Weight loss plateau due to under eating

mysphic

I'm 5'4, 167lbs, and have started using MyFitnessPal a month ago. I couple my weight loss plan with a fitbit, and I do Muay Thai 2 times a week, hot power yoga 2 times a week, and regular yoga once a week. I also reach 10k steps at least 4 times a week. My goal is to lose 1 lb per week.

I have always had a pretty high metabolism, so I started off fairly confident. However, I have not lost any weight at all. There has been weight loss fluctuations - I can lose up to 4.4lbs, but I would quickly regain it back in a couple days.

Last night I went though my diet plan again to re-examine what I did wrong. I realize that I misunderstood - and thought I had to have a 500 calorie deficit per day from MyFitnessPal's 1200 goal - so I actually have been consuming around 700-800 calories/ day for a month.

My clothes are visibly looser, so I understand that perhaps I am building heavier muscles. However, my energy is low and sluggish, and I feel easily tired. On the weekends, I would oversleep, and sleep for more than 10 hours a day. I've become so sensitive to alcohol, I started to limit my alcohol intake to one drink/ week. I also don't have energy during my work out sessions anymore. I have become visibly weaker.

I'm also frustrated because despite my efforts, I am not seeing any results in terms of my weight. Is it because I've been under eating? Would I have better results if I made sure I eat 1200 calories per day? Or should I eat more to restart my metabolism? I've heard about zig-zagging or calorie cycling - would you recommend I do that to break my plateau?

harper16

You are becoming weaker because you aren't eating enough. The minimum a sedentary female should be eating is 1200 calories a day.

Log your food and any exercise separate. Eat back your exercise calories. Please don't net less than 1200 calories a day.

mysphic

Thank you, I love eating a lot, so I definitely will eat more! After this realisation, I gave myself a break today and ate up to 2000 calories (caloric intake to maintain weight). I will go back to 1200 calories tomorrow, and eat back my exercise calories.

Terytha

Of course you've become weaker. You're starving, literally, and probably suffering malnutrition. You're dropping fat and muscle dangerously fast and if the scale isn't dropping that's probably only because you're retaining water.

You don't need to restart your metabolism, but you need to eat, and given how active you are, more than 1200. I'd start at 1500-1600 and see how you feel.

I'd also suggest seeing a doctor if you can and getting a check up. Eating that little is a direct road to heart failure.

mysphic

Yes, if I use a different calorie calculator, they would recommend me to eat 1500-1600 calories for 1lb/ week weight loss - but if I use MyFitnessPal's calculator, it would come out to 1270 calories. I wasn't sure which one to go for.

I would eat more than 1200 to eat back my exercise calories - but should I have the net calorie consumption to be 1200 or 1500/1600? What do you think? I gain weight really easily, that's why I tried to limit myself to 1200.

I'll make an appointment with my doctor tomorrow. Thank you for the advice!

ALZ14

How much weight do you want/need to lose? 1200 calories seems low for a 1 lb/week weight loss goal.

I would definitely bump up your calories to maintenance for a few weeks. Still measure and portion your food and track it diligently, but don’t eat back your exercise calories and that will create your deficit for weight loss.

spiriteagle99

Try to net 1200-1300 calories. If you are syncing a fitness watch to MFP, maybe eat back 1/2 to 3/4 of the calories it gives you, but definitely make sure you eat at least 1200. Yoga doesn't burn that many calories, though it is good for you in a lot of ways. Since hot yoga is designed to make you sweat, you are probably retaining a lot of water to make up for the amount you lose there. Be sure to weigh and log everything you eat. It is easy to forget things like cooking oil or cream in your coffee, but they do add up.

NovusDies

If your clothes are more loose you are dropping weight. You are certainly *not* gaining muscle. You are, in fact, most likely losing muscle because your deficit is too steep. You need energy to build muscle and you have none to spare.

