Unintenionally Maintaining.
Fivepts
Posts: 517 Member
I've be religiously using MFP for about 8 months and have maintained my weight since then. The problem is that I would like to lose about 20lbs. Most of my extra fat sits on my waist. I'm 5'4, 45, 143lbs. I walk about 5 to 8 miles four or five days a week. I get muscly pretty easily for a woman. I lift weights about once a week but I can't say I've worked up to lifting "heavy". Some days I get very little exercise as I live in a cold climate, so I'm eating around 1200 to 1400 a day. My dairy is open. I'm trying to eat low on carbs but I'm not very successful. I've tried giving up refined sugar (for a year) with little results. I haven't tried hard lately as you can see in my dairy. I've heard that the closer you are to your goal the more difficult it is but it seems more difficult for me that it is for others. If you are looking at my dairy please look over the skipped week I was out of the country and didn't have internet access. I realize that for some time that I may have been over-estimating my activity (before I got a flex), so that could be a variable. I've heard the eat more argument a good bit in the last 8 months but it seems illogical to me and I can't predict when I will be completely indoors. Thanks.
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Replies
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First, check your portions and log all those little things (mayonaise, cream in coffee, a pat of butter). That can add several hundred calories a day and wipe out your deficit.
Second, walking and walking fast are different and earn different calories. If you are walking for exercise you want to walk quickly, not stroll. Again, that will make your input/output better. Time yourself and estimate your mph with a tracking program or by mapping it with Google maps. Better still, get a pedometer or fitbit. That will make your calorie estimates more accurate.
Third, I can't lose weight if I am over 40% carbs. That's not low carb, but it is lower than you are. The reason for this is that when your blood sugar is high (like when you eat pasta or bread or sugar or other things that turn cause a spike in blood sugar), you also get an insulin spike. Liquid carbs (soda, beer, juice) are the worst. When your insulin is high, it pulls sugar out of your blood by storing it temporarily as fat (this is good) and stops your body from burning stored fat for fuel (this is bad). The effect lasts around 2 hours. You want to keep your body in that state a relatively small amount of time so you can burn your stored fat instead. That problem isn't carbs per se, it's just refined carbs. Brown rice, brown flour, etc. take longer to digest and keep you at a more stable level. If you are prone towards insulin resistance (as a lot of people who have been overweight are), the effect is exacerbated.
You eat a lot of pasta. Have you tried quinoa or whole wheat pasta? There's a knack to cooking it so it tastes good, but it can be done. A few small changes and accurate logging may help.
Good luck!6 -
You're already at a healthy weight, so that is probably counting against you and making it more difficult to lose.
I say up your exercise intensity (as measured by your flex.) Walk faster. Jog at a few intervals. You can try "Couch to 5K" to get you up to actually running, if that's what you'd like to do, or you can try swimming, biking, hiking, anything more intense than walking (at your own pace of course.) Work up your weights so you are lifting heavy - weight lifting should be difficult. You shouldn't be doing sets of 20 reps or anything, you should be doing shorter sets with heavier weights and each time you do a workout you should be trying to lift heavier things, even if only by a little bit.
I've looked at your diary and it does seem like you're logging accurately. I'm assuming those gram measurements are from foods you weighed. You don't have to go low-carb, but you do have to place a focus on meeting your protein goal. Especially if you are weight lifting, protein is essential for retaining lean body mass (and you only want to lose fat, not LBM.) That should balance out your carbs anyway if you put a focus on it.
Also, look at your measurements, take note of how your clothes fit, think about your energy levels. There are many more important things than the scale.0 -
First, check your portions and log all those little things (mayonaise, cream in coffee, a pat of butter). That can add several hundred calories a day and wipe out your deficit.
Second, walking and walking fast are different and earn different calories. If you are walking for exercise you want to walk quickly, not stroll. Again, that will make your input/output better. Time yourself and estimate your mph with a tracking program or by mapping it with Google maps. Better still, get a pedometer or fitbit. That will make your calorie estimates more accurate.
