Not losing - can anyone help

goatelope

Hello,

I seem to have hit another plateau and have not lost in the last 10 days despite sticking more or less to 1200 calories a day. This was based on me being 5’4” and currently 172lbs, but sedentary due to hip problems making exercise almost impossible (except gentle walking which I try to do daily)
Some people have said to me that my body could be in starvation mode hence not losing - any ideas how I can start the losss again? Very motivated to keep losing another 20lbs at least so very frustrated with this

LyndaBSS

What exactly does sticking more or less to 1200 calories a day mean?

Fluctuations and plateaus are a normal part of the process. You don't need to make any changes. Wait another two weeks.

Starvation mode is a myth.

goatelope

LyndaBSS wrote: »

What exactly does sticking more or less to 1200 calories a day mean?

Fluctuations and plateaus are a normal part of the process. You don't need to make any changes. Wait another two weeks.

Starvation mode is a myth.

Hi - thanks for that, it did seem a bit weird.

I had one week where I was eating erratically and I think it’s safe to say I would have eaten on average 1400 calories a day for 5/6 days

Apparently my maintenance calories are 1400 a day, meaning I should have 900 a day if I want to lose 1lb a week. That seems very low but I could try.

LyndaBSS

The lowest amount of calories you should be on is 1200. That's for an obese woman.

You must not, under any conditions, try 900. That's dangerous.

What's the number mfp allocated you?

What's your age, height, starting weight and current weight?

diannethegeek

It's only been 10 days and stalls and fluctuations like that are a normal part of weight loss. There may be nothing that needs top be changed yet. This might help: http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

That said, your diary shows a lot of quick adds. How carefully are you tracking? Any chance you're using a food scale/ tracking every bite, lick, and taste?

These would be my other generic suggestions:

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one and use it for everything. Everything. For a couple of weeks to see what kind of discrepancies you're running into. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries. Don't trust the barcode scanner or restaurant entries 100%.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight, happy scale, or libra to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

LyndaBSS

Your July 25th post indicated that you understood stalls, yet every week, it seems you're upset about a 10 day stall.

Do you feel you are accurately logging or could your entries use some tightening up?

wildernessmith

I am familiar with plateau’s. I’ve had many. I’ve gone 3 weeks with no change and suddenly lose 8lbs out of nowhere. However, I typically am doing something that is interfering with my diet and something that was once okay isn’t any longer. When I started I drink Coke Zero and used carb substitutes like Atkins bars or low carb ice cream and was losing but would plateau. When I cut those out I would continue to lose weight again. But the body is a clever mechanism and needs to be tricked. I don’t know if this helps but it’s my experience.

Jeff_Loughboro

I have this problem right now and I agree with the above replies. I've had plateaus before that last several days. All this week I've been on a plateau, and my brain says stop (I can't go any lower) but that's me being insane - obsessing about it too much. I think it has to be math: because the weight loss curve is like a decaying exponential if it were to be "smoothed out" each 1-pound drop time intervals increase so it makes sense the incremental plateaus are going to get longer as time goes on. If time is money, each pound is more expensive as time goes on. If I over-exercise I'm gonna get the cravings, so patience is a key. In Buddhism: "this too shall pass". What I really need is a lifestyle change.

Jeff_Loughboro

I forgot to mention the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol tricks the body into holding on to energy reserves. If I'm stressed out, I will lose more weight if I can find a way to relax instead, e.g. meditate, and get plenty of sleep. The more CARBON dioxide I can breath out in REM sleep, the more I will lose = more REM sleep.

Redordeadhead

LyndaBSS wrote: »

Your July 25th post indicated that you understood stalls, yet every week, it seems you're upset about a 10 day stall.

Do you feel you are accurately logging or could your entries use some tightening up?

This - 10 days is too little time to worry, be patient.

goatelope

Thanks everyone for these responses.

Yes I log. Everything. When I do quick adds it isn’t because I’m estimating, it’s because I weigh and jot down on a note pad and sometimes don’t want to log each ingredient. I’ve done some double checking and I was underestimating calories in eggs so I have adjusted that.

I think it is a normal plateau but also potentially stress and hormones, I’ve a lot going on and the more I worry about my weight the worse it gets!

I am on 1200 because:

I started at 182
I am 38, nearly 39
I’m 5’4”
Best weight in indicated I managed to lose 12lbs but then I went up to 172 and can’t seem to lose anymore.

I can’t ezcercise other than light walking. I don’t usually eat the calories back, if I do I try to only eat back half.

Thanks for the kind words. I’m frustttaed with it.