You are in a bathroom scale plateau. The bathroom scale gives you your total weight which includes lean body mass, fat mass, water, and waste. Water specifically can easily mask other weight loss and because you are stressing your body it is very likely that you are retaining water.

nanastaci2020

If 2000 is your maintenance # and you want to lose 1 pound per week: why not eating 1500?

If you underfeed your body, you will have no energy and your workouts will be crap, meaning you won't have enough energy to really do them. So they won't be as effective as you expect.

But as to why no scale change? Lots of wackiness from water weight. Eat at a reasonable level, tracking your calories in accurately and honestly, for 6-8 weeks. Compare your weight today to your weight on 8/16 and then again on 9/16. 8/16 should be lower than today, and 9/16 should be lower than 8/16.

mysphic

Thank you all for the awesome advice! This is the first time I posted at this forum, and I really appreciate this community. I've been running around like a headless chicken, so the support & guidance means a lot to me.

I have heavy bone mass, so my target weight would be 130 lbs. I'm aiming to lose 37 lbs. I was able to easily do that 2 years ago without calorie restriction and just from working out. I tried doing that for a month, but seeing little results, I decided to try calorie counting for the first time in my life. Mainly because it's the most research-based, scientific approach. Yet the plateau persisted. I thought it was because of my age, as I am turning 35 in 2 months.

I love hot yoga because it really elevates my mood. On a good day I can lose up to 300+ calories for 60 minutes. If I walk to and from the yoga studio, it adds up to 500+ calories deficit for the day. I like being more flexible and it facilitates my training in Muay Thai. My yoga studio is shutting down this week due to the third wave of covid numbers rising in Hong Kong, so I will have to take a break from it anyways. In the meantime, I will drink more water.

Since the yoga studios are closed, I am bumping my Muay Thai training to 3 times a week. I was about to introduce strength training into my work out regime, but all the gyms are close as well. So I think I will just limit myself to Muay Thai for now.

For the next week or two, I will increase my net calories to 1500 for 5 days, and 2000 calories for 2 days, and see if my energy levels improve. I think that would be the most important parameter for me. I know I need to give my body some time to recuperate. Thanks again!

janejellyroll

mysphic wrote: »

Thank you all for the awesome advice! This is the first time I posted at this forum, and I really appreciate this community. I've been running around like a headless chicken, so the support & guidance means a lot to me.

I have heavy bone mass, so my target weight would be 130 lbs. I'm aiming to lose 37 lbs. I was able to easily do that 2 years ago without calorie restriction and just from working out. I tried doing that for a month, but seeing little results, I decided to try calorie counting for the first time in my life. Mainly because it's the most research-based, scientific approach. Yet the plateau persisted. I thought it was because of my age, as I am turning 35 in 2 months.

I love hot yoga because it really elevates my mood. On a good day I can lose up to 300+ calories for 60 minutes. If I walk to and from the yoga studio, it adds up to 500+ calories deficit for the day. I like being more flexible and it facilitates my training in Muay Thai. My yoga studio is shutting down this week due to the third wave of covid numbers rising in Hong Kong, so I will have to take a break from it anyways. In the meantime, I will drink more water.

Since the yoga studios are closed, I am bumping my Muay Thai training to 3 times a week. I was about to introduce strength training into my work out regime, but all the gyms are close as well. So I think I will just limit myself to Muay Thai for now.

For the next week or two, I will increase my net calories to 1500 for 5 days, and 2000 calories for 2 days, and see if my energy levels improve. I think that would be the most important parameter for me. I know I need to give my body some time to recuperate. Thanks again!

Bones are (counterintuitively) pretty light. For a woman, we're talking about five pounds. So the mass of your bones shouldn't really be a factor in deciding your goal weight (not that 130 isn't a good goal).

SCoil123

mysphic wrote: »

Thank you all for the awesome advice! This is the first time I posted at this forum, and I really appreciate this community. I've been running around like a headless chicken, so the support & guidance means a lot to me.

