Feeling Flabby Again... WTF???

vcancel

OK ladies, after 9 months of working out, eating well and losing 30 pounds, I have a question.

I have been very consistent in my eating and also my workouts. I run about 3.5 miles a day and today I cycled over 8 miles. I also strength train 3 times a week. I'm almost in a 12, down from an 18/20 and a Large top down from a 2X.

I have been struggling with a plateau for the last three weeks (actually you can count all the way back to June since I've only lost 5 pounds since then after a very nice steady loss of about a pound a week since January.) I'm nowhere near goal yet and have to lose about 40 more pounds. The scale hates me and fluctuates anywhere between 3-4 pounds a day. I'm currently 204 but just cannot seem to break into wonderland. Anyway...

I've been enjoying my tighter, fitter more sexy body however.... Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

Is this the fat breaking up? Will this plateau, or series of plateaus, be over soon? Do I sound like I'm losing my mind? LOL

Any thoughts are appreciated... just need some opinions on why I feel like my whole body is just one big skin flap!!!!!

ARGH!!!

I_Will_End_You

Bloating maybe?? I don't know, I go through periods where I feel like I look fluffy, too, even though my weight is lower or the same. I just keep doing what I'm doing, though, and I seem to go back to normal.

vcancel

Possibly but it feels like my entire body composition changed overnight.... it's very strange.

MB_Positif

I would definitely think it's bloating. Or sometimes we just have an off day mentally. Just keep fighting!

vcancel

Thanks MB... it's the plateau more than anything that is driving me crazy. I've been 5 pounds to 199 for 3 months. I'm very frustrated. I have no intentions on quitting but I wish I could figure out what is holding me back.

I've changed up my eating, calorie intake, workout intensity, everything I could think of but it's just not working.

Grrrrrr.......

dangerousdumpling

The flabbiness could be "the whoosh". It is an odd feeling.
Since you have been losing, even though you feel it's slow, you aren't really on a plateau. Even three weeks isn't really a plateau. You could eat maintenance calories for a few days or a week and then cut your calories again to jumpstart things. You could increase the weight you're lifting. Or you could just ride it out and keep doing what you're doing.
It's totally normal for your weight loss to slow down after a while. I've only lost 3 lbs all summer but I choose to focus on inches lost rather than pounds. The scale makes me crazy if I focus on it alone. My tape measure is my friend. My scale is not.
When did you start weight training? Have you been doing it all along?

grimendale

Sounds like you have the squishy fats, a precursor to the woosh previously mentioned. Give it time. And second to Cheveux Noirs comments.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Thanks MB... it's the plateau more than anything that is driving me crazy. I've been 5 pounds to 199 for 3 months. I'm very frustrated. I have no intentions on quitting but I wish I could figure out what is holding me back.

I've changed up my eating, calorie intake, workout intensity, everything I could think of but it's just not working.

Grrrrrr.......

Are you using a food scale?

vcancel

I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

HarrietSmeltzer1

Go to the dollar tree buy exfoliating gloves and each tome you shower out some bath gel on the gloves than exfoliate all over your body. Afterward get a cream for the body that has collagen invite or some Bio oil or vitamin e oil put on each time. You will feel better in yourviwn skin will feel firmer.

vcancel

The flabbiness could be "the whoosh". It is an odd feeling.
Since you have been losing, even though you feel it's slow, you aren't really on a plateau. Even three weeks isn't really a plateau. You could eat maintenance calories for a few days or a week and then cut your calories again to jumpstart things. You could increase the weight you're lifting. Or you could just ride it out and keep doing what you're doing.
It's totally normal for your weight loss to slow down after a while. I've only lost 3 lbs all summer but I choose to focus on inches lost rather than pounds. The scale makes me crazy if I focus on it alone. My tape measure is my friend. My scale is not.
When did you start weight training? Have you been doing it all along?

The scale makes me crazy too. It's like a mean kid on the playground with a magnifying glass and I am the ant.

I go mostly by how my clothes feel but I do need to get more of this weight off so I don't have so much pressure on my knee. It's way better than it was when I first started but it still gives me problems and I just know it's the extra weight.

I'd be terrified to up my calories more for fear of gaining only to have to lose it again. Yikes!

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

It does sound a bit like the "squishy fat" phenomenon. But it could also just be that you're feeling mentally fatigued and you're not seeing yourself as you are. When was the last time you took a diet break?

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

LorinaLynn

Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

vcancel

Go to the dollar tree buy exfoliating gloves and each tome you shower out some bath gel on the gloves than exfoliate all over your body. Afterward get a cream for the body that has collagen invite or some Bio oil or vitamin e oil put on each time. You will feel better in yourviwn skin will feel firmer.

I already do all of those things and it's wonderful!! I use exfoliating gloves with Olay exfoliating body wash and then Nivea Q10 skin firming cream afterwards. I love it and I feel like such a pampered princess!! LOL

vcancel

I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

It does sound a bit like the "squishy fat" phenomenon. But it could also just be that you're feeling mentally fatigued and you're not seeing yourself as you are. When was the last time you took a diet break?

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

Hahaha... I've seen that article and have been waiting for the whoosh but so far I've been whoosh-less.

My husband and I go out regularly for dinner/drinks with friends etc. I log everything and hold myself accountable but never feel like I'm missing out or deprived or anything. My favorite is wings and beer and have that quite a bit on the weekends. So I don't really need a diet break unless you maybe were referring to mentally then I need one big time. I'm just afraid of not going back to it. I've developed very healthy habits over the last 9 months.

jaecamp1

Congratulations on what you've done already!