Third, I can't lose weight if I am over 40% carbs. That's not low carb, but it is lower than you are. The reason for this is that when your blood sugar is high (like when you eat pasta or bread or sugar or other things that turn cause a spike in blood sugar), you also get an insulin spike. Liquid carbs (soda, beer, juice) are the worst. When your insulin is high, it pulls sugar out of your blood by storing it temporarily as fat (this is good) and stops your body from burning stored fat for fuel (this is bad). The effect lasts around 2 hours. You want to keep your body in that state a relatively small amount of time so you can burn your stored fat instead. That problem isn't carbs per se, it's just refined carbs. Brown rice, brown flour, etc. take longer to digest and keep you at a more stable level. If you are prone towards insulin resistance (as a lot of people who have been overweight are), the effect is exacerbated.
You eat a lot of pasta. Have you tried quinoa or whole wheat pasta? There's a knack to cooking it so it tastes good, but it can be done. A few small changes and accurate logging may help.
Good luck!
Thanks for taking the time to write. That's really helpful. Sounds like I need to focus a little more on cutting out the refined carbs. I do have a fitbit flex and try to walk/run when possible. I'm working up to running. Also my flex says I'm burning an average of 2000 calories/day but I'm eating around 1200. Could that be a variable?0 -
You're already at a healthy weight, so that is probably counting against you and making it more difficult to lose.
I say up your exercise intensity (as measured by your flex.) Walk faster. Jog at a few intervals. You can try "Couch to 5K" to get you up to actually running, if that's what you'd like to do, or you can try swimming, biking, hiking, anything more intense than walking (at your own pace of course.) Work up your weights so you are lifting heavy - weight lifting should be difficult. You shouldn't be doing sets of 20 reps or anything, you should be doing shorter sets with heavier weights and each time you do a workout you should be trying to lift heavier things, even if only by a little bit.
I've looked at your diary and it does seem like you're logging accurately. I'm assuming those gram measurements are from foods you weighed. You don't have to go low-carb, but you do have to place a focus on meeting your protein goal. Especially if you are weight lifting, protein is essential for retaining lean body mass (and you only want to lose fat, not LBM.) That should balance out your carbs anyway if you put a focus on it.
Also, look at your measurements, take note of how your clothes fit, think about your energy levels. There are many more important things than the scale.
Yes, I'm trying to weigh everything on my kitchen scale. I even measure liquids unless I'm away from home. I will try to up my weights. I will check out the Couch to 5K too. Thanks.0 -
Accurately log everything you eat over a period of time, such as a month. Then you will have the real data you need.0
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This is me for months and months...BUT...I'm still noticing changes in the way my body feels and looks.0
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What is the reason you'd like to be under 125 pounds? I'm about your height (5'4 3/4") and currently weigh 143. I'm 58, though. I too muscle up well and quickly.
I wear a size 4 or 6 in most brands. I was at 119 pounds a couple of years ago, and I looked like a famine victim, with ribs hanging out. I do much better between 135-145 (I'm at the top of my range now, and I'd like to lose a couple - but not much!). If I get below 135, I look unhealthy.
All that said, I DID weigh 125 when I was in high school and was the same size I am now (yes, I found my old diary, and I also still wear my 2 favorite belts from that time in the same holes). After years of obesity, my bone density is currently what is expected from a fit woman 20 years younger than I am. That, and the quick muscling, mean that the scale is simply a monitor of how I'm trending, not my health. That number does not reflect how I look or my health status.
It may not for you either.2 -
This is my story, so take it for what it is worth. I am 5"5" tall, stalled at about 132. Months went by, I was doing strength and cardio at the same time. I was doing the Thirty Day Shred and lost 2lbs. When I finished the Shred, I started a new Jillian workout. She felt like torture so on a whim I chose Leslie Sansone's Ultimate Walk Plan as a break from Jillian. Leslie burned me through my last ten pounds. I started Leslie's video on March 4, 2013 and lost my final ten pounds by September. Weight loss is naturally slower as you get lower in weight. It takes more effort to make big changes on a smaller body. The most important thing you can do is to keep going, slowly, but steadily build a better and more healthy you!0
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What is the reason you'd like to be under 125 pounds? I'm about your height (5'4 3/4") and currently weigh 143. I'm 58, though. I too muscle up well and quickly.
