What if my body just refuses to lose weight?

nespinosa3

Here's my story: I don't need to lose multiple amounts of weight, so just "cutting out junk food" won't do it because I already don't eat junk food. I started at 165 and wanted to get down to 145 (female, 5'4-5'5). It's taken me 4 months of eating healthy, working out with a personal trainer and doing cardio 5-6 days a week to get down to 158. Yes, it's *extremely* slow. First weeks I just ate healthy. Then, my diet consisted of 1600 calories/day, in which 15% of my cals came from fat, 45% from protein and 40% from carbs. I did that for about 2 months. Since I barely lost any weight, now I switched the percentages: 25% from fat, 30% from carbs and 45% from protein. (The big protein % is because I'm also trying to build muscle)
Something interesting that i should mention is that while I am consistenly working out, the scale barely shows any progress. However, let's say that after a couple of weeks working out, I travel and spend a week very busy somewhere else and not working out (and not being able to cook my meals). I come back and realize I lost like 2-3 pounds. But then the cycle starts again, I spend the next 2 months working out, nothing changes, until I take a little break.
I need advice, especially from people who have also struggled like me. How did you stop your body from being a roller coaster? And more importantly, how did you not let this become an obstacle to everything else going on in life?

MarKayDee

Is it possible that you're not netting enough calories?

Another thing to consider is water weight, if your muscles are sore from over working they will hold a lot more water to repair them, just jacking up the scale.

Personally instead of jiggling with your macros i would just increase your calorie intake 100-200 for a week or two, or decrease your workouts.

4legsRbetterthan2

I retain a lot of water when I try to eat high protein and it usually has to do with my sodium intake; when I try to increase protein and cut carbs my sodium goes through the roof usually due to lunchmeats and salad dressings. I would say that should be one of the first things to look at. Your muscles will also retain water as mentioned above when repairing, this is usually found more when starting new exercise so if you are doing a regular routine I would not think that would be the case. And since building muscle is a goal of yours you would not want to cut the lifting out of your routine anyways. There is a lot of support for the theory that you can not gain much muscle and lose weight at the same time however; unless you are overly obese which you are not. It might be worth it to focus on one goal at a time; drop the fat and then bulk up when you are at the body fat % you desire.

Have you calculated your TDEE and BMR? Those would be good numbers to know to make sure you calorie goals are in line for your goals. Also, Unfortunately since your weight loss goals are relatively small you have less error to work with. If you are not currently logging accurately you could just be eating 100-200 calories more than you think a day and sabotaging your own progress.

Hope something in there is helpful; best of luck to you!

mortuseon

Do you take enough rest days? Could be that your muscles are constantly retaining water during healing and when you take 2-3 days off, that weight reduces. You will still see progress with 1-2 rest days a week and it should help your performance, too (just eat accordingly). edit: I think you also need to be at a caloric surplus to gain muscle mass.

SezxyStef

Do you weigh your food? do you log everything with the correct entries? If you answered no there is your answer...you are eating more than you think.

At 1600 calories a day you should be losing weight...I do..and I am about the same height.

As for the break from working out yes that is water weight as your muscle do not need to retain water and glycogen for repair.

Macro switching isn't really gonna make you lose weight it's the calorie deficet that does.

littleburgy

Water retention is a *kitten* and would probably explain the periodic drops in weight.

As far as slow loss goes, unless there's a hormone problem -- in many cases it can be a case of eating more than you think and/or overestimating calories burned.

nespinosa3

Right and I sometimes wonder whether 1,600 is too much for my body, but I don't know what to do...at the same time, I don't wanna go back to trying 1,200 calories, I felt *miserable* doing that. So I don't want my metabolism to slow down but I also wonder should I go to 1,400??

A little more info: Yes I do take a rest day, I don't do anything on Sundays. And I do weigh/measure everything so I shouldn't be overestimating my calories.

harlanJEN

Greetings!

I was going to type out a few words of advice to you - clicked on your profile to glean a bit more info ( such as age and a bit more info on food & activity, overall goals other than a scale weight that u referred to in your post) and saw you have a totally locked down profile. THAT, along with no pic ? It just makes me pause. so! I will start with this advice,

I see you joined in October 2013. MFP is truly a great community with lots of folks who truly do strive to be supportive and take time to lend some assistance. Why don't you dip your toes out into the waters a bit more? Fill out a basic profile and make it viewable by MFP members. in general, by making yourself a bit more accessible, others may make themselves a bit more accessible to you.

good luck!

Jen

nespinosa3

Yeah sorry about that...I actually don't use the food diary here because MFP put me at 1,200 and I'm way above that. I will be posting a picture (good point).

