Scale wont budge.

I am frustrated.....I am in a calorie deficit every day, eating protein, low carb most days, daily exercise. Based on my intake and output I should be losing at least 1- 1 & 1/2 lbs a week. Some weeks 2 lbs. Scale is not moving at all for a couple weeks. In fact it went up about a pound and a half. My typical day has about 1500 calories or less. Never less than 1200. Any advice?

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ddsb1111

Will you paste a days log here?

sollyn23l2

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10955931/scale-wont-budge

I'm not saying this to be mean or accusatory, but for the sake of honesty. In all likelihood, you are eating more than you think you are. You need to focus in on carefully logging everything you eat by weight. Until you do that, you can eat as much protein as you like and the scale will just continue to go up. Focus on your logging. Right now, I would just focus on that. Every bite, every day. Even on weekends, days you eat something you didn't intend to. Everything. By weight.

AnnPT77

How long have you been at this this round?

A scale stall of a couple of weeks is normal, though not universal. It's even more normal at the start, maybe almost certain to happen then if the range of foods eaten has changed, and there's new exercise in the picture. Responding to it by cutting calories further and exercising more has the potential - not a certainty - of making it worse.

Those things, if it happens, aren't about body fat loss or gain. They're about the weight of waste in the digestive tract, and shifts in water retention. New or increased exercise increases water retention for muscle repair, eating more veggies and fruits puts more fiber into the digestive tract, and those aren't the only contributors. High stress levels can increase water retention, too. A calorie deficit is a stressor, though one we hope will give us positive long-term results. High emotion about the direction of weight loss is a stressor. New exercise is a stressor, and if overdoing for current fitness level, even more of a stressor.

Not everyone sees those effects, but some do. When it comes to water retention, our bodies know what they're doing. Those shifts are part of how they keep us healthy. Some people turn to diuretics to try to defeat the body's stay-healthy tactics. That's a bad plan.

Also, if female and of the relevant age/stage, some women here have reported that they only see a new low weight once a month, at a particular point in their cycle, with the rest of the month a scale-weight roller-coaster. That's not the most common pattern, but it can happen.

Sollyn's advice about counting accurately is good advice. That's not a criticism of you. Logging accurately is a surprisingly subtle skill. Most of us who've done it for a while have had serious face-palm moments of realization that we'd been making some meaningfully large systematic error.

Log every bite, lick, taste, condiment, dressing, beverage, cooking oil.

Don't use other people's recipe entries in the food database ("meat lasagna, one plate", "ham sandwich", etc.). We have no idea what ingredients that person used. Especially don't do that and choose the lowest-calorie one out there: Sometimes we might need to use those to estimate a meal at someone else's house, for example. When necessary, pick a mid- to high-calorie entry from the database. When possible, input your own specific individual ingredients by weight. Learn to use the Recipes and Meals features to make that easier.

Also: It's the calorie average that counts . . . all the calories. A cheat day or an oopsie day that we choose not to log, or don't even want to admit to ourselves, can wipe out a week's calorie deficit quite easily. Me, I'm human. Those things happen sometimes. As long as I log them, I know what to expect. Self-honesty is part of the formula. Maybe that doesn't apply to you, I don't know, but it does for me.

I'd say a scale stall isn't "stopped losing fat" until it's been 4-6 weeks or a whole menstrual cycle at consistent weight, while eating consistent calories and doing consistent exercise. No down trend for at least that long. Two weeks is too short, especially an early two weeks.

Also, it would help to be weighing at least somewhat frequently to see the trend. Not everyone has the steely nerves to weigh daily, but there have been times when if I weighed once a week, I'd catch a low day at the start, a high day at the end . . . my daily weights told me I was on an overall down-trend, but the weekly points if that's all I saw would've discouraged me. They were just the random ups and downs that are normal, but I took the scale-weight snapshot at the misleading points. Same deal if weighing once a month. I'm not saying you have to weigh daily, some people shouldn't because it's just too stressful. But we each need to understand the implications of our weigh-in schedule. That "catch random misleading points" is a risk of infrequent weigh-ins.