I wear a size 4 or 6 in most brands. I was at 119 pounds a couple of years ago, and I looked like a famine victim, with ribs hanging out. I do much better between 135-145 (I'm at the top of my range now, and I'd like to lose a couple - but not much!). If I get below 135, I look unhealthy.
All that said, I DID weigh 125 when I was in high school and was the same size I am now (yes, I found my old diary, and I also still wear my 2 favorite belts from that time in the same holes). After years of obesity, my bone density is currently what is expected from a fit woman 20 years younger than I am. That, and the quick muscling, mean that the scale is simply a monitor of how I'm trending, not my health. That number does not reflect how I look or my health status.
It may not for you either.
If you check out my pictures on my profile you'll see that my weight is all in the middle and I'm guessing there's about 15lbs of it there, plus a little in other places. I wear a size 10 or 12 due to my mid-section. I'm guessing you are a little curvier than me as I'm pretty much an apple, but at my slimmest look more like a teenage boy
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This is me for months and months...BUT...I'm still noticing changes in the way my body feels and looks.
Wow. You've done fantastic. I guess our bodies do want to stabilize at a certain point but it is infuriating!0 -
acogg, Writing it down. Thanks.0
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You can take this with a grain of salt, or not, totally up to you -
I am a bit shorter than you (5'2) but was otherwise in pretty much the same lull. 144 pounds, 46 years old, and I spent about 4 months putting on and taking off the same three pounds (fluctuating between 141 and 144 in what seemed an endless cycle). I started logging in November with a friend and it took me nearly a month to drop the three pounds the first time, and a week to gain it back. Then I spent three more months repeating the cycle. I tried both 1200 calories and 1600 calories (net - eating most exercise back). I averaged 30-60 minutes of working out 5-6 days a week (Jillian, my endless dvd rack from BeachBody, Zombies, Run!, etc).
Then, my SO who has digestive issues and a variety of food allergies decided to go on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (it's basically a no polysachcaride, no dairy, no starch "elimination" diet that cuts a whole slew of stuff out of your diet to weed out what's giving you digestive trouble). It is NOT intended as a weight loss diet. I decided to just make it a household project and join in. 'Cause, you know, what could it hurt to eat less grains/starch/sugar except in the "wanting them" category and it was a big enough diet change that being supportive and joining in just felt like the nice thing to do.
The first week I dropped to 141 (which was the lowest I'd gone in the previous four months), the second week I dropped another pound and a half ... and in the six weeks we've been on it (and yes there have been days where I just said "I know you can't eat it but I will probably literally die without some sort of grain so I'm going to have some popcorn if that's ok") I'm down a total of 11 pounds.
Now, I know there's a million and one "a calorie is a calorie" posts on here, and for all I know that's totally true and maybe I am just way crappier at measuring milk, sugar, and grains than I am at measuring meat, olive oil and roasted veggies ... but what it FEELS like is that the resultant carb drop in my diet kicked my metabolism up a notch.0 -
At least you are not gaining -- this is good.
Most of the time, this issue is the result of overestimating exercise and underestimating intake. Pull back a tad on your portion sizes and try to pick up your activity a little more and you should see some movement in the right direction.0 -
what stood out the most for me was the "walking and lifting weights". if i were you i would incorporate more strenuous cardio about 3 days a week. step aerobics for example (i do that at home for about 40 mins-works great), or an hour of rollerblading, or running - even though i find that boring, but whatever suits you.
it may also help to get a heart rate monitor and make sure you are within the "fat loss zone" while doing cardio. i havent actually tried this but read a great deal about it.1 -
Two other small things . . .