I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.

vcancel

Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.

I could be smacked. That could work!!! LOL I haven't taken any photos or measurements since starting. I've been going with the scale and how my clothes fit.

vcancel

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago.

vcancel

Congratulations on what you've done already!

I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.

I've never thought of a fasting day... my changes have usually been thinking I wasn't eating enough. Do you just not eat anything???

dangerousdumpling

I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

When was the last time you recalculated your TDEE? You may need to adjust those numbers if you are losing inches even if you're not losing many pounds.
Like I said, I am losing weight slowly, too. I have made the choice to accept slow weight loss over lowering my calories. I don't do well with hunger so I'm sticking with TDEE - 10-20%. If you are afraid to eat at maintenance for a while keep in mind that you may put on a pound or two of water weight but it's not actual weight/fat gain. It's just fluid if you aren't eating a calorie surplus. You're eventually going to have to eat maintenance calories anyway so hopefully it's not too scary for you. You could increase by 200 calories for a few days or a week and then go down to 1772 and give that a few weeks or a month and see if that works. If you've changed your workouts, weigh your food carefully, and are logging calories faithfully then you can either accept that this might be your current rate of weight loss or you can change up your caloric intake. Who knows? You may need to eat more. I don't know what your activity level is.

dangerousdumpling

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago.

So you switched to TDEE-20% a few weeks ago? Is that correct?

stealthq

Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.

Not necessarily. I've gone through a couple of periods where suddenly I was flabby in areas I hadn't been before. It was obvious and measurable. After a couple of weeks to a month, it tightened up again. I think I just lost a lot of fat or water in a localized area and the skin needed time to catch up.

jaecamp1

Congratulations on what you've done already!

I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.

I've never thought of a fasting day... my changes have usually been thinking I wasn't eating enough. Do you just not eat anything???

I will still have my coffee and water, but I try to keep everything else at a minimum. I usually end up with 3-400 or so calories on those days, but all clean stuff. Mostly raw veggies, and a little bit of meat for protein. Then pretty clean but normal calories for the next couple days.

vcancel

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago.

So you switched to TDEE-20% a few weeks ago? Is that correct?

Yes, up til then I was eating what MFP said to eat and I was so tired almost to the point that I couldn't finish my workouts, moody and felt awful. Since doing the TDEE calculation, I've been running over a 5K almost daily and sleeping better, etc.

vcancel

Congratulations on what you've done already!

I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.

I've never thought of a fasting day... my changes have usually been thinking I wasn't eating enough. Do you just not eat anything???

I will still have my coffee and water, but I try to keep everything else at a minimum. I usually end up with 3-400 or so calories on those days, but all clean stuff. Mostly raw veggies, and a little bit of meat for protein. Then pretty clean but normal calories for the next couple days.

OK thank you... I'll keep that in mind.

vcancel

Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.

Not necessarily. I've gone through a couple of periods where suddenly I was flabby in areas I hadn't been before. It was obvious and measurable. After a couple of weeks to a month, it tightened up again. I think I just lost a lot of fat or water in a localized area and the skin needed time to catch up.

I agree it could be emotional but I can see it in the mirror too. My thighs are wiggly jiggly. Worse than normal!! LOL Everything is very dimply and loose.

polo571

Start measuring inches and be consistent.

vcancel

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago.

So you switched to TDEE-20% a few weeks ago? Is that correct?

Yes, up til then I was eating what MFP said to eat and I was so tired almost to the point that I couldn't finish my workouts, moody and felt awful. Since doing the TDEE calculation, I've been running over a 5K almost daily and sleeping better, etc.

One thing I should mention is that the fatigue started almost overnight. Up until then the 1400 calories I was eating seemed to be enough and then I felt sick all the time. Someone suggested I wasn't eating enough and I did some research. That's when I found TDEE. I wasn't losing at 1400 either so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I guess I'm in my 4th week or so.

dangerousdumpling

Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago.

So you switched to TDEE-20% a few weeks ago? Is that correct?

Yes, up til then I was eating what MFP said to eat and I was so tired almost to the point that I couldn't finish my workouts, moody and felt awful. Since doing the TDEE calculation, I've been running over a 5K almost daily and sleeping better, etc.

With an increase of about 400 calories per day it's normal to put on a few pounds of water weight or it may appear that you are on a plateau. You need to give your body some time to adjust and you will start losing again. Ignore my suggestion to increase and then decrease calories. Stick to what you're doing and reassess after a solid month of TDEE-20%. Take your measurements and take pictures and do that again in a month.
When I first switched to TDEE-20% I gained a pound and kept it on for a month. After about three weeks of not losing I took my measurements. I measured again 2 weeks later and had lost 5 inches. Then I lost that pound. Two days later I lost another pound. A week later I lost another pound. It worked! It just took a month for my body to adjust and to see it on the scale. That's when I started focusing more on my measuring tape. Just keep doing what you're doing and enjoy eating more and feeling better.

I forgot to add that with TDEE-20% inch loss is success just as pound loss is. Your goal size and goal weight may not meet in the middle. You may reach your goal size 10 lbs heavier than your goal weight when lifting weights and eating TDEE-20%. Keep in mind that no one but you knows how much you weigh. It's only part of the equation.

vcancel

Start measuring inches and be consistent.

Yes, I should. That way I could have another guide to go by.

The problem is lost inches don't take the weight off of my knee. I really feel it would hurt less with less weight on me.