It's standard to have multi-pound weight shifts from one day to the next at consistent calories and workouts. My weight has changed by up to 6 pounds from one day to the next. I know that if I haven't accumulated 21,000 excess calories recently, I haven't gained 6 pounds of fat. Yeah, that's an unusually big shift for me. But people vary. Heavier people will probably see bigger shifts in pounds (because it's a lower percent of their body weight than it would be for a tiny person). For me, up and down a couple of pounds day to day is absolutely standard expectation.

Variation of waste in the digestive tract can be a pound or two, maybe more, too - depends on what we ate, when we ate it, what happened in the bathroom and when.

Losing fast, two pounds a week of body fat, that's an average of 4.6 ounces of fat loss per day. Those multi-pound water and weight shifts can play peek-a-boo on the scale for a long time with that (roughly) quarter pound of fat loss.

So, bottom line, yes, tighten up your logging practices as much as you can without it becoming a mentally unhealthy obsession. It helps me to treat it like a fun, productive science fair project for grown ups, not some kind of test of my human worth, or a magic formula that must be obsessively precise or it will magically trigger total failure. Be accurate, and practical.

But also: Hang in there. If you're truly eating 1200-1500 calories, the scale will eventually drop. You can do this.

P.S. One way I see people fail here is to frantically make changes quickly, so they never figure out their true calorie needs. They maybe try harder until it becomes literally impossible. They get discouraged, frantic, anxious about a weird week or two, and panic. Under-eating (or over-exercising) maybe triggers binges, and shame maybe makes them skip logging ("it didn't count because it wasn't the plan"). Eventually, they drive themselves into a ditch. Don't do that.

age_is_just_a_number

Based on your profile picture and your user name, it seems like you don’t have much, if any, weight to lose. If that is the case, but you are feeling ‘skinny fat’, then I suggest you start bulk and cut cycling to achieve body recomposition.
There is a good article on Legion Athletics site about recomp.
In a nutshell, a) you focus on strength training to build and maintain muscle and b) you spend a period of time in a caloric surplus to build muscle, then a period of time in a caloric deficit to lose fat. It takes a long time and discipline to achieve recomp …. Like a year or more.

FitCountryGal

If I can figure out how to paste a log I will. It seems I cant answer you individually. I am logging every bite and weigh foods as needed to for accuracy. I am focusing on strength training as well. I have about 10-15 lbs to lose. Thanks for all the advice. .

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48922358#Comment_48922358

If the strength training is new, or increased, high odds the pseudo-stall is related to that. I "gain" a couple of pounds every time I re-start strength training after a longer break. Some people reporit more of a cyclic gain aftrer a srength day, drop after a rest day; others are more like me, see a gain at the start of a strength training increase, hang onto it until strength training is dropped for serious . . . but if fat loss is happening, even with continuing strength training, it will outpace that few pounds of water weight in a couple of weeks or so, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud bank. Just guessing, though.

FitCountryGal

Strength training is not new....bumped it up some tho. So maybe that's it. I am not giving up.

ddsb1111

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48922358#Comment_48922358

If you’d like you can take a picture (screenshot). You upload it by clicking the image icon and uploading from your photos. Just an idea.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48922927#Comment_48922927

Possible, then. Honestly - and with an intent to be both encouraging AND honest: You're saying a stall of a couple of weeks. I think your best bet is to allow some more time.

What's the worst that can happen? Continuing stall for 4-6 mpre weeks, need to reduce calories a bit after that, or increase activity (exercise or daily life), or a combination.

What's the best that can happen from "stick with it at current calorie goal"? It turns out to be water weight weirdness, and you can sail on, eating current calories. More calories, while also achieving our goals, is a great outcome: Calories enable nutrition, can create energy - good stuff.

You have relatively little weight to lose, just 10-15 pounds. Losing it slooooowly is the most health-positive course.

I'm not saying you need to do what I do, this next is just anecdote for whatever interest it may (or may not) have: Last time I needed to (re-)lose 10 pounds or so in maintenance after major loss, I decided to creep weight down ultra slowly.