I have heavy bone mass, so my target weight would be 130 lbs. I'm aiming to lose 37 lbs. I was able to easily do that 2 years ago without calorie restriction and just from working out. I tried doing that for a month, but seeing little results, I decided to try calorie counting for the first time in my life. Mainly because it's the most research-based, scientific approach. Yet the plateau persisted. I thought it was because of my age, as I am turning 35 in 2 months.

I love hot yoga because it really elevates my mood. On a good day I can lose up to 300+ calories for 60 minutes. If I walk to and from the yoga studio, it adds up to 500+ calories deficit for the day. I like being more flexible and it facilitates my training in Muay Thai. My yoga studio is shutting down this week due to the third wave of covid numbers rising in Hong Kong, so I will have to take a break from it anyways. In the meantime, I will drink more water.

Since the yoga studios are closed, I am bumping my Muay Thai training to 3 times a week. I was about to introduce strength training into my work out regime, but all the gyms are close as well. So I think I will just limit myself to Muay Thai for now.

For the next week or two, I will increase my net calories to 1500 for 5 days, and 2000 calories for 2 days, and see if my energy levels improve. I think that would be the most important parameter for me. I know I need to give my body some time to recuperate. Thanks again!

Sorry if someone already asked this but how are you measuring your calorie intake?

lgfrie

Given you just went through a month of extreme starvation-level calorie deprivation, I would focus right now on getting things on an even keel. If 2,000 is your maintenance level, then 1500 would get you a pound a week of weight loss - perfect! I would take that as the starting position, from which you can always adjust things later. For now, I would eat back every single calorie of the exercise. So if you do 300 cals of exercise, eat 1500+300=1800. Do this for a few weeks or a month and you will find your rhythm for going forward. You can always reduce that 1500 net by a tad if you want to accelerate the weight loss, but maybe you'll decide you're happy with 1 lb a week. The nice thing about 1 lb per week is you get plenty of food without stressing your body (or mind) much.

It sounds like you have lost fat, from your clothes fitting better, but are retaining water, which makes sense because you've been starving. Once you get things on an even keel, it's likely the water will rebalance and you'll get the scale results you seek.

AnnPT77

janejellyroll wrote: »

mysphic wrote: »

Thank you all for the awesome advice! This is the first time I posted at this forum, and I really appreciate this community. I've been running around like a headless chicken, so the support & guidance means a lot to me.

I have heavy bone mass, so my target weight would be 130 lbs. I'm aiming to lose 37 lbs. I was able to easily do that 2 years ago without calorie restriction and just from working out. I tried doing that for a month, but seeing little results, I decided to try calorie counting for the first time in my life. Mainly because it's the most research-based, scientific approach. Yet the plateau persisted. I thought it was because of my age, as I am turning 35 in 2 months.

I love hot yoga because it really elevates my mood. On a good day I can lose up to 300+ calories for 60 minutes. If I walk to and from the yoga studio, it adds up to 500+ calories deficit for the day. I like being more flexible and it facilitates my training in Muay Thai. My yoga studio is shutting down this week due to the third wave of covid numbers rising in Hong Kong, so I will have to take a break from it anyways. In the meantime, I will drink more water.

Since the yoga studios are closed, I am bumping my Muay Thai training to 3 times a week. I was about to introduce strength training into my work out regime, but all the gyms are close as well. So I think I will just limit myself to Muay Thai for now.

For the next week or two, I will increase my net calories to 1500 for 5 days, and 2000 calories for 2 days, and see if my energy levels improve. I think that would be the most important parameter for me. I know I need to give my body some time to recuperate. Thanks again!

Bones are (counterintuitively) pretty light. For a woman, we're talking about five pounds. So the mass of your bones shouldn't really be a factor in deciding your goal weight (not that 130 isn't a good goal).

Absolutely true, though I'd expand on that by saying that if someone's bone mass is bigger because of something like widely-spaced pelvic bones, or quite broad shoulders, etc., then the geometrically larger amount of meat we need to wrap around that to contain the space will be meaningful, in determining a good goal weight.