A little more info just in case...I'm a woman, 5'5, 26 years old. I do have a desk job so spend most of the time sitting but I'm really making an effort to work out at least 5 times a week.
Just to give you a sample of what an average day looks like with my diet:
Breakfast - whole wheat rolls, slice of cheese, slice of ham and 2 egg whites
Lunch- 6-8 ounces of chicken, 133g of sweet potatoes with 1/2 tbsp butter
Snack - greek yogurt with 1/2 scoop of protein powder (or sometimes just a whole scoop of protein shake)
Dinner - 6-8 ounces of chicken, either sweet potatoes or some other healthy carb, some salad and 1 tbsp olive oil
Snack - protein shake

4legsRbetterthan2

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Well without tracking your food it may seem like you are eating low calorie but it is pretty hard to know. You can set your own goals in MFP by going to your home screen, select goals, select reset them in the green box at the bottom, select the set your own goals option and put in the numbers you want. The way MFP works is they set your calories based off of you normal activity level and then you track your exercise to get extra calories as well. I used the link above and put in your stats and it looks like your TDEE -20% is about 1450 for a sedentary lifestyle, you could also make a smaller deficit if you wish since you do not have a lot of weight to lose. Then as you track your workouts MFP will increase your goals based on you extra burns for the day.

My advice is to start logging. That's the only way to really get much use out of MFP.

mohawkRN

Are you putting on muscle? It weights more than fat, so you may just be changing the makeup of your body without actually losing weight in the numbers sense. If you use MFP, it does give you a breakdown of what percentage of your calories should come from fat, protein and carbs and breaks them down for you daily so you can see how you're doing. If your calories were set too low, you can change it in settings - my calories are somewhere around 1750 (i weight about the same as you) because I have mine set to lose a pound a week, which is slow but healthy. I find this much easier than "dieting". Any lower, and I really do feel deprived.

prattiger65

You are not going to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. If you are lifting weights you can retain most of the muscle you have. If you are not lifting weights you are probably losing some muscle as well as fat. You need to really figure out what your TDEE is and cut about 250-500 calories a day from that. You need to weigh and measure everything that goes in your mouth. Be diligent and don't cheat yourself. Good luck.

Topsking2010

You are not going to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. If you are lifting weights you can retain most of the muscle you have. If you are not lifting weights you are probably losing some muscle as well as fat. You need to really figure out what your TDEE is and cut about 250-500 calories a day from that. You need to weigh and measure everything that goes in your mouth. Be diligent and don't cheat yourself. Good luck.

Well said

tiptoethruthetulips

Are you clothes fitting better or even becoming too big? If so, don't worry about the scales!

jstout365

Progress doesn't have to be in terms of the scale. I would highly suggest taking photos in a bikini or underwear for your personal records and do them every other week or so. Also investing in a sewing tape measure will come in handy. There have been many times (right now is one for me) where I see little to no movement on the scale when I know I'm doing what I need to be doing and my calories would support at least a half pound a week loss. To keep my sanity, I look past the scale and rely on measurements and how I look, and how my jeans feel the first time after washing them. There are so many variables that go into what the scale says that it can be hard to get a real sense of what is going on.

As others suggest, don't be afraid of using MFP to track. You can go in and set your own calorie goals and just use it as a tracker. Ignore the red for going over. It may be helpful to some, but not necessary for everyone. Mine is often red because I have it set to 1600, never add exercise, and aim to be between 1600 and 1700. There are no hard set rules of how you need to use the tool. Use it how you find it benefits you and your goals.

wilsoje74

Your body is not anything different than anyone else, you will lose if you burn more than you consume.

kimosabe1

YES, we are the same size. go 1450 for calories

cardinalsfootball

You need to track your food. Without any question. If you want 1600 calories, hard code that in this site and record 100% of what you put in your body.

I've stayed constant for months at a time during my weight loss. But that doesn't mean my body didn't want to loose... it meant I was eating at maintenance. Our bodies are perfect calorie calculators, and you are eating too much. I suspect the problem is your tracking.

tigersword

Water retention due to high protein and the strength training. You can probably back off the protein and add some more fat in. There's no need for that much protein. For one thing, you can't build muscle if you're in a calorie deficit. For another, you only need about 100 grams or so of protein a day, which is about 25%. Protein is very water hungry, high protein diets lead to a lot of water retention and also dehydration issues if you don't drink extra.

You're losing weight when you take a week off because your body is releasing the retained water.

Erikalynne18

Right and I sometimes wonder whether 1,600 is too much for my body, but I don't know what to do...at the same time, I don't wanna go back to trying 1,200 calories, I felt *miserable* doing that. So I don't want my metabolism to slow down but I also wonder should I go to 1,400??

A little more info: Yes I do take a rest day, I don't do anything on Sundays. And I do weigh/measure everything so I shouldn't be overestimating my calories.

I would NOT decrease your cals, you seem to be very active!

However what I would do, would be to take some progress pics and measurements and use those instead of focusing on the scale as much

njitaliana

I weigh much more than you and I'm noticing that I lose if I eat no more than 1550 calories a day. At 1600, I maintain. Maybe try dropping to 1500 calories (being sure to weigh, measure and lot your foods) and only work out 3X a week and see if that helps. I've heard others here say that if they work out too much, their weight loss is slow or stops.