Every time I stalled I had to recalculate my calorie goals on MFP to get moving. When you lose weight you have to re-enter and recalculate to give you the right deficit. It doesn't work well automatically. Have you done that?
Second, I sit on a pilates ball chair at work. Even though I haven't lost a pound since I hit maintenance last year, I've lost two inches off both my hips and my waist. It's from the chair - the only other exercise I do is walk. It takes time, but it noticeably increased my core muscles and really improved my posture.0 -
Sigh, I *really* doubt this. Women cannot gain more than 0.5lb muscle/week even when they're doing everything possible (calorie surplus + heavy lifting) to try and achieve it. It took me 18 months of gaining weight and heavy lifting to get this muscular, and I am genetically gifted in that area. Go to the 'women who bulk' group and you'll see what I mean. More to the point, what does this statement have to do with anything else in your post? Are you trying to get a muscular physique, or trying to avoid it? You're aware that women who have decent muscle mass are going to weigh more than their skinny-fat counterparts, right?I get muscly pretty easily for a woman. I lift weights about once a week but I can't say I've worked up to lifting "heavy".
If you are not gaining weight, you are not gaining muscle. If you are not losing weight, you are not losing fat -> revealing muscle. If you are not lifting heavy, you are not doing anything for your muscle mass, period.
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Anyway, back to your real question...
1. If you aren't losing weight you're not at a deficit, so you need to create a calorie deficit by eating less, burning more, or a bit of both. You may want to double check whether weight loss is really your goal at this point, as has been suggested.
2. It doesn't matter whether you get over x% of carbs because...
a: % macros ars meaningless, you should be calculating macros in grams
b: so long as you hit your minimum protein and fat grams you can eat whatever the hell you like to make up the rest of your calories, since it's a calorie deficit you're after2 -
What a quaint throwback to the 1980's!!it may also help to get a heart rate monitor and make sure you are within the "fat loss zone" while doing cardio. i havent actually tried this but read a great deal about it.
The importance of training in the so called fat burning zone has been comprehensively debunked. If you are exercising you are burning calories - it's the number of calories burned that are important for weight loss and not what heart rate you are training at.2 -
Also my flex says I'm burning an average of 2000 calories/day but I'm eating around 1200. Could that be a variable?
1200 doesn't sound like enough calories for someone with only 20 lbs to lose. Are you sure that's correct for your situation? That just doesn't sound right to me.
Perhaps your flex is incorrect? You say you're weighing everything.0 -
I've be religiously using MFP for about 8 months and have maintained my weight since then. The problem is that I would like to lose about 20lbs. Most of my extra fat sits on my waist. I'm 5'4, 45, 143lbs. I walk about 5 to 8 miles four or five days a week. I get muscly pretty easily for a woman. I lift weights about once a week but I can't say I've worked up to lifting "heavy". Some days I get very little exercise as I live in a cold climate, so I'm eating around 1200 to 1400 a day. My dairy is open. I'm trying to eat low on carbs but I'm not very successful. I've tried giving up refined sugar (for a year) with little results. I haven't tried hard lately as you can see in my dairy. I've heard that the closer you are to your goal the more difficult it is but it seems more difficult for me that it is for others. If you are looking at my dairy please look over the skipped week I was out of the country and didn't have internet access. I realize that for some time that I may have been over-estimating my activity (before I got a flex), so that could be a variable. I've heard the eat more argument a good bit in the last 8 months but it seems illogical to me and I can't predict when I will be completely indoors. Thanks.
If you aren't losing weight then you are not eating in a calorie deficit. Took a look at your diary and it doesn't appear that you weigh everything, even though you said you do. So you are probably eating more than you think.
My advice: with only 20 lbs to lose, change your weight loss goal to losing 1/2 lb per week, which will increase your calorie allowance. But then you have to actually weigh and measure every single bite or none of this is going to work.
