smarter and understanding nutrion more. Between the toast and the nightly sandwich am I too many carbs? Am i not enough protien? Am I just under calories and now slowing down cause of that even though its worked for 5 months? I know I need vore variety and I am looking for those ideas too. But does anyone have any insight to why I might be slowing down? My goal is to loose perhaps another 20 or so pounds and maintain. Thank you in andvace!

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  • uberawesome666
    uberawesome666 Posts: 3 Member
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    awolf2011 wrote: »
    First off, great job!! Second, every body works differently. I find that I hit plateaus more now than I ever did. I usually have to change up my eating habits, even if they are healthy, and/or change up my exercise routine. Once I make these small changes, things tend to go forward. I just started fasting 16/8 last week, so this was my change up to my normal routine. Are you tracking everything? Sometimes users don't necessarily track everything and when they did, they find that one of the macros are way off.

    Thank you awolf! I admit I dont track too deeply into the fine points....I will be honest I never thought this would take hold and I have just done my best lol. When I stalled out a little I started looking into things a little closer and I have a suspision it might be a carb thing, when I add up my totals its not a huge amount but it is a high percentage of my total. I think I will do what you say and maybe change that up, try a few things....but down the tuna sandwich and try some grilled chicken or something. Thank you so much for the reply!
  • uberawesome666
    uberawesome666 Posts: 3 Member
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    ekim2016 wrote: »
    well, this month of May is my 3 year since joining mfp and I've not missed a day of logging.. yay me! I went from 270 to 235 in the first two years .. very EZ PZ. The past year I've popped back up to 245 and been stuck there. I am following my same plan as before but something changed. I adjusted my calories per the system accordingly so I'm now doing 1610 p day. It may be my Celebrex med sabotaging me, I dunno. So I'm ramping up by making sure to weigh and stay within the nutrients columns.. salt, protein etc. I will see how it goes but at this point it is like my body is just stuck on maintenance level. I hate to lower my caloric level as I'm noticed the past few weeks I'm starting to nod off in my EZ chair after 8pm watching TV and that has not been the norm. I am old however and still work 40 hours per week.

    Are you drinking a lot of water? I know I could not eat the breads like you do even being under calorie...good luck sir.


    Thank you for your thoughts, im pretty new and I need lots of help! I do drink alot of water but I think I might be slacking, it is the only thing I drink besides morning coffee though. I seem to have plenty of energy for the day so I guess im ok with the calories....I think the bread thing is something I need to change up, at least its the obviousl thing I better try first. Thank you for your advice!
  • swim777
    swim777 Posts: 599 Member
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    Congratulations on your great loss! I think you aren’t eating enough, too. It would be interesting to see what mfp gives you for your daily calories. My son lost a lot, and told me that as his weight loss slowed down, he purposely added a day more at maintenance each week, believing that this kept him losing a little steadier. After I lost 50, mine really slowed down, too. Good luck!
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
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    A study which I read and am not going to try to find again documented the following:

    After 8 weeks of a 500 calorie daily deficit
    The subject's NEAT declined due both to the subject's lower weight and the persistently low calories.
    After a week of feeding the subject the number of maintenance calorie expected for the new weight of the subject, the subject's NEAT returned to the level expected for the weight of the subject.
    An additional period of time with the 500 calorie daily deficit showed continued weight loss.


    Colloquially, on this site, it is called and searchable as a "diet break".
  • JudeGilford
    JudeGilford Posts: 66 Member
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    Wow! What a gift you've given yourself. I know you've got a lot of answers already, so I won't add mine other than keep tweaking until the scale starts moving down again. And I agree you may see that sooner if the carbs go down. Keep us posted!
  • liz0269
    liz0269 Posts: 139 Member
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    I completely disagree that the carbs have anything to do with it. I am steadily losing eating 65% carbs.
    I do think you are under eating and should try taking a two week break. Eat at what MFP tells you is maintenance and log everything. It's not a two week binge.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited May 2019
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    A week to 10 days without a loss is really not a big deal, but:
    Maxxitt wrote: »
    Losing 63 pounds in 4 and a half months is a hellaLOT, OP. It may be that on such a tremendous deficit, your body is compensating big time by sending all available "energy" to vital functions and slowing "non exercise activity" burn to zero. If you really are sometimes (often) netting under 1,000 calories, something's gotta give, right? And cutting more is not at all reasonable. If this was me, I would take a diet break of 1-2 weeks and then get back to deficit eating, only much less of a deficit and much more of a focus on meeting basic nutrition needs.

    These are my thought, as well, and I think a diet break and getting used to maintenance for a while is a good idea before going to lose the rest. You don't want to lose more muscle than necessary and have a shot metabolism (lower BMR than it needs to be) when you finish. That can make maintenance harder, and maintenance is unfortunately kind of hard for many people.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,603 Member
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    emmamcgarity wrote: »
    The amount of food you are describing is less than what I am eating as a female at 140 lbs. i think you need to eat more. I recommend you put your current stats into myfitnesspal and eat the amount of calories it gives you. Your choices of what to eat are up to you. I eat many of the foods you describe, just more of them. I also recommend making sure you get plenty of protein to avoid losing too much muscle.

    As for why the scale hasn’t moved in the past few days, it sounds like you’ve been undereating up until now and losing so fast that you haven’t seen to normal fluctuations in the scale. A slower approach to weight loss is better in the long run. Expect to see 0.5 to 2 lbs lost per week and even ocasional gains. This is expected.

    QFT

    AND
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    A week to 10 days without a loss is really not a big deal, but:
    Maxxitt wrote: »
    Losing 63 pounds in 4 and a half months is a hellaLOT, OP. It may be that on such a tremendous deficit, your body is compensating big time by sending all available "energy" to vital functions and slowing "non exercise activity" burn to zero. If you really are sometimes (often) netting under 1,000 calories, something's gotta give, right? And cutting more is not at all reasonable. If this was me, I would take a diet break of 1-2 weeks and then get back to deficit eating, only much less of a deficit and much more of a focus on meeting basic nutrition needs.

    These are my thought, as well, and I think a diet break and getting used to maintenance for a while is a good idea before going to lose the rest. You don't want to lose more muscle than necessary and have a shot metabolism (lower BMR than it needs to be) when you finish. That can make maintenance harder, and maintenance is unfortunately kind of hard for many people.

    QFT too!
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 463 Member
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    So during WW2, they did some experiments on weight loss and starvation diets. They gave men a diet of 1500 calories and measured their loss over time. They found that the loss was pretty consistent, but at a certain point they would stall. Every month during the experiments, they gave the participants a day with higher calories for fun, at 2200 i believe. They noticed that after that day, participants got up during the night more often to urinate, and generally the plateau would stop, and weight would be lost rapidly for a day or two to put loss back with expectations.

    Consistent dieting puts the body in stress mode, causing more production of stress hormones like cortisol. This in turn leads to more water retention. This is why often people notice that they may lose faster after a few days at a higher calorie goal.

    This happened to me last month as well, actually. Weight went up 2 pounds, went back down 2 pounds, stalled for 3 weeks, then went down 6 pounds over 3 days. The human body is weird man, and water retention is one of the most annoying parts of weight loss. Eat some extra carbs and salt? Retention. Lose for too long? Retention. Just have to keep going.

    You're doing great!

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