weight loss question

gary5661

been losing weight steady for last two months but its now really started to slow, I read on the net that this happens when you get to the point of going from classed as obese to overweight which is where I am now. so does anyone know why????
Im still eating at a deficit still cycling to and from work still going to the gym. why does the weight slow when you get close to your goal weight is there anything you can do to get it moving again. and keep it moving

Tabithas_Transformation

Have you re-adjusted your calorie deficit for your new lower body weight?

gary5661

mfp does that automatically doesnt it?

zombie4665

No you have to go into settings and change your weight and then it will change the calorie deficit.

scubasuenc

As I have lost weight MFP prompted me every 10lbs or so if I wanted to update my goals. When I did so, my calories were lowered automatically.

The fewer pounds you have to lose, the harder it is to lose them. Most folks suggest lowering the rate at which you are set to lose as your goal gets closer. So if you started at at 2lb per week loss, then drop to 1.5lb per week loss.

lisatrish

Wow - if you've lost 36lbs in a couple of months that is awesome. Are you still losing inches? I've stalled for almost a month but am still losing inches. You have obviously been doing things right to have such a great loss - give it some time and the weight should start to fall off again.

Quasita

MFP only recalculates every 10 pounds, it will prompt you and ask if you want to adjust your goals. If you want it to change for every couple of pounds, as you may need to as the goal gets closer, you have to make it recalculate manually.

As for your original question, it slows down because you're getting closer to what you're "supposed" to be, and don't need to lose as fast. The body is a miraculous thing...

One thing that my pharmacist told me when we spoke about plateaus and my new medication was that studies show that our bodies can get "used to" being at a certain weight. They will hold on until it's no longer an option, and then will allow the drop to happen. You have to be consistent and continue the path without letting it get to you... Lots of people get discouraged and give up when it happens. It's a natural mode of self-preservation. We are in essence forcing our bodies to re-learn what we've been teaching them through calorie consumption... When we eat a lot, we are telling our bodies that we need that food, so when we stop eating that much, it can be like, no wait, hold onto the chub cuz we're supposed to have all those calories!

Eventually it clicks, and the weight lets go and you can drop more again... that's basically the nature of plateaus. But if you're still losing, I'm not sure there's any reason to be worried.

Siobhan108

I have hit those points several times. I find if I change my workout to something different like swimming instead of riding my bike it gets me back to loosing. Our bodies start to fight us and we have to fight back . Good Luck !

Quasita

After looking at your diary, I wanted to point something out... If you are logging accurately, you are seriously and consistently under-eating. This is going to be a hurdle in the long run. Yes, it can help you lose weight fast BUT it sets you up not only to regain quickly, but also can seriously mess with the body's understanding of calorie needs.

Yes, calories in vs. calories out is the simplified idea, but studies have proven time and again that there is such a thing as overdoing the calories out. You need to fuel your body appropriately... Drinking cup after cup of coffee to keep yourself from eating or whatever is not helping.

If it's not accurate, you're still logging a great amount of sugar, which can spike insulin. Extensive exposure to high insulin levels can result in things like insulin resistance, which will make it increasingly harder to lose.

I advise that you rethink the incredibly restrictive diet and eat more appropriately, especially if you are truly working out to the tune of 1000+ calories a day several days a week. You wouldn't expect a car to go 200 miles on a quarter tank of gas... Your body can't do that either.

gary5661

my diary is as accurate as it can be i log everything i know my calories are low but that got me going on weight loss initally,and I understand that my body isnt gonna travel that far because of the amount of fuel im putting in, but our bodies got a reserve tank. our fat stores, which is what I'm trying to keep my body using. I also understand I wont be able to just eat normally straight away when I go into maintaining my weight, as I'll put weight on fast, will have to bring my food level back up gradually.

just wondered with the way your body slows down losing weight when you get close to your goal

knra_grl

As I have lost weight MFP prompted me every 10lbs or so if I wanted to update my goals. When I did so, my calories were lowered automatically.

The fewer pounds you have to lose, the harder it is to lose them. Most folks suggest lowering the rate at which you are set to lose as your goal gets closer. So if you started at at 2lb per week loss, then drop to 1.5lb per week loss.

This :drinker:

gary5661

and to answer lisatrish I was 19st 13lbs just after christmas this year I started mfp on the 6th of january and pedaling 10 miles a day to and from work. and its been a hard slog through the dreadful winter weather, I'm 16st 10lbs now as of this evening when I first started I was seeing weight loss daily....
the main things I have changed in my diet are:
I try not to eat potato, rice, pasta, too many carbs and I stalled on them so Ive substituted them with mixed veg
dont eat fruit because this also stalled my weight loss
was eating almonds at the beginning but they slowed down my weight loss also I read that your body will use the fat in them before they will use your bodies, my thinking is I'm not pedalling to work for that to happen.

also to portion control I use one of the kids plastic plates.

did have a bit of a cheat today as I had chocolate but, as this is a life change I think now and again is ok as long as I'm still losing.

knra_grl

After looking at your diary, I wanted to point something out... If you are logging accurately, you are seriously and consistently under-eating. This is going to be a hurdle in the long run. Yes, it can help you lose weight fast BUT it sets you up not only to regain quickly, but also can seriously mess with the body's understanding of calorie needs.