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/blog/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/ (only read if you're not opposed to light swearing and awesome humor).0 -
Are you logging all your butter/cooking oil/broth/etc.? You have some entries that include a scrambled whole egg without also listing butter/oil, buckwheat without any oil or salt, or 200 g of spaghetti without oil/sauce/anything else. What everyone else has been saying is correct -- if you're not losing, you're not in a deficit -- and I'd bet you're eating more than you think due to inaccurate logging.0
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What a quaint throwback to the 1980's!!it may also help to get a heart rate monitor and make sure you are within the "fat loss zone" while doing cardio. i havent actually tried this but read a great deal about it.
The importance of training in the so called fat burning zone has been comprehensively debunked. If you are exercising you are burning calories - it's the number of calories burned that are important for weight loss and not what heart rate you are training at.
sorry for the misinformation then.
and thanks for making me look into it. it seems the whole "burning more energy from fat (percental) in the fat loss zone" is true but just not the whole truth, which makes it obsolete. found this on it: http://www.builtlean.com/2013/04/01/fat-burning-zone-myth/
im actually glad about this cause i hate staying in a lower heart rate zone.
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Are you logging all your butter/cooking oil/broth/etc.? You have some entries that include a scrambled whole egg without also listing butter/oil, buckwheat without any oil or salt, or 200 g of spaghetti without oil/sauce/anything else. What everyone else has been saying is correct -- if you're not losing, you're not in a deficit -- and I'd bet you're eating more than you think due to inaccurate logging.
Ok, I guess I've overlooked this. It seems silly to weight such a small portions and I try to use water to cook as much as possible. I try (emphasis on try) to overestimate when in doubt. Obviously since I'm not losing, I'm not overestimating. I know I was overestimating my calories burned so maybe I've been seriously underestimating my calories eaten. I'll try to be more attentive to that.4 -
_freckles, Ok I admit I'm not weighing everything. I need to do better weighing what I can (when I eat at home). Thanks for the reminder.1
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Also my flex says I'm burning an average of 2000 calories/day but I'm eating around 1200. Could that be a variable?
1200 doesn't sound like enough calories for someone with only 20 lbs to lose. Are you sure that's correct for your situation? That just doesn't sound right to me.
Perhaps your flex is incorrect? You say you're weighing everything.
Nope. I'm not sure of any of this really. As I said, or meant to say, I'm trying to weigh most everything. I have thought I might be eating too little but then look at what others say and say to myself "Wow, maybe I need to eat less to make up for all my poor measuring."0 -
What a quaint throwback to the 1980's!!it may also help to get a heart rate monitor and make sure you are within the "fat loss zone" while doing cardio. i havent actually tried this but read a great deal about it.
The importance of training in the so called fat burning zone has been comprehensively debunked. If you are exercising you are burning calories - it's the number of calories burned that are important for weight loss and not what heart rate you are training at.
Haha. Don't worry I didn't understand anyway and I already know that I'm in the fat zone (or at least the moderately overweight zone)!0 -
At least you are not gaining -- this is good.
Most of the time, this issue is the result of overestimating exercise and underestimating intake. Pull back a tad on your portion sizes and try to pick up your activity a little more and you should see some movement in the right direction.
Ok. I'll keep at it.0 -
Sigh, I *really* doubt this. Women cannot gain more than 0.5lb muscle/week even when they're doing everything possible (calorie surplus + heavy lifting) to try and achieve it. It took me 18 months of gaining weight and heavy lifting to get this muscular, and I am genetically gifted in that area. Go to the 'women who bulk' group and you'll see what I mean. More to the point, what does this statement have to do with anything else in your post? Are you trying to get a muscular physique, or trying to avoid it? You're aware that women who have decent muscle mass are going to weigh more than their skinny-fat counterparts, right?I get muscly pretty easily for a woman. I lift weights about once a week but I can't say I've worked up to lifting "heavy".
If you are not gaining weight, you are not gaining muscle. If you are not losing weight, you are not losing fat -> revealing muscle. If you are not lifting heavy, you are not doing anything for your muscle mass, period.
