stuck at 188

blezzienickell

So I’m a guy I’m around 5’9 I started at 220 lbs in November. It’s currently Jan 25 and I’ve been stuck at 188lbs since Jan 13th I log everything I eat and never go over my 1800 calorie limit that fitness pal set for me. Any advice on how to get moving again?

zebasschick

patience - sometimes this just happens. if you work out, your muscles will retain water to help with recovery, so you can weigh more.

also check your database entries. there are a lot of wrong ones - this morning, i was adding a new food, and every single database entry for it had incorrect and different calorie, protein and sodium listed. one wrong entry can mean you eat a couple hundred more calories per day than you know about.

Retroguy2000

a) It's only been 12 days. Water, stress, working out, etc. etc.

b) MFP can set whatever number it likes, based on your inputs. Those are just guesses. If your weight isn't changing after a few weeks then whatever you're ingesting must be your current maintenance.

yirara

How good is your tracking? Is there anything with calories that you don't log or only guess? Did you slack a bit after the first success? Congratulations,btw. How do you measure your calories? Do you eat out a lot?

PAV8888

So you have been losing 0.5 to 1lb a day

Probably maintaining a tdee in the 3500 to 4000 range and eating 1800.

And have moved from Cat 1 obese to mid+ overweight in a month and a half

Congratulations so far

But try not to burn out.

If you were to continue at the same rate and be normal weight in a month.... what next?

Why don't you worry about some of the stuff that comes next now? And let your body take a breather while you think it through?

tomcustombuilder

If you haven’t lowered your calories since you started dieting at 220 you’ll need to lower those weekly calories a bit.

frhaberl

One of the dangers of quick and steady weight loss at the beginning of the journey is that we can think that's normal and blame ourselves when weight loss slows or gets more "bumpy". I have definitely been where you're at (many times) and found the most successful approach was:

- Take a step back and look at what I have achieved so far. Zoom out from the 1 week or 1 month view to the 3 month or even 1 year view.
- Wait a full month before changing anything. I'm a woman who still has a monthly cycle, and I'm really not able to tell if whether a weight loss stall is "real" until I'm at the same point in my next cycle. Spoiler alert: I've never actually needed to change anything because my "stall" resolved without intervention.
- Ask myself why I'm in such a hurry to lose weight and whether I would change xyz even if it didn't change my weight. If I'm in a hurry because I'm hating something about my current lifestyle and can't wait to stop doing that then I really need to reevaluate what I'm doing. For me, this lifestyle needs to be sustainable for the rest of my life or I will be back where I started within months/years of reaching my target. The only changes that I feel are worthwhile are the ones that make this a more sustainable lifestyle. So the only change I've made is to slow my weight loss target.

So my advise would be to wait the balance of a month (another 2-3 weeks) and if your AVERAGE weight loss has not resumed, consider dropping your net calories by 100/day and see if that works.

neanderthin

Take a break for a month, eat at maintenance and push yourself if you do weight training and get back to it with vigor.