Please help me I am STUCK and cant loose weight

smitch285

Hello Weight Loss Friends!
Please please please help me : )
I lost weight in the beginning (Aug) fairly "easily." Stuck to 1200-1300 calories /day and worked out slowly at first. I hadn't worked out in 3 years do to medical reasons so I was out of shape. However, I was able to get back into it rather quickly. I have stepped it up and am burning about 800 calories 4 days a week and 400-600 calories one other day. I have been doing calorie cycling or zig zagging (1328 calories 2 days a week, 1441 3 days a week, 1729 1 day a week, and 1585 1 day a week) for the last 2 weeks and have lost about a pound (ish). But basically Nov, Dec, and Jan I didn't not loose anything. I have been within the same 5 lbs that whole time. Sometimes up, sometimes down.

So here is what I do at the gym: By the way I use a Heart Rate Monitor to measure calories

Mon, Wed, Fri-> Stair Master on Aerobic setting 15 minute intervals on level (out of 20) 10, 11 or 12. I do 3-4 of these. After 15 minutes I get off and do 12 sets of lunges with 15 or 17.5 lb weights, ab exercises, and squats (again this is done 3-4x). After I am done with that I will do hip abductor machine and arm exercises. I am usually at about 650 calories at that point and then I will get on the exercise bike and cool down easily biking for about an hour until I get to the 800(ish) mark total.

Tues - Elliptical for an hour then weights (mainly arms and abs) then leg press. Then the bike just like before until I hit about 800 calories

Thursday - I am usually warn out and in a slump (excited for Friday) and I will do either elliptical or bike until I give up (usually 15 minutes) then cycle for an hour/ hour and a half and do legs, arms, and abs in the weight room. (Thursday are usually my 400-600 calorie days)

Sat and Sun I am pretty active-I walk almost everywhere I go and usually spend Saturdays walking about all day or I go for a hike.
I work out a lot. . . Yeah....and while I am gaining muscle I am not loosing weight or fat. I would have noticed after 3 months. I started doing weight training in october. My work outs are varied - as weights get too easy I increase and as levels get too easy I move up.
I should say that this last week I've been pretty outta it so my food and work out diary have not been 100%. But that being said almost every other week is.

I do not eat that poorly. A lot of whole foods. Low on packaged food. However, nor matter what I eat during the day I am usually hungriest at night. Dinner is usually at 7 and I usually eat about 200 calories after dinner. Breakfast 200-300 calories at 9:00 am, Lunch 300 calories at 12:30, gym at 1:30 or 2:00 until 4:30, smoothie of 200-300 calories after gym then dinner at 7 (calories vary) and 9:30 (ish) 200 calorie snack.

I would love help, advise, counsel, ANYTHING! I have about 15 lbs to loose to meet my goal weight. This is driving me NUTS.
Thank you soo much : )

caraherch

If you are low in energy then you are probably not eating the right foods. You may want to eat more before your workouts so you truly have the energy to go hard. Cut out the packaged foods- they're unnecessary unless they are intentional cheat foods (I like boxed Mac and cheese on Sundays and once in a while have a skinny cow ice cream)
Find foods that fill you up and give you energy- for me that's fish, chicken, and heaps and heaps of vegetables. I drink nothin but water and have a bottle of it next to me constantly.

Also keep in mind that the closer you are to your goal, the harder and slower it gets, but it means that you've already done so much! Also, be more steadfast at recording everything. Weigh your food, record your sauces and dressings and seasonings. Don't rely on what MFP says about how many calories you've burned- I don't eat back my calories usually for the reason that the app tends to overestimate how much I've burned.

smitch285

Unfortunately, I do all of these suggestions already. I am only low on energy on Thursday because of the hard workouts Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and the excitement for Friday. The only things I drink are water and tea (no sugar), and coffee about 3 times a week. Everything I put in my mouth is measured by grams-Everything. And I do not rely on the MFP calories ever. They are a joke. I wear a Heart Rate Monitor which goes across your chest and has a watch that reads the sensors. It actually does a great job monitoring calories. The gym machines are usually way too high also. I understand as you get closer it gets harder...but 3 months at the same weight is too tough!

janetdebeer90

Have you taken your measurements? Are your clothes fitting better?

A friend of mine lost only 0.5kg/1 lb over 6 months, but lost 5cm/2inches from her waist over those 6 months. Her body shape changed significantly!

You will be getting fitter and stronger every day with your workouts.

Great work!

SLLRunner

You either need to either exercise a whole lot less or eat a whole lot more. It seems to me you are not fueling your body with enough food.

Why the extremes with exercise and food? In viewing your diary, I see you often have hundreds of calories left after exercising so vigorously.

smitch285

I don't eat back my work out calories. I've seen a lot of posts saying you SHOULD NOT and ones saying you SHOULD! I went with should not. Feel like if you burn it and then eat it then it was for nothing. Love to hear your thoughts : )

smitch285

Also-what does exercising less look like? How many calories should I aim for to remain with the calories I am at? Or how many calories should i eat?

smitch285

I have measured and saw the biggest change in the start. Not so much now. : (

SaintGiff

Two things jump out at me right away given the information you provided.

