My weight won't go below 146 lbs

SLLRunner

Phaedra,

That's wonderful! I'm so very proud of you!

kaylorraine44

I've found that my HRM is not 100% accurate. When I was eating back all my exercise calories as recorded by my HRM, I wasn't losing weight. I started only logging 75% of the calories my HRM said I burned. Using this method I am losing weight at about the rate MFP has me set up for. Good luck!

margaretmurray35912

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

Phaedra2014

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

I don't understand your method. Weight x 12? How did you come up with that?

WalkingAlong

Just wanted to say that my weight did end up moving down. I've lost 4 pounds since I first posted on this thread. I can't exactly pinpoint what I've done so far but it could be a combination of:

Drinking an extra 2 cups of water.

Sticking to a range of 100 to 110 gr. of carbs (I never was a big carb consumer anyway).

Jogging and extra mile or two per week.

Increasing my calories to 1350 but not eating exercise calories back. This I don't think I can stick too. I need more calories in me but, for now, I've moved past 146 pounds.

It's going to take some more tweaking, adding, removing, to find that sweet spot where I go back to losing steadily every week. I've also dropped a few inches since I first posted on this thread.

What I've gained:

I've gained several of the kind, sweet, patient, supportive, encouraging posters who replied to this thread as MFP friends. Without their daily rallying around me the four-pound loss would have been even harder.

Good! Remember the plateau also may have broken if you'd changed nothing at all. It's pretty hard to really pinpoint what has what effect.

The 'weight x 12' thing is just a quick and dirty RMR estimator. Because it ignores age and gender, it's too high for me when I'm sedentary, but not by a ton. Sometimes you see advice to eat 'current weight x 10' in calories, too, or 'ideal weight x 12'.

gem5639

From experience over training can cause weight loss to plateau. It's the hormone cortisol that releases (especially during cardio training) that puts stress on the body and in turn stores fat.. Maybe add more rest days in to your schedule? Do you do any strength training? X

Sabine_Stroehm

Just wanted to say that my weight did end up moving down. I've lost 4 pounds since I first posted on this thread. I can't exactly pinpoint what I've done so far but it could be a combination of:

Drinking an extra 2 cups of water.

Sticking to a range of 100 to 110 gr. of carbs (I never was a big carb consumer anyway).

Jogging and extra mile or two per week.

Increasing my calories to 1350 but not eating exercise calories back. This I don't think I can stick too. I need more calories in me but, for now, I've moved past 146 pounds.

It's going to take some more tweaking, adding, removing, to find that sweet spot where I go back to losing steadily every week. I've also dropped a few inches since I first posted on this thread.

What I've gained:

I've gained several of the kind, sweet, patient, supportive, encouraging posters who replied to this thread as MFP friends. Without their daily rallying around me the four-pound loss would have been even harder.

Good job. Yeah, if you can bump up the calories a bit, without eating back, that would be good.
But well done! Keep doing the other stuff for sure!

Phaedra2014

Thanks for explaining the "formula" to me. I don't know if it will work but when I get stuck again, I know there is something else to try.

Yes I do strength train but it is not as intense of a level as many here do. I am not following any particular program as yet. I know that once I do, I will see more gains and losses, hopefully in the right areas!

Sabine I will definitely bump them up when I get closer to my goal weight, or add a heavy lifting program, because I will need the extra calories.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

That would be too few calories for me. It might get some/most people in the ballpark, but for me that's at least 200 calories short of what I should be eating for optimal energy and muscle preservation.

QuietBloom

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

That would be too few calories for me. It might get some/most people in the ballpark, but for me that's at least 200 calories short of what I should be eating for optimal energy and muscle preservation.

Too low for me too. My daily expenditure without exercise, is around 1700. I weigh 123 lbs.

Yet another opportunity for me to say I LOVE MY FITBIT,

Sabine_Stroehm

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

That would be too few calories for me. It might get some/most people in the ballpark, but for me that's at least 200 calories short of what I should be eating for optimal energy and muscle preservation.

Too low for me too. My daily expenditure without exercise, is around 1700. I weigh 123 lbs.

Yet another opportunity for me to say I LOVE MY FITBIT,

Interestingly, it's reasonably close for me. I too LOVE MY FITBIT!

mickey4u3

True...true....FitBit trackers keep you on course. Some days I am taken by supprise by how little I have actually moved....but tomorrow I can do better......the tracking of stairs helps pump up the avtivity too.:blushing:

Phaedra2014

I wonder what would happen if I ate according to my BodyMedia calorie assessment. I'd be changing every day but the range wouldn't be that huge.

It gives me way more calories to eat for sure.

MrsLannister

Congrats on getting past your plateau. My BodyMedia armband seems pretty accurate. I can't use MFP's calculations, because it is about 300 calories a day too high, which adds up to about 2/3 of a pound a week that I would not be losing.

00NL

I think after losing a lot of weight , things become different

secondly weight loss is complicated at lower weights

:flowerforyou:

did things improve now for you ?

FlaxMilk

You lost about 4 lbs in six weeks, is that right? That's a good rate for people who are not very heavy.

Since you aren't finding 1350 sustainable, you probably will have to reevaluate your expectations. 1350 and 1 lb a week means your maintenance is around 1850 with your exercise, which is not really unreasonable. You either have to eat that deficit to lose faster, or you have to change your expectations and accept a slower rate of loss to be able to eat more.

You may like the method where you work out the maintenance for your goal weight and try eating that. If I put MFP to 120 lbs at your age and height, at maintenance at the active level setting, you'd get 1860 calories a day. At lightly active, 1630 calories per day. (I chose these settings to include your exercise, so you would not eat back exercise calories.) You will lose weight slowly on this method, but you can continue to focus on your strength and fitness. (This also supports that your rate of loss now is about accurate for your intake.)

Phaedra2014

MrsL that is a big difference in calories. Glad the BM helped you catch it. Mine is also helping me assess my output/input over time.

120NLB Yes is getting more challenging to drop the last 20 something pounds. Lots more starts and stops compared to before. Things are improving albeit very slowly. I will see what hap[pens in the next month and then reach out you guys again.

Flaxmilk you are fantastic! Thank you. Every suggestion is going to help me. I am going to stay at 1350 for another couple of weeks and then reevaluate based on what my weight loss or stall as well as change in exercise will be. What you say makes sense.

Sabine_Stroehm

I wonder what would happen if I ate according to my BodyMedia calorie assessment. I'd be changing every day but the range wouldn't be that huge.

It gives me way more calories to eat for sure.

When I count, what I do is this: I aim for at least 10,000 steps (and then whatever strength training etc). That gets me to 2,000 or more calories. I eat 1500-1600 calories or so. When I DON'T count, which is most of the time. I still aim for the 10,000 or more steps and do my strength training. Then I eat what I regularly eat (I'm pretty consistent and have a good intuitive feel for things). So I don't really eat up or down... just create a reasonable deficit. Some days it's more (run days). Some days it's less (Sundays, usually).
For me, the fitbit is good because I know what I burn if I am my usual self on run days and on walk days. At my age, that's important. :-)

Sabine_Stroehm

I think after losing a lot of weight , things become different

secondly weight loss is complicated at lower weights

:flowerforyou:

did things improve now for you ?

It's certainly a smaller window.

jfus14

I am so glad I found this thread. I am going through something similar as the poster. Need to read this more indepth and figure out how to get the scale moving again!