Can anyone give me advice on why the scales are not budging

samaidan2016

Hi there, so background story is ive lost 4 and half stone over a period of 2 and half years with a pregnancy in between, majority of that weightless has been from sept last until now, I done this by working out 4 times a week (mainly cardio and body weight strength training ) and eating 1500 weekdays and 2,000 to 3,000 saturdays and Sunday, and roughly loosing 4lb a month. Butttt the past 6 weeks I haven't lost anything! (I'm normally a slow looser anyway but this is just sooooooo slowww!) The only changes I've done is start with a PT 6 at the beginning of sept she upped my calories to 2,000 mon-sun and doing proper weight training 2x a week and cardio/HIIT 2x a week! Eating the 2,000 did give me more energy but left me feeling very bloated all week, last week I dropped my cals to 1800 weekdays and 2,000-2,500 weekends but nope still nothing on the scales! I would see through it if I was loosing inches but nope only 3 inches lost OVERALL since July! I'm by no means at a normal weight for my height so still got lots to loose, I'm currently 13st 3lb and 5ft 3inches, I did loose 2lb like 2 weeks ago but put it back on the following week for no apparent reason 🤷‍♀️ feeling really deflated i can't seem to get out of the 13st bracket and break this plateu, im sticking to things religiously! And no my PT hasn't been able to offer much advice just keeps saying to trust the process and ignore the scales 🙄

globalc00

You went from eating 12500 calories to 14000 calories. Maybe try going back to your old routine and eating 12500 calories or do more cardio if you are eating more and have more energy. To offset that extra 1500 calories you are eating every week could translate to several more hours on a treadmill depending on pace and incline or some other equivalent cardio exercise.

dragon_girl26

Well, if you dropped calories last week, that isn't enough time to assess anything. The scale typically doesn't drop weight each week like clockwork...it will probably take a few weeks to start seeing any changes there. However, if your trainer upped your calories by an extra 1500 a week (from 12500 a week to 14000 total a week), that could certainly have been enough to slow down your weight loss. Since you are smaller now than when you started losing weight, you calorie goal also has to start adjusting down with it. A person with less weight doesn't need as many calories.
You said you were losing 4 lbs a month (which is not 'slow", BTW) doing what you were originally doing...at 13 stone (around 186 lbs, if I calculated that correctly), that should be a healthy rate of loss. Why not just go back to that if it was working for you?
If you plug in 1 lbs/.5 kg a week into MFP, what calorie goal does it show for you?

sijomial

If I went from losing weight then increased calories and maintained weight then I certainly wouldn't "ignore the scales" as they are telling you valuable information. "Trust the process" sounds good on one level but are your goals and priorities alligned with your PT's goals and priorities? If the PT is focussing on fitness first (which really is their job and not diet advice) and you are focussed primarilly on weight loss then you can see you might not be pulling in the same direction.

But I also wouldn't expect reverting to a lower calorie allowance for just one week to be a reliable indicator of anything, not enough time to see a trend.

The other lesson perhaps to take from your higher calorie experiment is that a spell at maintenance calories gave you more energy so maybe build diet breaks into your plan.

NovusDies

samaidan2016 wrote: »

Hi there, so background story is ive lost 4 and half stone over a period of 2 and half years with a pregnancy in between, majority of that weightless has been from sept last until now, I done this by working out 4 times a week (mainly cardio and body weight strength training ) and eating 1500 weekdays and 2,000 to 3,000 saturdays and Sunday, and roughly loosing 4lb a month. Butttt the past 6 weeks I haven't lost anything! (I'm normally a slow looser anyway but this is just sooooooo slowww!) The only changes I've done is start with a PT 6 at the beginning of sept she upped my calories to 2,000 mon-sun and doing proper weight training 2x a week and cardio/HIIT 2x a week! Eating the 2,000 did give me more energy but left me feeling very bloated all week, last week I dropped my cals to 1800 weekdays and 2,000-2,500 weekends but nope still nothing on the scales! I would see through it if I was loosing inches but nope only 3 inches lost OVERALL since July! I'm by no means at a normal weight for my height so still got lots to loose, I'm currently 13st 3lb and 5ft 3inches, I did loose 2lb like 2 weeks ago but put it back on the following week for no apparent reason 🤷‍♀️ feeling really deflated i can't seem to get out of the 13st bracket and break this plateu, im sticking to things religiously! And no my PT hasn't been able to offer much advice just keeps saying to trust the process and ignore the scales 🙄

You were losing about 1 pound per week which is an average daily deficit of 500 calories. If you move from 1500 to 2000 without adding 500 calories in additional daily exercise you are at or very close to maintenance. The scale is not moving because it should not be.

You need to listen to YOU and YOUR numbers if you want to lose weight. Your PT, who is likely not trained at all in nutrition or weight loss, is guessing at what you should be doing based on his/her experience with other clients.

NovusDies

sijomial wrote: »

If I went from losing weight then increased calories and maintained weight then I certainly wouldn't "ignore the scales" as they are telling you valuable information. "Trust the process" sounds good on one level but are your goals and priorities alligned with your PT's goals and priorities? If the PT is focussing on fitness first (which really is their job and not diet advice) and you are focussed primarilly on weight loss then you can see you might not be pulling in the same direction.

But I also wouldn't expect reverting to a lower calorie allowance for just one week to be a reliable indicator of anything, not enough time to see a trend.

The other lesson perhaps to take from your higher calorie experiment is that a spell at maintenance calories gave you more energy so maybe build diet breaks into your plan.

These points too.

Diet/deficit breaks:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

The PT probably did you a favor without realizing it. If you have not taken a break in the past year a solid 6 week break was good for you physically. Unfortunately because you were not aware you were taking a break it would not have had many mental benefits. I have been around weight loss people accidentally stuck at maintenance enough to know that if you think you on a weight loss program that is the way it feels (mentally) whether you are losing or not.

scarlett_k

You've "only" lost 3 inches since July? That's a lot.

nooshi713

It sounds as if you are eating at maintenance. You will have lower your calories to start losing again. Your weight loss of 1 lb a week before was not slow. You can probably sustain that rate for a bit longer but as you get smaller, 1/2 lb a week will be more realistic.