Yes, calories in vs. calories out is the simplified idea, but studies have proven time and again that there is such a thing as overdoing the calories out. You need to fuel your body appropriately... Drinking cup after cup of coffee to keep yourself from eating or whatever is not helping.

If it's not accurate, you're still logging a great amount of sugar, which can spike insulin. Extensive exposure to high insulin levels can result in things like insulin resistance, which will make it increasingly harder to lose.

I advise that you rethink the incredibly restrictive diet and eat more appropriately, especially if you are truly working out to the tune of 1000+ calories a day several days a week. You wouldn't expect a car to go 200 miles on a quarter tank of gas... Your body can't do that either.

after viewing your diary this is pretty much it - you are under 1200 calories many days - this is not a healthy way to lose weight.

Foods are not stalling your weightloss - restricting your calories is stalling you - your body is trying to hang on to it because you are not feeding it. If your aren't losing because you ate rice, fruit or nuts it's because you have restricted yourself to an extreme.

Quasita

my diary is as accurate as it can be i log everything i know my calories are low but that got me going on weight loss initally,and I understand that my body isnt gonna travel that far because of the amount of fuel im putting in, but our bodies got a reserve tank. our fat stores, which is what I'm trying to keep my body using. I also understand I wont be able to just eat normally straight away when I go into maintaining my weight, as I'll put weight on fast, will have to bring my food level back up gradually.

just wondered with the way your body slows down losing weight when you get close to your goal

The reason why I brought it up is because it could be a direct cause for the weight slowing down. According to your ticker at least, you have only lost half of your goal loss, which tells me me that you aren't really close enough to the end goal for it to be the typical slow down. You did ask about why it slows between body classifications...

Our bodies do have excess stores BUT they cannot use them exclusively to get the nutrients they need to function properly and maintain healthy metabolism. Fat stores are kind of like "empty" calories in the sense that yeah, they give you fuel to burn, but you aren't getting much other than that... No vitamins or minerals really. Any protein from body stores will come from the muscles, not the fat... If you don't eat enough protein, you'll eat away at the muscles, which does cause your metabolism to slow down, as lean muscle is what burns.

*shrugs* I figure you'll eventually stall completely.

I'm a really big person with lots of "stores" but if I eat too big of a deficit, I will not lose anything. When I started, I dropped 13 pounds, then it slowed to less than .5 a week because I did not eat enough to inspire proper body function. When I started eating more appropriately, I started losing 3-6 pounds a week. Just trying to help from a personal perspective.

gary5661

Thank you quasita but I really want to get this weight off and I do worry that if I eat more then I'll put weight on and I don't want to.

knra_grl

Thank you quasita but I really want to get this weight off and I do worry that if I eat more then I'll put weight on and I don't want to.

Gary when does this end? You can't sustain this and if you return to regular eating when you reach goal you will regain it all again. Do some reading on here and figure out what you are supposed to be doing for healthy sustainable weightloss. Please.

Quasita

Thank you quasita but I really want to get this weight off and I do worry that if I eat more then I'll put weight on and I don't want to.

Gary when does this end? You can't sustain this and if you return to regular eating when you reach goal you will regain it all again. Do some reading on here and figure out what you are supposed to be doing for healthy sustainable weightloss. Please.

QFT

Really wanting to get it off is understandable. What I'm trying to open your eyes to is that if you insist on doing it this way, you WILL gain when you refeed. Even if you go slowly, refeeding will make you gain weight, whether you do it now, or at the end. It's better to stop the trend now and get into a more healthy pattern, than to wait, then have to start a whole new cycle after you regain the weight you will gain when you refeed. The classic yoyo.

The CDC recommends that a starving individual begin their rehabilitation at 1200 calories minimum. Even a gastric bypass patient is rarely placed on a diet that is that low... The most sedentary of which tends to be recommended a 1100 calorie diet with excessive supplementation to make up for the missing nutrients. Why would you think it's a good way to go about it, if the most ill and desperate of the overweight are STILL not recommended that low?

I started at 485 pounds. I'm still over 400. Guess how many doctors and nutritionists have suggested I drop my intake below 1200? Zero.

Wanting to get it off and stay off and getting it off fast are two different things.

I went on a bypass diet for a month once, to see if I could do it. Lost 35 pounds in a month. The minute I ate more? I gained it ALL back, and more.

A good rule of thumb is however you choose to eat to drop the entirety of your weight needs to be something you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life. Having fast days to break plateaus is one thing. Regularly eating at anorexic levels (which, you are... we're talking anorexia, possible bulimia from what it looks like) is going to do terrible damage.

How did I get this fat? By eating like you are... Then eating more. by the time I got to the eating more stage, I had screwed everything up so bad that my body couldn't handle the extra calories, no matter how little it was. We're talking I went from 700-900 a day to about 1400, and I gained over 100 pounds in less than a year, and it took several years after that to figure out how to reverse the trend.

So if you want it off and don't want decent advice or people to tell you the hard truth, so be it. I'm just sad for you, because I know you'll probably eventually hit your goal weight, and then you'll allow yourself to eat, and you'll start all over again. When you abuse your body and force it to gnaw away at your muscles for protein by cutting calories and forcing it to workout extra hard, you are setting yourself up for an even more difficult time the second time you lose this weight, because not only will your metabolism be slower, but the muscles that would have helped you have been ravaged.