Urgent Help Please I'm in a mess now!

dansemaillives
dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
in Getting Started
Just had a devastating weekly weigh in (to me) having lost 1lb after averaging weeks at 3lb. I know all about mustn't lose too much too soon but I've got myself in a mess and not eating enough....

This last week I've exercised harder than I've ever exercised and eaten below my daily calories every day yet lost 1lb and my body is hurting.....

Is there anyone who would be willing to look at my diary and advise? I'm scared to eat more and not lose but now only lost a little for eating little and exercising loads!

I want to understand my nutrients but I'm struggling with carbs and protein balance.

I'm 49 years old, male and started 14 weeks ago at 289lbs my weight loss was very small until I joined MFP, in total I've lost 26lbs but 18 of those has been in the last 47 days on MFP.

I've dropped my calories, upped my exercise, according to MFP I'm exercising more calories than I'm eating so in a calorie deficit but I understand it can turn around and bite you which I think it's doing.

Yesterday I got the warning I'm not eating enough when my daily logging was just over 1000 calories and my exercise was my usual 1600 calories (according to mfp)

I'm religious about my logging and would love someone who knows to look and advise??

Got to stop myself giving up as 1lb after all the work I've put in this last week is a real punch in the gut 😔
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Replies

  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Ironically, your excessive approach this week may be the reason you've only lost one lb:
    - exercise can lead to water retention, masking fat loss on the scale
    - a large calorie deficit stresses the body, which can in turn lead to water retention, masking fat loss on the scale

    You're running yourself into the ground, your approach is not sustainable. You don't get bonus points for suffering! Eat more, seriously. 1000 calories is ridiculously low for someone your size, even more so if you're exercising a lot. I lost weight eating at 1700+ calories as a 200lb woman.

    PS your diary is private, so I can't comment on that.

    Thank you for your reply I've made my diary public now I didn't realise it could be private or public 🤦‍♂️so I basically need to up my calories which scares me half to death!
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    Okay, the good news is, this is perfectly normal and even expected. Weight loss isn’t linear. It’s very normal for people to have a honeymoon phase during which the scale drops steadily for the first four to six months, then switch over to a phase in which the scale drops by intervals, some weeks nothing, some weeks several pounds. It has to do with the way the body processes fat and water - fat loss is going on continually under the hood but may be masked by water retention. Then all of a sudden the water clears out and the scale drops.

    It’s also very likely that if you have added a bunch of exercise and are feeling sore, your muscles are retaining water to rebuild themselves. Don’t freak out! Trust the process, trust your logging, and be patient.

    Also, the rule of thumb is that a max rate of loss should be no more than 1% of weight weekly. At your current size that means 3 lbs has been fine, but is starting to be a little much now.

    Don’t worry too much about your macros. Try to eat enough protein because it will help you retain muscle while eating at a deficit, but macros don’t cause weight loss, calories do. Different people find that different combinations of macros help them feel full, but apart from that, unless you have diabetes or pcos, it just isn’t that important.

    Congrats on your loss so far, well done, carry on!

    Thank you for your reply, I'm so sore and it's the first time after weeks of exercise, I thought it was because I'd doubled what I'm doing but think I need to rest up over the weekend and start afresh next week with more calories to support the muscles?
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    That sounds like an excellent plan. It sounds like you have a little DOMS, which is delayed onset muscle soreness, and happens when your muscles aren’t yet used to the load. Doubling what you’ve been doing is a textbook way to get DOMS. It won’t kill you to work through it, but it’s probably a good plan to take an extra rest day. Your muscles grow when they are at rest, not while they work! You can keep kneading the dough but if you want the bread to rise you have to leave it alone for a while!

    That makes a lot of sense thank you
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Having looked at your diary, I'm glad to see you're averaging around 1500 calories a day (better than that one day of 1000 calories).
    Are you weighing your foods? Some foods are in grams, some in volume measurements, some in units (eggs for example)
    Aside from baked beans, I struggle to find any vegetables in your diet. For weight loss, it's calories that matter, but for health more veggies would be better.

    I'm also wondering what exercise you're doing (type and duration) to arrive at 1600 exercise calories per day. And how are you logging that: entering it manually on MFP, using a fitness tracker,...? If those numbers are correct, you are severely undereating. But if they're inflated, it might not be as bad as I think.

