A month long plateu

mpizzle421

The first few months of my latest attempt at weight loss went well. I dropped about 20lbs in 3-ish months. From November 3rd. to December 3rd. I'm basically at about the same weight.

I've gone a little down and come back up. I'm not really near my goal weight and I'm still somewhere in the ~30% of body fat - so it's not like I'm just trying to shave off that last ~3% body fat and my body is being stubborn. I would think that at this stage in the game the weight should be melting off rapidly.

I haven't focused on cardio the last month or so, but I'm very consistently lifting and very consistently getting stronger and adding weight / reps. I'm not eating "clean" really, but I'm getting adequate protein/fat. I do have larger calorie days / cheat days - but over the course of the week I'm pretty much on track.

I would love to think that I'm just packing on muscle to go along with the strength gains but I know that's probably unlikely being that I'm eating regularly at a deficit.

I'm 35 , 5'9" , 260.6 lbs, starting weight was 281, and I'm eating net ~2200 calories daily - and this is not my first time at the weight loss rodeo. I've done some yo-yo dieting. Previous attempts have yielded similar results for me (20lbs comes off and then it gets tough).

One thing that I can say based on past experience is that if I stopped lifting (if history repeats itself) I'll gain fat back but will shed at least 10-15lbs. I've experienced this previously. I stop lifting, stop dieting, check the scale a month later and I'm 10lbs lighter.

heybales

Haven't lost weight in a month.

Why would you think you are eating at a deficit?

Probably the reason you are seeing some great gains on the bars, unless this is new program for you and still newbie increases.
No, you aren't packing on muscle, but there is more to LBM than muscle.
Which is actually what happens when you stop lifting and lose weight. Water weight, gain some fat though.

Did you decide your eating level with cardio included? And now it's gone? What must happen to the eating level?

Net 2200?

You log lifting weights for eating back calories based on what burn figures?

Kept up the accuracy of weighing foods, not eyeballing, not assuming, not playing safe on low side?
Might try spreadsheet on my profile page to see if you can get better TDEE figure and plan your day better with one figure, no NET style eating.

mpizzle421

I used the lower of the TDEE values for a sedentary lifestyle and subtracted 500 calories from that value to come up with 2200.

As far as eating back lifting calories - I haven't come by an accurate method to determine what I burn from lifting so I just go with the MFP defaults. I don't actually mind eating back an extra ~100 calories or so on lifting days.

No, cardio wasn't included in the 2200 calorie baseline.

I think you propose good advice, I just can't help but wonder what changed. If my approach has worked for 3 months, what's changed this last month?

Thank you again for the response.

jordymils

Our bodies adapt pretty quickly to what becomes a regular routine with our diet and exercise, so it might just be that your body was 'in shock' for a few months given that there would have been some big changes as far as your eating and activity goes, and now it has figured out what you're doing and is no longer struggling to adapt. Or it could be that your calculations are off and you're either not eating enough or you're eating too much. Or it could be that you're losing fat while gaining LBM, so your shape is changing but the weight stays the same.

Have you taken measurements and/or progress photos? If not, I recommend you do so. I honestly find measurements a little tough because I seem to always measure in a slightly different spot and therefore get warped results, but progress photos are invaluable!!

That said, as heybales suggested, I'd use his spreadsheet to recalculate your figures. The benefit of his spreadsheet is that you can account for time spent lifting separately to time spent running, walking, sedentary, etc. So where the scooby calculator just asks for time spent active but doesn't ask for specifics (which, let's be honest, play a HUGE part in your caloric burns and needs), the spreadsheet allows you to be more specific and therefore get a more accurate result.

I'd also go for a total intake number, rather than a net number. So aim to eat 2500 calories (or whatever your number is) every day, regardless of activity, instead of working out what your may have burned and then working out your net intake. Especially because, as you said, there is no accurate way to measure burns when lifting.

At the end of the day, when we plateau, something needs to change. Whether that's the type of foods you're eating, the amount you're eating or the type/amount of exercise you're doing.
How much exercise do you currently do? Maybe add in a little cardio or an extra weights session, maybe cut cardio, etc.

heybales

I used the lower of the TDEE values for a sedentary lifestyle and subtracted 500 calories from that value to come up with 2200.

As far as eating back lifting calories - I haven't come by an accurate method to determine what I burn from lifting so I just go with the MFP defaults. I don't actually mind eating back an extra ~100 calories or so on lifting days.

No, cardio wasn't included in the 2200 calorie baseline.

I think you propose good advice, I just can't help but wonder what changed. If my approach has worked for 3 months, what's changed this last month?

Thank you again for the response.

Probably the biggest thing that changed from prior 3 months to now - less fat to lose.

Less you have to lose, the less margin for error you have to still see results.

You can do all kinds of things very wrong for weight loss if you have a lot to lose - and see success.
Exact same way when you start to exercise you can many things not best or outright wrong - and still see improvements.

