Not even sure where to start (again) at this point

happymom24

I am 47, female, 6’ tall and 207 lbs. I have tried fasting, calorie counting, and currently working with a trainer but I am gaining weight instead of losing.

With four kids and working full time, I tend to get busy and skip meals. My trainer is having me increase calories and protein to “reset” my metabolism and get into a regular eating habit again, but I’m gaining weight because of the increased calories. Also, I’m starting to feel like the constant tracking and worrying about protein is taking over my life. Finally, I’ve been doing this for 5 months and haven’t lost anything. I’ve had a very stressful winter with several emergency family issues that has thrown some weeks off but I feel like I should be down some weight by now. I am seeing improvements in my workouts.

I am now eating around 1400 calories and 110g of protein daily. I am lightly active and aim for 8k steps each day. On days that I don’t actively go for a walk, I still hit 5k steps. I feel like this is a good amount of food for me and I can pretty much hit my protein goal every day without feeling like I’m forcing myself to eat (which I did feel like on a different plan). I can keep up on the routines myself and now that winter is ending, I can go for more walks.

What should I tweak to start seeing some weight loss?

BarbaraHelen2013

1400 calories sounds very low for someone of your height and current weight. I’m a full foot shorter, quite a lot older and that’d be pretty much appropriate for maintenance/slow loss for me. I also suspect you should be getting more protein but others are WAY more expert at judging that than I am. I’m sure they’ll be along shortly to help with that!

Two questions first:

- How are you measuring that 1400 calories? Are you weighing your food or guesstimating by using cups and spoons etc?

- What is your weekly weight loss goal? Are you trying to lose too fast which may be having the effect of making you non compliant frequently enough to wipe out your planned deficit?

happymom24

Sometimes I’m weighing, sometimes I’m using cups or spoons. For example, breakfast today is tea, toast, and Greek yogurt which I use measuring cups for. I’d be happy with 1-1.5 lbs lost each week. We have been increasing my calories to 1400…I was eating less. 😔

cmriverside

Well, I am 5'7" (or 5'8"..apparently...) female, no kids, not working, and I lost nearly all my 80 pounds of weight lost at 1500-1600 PLUS MORE on days I exercised. So for five days a week I walked five miles and added on 300 calories more - I was eating 1800-1900 to lose weight.

1400 sounds really low for your height and weight.

What does this site's Goal calculator give you for calories when you set it at "Lose 1 pound per week" and "Lightly Active?" Use that and then add on your purposeful exercise on top of those 5,000 steps.

kshama2001

happymom24 wrote: »

Sometimes I’m weighing, sometimes I’m using cups or spoons. For example, breakfast today is tea, toast, and Greek yogurt which I use measuring cups for. I’d be happy with 1-1.5 lbs lost each week. We have been increasing my calories to 1400…I was eating less. 😔

I find it much simpler, not to mention accurate, to just weigh everything, and then there are no measuring cups to wash!

Your diary is open so I took a look. Last time I looked at someone's diary I noticed she was using bad entries for cheese and mayo, which meant she was undercounting by two hundred calories for just those two foods, which she ate often. Nothing like that jumped out at me from your diary, but do consider weighing, and do double check your entries.

Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP. All ADMIN entries from the USDA will have weights as an option BUT there is a glitch whereby sometimes 1g is the option but the values are actually for 100g. This is pretty easy to spot though, as when added the calories are 100x more than is reasonable.

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

******************

Something else DID jump out at me.

Many people on MFP successfully lose weight while regularly drinking moderately. I'm not one of them. I eat more when I drink, and then that night I don't sleep well, and the next day I eat more and move less. These days I have a drink about once a quarter, which works much better for me. Something to consider.

I get that your life is stressful. My brother is mentally ill and is currently in a psychiatric crisis. I definitely self-medicated with chocolate last week But that stopped yesterday

I used to self-soothe with alcohol, but in 1997 I found yoga, and that works much better for me, as does cardio in general, with increased exercise in times of increased stress. I still relapse into using food from time to time, but it's easier to get it under control.

During the pandemic, I realized my usual coping strategies weren't working and reached out for mental health support. I've been doing therapy virtually, which is super convenient. I've been so glad to have my therapist during this crisis with my brother.

33gail33

happymom24 wrote: »

I am 47, female, 6’ tall and 207 lbs. I have tried fasting, calorie counting, and currently working with a trainer but I am gaining weight instead of losing.

With four kids and working full time, I tend to get busy and skip meals. My trainer is having me increase calories and protein to “reset” my metabolism and get into a regular eating habit again, but I’m gaining weight because of the increased calories. Also, I’m starting to feel like the constant tracking and worrying about protein is taking over my life. Finally, I’ve been doing this for 5 months and haven’t lost anything. I’ve had a very stressful winter with several emergency family issues that has thrown some weeks off but I feel like I should be down some weight by now. I am seeing improvements in my workouts.

I am now eating around 1400 calories and 110g of protein daily. I am lightly active and aim for 8k steps each day. On days that I don’t actively go for a walk, I still hit 5k steps. I feel like this is a good amount of food for me and I can pretty much hit my protein goal every day without feeling like I’m forcing myself to eat (which I did feel like on a different plan). I can keep up on the routines myself and now that winter is ending, I can go for more walks.

What should I tweak to start seeing some weight loss?

I am around your height and weight - 10 years older. I too struggled and obsessed when I tried to hit a protein target of 100+, because I just don't prefer to eat that way and ended up adding calories that I didn't really want just to up the protein. I now ignore that and only focus only on getting enough fibre. I eat 30-40 grams of fibre a day and have lost 6 lbs in the last month at around 1500-1700 calories. This is what works for me.

(fwiw my doctor told me that I don't need that much protein. I work out several times a week and have lived my whole life without tracking protein and my muscles haven't wasted away yet.)

PAV8888

I did have a look at February using my old MFP excel macros, then MFP stopped cooperating.

While, if you had the time and inclination and desire, there absolutely does exist room for log tightening with pre-cooked food weight and grams and ingredients and the elimination of the occasionally missed days. Nevertheless, in general, I did NOT spot any HUGE errors that jumped out! Assuming that most of the volume based measurements (especially ones that tended to average between 250 and 300 Cal on the days I looked at) are relatively accurate.

Yet your total caloric intake as logged is extremely low for someone who is your size and activity level. In February your logged intake was less than 1000 Cal on average with zero missed days.

Even if you're off a bit because of logging issues, as long as there's no systematic under-representation, the general conclusion is that your caloric and nutrition intake is already at a minimal level.

Based on what you said, it sounds as if you're being guided through a reverse diet which is trying to increase your caloric maintenance level and accepting a small weight increase as the cost of trying to achieve that. And that you're starting to feel better in terms of being better able to perform at the gym and becoming more active.

Nutritional requirements are very hard to fulfill on less than 1200 Cal. as such I would continue to work on increasing my maintenance calorie level before attempting another deficit, and would consider making an attempt to re-allocate as many of my calories as I could towards maximizing the nutritional content of my caloric intake!