1: Recovery Week. Take a week and do something different. Stay active, but avoid the activities you normally do as part of your routine. Find something else to do that week. I'm normally a weight trainer, so for my recovery week I become a runner / yoga guy. You will be amazed at how much pushing the reset button like this does to get you unstuck.

1: You won't believe this, but eat more. I know there will be a chorus of people telling you I am wrong because that is the deal here, but you are working out a lot. With that level of exercise you need to focus more on eating to your macros ( particularly the protein macro ) and not eating to a calorie goal.

smitch285

Awesome! Thank you for the help. For a recovery since I do both weights and cardio should I switch cardio machines and switch weight work outs too? I cannot run. But I could walk...I guess (boring). Any idea on protein totals I should hit? I really need specifics so I can focus on something so it would be amazing if you could provide some. I know you say I should worry about calories.....but I have to, or else Ill go crazy. I can easily pump up protein although I feel like I get a lot. But I can get more...I LOVE EGG WHITES!!! (cannot eat the yolks (allergy) but I could easily consume 300 calories in egg whites EASY : ) Thank you so much for the help ; )

paul67doe

You are already doing eveything you can to loose weight and i feel inspiered by your commitment.
two things i found got me off of a plateu was to bin the diet for one day eat a full meal anything you
like. Then go to the gym a few days later don't have anthing except water and excercise till you hit the
wall just use all of the energy in your muscles then have a protien shake. i'm not saying it is prefect it's
just what got me back to loosing a pound a week.

Good luck

florentinovillaro

I had the same problem, discovered it was my eating schedule. I went from 6 small meals per day (630am to 630pm) down to 3 larger meals per day (between 12noon and 6pm), but eating the SAME amount of calories daily, the scale started showing drops in weight. Intermittent Fasting on a 18:6 schedule worked for me. Frequent meals don't. Go figure.

smitch285

Thanks for the tip! I am also in the "hurt back club!!!" What a club it is!

begonecruelflab

Luckily for me, I have been getting accurate measurements taken by a doctor of my resting metabolic rate. It falls as I lose weight, and is different for everyone, BUT, government guidelines and MFP estimates are very much over the average in the experience of other women who have also had their metabolic rate tested- I shall probably only need around 1100 cals before exercise a day to maintain my weight at the end of my diet. So, don't rely on MFP numbers as they are only a guide, figure it out for yourself as you are so great at logging your exercise and weight loss. Somewhere on MFP is a discussion about how to lose those last few lbs without losing muscle mass, so more slowly, which is also really useful.
Government guidelines must at least partly be based on economics and politics. Those few of us lucky enough to be able to eat as much as they allow would probably start fainting all over the place and require medical help if they lowered their calorie intake

smitch285

I am not exactly clear as to what you were saying. I know as we age our calorie needs decrease. However I am 28 and my metabolism functions at a very normal level for my size. I am larger than most girls (5'10) so for me 1200 calories without working out is basically starvation (going to bed early, stomach rumbling loudly, etc) .

Samstan101

Put your stats into something like http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/, see what your BMR is and your TDEE (be honest and realistic about the amount of exercise you do) plus how much a week you want to lose. It'll then tell you how many calories you should be eating. Eat that number every day (don't do the cycling thing you're currently doing) as it'll average out over the week as long as you do the exercise you've said you do.

This worked for me when (unknowingly) I was eating too little (and I did eat back my exercise calories but MFP had my BMR down as far lower than it should have been for someone of my size). The weight is now back coming off steadily.

smitch285

What % loose did you pick?Lose fat 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%.

With 20% my BMR is 1563 and my TDEE is 2970 and the Daily calories based on goal in step 6 is 2376. So did you go off of your BMR and eat that many or the "Daily calories based on goal in step 6" one?

begonecruelflab

That is lucky for you, but as your body weight decreases so will your calorific needs. Maybe it is healthier to lose weight more slowly.
Perhaps get your metabolic rate tested as it might have changed, possibly as you have been working on muscle mass you might even find you should be eating more, the point is that knowing exactly my body's needs has helped me lose 80+ lbs and become fitter, healthier and able to maintain my new body more easily. When I started, my RMR was 800 calories less than the government states and I that is a very common situation. I managed this by going on a prescribed weight loss program, and the RMR bit has been the most revelatory and helpful part of it for me.
Maybe your body is losing at a safe rate for you?