OP, you've been seeing stress- and exercise-related water weight mask extreme fat loss, while at the same time the low energy is bleeding activity out of daily life and intensity out of your exercise, and slowing that because your body is trying to preserve itself. Bad combination! Can you imaging how many daily life calories you give up by sleeping for 10 hours, vs. sleeping a more reasonable amount and Doing Daily Stuff with the extra waking hours, plus near-sleepwalking through the days? It's potentially in the hundreds. Sadly, with all that going on, you're not gaining muscle. Your body is prioritizing keeping you alive, not gaining muscle.

Your new plan sounds much, much better.

FWIW, I started MFP at 5'5" and a weight in the 150s. 1200 plus exercise was punitively low for me, personally, and I did better at 1400-1600 plus exercise (so more like 1600-2000 calories actually eaten most days), losing pretty rapidly even at that. (I got to 130 in several months, pretty easily). People vary in their needs, so I'm not saying you're my calorie twin. But I'm sure what you've been doing has been seriously counter-productive, as you're figuring out.

MFP is giving you a lower calorie goal because it expects you to log and eat back a reasonable estimate of exercise calories on top of that base goal, which, as you discovered, already includes your calorie deficit for weight loss. (MFP is using the "NEAT method", i.e., based on Non-Exercise Activity Thermogensis, which is calorie needs before intentional exercise; whereas most other calculators use the TDEE method, based on Total Daily Energy Expenditure, which averages planned intentional exercise over the week into your daily calorie goal, so the base goal is higher. Either method can work, but they're not identical.)

Given your recent experiences, you might find this useful background reading as partial explanation:

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

Best wishes on your new and better course!

janejellyroll

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Absolutely true, though I'd expand on that by saying that if someone's bone mass is bigger because of something like widely-spaced pelvic bones, or quite broad shoulders, etc., then the geometrically larger amount of meat we need to wrap around that to contain the space will be meaningful, in determining a good goal weight.

Yes, what I should have said is that the actual weight of your bones is unlikely to be a factor in choosing a goal weight, but our build does influence how people of the same height can look different at the same weight.

mysphic

Yah, I've actually seen a certified dietitian/ nutritionist before, she took my measurements and commented that I have a heavier bone mass than the average person, so 130 lbs is a good target. That was more than 10 years ago in Hong Kong, where the average Asian woman is naturally slim, which is why she made that comment (She was also a local Chinese doctor). I have been around 130 lbs before, I was a US size 6~8 at the time. So I think 130 lbs is a healthy goal weight for me.

I generally eat at home and I measure my calorie intake with a food scale. I haven't really taken in the sauces in account, but I will in the future. When I go out and eat on weekends, I usually just eyeball it, so I'm probably taking in more calories then. Still, it was abnormal how my energy levels took such a dive; that's when I realise I've miscalculated my calorie restriction. On Muay Thai days I will eat 2000 calories to make up for 500 exercise calories, and on my off days I am relatively sedentary, so I will eat 1500 calories.

Thank you for the background reading, that was super useful! It put my mind at ease. i will weigh myself less, and at a fixed time.

DebD100

Two weeks ago I saw a weightloss doctor and a dietitian because I am 60#s over weight and have been for 14 years. I have figured out that through my yoyo dieting I have only been consuming an average of 600-800 calories a day and then excersizing. I have been trying so hard for so long that my perception of weightloss is skewed. I also am a celiac and stopped my period 14 years ago and have hypothyroidism. I have lost 7 pounds in two weeks eating or trying to eat 1200 calories a day. It's really hard when I have been starving myself for so long. My doctor wants me on 100G of protein, 150G of carbs which I said hell no to so she said at least 75G of carbs. She told me to eat healthy fats which I do. So I am the starving fat lady. Anyway, goodluck to you.

Ddsb11

How are you measuring your food?