But later in the game - that stops working, must do more right to keep seeing success in loss, or improvements from exercise.

So what caught my attention, you picked sedentary, from the standard 5 level TDEE charts?

That's even less than MFP's sedentary, BMR x 1.2 compared to MFP's 1.25. Makes a difference, and the 1.2 is based on a 1919 study, 1.25 is based on more recent research.
And even that is pretty sedentary - 45 hr sitting desk job/commute weekly, bump on log most of the weekend, not much movement otherwise.
Rarely is anyone that lethargic - unless undereating and their body forces that on them to conserve calories. Yep, body will adapt that way.

MFP values for strength training are actually pretty decent if you truly have rests between the sets and lifts. It's low compared to cardio, but that is true.
The problem comes if you don't rest, but think it's better to keep the HR high and keep moving, never rest. Then your burn is actually much higher, because it's cardio with strength component, not lifting for weight overload.

So using the NET method MFP style, of course cardio wasn't included.

But did you use a BMR based on BF%, or based on age, weight, height?

Because as weight drops with the latter, your TDEE goes down, so your eating goal would go down.
But with the former, with lifting especially, your LBM may be retained, therefore your BMR stays the same, even though TDEE would drop slightly as you move around less mass daily.
So that is another potential issue that didn't matter with more to lose, but does not.

Inaccuracies with logging food works out the same way too.

mpizzle421

I totally understand that the inaccuracies are more important as we decrease body fat. However, we're still talking about a guy with ~85lbs of bodyfat to lose at my current weight.

Ultimately, I wouldn't think at this juncture I would have to work all that hard to drop weight if I'm keeping my calories somewhere in the neighborhood of 2200-2800. Most of the spreadsheets/calculators/websites put my maintenance calories past 3000. In addition I am working quite hard in the gym with the weights - at least for my fitness level. My weight sessions are usually 40-60 minutes and I warm up / cooldown for 5-10 minutes respectively. I've admittedly slacked some on cardio with the weather change, but I guess combined with the deficit I guess I considered that to be more icing on the cake than anything.

As said previously - this isn't my first time in this boat. It seems to me that these results are similar to other times I've done this specifically while lifting weights. I've also dieted while not lifting and it doesn't seem like I run into the same stalling issue.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.

So what caught my attention, you picked sedentary, from the standard 5 level TDEE charts?

That's even less than MFP's sedentary, BMR x 1.2 compared to MFP's 1.25. Makes a difference, and the 1.2 is based on a 1919 study, 1.25 is based on more recent research.
And even that is pretty sedentary - 45 hr sitting desk job/commute weekly, bump on log most of the weekend, not much movement otherwise.
Rarely is anyone that lethargic - unless undereating and their body forces that on them to conserve calories. Yep, body will adapt that way.

Aside from my time in the gym I do very little. I have a 45 hour a week desk job. I don't do any house work. I don't do any yard maintenance. I walk very little - a bit of shopping here and there and to / from the car. My weekends are spent mostly sitting, doing very little. I was making an effort successfully to walk 2-4 miles most days - the weather has made this difficult as of late).

heybales

Aside from my time in the gym I do very little. I have a 45 hour a week desk job. I don't do any house work. I don't do any yard maintenance. I walk very little - a bit of shopping here and there and to / from the car. My weekends are spent mostly sitting, doing very little. I was making an effort successfully to walk 2-4 miles most days - the weather has made this difficult as of late).

In that case, that is correct level to eat back exercise calories on top of.

mpizzle421

Aside from my time in the gym I do very little. I have a 45 hour a week desk job. I don't do any house work. I don't do any yard maintenance. I walk very little - a bit of shopping here and there and to / from the car. My weekends are spent mostly sitting, doing very little. I was making an effort successfully to walk 2-4 miles most days - the weather has made this difficult as of late).

In that case, that is correct level to eat back exercise calories on top of.

Unfortunately so. I was actually kind of ashamed writing that

husseycd

Why not try grossing the 2200 calories for a bit and see how that goes? I didn't see how often you lift weights, but I don't think it burns a ton, at least not for me and definitely not the same way cardio burns. So if you were losing weight with cardio but essentially eating the same and now you aren't doing the cardio, I'm sure that's why you've stalled.

Or you might try being a little more active if possible. On my truly sedentary days I only burn about 1750 calories. But I'll burn 2000 or so just walking back and forth at work, piddling around the house, running errands... I only burn about 250 calories lifting weights, so the NEAT makes a huge difference in what I can eat.

The numbers above are all based on my bodymedia. I highly recommend them.

Sjenny5891

I would suggest adding the Cardio back into your plan. It is also possible MFP is overestimating how many Calories you are burning lifting weights.

mpizzle421

Interestingly...

I dropped nearly 4lbs over the course of the last 2 days. I think I was retaining some water. I also started adding some HIIT.