I set calorie goal at around 200-250 below actual maintenance calories. Most often, I hit that goal. Sometimes I ate all the way to maintenance, very occasionally above it if there were special occasions. It was virtually painless. My energy level was great, giving me benefits to daily life as well as exercise performance. I didn't feel even remotely deprived. The over-goal days were conscious decisions, not "binges".

Downside: I took a year-ish to lose 10-12 pounds. Looking backwards, and doing the arithmetic, my effective deficit was more in the range of 100-150 calories daily on average. For me, that's totally fine. Not saying you you should feel the same, just reporting.

In the process, there was a time when I resumed strength training after a long-ish break. Even my weight trending app thought I was maintaining or even gaining weight for 4-6 weeks in there, let alone what I would've thought from just watching scale weight myself (which would've been "yikes!!!"). Because I had a long track record of calorie counting based on personalized estimates, I was pretty sure I was slowly losing fat, no matter what the scale or weight trending app thought. The, suddenly, yep - bloop! - a couple of pounds drop, just as the calorie trend (not the weight trend) led me to expect.

NGL, only you can do what works best for you. I get that the process can be frustrating. We all want to lose weight quickly, and want the scale to put a gold star on our progress chart ASAP. 😆

I think my advice is pretty clear, but if you prefer to take a different course, that's OK with me. We each need to find our best path.

Wishing you success with your goals, sincerely - I want everyone to succeed.

tomcustombuilder

Lol, the last 10 lbs......

It sucks for everyone. Your body does not want to give it up.

Patience is your best bet. If you are actually in a WEEKLY caloric deficit it will eventually come off, there is no way around it. 2 weeks is nothing to stress over.

Stay the course for another 2-3 weeks. At that point if still no movement then revisit your program. You may need to add activity. When calories are already low lowering them further is generally not a good idea.

If infact you DO end up adding activity just stay away from things like HIIT cardio.

tomcustombuilder

TarasitaA

I've always heard the last 10-20 pounds is the hardest to lose. Just be persistent and don't give up.

FitCountryGal

Thanks everyone! I am hanging in there…Tom what's wrong with hiit cardio? I walk every day, lift 4 x a week. I dont really focus a lot on aerobics but I do circuit training.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48925260#Comment_48925260

I'm not Tom, but that's a "can of worms" topic - HIIT. 😆

It's a can of worms in part because the term got real trendy for a while there, and lots of different exercise modalities and mixes got dubbed "HIIT", anything from fast-paced high-rep circuit training to so-called "functional fitness" routines, to more pure cardio in an interval format, and beyond.

One short answer about why to avoid it is that it's been seriously over-sold, and the research findings about some forms of it applied to other forms for which those benefits were unproven. Lots of hype, lots of mythology.

More practical answer: Many or most modalities of HIIT may interfere with recovery when a person is doing regular progressive strength training, either by not allowing sufficient muscle recovery (if the HIIT stresses similar systems to the strength training) or simply because most anything done at high intensity is disproportionately fatiguing.

Excess fatigue may also be counter-productive for weight loss, simplistically because people who are fatigued tend to drag through the day, not burn as many calories in daily life if they would if they weren't fatigued. The context is that most people burn more calories via daily life movement than via purposeful exercise. Fatigue effects can be subtle - even fidgeting less can amount to low hundreds of calories daily.

There are other issues. Some high intensity work - which is often interval format - is required as a part of serious cardiovascular sports training, but that usually isn't the more common somewhat strength-y circuit-training modality that's often called HIIT these days. People whose goals are primarily strength or hypertrophy often tend to avoid any high intensity cardiovascular (or verging on high intensity cardiovascular) training.

It's more complicated than that, really, though, IMO.

tomcustombuilder

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48925260#Comment_48925260

HIIT is very taxing making recovery difficult and it has a tendency to increase appetite.

High Intensity Interval Training.

Even though it can burn a lot of calories in a short time period it can cause your NEAT calorie burn to suffer the you still have compromised recovery and no real improvement on overall calorie burn and left with increased hunger.