Samstan101

I have a lot still to lose so picked 20%. I eat the 'Daily cals based on goal' - so in your example 2376 (although as that's way above your BMR I'd be tempted to eat around 2100 so you have some 'spare' for the odd treat or cheat day)

smitch285

Thank you so much for the extensive help. I am a really goal based person so having an exact number to work out towards and calories to eat really helps me. I will try it for a couple weeks. Although eating that many calories seems like soo many! Excited to see some changes!

irunforcookies

I have lost slow and steady, so I hope I can help you here. You really seem determined to do this in a way that will work long term, and you are definitely determined! I lost my first 20 pounds rather quickly - in about 4 months. That is about a 14% decrease in weight for me - as I don't have much to lose. It has taken me 4 months to lose 10 more pounds, and it has been a little frustrating. Well, it was frustrating - I've come to terms with a few things that has changed my outlook. I am 5'9 and 152 lbs. I am around 24% body fat, and wear a size 6 jeans and a size 4 dress. I am no longer overweight. All the weight I want to lose from here is vanity pounds. Because of that - it will go slow. And that is ok! This isn't a race to the finish line. This is a complete lifestyle change, and one I've embraced. I don't feel deprived. I'm not exercising 2 hours a day, only to feel shaky and hungry at night. I've done that before, and it didn't work for me. As soon as I realized I was getting frustrated that the weight wasn't dropping anymore - I did the complete opposite of what you would think I did - I reset my MFP goals from 1.5 lbs a week to .5 lbs a week. I am now eating 300-500 calories more a day than I was before. I exercise about an hour a day because I genuinely like it. I eat back 3/4 of my estimated exercise calories, meaning I net at least 1800 calories a day. Since I made this change, I dropped almost 8 lbs. That was after an almost 2 month plateau. Sorry - I didn't mean to write such a long post. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Francl27

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ will give you a reasonable goal to reach. You can still cycle calories as long as you eat that much in average.

Also make sure you weigh everything you eat, so you know you're not overeating (or undereating I guess).

maj1958

I feel your pain. I too have huge problems losing weight no matter what I do. The bottom Line is your body is going to do what your body is going to do. You should be proud of the hard work you have done and how your efforts have paid off in good health. You can obsess about weighing food and counting calories but that can really bring you down. You may never hit your ideal weight. So what? If you are fit and healthy , that is what matters. That said, try adding some interval training and super sets to your workouts and add some protein to your diet and see what happens. Enjoy the body you live in!!!!

ninerbuff

Don't use an HRM to track your lifting calories. It will overestimate them since it's counting heart rate and it's easy to get the heart rate up on some decent intensity lifting. Anaerobic exercise doesn't utilize the same caloric burn pathway as aerobic exercise.

Don't have too high a deficit. That will reduce your resting metabolic rate and that's when you burn the most fat...................at rest. Find your TDEE and eat 500 calories less from it .

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

melaniecheeks

I think you're in danger of being overly precise about your calorie goals- calorie cycling is fine, but aiming for a really specific figure like 1753 is just not possible. No matter how precisely you weigh your food, there's a limit to how accurate you can be.

smitch285

Super helpful post! I think I am not eating enough. You are eating far more calories than I am and working out far less...and loosing weight! I am just going to copy you. Your size right now seems like it would be pretty ideal for me...but I'll see when I get there I guess ; ) I am about an 8/10 now but size 6 in dresses. Thank you so much for your help!!!

smitch285

My TDEE is 2961 so I've been eating about half of that.

smitch285

on the days when the number is goofy I usually just aim for 1750 or 1440 and will eat within 10 calories of that. I eat a lot of whole foods so a lot of time it comes down to like -ok 5 more grapes is cool, 6 is fine, 7 is too much. Written down it sounds crazy-but I find weighing all my foods incredibly easy.

SLLRunner

I don't eat back my work out calories. I've seen a lot of posts saying you SHOULD NOT and ones saying you SHOULD! I went with should not. Feel like if you burn it and then eat it then it was for nothing. Love to hear your thoughts : )

Also-what does exercising less look like? How many calories should I aim for to remain with the calories I am at? Or how many calories should i eat?

Well, considering your diary reflects you are exercising a few hours a day, exercising less means limiting yourself to maybe an hour per day, which could include a half hour of weights and a half hour of cardio.

You need to eat your exercise calories back because the number to lose weight provided by MFP already has your deficit built in. You are netting very low calories with that much exercise.

Normally when a person has stopped losing weight, I suspect that they are miscalculating their food, but with such a large difference between the food you eat and how much you exercise, I suspect your body is reacting to improper fueling. I could be wrong about this, but most of your days have have a lot of calories left over to eat.

If you are using a heart rate monitor and it is calibrated correctly, and you use it for your steady state cardio, you are probably safe to eat most of those calories back.

Weight loss is not linear either, and weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds.

SLLRunner

I am not exactly clear as to what you were saying. I know as we age our calorie needs decrease. However I am 28 and my metabolism functions at a very normal level for my size. I am larger than most girls (5'10) so for me 1200 calories without working out is basically starvation (going to bed early, stomach rumbling loudly, etc) .

I am not sure our calories needs always decrease as we age, but depends a lot on our workouts or what we physically do. I am 52, 5 ft 41/2, and as of today 144 pounds, and I exercise five days a week with both cardio and heavy weights, and I eat between 2,000 to 2,100 calories, and I am having trouble maintaining. By this I mean that I am still slowly losing weight. So, I guess it's more food for me.

Your are on the right track because you realize 1200 would be eating too little.