    Yes I'm weighing religiously or using measuring jugs etc. If uts something like an egg I'm using the scan and unit of 1 or 2 etc. My BIG problem is I hate veggies! I can manage peas, carrots and sweetcorn so will try to get more in... when I make my own meal like sweet and sour chicken, I weigh each individual ingredient and set as a recipe then each time adjust it depending on whether I have more of one ingredient than another. I don't use jars so when I have curry, or s&s, or chili etc etc I make it and everything is weighed and counted.

    So I started Step Aerobics on YouTube. I logged it under MFP own settings for a 6-8 inch step. It's 126 steps a minute and I do a pair of routines twice a day that add up to a total of 90 minutes (45 minutes a session) the calories are what MFP put. They have dropped as I have dropped weight. I am also doing a small stretch for middle aged men from Samsung health at the moment which adds 84 calories, again its own settings.

    I think I'm undertaking but scared to eat more tbh
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    I agree that your expectations are the problem. This is going to be a long haul (you need to prepare to eat well for the rest of your life, or you'll regain), and you are in training. Relax. Losing weight is trail and error, tweaking here and there. You'll need to find what works. Weight loss goes up and down and sometimes stays the same. Get yourself some good habits and don't try to out-exercise your diet. Regular exercise, sometimes try something new and change it up. If you don't like vegetables, that's OK, but you're missing out on many nutrients. You might want to get on internet and find a few recipes to try. Sooner or later, those veggies will taste great. I throw mine in a huge bowl, put on some olive oil, add the spices that I like, mix it all up, and then put the veggies on a parchment paper lined baking pan at high heat until crispy. If doing vegetables that are hard, I boil them 5 min first, drain, and then throw in the bowl, mix it up and bake.

    I wish you great success.

    Thank you for your reply. I am giving myself 2 years to get down to 161lbs so expect long haul I have a history of diets with no exercise and also crash diets. I did lighterlife once and in 6 months went from 336 lbs (my heaviest ever) to 161 lbs my lightest adult weight since I was 19! But it did nothing and I've gone up and down since. This time I really do want to get it right for the long-term as I hit 50 this year and would like to see retirement..

    Will try on the veggies I do like disguising them within meals I make so will start there again.
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Well, fear is not the best guide :wink: Especially when it's not based on reality. Based on your diary from a week ago, you were losing 3lbs a week while eating 1470 calories per day on average. So that's a calorie deficit of 1500 calories per day. That means you could eat 1500 more calories per day to maintain your weight.

    What are you afraid of? Regaining the weight? If so, I can tell you that what you're doing right now is a path that will most likely lead to gaining the weight back again. For sustainable weight loss, you need to
    - make the weight loss process as easy and painless as possible (the harder you make it, the more likely you'll give up)
    - think about what you'll do when you reach your goal weight: are you making lasting changes to your diet? What will you do when you reach your goal weight: go back to eating the way you did 'before' and perhaps not exercising anymore? Because that will send you right back to where you started.
    - think about your health as well - the faster you lose, the more muscle mass you'll lose and you increase the risk of health problems (fatigue, hair loss, gall bladder issues, even heart problems,...). As has been said above, aiming to lose 1% of your body weight per week is the maximum.

    I know your right and and knownthe health problems all too well, I had my gall bladder removed not long after my 6 month loss of 12.5 stones! My aim is to get as much off as I can and lift my calories slowly as I reach the end to a maintain weight scenario but, as you say, I'm trying to hard to lose to quick.

    So one last question if I may, if I aim at the 1600 MFP has set me and exercise slightly less at say MFP's 1000 calories is that OK or will I still risk myself struggling? My plan would be too lift all 3 carbs, protein and fat nearer the levels set by MFP?

    Thank you for your time it is really appreciated
  • Beverly2Hansen
    Beverly2Hansen Posts: 378 Member
    So I too just had a bad weigh in. What caused it? To much exercise and under eating... I am struggling with water retention. I'm 5'5" 154.4 lbs with a goal of 130lbs because of a medical condition. I shouldn't eat under 1500calories minimum dispute logging(not on mfp) at least 5-6 miles of power walking per day. My husband has taught me some things about weighing you should consider. Most men can lose 5lbs in a good dump and whiz. I weigh in AFTER I've used the bathroom in the morning in my birthday suit. Same scale location and I test my scale with a 30lb weight before weighing myself because electric scales tend to get stuck on a weight and most of their manufacturing instructions say to weigh a smaller items to essentially warm up your scale right before use and make sure it's working. I don't see any need to log exercise as MFP over calculated my burns back in 2015 putting me in maintenance vs a deficit. I use a notebook and google fit to track exercise. You're doing a fantastic job with the weight you've lost. What might help is seeing your 26lbs lost. Most people are visual learners so you need to see your accomplishment take a soup can like green beans or chicken noodle and after eating the contents take the can to the bathroom stopper the sink and dump 26 cans of water into the sink stopping if it starts to over flow. That is roughly the size of 26lbs which is an extraordinary accomplishment. I did that with the cans filled with shaving cream when I lost 10lbs and it was a seriously eye opening learning experience. Also I weigh daily sometimes the day after a bad day I will lose a lb track the overall trend not 1 day. Good luck my friend.
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    wunderkindking wrote: »
    The big thing to remember is that if you stay at a low calorie level for fast lost you will lose muscle as well as fat and that will limit how much you are able to raise your calories as, at rest, muscle takes more calorie to burn than maintain.