Stick with walking or low intensity cardio.

age_is_just_a_number

You might want to check out Dr Stacy Sims. She focuses on female athletes. She advocates SIT Sprint Interval Training for cardio.
She also believes strongly in Creatine for women.

yakkystuff

SIT Sprint Interval Training

Aah - so, there's a name for this - from high school memories, seems it is commonly used in training for swimming, track, football, etc.

Is HIIT above & beyond that?

tomcustombuilder

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48926410#Comment_48926410

those things are HIIT as it is high intensity, rest, then more high intensity. While those things are great for sports training, not great for fat loss while on a low calorie diet.

yakkystuff

Ty @tomcustombuilder got it.

-- I tend to prefer a combo, cardio followed by ST. Find it profoundly calming by end of ST and cool down.

Cardio also tend to do LISS movement (low-Intensity Steady State cardio.") after mom's cardiologist suggested distance targets - that a mile fast or slower were both beneficial.

We started with walking and water walking. It was surprisingly beneficial and saw improvements in distance and stamina for time and intensity.

tomcustombuilder

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48926470#Comment_48926470

Thats a good program.

AnnPT77

It's not that simple, IMO . .. . at least not beyond some very basic generalities.

When it comes to selecting cardiovascular exercise pacing strategies, it matters whether a person's main goals are

athletic performance in a cardiovascular sport (and what that sport's specific cardiovascular demands are),
general cardiovascular health,
calorie burn for weight management purposes,
or a mix (or something else entirely, for that matter).

It also matters how cardiovascularly conditioned the person already is, loosely beginner vs. more experienced athlete. For serious athletes running structured periodized training plans in some cardiovascular sports, seasonality also matters.

Much as is the case in popular-media reports on weight loss, there's a lot of clickbait mythology and B.S. around "best" cardiovascular training. That's simplistic. It's more nuanced. There is technical detail, just as there's relevant technical detail about strength training (that the popular-media coverage also often misrepresents to some extent).

Around MFP, there's a fair amount of simplistic "LISS good, high intensity bad", "don't go above HR zone 2", but also some "everyone should do HIIT because soooo time-efficient plus blah blah blah mitochondria blan blah blah VO2max." Loosely, there's some truth in there, but a lot missing.

With HIIT specifically, many exercise modalities have been positioned - mostly as marketing - as "HIIT classes". They are not all the same. All they have in common is alternating going hard with going easier (or resting) in time intervals. HIIT cycling has different physical demands and implications from HIIT high-rep/low-resistance circuit training, which has different demands and implications from HIIT calisthenics or HIIT "functional fitness" exercise, etc.

There's been a trend to claim that all types of HIIT have benefits that were proven for things like cycling HIIT, but that don't seem to have as robust proof for the other exercise modalities . . . at least not that I've seen.

Think about it: Do we think cycling places different demands on the body compared with dumbell/machine circuit training? I sure do. That's still true when the pacing strategy is HIIT.

There's a lot of confusing theorizing about HIIT because of confounding the different modalities. On top of that, not even all so-called cardio places the same demands on the body. Cardio exercise is not all one same-y generic thing. Some types require more applied strength than others, or place demand on different parts of the body - cycling vs. XC skiing vs. running vs. swimming vs. rowing vs. . . . other stuff.

Because of all this, generic questions like "is HIIT better than LISS" or even "how much HIIT vs. LISS" are kind of nonsensical questions. (Let alone "is HIIT bad or good" 😆.)

A key piece of the issue in a context like OP's IMO is recovery: If she does HIIT, does the modality OR the pacing OR the frequency/duration hinder recovery or otherwise have counterproductive total-system effects, or cause exercise calorie compensation (reduction of NEAT through fatigue) since it's obvious one of her goals is weight loss?

Yeah, people whose main goal is weight loss should manage total exercise load (of all exercise types and paces) to avoid excess fatigue or appetite spikes. Yeah, people whose main goal is strength or hypertrophy need to manage other exercise loads to get the excellent muscular and total-system recovery they need for best gains. For health, fun, variety and total load matter, among other things. For athletics, actual sport-specific training in technical terms matters. Overtraining is never good for any goal, AFAIK.

