I'm stuck, big time weight plateau?

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  • 1saturn
    1saturn Posts: 95 Member
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    Eat less. You're obviously in maintenance. You need to eat less, workout more, ir with more intensity, or some combo of both. Barring any medical condition, it's an energy equation of cals in/out.

    My advice is to never ever take advice from this guy. Eat less than 1200 calories and work out more? 1200 calories per day is maintenance? Unless you're 3 feet tall, 1200 calories isn't maintenance.

    If one is not losing at 1200, then what do you suggest? Let's say, just for arguments sake that IF SHE EATS MORE she gains. Let's just say that's what happens so that we take that off the table. Now, what do you suggest? I actually know what I'm talking about. And, it us safe to go below 1200.

    She'll only gain if she eats over her maintenance which is around 2242 kcals a day. No one suggested she should start shovelling food in, but she certainly shouldn't be starving herself either.

    Where did you get the 2242 kcals from?

    I explained in my post but will copy for you below. x

    "I stuck your details in here - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ (5ft,3/23 yrs/139lbs) which gave you a BMR of 1447 cals per day.

    I then went here - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/ and as you said you work out around 4 times a week, I multiplied your 1447 cals by 1.55 which gives a total of 2242 cals per day.

    That's a really basic calculation, you can go into it further with TDEE etc."



    Thanks! This makes a lot of sense to me. I have been miscalculating something ha! Congrats on losing so much! I'm sure you went through the plateau at some point too. :)
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
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    OP, if you are healthy and not losing weight, you are eating at or above maintenance......period. Its science, not hocus pocus. How many calories are you truly eating? Who knows. What is your TDEE? Who knows. Online calculators are just a guide to get you in the ballpark, you use real world results along with accurate tracking of calories to know for sure. But the first sentence of this post is fact, indisputable fact.
  • 1saturn
    1saturn Posts: 95 Member
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    can you not. I don't overeat my limits and I exercise more than most. Weight gain and loss is incredibly relative from person to person. I am not overweight so technically I shouldn't be eating much below the standard for women which is 2,000. I eat way less than that. I log everyday and yes I am perfectly able to log and measure my own food. If the science was that simplistic, weight plateauing would not be such a common accordance.
  • 1saturn
    1saturn Posts: 95 Member
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    can you not. I don't overeat my limits and I exercise more than most. Weight gain and loss is incredibly relative from person to person. I am not overweight so technically I shouldn't be eating much below the standard for women which is 2,000. I eat way less than that. I log everyday and yes I am perfectly able to log and measure my own food. If the science was that simplistic, weight plateauing would not be such a common accordance.
    Who said the standard for women is 2000?
    So you're logging properly, are doing nothing wrong. Why don't you then tell us why you are not losing weight?

    I mean this is a first, an OP comes in for advice, gets it, rejects it, and takes the advice that makes the least sense because that's what they want to hear.

    It's just a discussion. I have accepted that it could be the reason but I reserve the right to feel that it is not. Perhaps you should calm down. It's not what I want to hear it's what I have come to the conclusion makes sense to me. I have always been a religious logger and exerciser. Obviously, we all like to make the easy guess but it's not always accurate. Just because I didn't fully accept or encourage your suggestion doesn't mean you need to throw a strop.
  • _KitKat_
    _KitKat_ Posts: 1,066 Member
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    can you not. I don't overeat my limits and I exercise more than most. Weight gain and loss is incredibly relative from person to person. I am not overweight so technically I shouldn't be eating much below the standard for women which is 2,000. I eat way less than that. I log everyday and yes I am perfectly able to log and measure my own food. If the science was that simplistic, weight plateauing would not be such a common accordance.
    Who said the standard for women is 2000?
    So you're logging properly, are doing nothing wrong. Why don't you then tell us why you are not losing weight?

    I mean this is a first, an OP comes in for advice, gets it, rejects it, and takes the advice that makes the least sense because that's what they want to hear.

    I can feel the sarcasm.:flowerforyou:

    To the first quoted post. Really it is that simple, if not then I would be being checked by an endocrinologist because you would have to have a severe and extremely rare metabolic disorder.

    Plateau's are common, because the margin of error shrinks. Accuracy is paramount at that point. If you are measuring correctly, logging everything that passes your lips, including the oil on the pan for cooking, then you may be over estimating exercise calories. Many do and MFP and gym machines do by a huge margin. When you are talking about a 250 calorie deficient, making errors can cost it all. Plus the TDEE s we use are estimates, everyone is slightly different. 2000 calories for the average woman, that's just silly....height, activity and lean body mass all play a role.
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
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    You've answered your own question- you're eating under 1200 calories. You have to eat at least 1200 no less, 1200 is the least amount of calories the body can have before starvation mode. Basically because you are eating under 1200 calories, you're body is in starvation mode, and it's holding onto what it has and not letting it go. Increase your calories- something that is high in calories is two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter, that will easily use up some calories if you're having trouble.