    You need to simmer down.

    Fromt he figures above 3000 calories is your maintenance. That means you need to eat 2000 calories a day AND at least part of the calories you earn exercising back. Aim for a thousand calorie deficit and RELAX. This is forever. If the plan is 'and then raise calories' the plan may as well be 'and then gain it back'.

    Thank you for your reply really helpful
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    Beverly2Hansen wrote: »
    So I too just had a bad weigh in. What caused it? To much exercise and under eating... I am struggling with water retention. I'm 5'5" 154.4 lbs with a goal of 130lbs because of a medical condition. I shouldn't eat under 1500calories minimum dispute logging(not on mfp) at least 5-6 miles of power walking per day. My husband has taught me some things about weighing you should consider. Most men can lose 5lbs in a good dump and whiz. I weigh in AFTER I've used the bathroom in the morning in my birthday suit. Same scale location and I test my scale with a 30lb weight before weighing myself because electric scales tend to get stuck on a weight and most of their manufacturing instructions say to weigh a smaller items to essentially warm up your scale right before use and make sure it's working. I don't see any need to log exercise as MFP over calculated my burns back in 2015 putting me in maintenance vs a deficit. I use a notebook and google fit to track exercise. You're doing a fantastic job with the weight you've lost. What might help is seeing your 26lbs lost. Most people are visual learners so you need to see your accomplishment take a soup can like green beans or chicken noodle and after eating the contents take the can to the bathroom stopper the sink and dump 26 cans of water into the sink stopping if it starts to over flow. That is roughly the size of 26lbs which is an extraordinary accomplishment. I did that with the cans filled with shaving cream when I lost 10lbs and it was a seriously eye opening learning experience. Also I weigh daily sometimes the day after a bad day I will lose a lb track the overall trend not 1 day. Good luck my friend.

    Thank you for your reply and some really good points. I'm having a weekend of relaxing (had a takeaway!) 2 days of sensible eating and then start Monday anew making sure I eat more in relation to my exercise.
  • dansemaillives
    dansemaillives Posts: 42 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    You should have a boo at the larger loser group. Has some good content for you to read through.

    Your doubling the exercise and feeling sore = you are retaining water for muscle repair / due to muscle inflammation. There is nothing wrong with that. It is perfectly normal.

    Your weight is not just fat. It is fat and everything else. You see the changes to your fat reserves through repeat observations. The "other stuff" obscures, at times, what is happening with the fat reserves. That's why you look at trends, not individual weigh ins.

    A textbook case of diagnosing someone who is over-doing things, is pushing too hard, and will eventually burn out if they try to continue on that trajectory, is someone who is feeling resentment about how much work they put in and how little reward they got.

    Your reward, if you're ever going to make this a sustainable life moving forward, will, eventually, have to be the doing itself. i.e. keeping to your eating and exercise plans has to become at the very least neutral if not in actual fact enjoyable on their own right and not dependent on the "big reward that makes it all worthwhile".

    Sure... early goings and all that... but keep in mind that you're in for a long haul, not a quick fix. So think long term and use the time to explore options; not just push for faster and faster results in an unrealistic manner.

    You're doing good. You DID good.
    No need to NOT exercise because you're sore... it will resolve over time.
    And yes, there is danger when you hang your whole psyche on a single measurement!

    TL;dr: you probably lost just as much or more fat this week when you saw a 1lb scale movement as you did during the previous weeks when you saw 3lb movements. your weight changes consist of changes to things that are both fat and many other things. the other things obscure your fat level changes. you're pushing too hard. fix it before it turns into a tailspin. no need to panic. breath and do reasonable things and experiment with food you find filling, and movement and exercise that makes you happy, and find your way forward!

    Thank you that was really helpful and inspiring

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