How those tradeoffs and limits look will vary individually. Things that matter: Current fitness with respect to the exercise(s) being done, type of exercise done, duration, intensity, pacing, frequency, and more.

I avoid giving detailed strength training advice here beyond "good progressive program, get nutrition especially protein, stick with it" kind of thing. That's because I know I don't know enough to give advice beyond the generalities. I get frustrated, wishing the same were true in general discourse here on the subject of cardiovasular training, a thing I do know more about.

But this is not a debate thread . . . . 😆

Apologies, OP.

tomcustombuilder

KISS method. Keep it simple. Too many people make their diet and fitness program too complicated and overthink things and get lost in the weeds and then end up not making progress due to their head spinning with info overload.

SpottyGreenLeaf

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48925260#Comment_48925260

Cheering for you! Keep hanging in there!💪🏻 15lb is def hard, esp. if you are already near your ideal weight.

It sounds like you have a balanced plan and and is highly disciplined. My only suggestion is to make sure you are getting enough recovery period. If you haven't had one one in a while, maybe you're due for a deload week or two?

That said, if you're using a program, like Hailey Happens, Lift with Cee or SoheeFit, periodizatiom is already built in. And, you can adjust as needed.

I hope you find your sweet spot.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48926593#Comment_48926593

Cardio deserves as much - or as little - KISS as strength training. Details matter in both cases, IMO.

Generic "don't do high-intensity cardio" as all things for all people advice: That's over-simplifying.

tomcustombuilder

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48926641#Comment_48926641

hmmmmmmm…..

For OP HIIT i doubt is the answer

FitCountryGal

Well y'all have certainly given me a lot to process! I probably do need more rest days but I work a farm too so that's not happening. I truly appreciate all your advice.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48925260#Comment_48925260

Are you saying that your 4 x a week lifting is some kind of circuit training format, or that you do more standard reps/sets lifting 4 x a week but also do circuit training sometimes? If it's the former, and it suits you and delivers what you're looking for, great. I'm thinking that's probably what you mean. Or maybe it's that a subset of the 4 sessions are circuit format.

If it's circuit training in addition to 4 sessions of more standard strength training, I might be a little concerned about thd extra circuit strength work interfering with recovery from the standard strength training. It would depend on what exercises are done, and on what schedule though, of course.

I don't think that would impair weight loss, though - at least not outside of fatigue if overdoing, or the water retention issues mentioned earlier.

Walking should be a good complement to the strength training, and give you some basic cardiovascular benefits.

Again, apologies for the digression. You didn't even mention HIIT cardio (any modality at all) or any other kind of intense cardiovascular work. 😉 (Some people do HIIT circuit training, but you probably would've mentioned it by now if that's what you're doing!) We're supposed to be trying to help you here, i.e. stay on topic. 😆 What activity you should add, if you added activity, didn't seem to be one of your questions, either.

If you feel up to it, maybe come back in another 2-4 weeks, let us know how things are going? My best bet would be that you'll start to see a down-trend on the scale, but I always wonder how these stories turn out.

Best wishes!

SpottyGreenLeaf

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48926708#Comment_48926708

Hats off to you! I'm guessing your NEAT are already major workouts for people like me. I can't imagine 4x lift days on top of your daily work.

I remember trying to turn our rural property in North Phoenix into a small homestead. I ended up with only 3 dwarf fruits trees and a 3x6 squarefoot garden., and no animals, that's all I can manage 😂

I2k4

Have always disliked "weight" as a smiley-face euphemism for "fat" and how scales as measuring tools conflate fat with lean body mass, including volatile muscle along with ordinary water retention and digestive tract weight. It's especially deceptive used daily or obsessively outside of special competitive performance environments, like weight-sorted sports events or showtime pageantry. Won't speculate, but it may be all that exercise is in fact building muscle mass, replacing fat and neutralizing scale measurements. Might be a gradual "recomp" going on, better measured with fitness progress, only checking the mirror and taking progress photographs every couple of weeks or monthly.