Stalled :(

dcollins52

Hello myfitnesspal group!

I have lost over 7 lbs. in 30 days but I am stuck here for the past week.

One thing I noticed is the more 'exercise points' I get, I tend to gain a bit.
I am not sure if eating more because I feel embolden with the extra exercise, but it is frustrating.

I am really trying to be mindful of this. Any suggestions?

Dogmom1978

Are you weighing and accurately tracking your food (scale and picking correct entries)?

Are you over estimating (common mistake) your exercise calories?

elisa123gal

You are paying attention to the fact your exercise could be making you more hungry or that you think you can get away with eating more. It does happen. Keep it in check and follow your instincts. congrats on your loss though..,that's great.

LivinLifeHealthy84

How do you track your weight? Weekly? Averaging? Stall outs are extremely common.

dcollins52

Thanks for all of the great responses! I will try to address them all here. I weigh myself everyday and then do a weekly average. I know this may not be good but I feel it gives me some accountability and it was working until recently. Yes I have thought that exercising could make me hungrier and I believe this is probably what it may be. As far a tracking, I try to make it as easy as possible and used pre-packaged foods. I let the mfp app track extra calories given for exercise, but maybe I'll just stick to my calorie allotment.

Dogmom1978

dcollins52 wrote: »

Thanks for all of the great responses! I will try to address them all here. I weigh myself everyday and then do a weekly average. I know this may not be good but I feel it gives me some accountability and it was working until recently. Yes I have thought that exercising could make me hungrier and I believe this is probably what it may be. As far a tracking, I try to make it as easy as possible and used pre-packaged foods. I let the mfp app track extra calories given for exercise, but maybe I'll just stick to my calorie allotment.

MFP has wildly different calorie counts for different exercises and some of them are obscenely high. It’s important to be aware that you aren’t burning 800 calories in 30 min (most likely, I assume that some competitive athletes might be able to do so). Pre packaged foods don’t all weigh the same (regardless of what the package says, the weight will vary). I recommend getting a food scale (about $20) and weighing your foods to get more accurate calorie tracking.

dcollins52

Great advice! I'll purchase a food scale today

dcollins52

Thanks again for all of the support. I am back on track and lost 1 lbs. I was more mindful than usual and, interestingly, I did not do much exercising. I guess I felt like I could eat more since I exercised more. Anyway, thanks again y'all.

susanlee53

3 things: 1. be kind to yourself, and be patient. Stick with your program, and in the end you'll break through plateaus.

2. It's the food, stupid! (not you, but for me, this is the mantra) I have been very athletic my entire life, and credits for the exercise, for me are a total mirage. For example, I walked a marathon the year I turned 50. (running just too hard on the knees) I trained by walking a lot for about 6 months before the event, increasing my distance to 22 miles, and then did the full 26.2 mile (in 8 hrs 19 minutes). Through all of that I never lost a single pound! Nowadays( at age 70) I'm still running around a tennis court (singles and doubles) 4-5 days/wk for 1.5+ hrs. against mostly younger men and women, and it's not enough to lose more than 0.5 lbs/wk.

I watch the total calorie intake rather than the net calories. and keep to 1300-1500 per day. It's enough food, and I'm still losing very slowly. Mostly I'm not in any hurry, so however long the plateaus are, it simply doesn't matter.
This number was based on basal metabolic need at my goal weight.

3. I agree with the others on measuring portions of the foods you eat.

Keep up your good work! 7 lb in 30 days is a lot!

springlering62

It’s not uncommon to stall for a week or two or three. You’ve only been at this a month.

A lot of initial weight loss is water loss. People get excited and think hey! This is easy! I can lose this much every week and I’ll be done in a month or two!

Then they get frustrated and quit.

You’ve got to be patient and hang in there.

I’d also hazard a guess that you enthusiastically started exercising thirty days ago, maybe bumped it up a notch after a week or two when you realized you’d had some success.

Soreness and muscle aches from this can cause you to retain water, which the body directs to those areas for repair.

Stick with it, give it some time, and as others have said, a food scale and careful logging is your very best friend. Ditch those measuring cups and spoons and learn to use metric weights for greater control.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

The amount of weight you can lose in a week is smaller than your weight variation day-to-day. That complicates the situation.