Not losing?

amr122393

Hello everyone, I have been trying to lost about 15 pounds for about a month or two. Since I started, I have lost about 5 pounds (on my diary it only shows 1 because I didn't start logging my weight loss until a few weeks ago) I currently weigh 173.5 pounds. I am 5'8". For the past two weeks, I have been feeling unwell, as well as have been on my period until 2 days ago. Today I weighed myself, and I weigh the same as I did when I weighed myself two weeks ago. I have been maintaining the same levels of exercise, perhaps eating a little bit more than I did before. However, my BMR calculation is 1650, and my maintenance level for calories about 2500. The most calories I ever net in one day is 1900-2000, however, I am usually more around 1500-1700. I do pilates and yoga 5-6 days a week, as well as train with my personal trainer once a week (weight lifting). So I say all this to ask you all, should I be eating less/working out more? Or is my weight plateau just due to feeling unwell or that TOM?

4legsRbetterthan2

It is most likely TOM, most women gain a lb or two or more durring that time, hormones :grumble:

Seems like you are creating too large of a deficit and that might be causing you to feel run down. With a 15 lb goal you should be shooting for a loss of 0.5 lbs a week, maybe 1lb/week. With the numbers your posted that would be 2000-2250 a day. Patience is the name of the game and helps us from getting hangry.

IoveIy

By using this calculator (http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/), it seems that you're netting too many calories. This calculator says your TDEE is 1926 calories and that your BMR is 1605. If you netted 1426 calories, you'd lose 1 lb. of fat a week.

My tip is to continue your diet and exercise routine based on these numbers and keeping your macros in check, and most importantly, only weigh yourself weekly or even monthly (if you can handle the suspense) because your weight is going to fluctuate daily based on water weight esp. when it's that time of the month.

Best of luck to you!

StaciMarie1974

Keys to weight loss: consistency, accuracy, and patience.

Working on it for a month or two sounds like you're not sure when you started. That's ok - just wanted to point that out.

I always show a weight gain the day after my period starts - and it can be 2+ weeks before I get back down to what I weighed the day before it started. Water weight & hormones. Then over the next 1-2 weeks, it looks like I lose 3-4 pounds almost immediately. Then the process starts over. Water weight can mask your efforts, but its not going to hide the overall trend.

Log everything you eat, every day. With accuracy meaning using a food scale to know exactly what you consume. And look for trends over the next 4-8 weeks. If the scale seems to go up at any given time, keep at it and know that if you're eating in a reduced range then within 2-3 more weeks the scale should show the effort.

amr122393

Thank you everyone I will keep being diligent about tracking everything, I think I could stand to tighten up especially since I have such a weakness for sweets :embarassed: I also think I will reincorporate running/HIIT into my routine since it seems to help me net a lower amount of calories without feeling like I need to eat more. I really appreciate all of your advice!

Jilliankosto

I am 5'9" and I can relate to your post, I also started around the low 170's mark. I have been using MFP for a year (this month), and I have only lost 10 - 12 pounds (it fluctuates a lot). I weighed myself this morning at 159.6. My goal weight is 145. I am very frustrated because it took me about 6 months to loose the first ten pounds, but now I can't seem to make the scale budge below 155-157. I am not sure what exactly I am doing wrong. I also have a weakness for sweets, as you mentioned, and the last 30 days or so I have made a VERY conscious effort to not eat any desserts, snacks, candy, etc. Anyway, I guess I will just keep going, not sure how I can get this last 15 pounds off?! I would be happy just to know I am going in the right direction but it seems no matter what I switch up in my diet/exercise I can't make the scale go below 155 (and even that's a struggle). Anyway, can anyone else relate to this? Has anyone else taken a really long time to loose 25-30 pounds? I feel like I must be lying to myself or not recording what I am eating because this is just bizarre to me that other people can lose 30 pounds in 6-7 months easily but I can't seem to do it in a year?

amr122393

I think when losing less than 50 pounds its much harder to lose weight quickly. I haven't been weighing my food at all, just using more of a rough estimate of what I'm eating, but I use a polar ft4 watch to measure how many calories I burn so maybe we should be more accurate with our food recording? I don't know. I'm hesitant to do it because I have a history of disordered eating and I'm afraid that being that meticulous will cause me to go down a bad path. Ugh the struggle is so real!