Plateau and Goal Change

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leomcdee
leomcdee Posts: 60 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys,

OK, so I need some advice from the experts here. I'll try and explain everything as thoroughly as possible and I'll open my diary, but please bear with as I've only been doing this just over a month.

I am F, 26 with a height of 5"5

I sit on my butt most of the day at an office job, but have started exercising 3-6 times a week, swimming and ballet, plus loads of walking.

At first, I lost quite a lot of weight quickly. Was naturally very pleased, but I started on 1200 cals a day and that soon got tiresome. I reduced my weekly loss goal to up my cals to 1350 and I've been eating around here (PLUS exercise calories) for 2 weeks.

In the past week I've hit a plateau despite working really hard and logging very carefully. I have a few ideas what might have caused it; TOM, muscle gain from extra exercise, water retention etc. But it's very frustrating.

Anyway, I read an amazing post today about TDEE/BMR http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/680246-tdee-bmr-what-they-are-and-what-to-do-with-them?page=1 and have decided to change my goals to follow this method.

Now, I can eat 1750 calories a day (no burned calories though).

So my questions are:

Am I doing the right thing increasing my calories so much? Will it have any negative side-effects? Will I gain a little before I level out again?

Has anyone else used TDEE/BMR and had good results?

What can I eat to increase my calories in a healthy, fulfilling way? I'm allergic to nuts, so they are out of the question.

How can I convince my brain that this moderate method is much better for me? I'm so used to doing this whole thing in extremes, so I can't seem to get my head round eating that much.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    If it's only been a week, there's no need to change things up. Weight loss isn't linear, and TOM gains can take some time to leave. Be patient.

    If you do want to stick with your TDEE calories, full fat dairy and oils are good ways to boost calories
  • La5Vega5Girl
    La5Vega5Girl Posts: 709 Member
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    If it's only been a week, there's no need to change things up. Weight loss isn't linear, and TOM gains can take some time to leave. Be patient.

    If you do want to stick with your TDEE calories, full fat dairy and oils are good ways to boost calories

    i agree. keep going and don't change anything for at least 2 weeks or more. keep it up! :smile:
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
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    I don't consider one week without weight loss a true plateau. I had a nearly 4 month plateau. I ended up not really changing much of anything differently, but watching my tracking more closely. Then I lost 3 lbs. in one week, a week in which I had done very little exercise, but was very careful about my eating and tracking because of the low exercise. So, I may have been overestimating exercise calories. I was following the 1200 net, eating back exercise.

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