    Also, please make sure you eat back all your exercise calories too. If you eat at least 1200 calories a day, you will be able to lose 10 more pounds :)
  • gabrielleelliott90
    gabrielleelliott90 Posts: 854 Member
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    Could you the problem be that you're eating less than 1200 cals? I thought 1200 was the very minimum for healthy weight loss?

    Yep it is.
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,406 Member
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    Eat more. I had an 8 month plateau, and without realizing I was eating not nearly enough as I should have. My average calorie intake per day was about 1500.

    I increased my calories to TDEE -500 (about 1900/day) and SUCCESS! :D Lost 2 pounds the following week and I have now been consistently losing weight since.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
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    can you not. I don't overeat my limits and I exercise more than most. Weight gain and loss is incredibly relative from person to person. I am not overweight so technically I shouldn't be eating much below the standard for women which is 2,000. I eat way less than that. I log everyday and yes I am perfectly able to log and measure my own food. If the science was that simplistic, weight plateauing would not be such a common accordance.

    It is that simple. its a math problem really. Your body will burn X calories per day. You consume Y calories per day. X>Y=weight loss. X<Y=weight gain. The part we are missing here is, well, X and Y. Everyone has a different TDEE. You have to log calories consumed very accurately for a period of time while measuring weight loss/gain over that time and you can determine TDEE and by extension, how much to eat to lose weight. Here is a crude example Bill has consumed 60,000 calories over the last 30 days, he know this because he has logged every morsel that went into his mouth. Over these same 30 days Bill has lost 4 pounds of fat. We know that it takes roughly 3500 calories of deficit to lose a pound of fat, so, 14,000 calories in this example. so we add 14,000 to 60,000 to get 74,000. So we now know that Bill would maintain on 74,000 for 30 days, or 2467 per day. If Bill eats over 2467 per day on average, he will gain, less he will lose. You must track accurately for a period of time to learn your TDEE.
  • _KitKat_
    _KitKat_ Posts: 1,066 Member
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    You've answered your own question- you're eating under 1200 calories. You have to eat at least 1200 no less, 1200 is the least amount of calories the body can have before starvation mode. Basically because you are eating under 1200 calories, you're body is in starvation mode, and it's holding onto what it has and not letting it go. Increase your calories- something that is high in calories is two slices of wholemeal toast with peanut butter, that will easily use up some calories if you're having trouble.

    No :noway: Not at all!!!!

    You do not hold fat while you starve, if you did people would be fat when they died of starvation.

    Now if eating below 1200, you are probably destroying muscle. This is how people get skinny fat, and look flabby at low body weights. Their body fat % is high. It is also a good way to suffer malnourishment, hair loss, fatigue, and lack metal clarity.

    The fact is the net is NOT 1200 CALORIES OR LESS and weight loss has stopped or reversed. The Net is higher, unless extremely rare metabolic disorder is involved. Even then I remember reading the numbers are only off by about 10% or so, that means you are not eating less than 1200 calories, scientifically it would defy the laws of thermodynamics... PS starvation mode defies the laws of energy (thermodynamics) also.

    Anyone reading understands that weight loss can also remain disguisedby water retention, and that weight loss is not linear.
  • prattiger65
    prattiger65 Posts: 1,657 Member
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    Could you the problem be that you're eating less than 1200 cals? I thought 1200 was the very minimum for healthy weight loss?

    Yep it is.

    No it is not necessarily.
  • justcat206
    justcat206 Posts: 716 Member
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    Are you taking measurements or just using the scale? Sometimes you can lose inches without losing pounds. I second using heavy weights, too. When I got stuck on losing I added in heavy lifting and without changing anything else I started losing lots of inches (though not really any weight) and started replacing body fat with muscle which made me look thinner. I'm only 5'1" and eat around 1500 without doing much cardio at all, just lifting and am not gaining so maybe it's worth a try?
  • tehman
    tehman Posts: 10 Member
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    Tons of all kinds of advice out there, this is an insulin idea from an article I read a couple weeks ago: At its most basic level, eating less carbs is good advice. Most people would benefit from eating fewer carbohydrates. But what we're discovering is that the level of carbohydrates that you can consume while still losing weight is directly related to your insulin sensitivity. More to this point, certain levels of carbohydrate restriction are unnecessary for individuals with good insulin sensitivity as it doesn't further enhance fat loss. http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/carbohydrate-customized-diet -- could not find the article about certain diets actually cause women to store fat even in low intake levels --- from a personal point of view, i focus on eating good foods and watching just the calories count with good tracking. If I need to loose weight I amp up the exercise (weight training and walking) with over 1000+ excess calories burned off each day. Keep adjusting and working on a plan. You will get there.

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