---
Anyway, back to your real question...
1. If you aren't losing weight you're not at a deficit, so you need to create a calorie deficit by eating less, burning more, or a bit of both. You may want to double check whether weight loss is really your goal at this point, as has been suggested.
2. It doesn't matter whether you get over x% of carbs because...
a: % macros ars meaningless, you should be calculating macros in grams
b: so long as you hit your minimum protein and fat grams you can eat whatever the hell you like to make up the rest of your calories, since it's a calorie deficit you're after
Sorry to exasperate you about the muscle comment. Actually, what you said is very helpful because maybe what I'm seeing is that I am loosing fat because some of my long lost muscles are starting to show. (I was active in a number of sports in my pre-asthma life and maybe? some of them are still there). But, based on your picture and comments our idea of muscles may be vastly different. I'm happy if I can see a resemblance of a muscle and am not yet aspiring to more than that at this point.
I have to admit I'm still pretty baffled by the macros. It's pretty much hit and miss for me and I change my settings regularly. Got a good link to clear that up for me?
As far as heavy lifting goes, I'm still pretty weak and just started lifting any weights for the first time this year (thanks to the encouragement of my MFP friends) but I am working at it and willing to lift more. I'll need to chew on the rest of your comments awhile.
Congratulations on all your hard work. You look beautiful.0 -
You can take this with a grain of salt, or not, totally up to you -
I am a bit shorter than you (5'2) but was otherwise in pretty much the same lull. 144 pounds, 46 years old, and I spent about 4 months putting on and taking off the same three pounds (fluctuating between 141 and 144 in what seemed an endless cycle). I started logging in November with a friend and it took me nearly a month to drop the three pounds the first time, and a week to gain it back. Then I spent three more months repeating the cycle. I tried both 1200 calories and 1600 calories (net - eating most exercise back). I averaged 30-60 minutes of working out 5-6 days a week (Jillian, my endless dvd rack from BeachBody, Zombies, Run!, etc).
Then, my SO who has digestive issues and a variety of food allergies decided to go on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (it's basically a no polysachcaride, no dairy, no starch "elimination" diet that cuts a whole slew of stuff out of your diet to weed out what's giving you digestive trouble). It is NOT intended as a weight loss diet. I decided to just make it a household project and join in. 'Cause, you know, what could it hurt to eat less grains/starch/sugar except in the "wanting them" category and it was a big enough diet change that being supportive and joining in just felt like the nice thing to do.
The first week I dropped to 141 (which was the lowest I'd gone in the previous four months), the second week I dropped another pound and a half ... and in the six weeks we've been on it (and yes there have been days where I just said "I know you can't eat it but I will probably literally die without some sort of grain so I'm going to have some popcorn if that's ok") I'm down a total of 11 pounds.
Now, I know there's a million and one "a calorie is a calorie" posts on here, and for all I know that's totally true and maybe I am just way crappier at measuring milk, sugar, and grains than I am at measuring meat, olive oil and roasted veggies ... but what it FEELS like is that the resultant carb drop in my diet kicked my metabolism up a notch.
Obviously, I'm pretty crappy at measuring everything. What you're saying make a lot of sense to me. I've been moving in that direction for a while now. When I lived in the US, I had terrible GERD from milk products etc but in spite of how my dairy appears the food I eat here is more natural (I sometimes substitute a store bought item in my diary for something homemade to get the grams/oz) and I don't have the problems here. Maybe though, there's something to cutting back the sugar, milk and simple carbs... Thanks.0 -
Hi everyone. It's four years later. I maintained pretty well for a while based on all your good advice. Then in the last 3 months I had 6 family members die suddenly and I put on 40lbs. So, I am rereading what you all have said and getting back to measuring my food. Don't know if any of you are still around but thanks again.21
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So sorry for your losses! That's awful. I wasn't here back then but just wanted to say that most of us who reached goal and maintained had our share of failures before getting it right. You just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move forward. Good Luck.3
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