OMG, why can't I lose anymore?!

tsalagi82

Ok, so I got down to my original goal weight of 140/135ish. Apparently I still need to lose though because my lower half is still fighting the battle of the bulge. I keep getting hung up at this weight though, so I'm guessing I'm at my plateau. I've been eating 1200-1400 calories, exercising daily (about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic/weights), but nothing.

HELP!!

arditarose

I'm in the same boat and want to get down to 135 as well. I think a lot of people are going to say you/we need to eat more. Which is slightly annoying, even if they're right. Because what does that mean? If 1400 calories worked for awhile, did we screw up our metabolism? And how do you fix that?

Anyway, do you lift weights? I find that I don't care quite as much what the scale reads when things look nice from lifting.

tsalagi82

Holy cow is that you in your profile pic? Yes, I lift...do cardio. ::sigh::

annassong

As with anything if you keep at the same thing everyday your body learns to adjust. Try changing your workout routine or pig out for 2 days. Change it up and your body should kick start up again. Or try fasting for 1 or 2 days a week.

arditarose

Holy cow is that you in your profile pic? Yes, I lift...do cardio. ::sigh::

Yeah...but flexing ha. I don't know. I've been at 142/143 for an entire month and it's getting annoying. How long have you been stalling?

tigerblue

Do you log and eat back exercise calories, or so you do TDEE deficit method? I have a theory as to why it is difficult for small women to continue to lose. . .

_Terrapin_

I'm in the same boat and want to get down to 135 as well. I think a lot of people are going to say you/we need to eat more. Which is slightly annoying, even if they're right. Because what does that mean? If 1400 calories worked for awhile, did we screw up our metabolism? And how do you fix that?

Anyway, do you lift weights? I find that I don't care quite as much what the scale reads when things look nice from lifting.

Sort of funny and cute...yes eat more, yes it will improve your metabolism, yes you'll lose weight. Be Patient. Write this on a piece of paper and place it your mirror, driver's side visor, your closet door inside and out. . . . BE PATIENT. And eat more

vismal

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

Sharon_C

Are you logging accurately? Every single thing that passes your lips? When you have less to lose you have less of a margin of error so every single calorie counts. My guess is you're eating more than you think you are and you're burning less than you think you are. That's what happened to me when I hit a plateau.

arditarose

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

I'm really interested in this break/eating at maintenance for a week or two. You think it's very beneficial?

Kalikel

I'm a big believer in shaking up the calories, eating more and less as your body desires it.

But just more? All the time? That's nuts. You don't lose more weight by eating more food. God, I wish! I'd be loading up on cakes and muffins, cheeseburgers and fries, etc. it would be lovely to eat our way to skinny!

But, no. It's crazy.

Everyone complains about those last 5-15 pounds. They must be very stubborn pounds, indeed.

Good luck!

berz82

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

I think thats what i need to do, im sure the bit of belly and handles i have will go when i start putting on some muscle to replace it. I think its time to ease of the HIIT training and up the gym time and ive noticed some nice changes since i started going there recently Nice youtube channel btw

vismal

Here is a great article about diet breaks: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I also made a video about diet breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jqAXpjCV0

arditarose

Here is a great article about diet breaks: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I also made a video about diet breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jqAXpjCV0

Thanks!

Sharon_C

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

I'm really interested in this break/eating at maintenance for a week or two. You think it's very beneficial?

I did this for a few months this year and when I went back to cutting calories I started losing again. I don't know what the science is behind it but I just had a gut feeling (no pun intended) that my body needed a break and even my mind needed a break. So I ate at maintenance for a few months and lifted heavy and exercised the same as what I had been before but eating my exercise calories back. I didn't gain during that time but neither did I lose--but I wasn't planning on losing either.

I think the mental break was good because I was ready to fully commit again and as soon as I did I reached my goal weight.

My goal is to lose 5 more pounds and then I'm going to give myself another break.

But the thing to keep in mind is if you do this (and this is just from my perspective) to not stop counting calories. If you stop counting calories then you have no idea what you're consuming and you might start gaining.

caracrawford1

When at a plateau, SOMETHING you are doing needs to change, because really all a plateau is is calories in=calories out and to be a plateau it should last at least 4 weeks. A stall is less than 4 weeks long. So make sure you are weighing and measuring accurately. If you can bump up your exercise beyond 30 mins, by all means do so. Many people I know exercise at least an hour a day.You don't have to go crazy-- I workout just about 120 mins a day--BUT I am training for something specific and getting down to race weight. My goal is performance. I was already fit.
Change your exercise--your body does get efficient and burns fewer cals doing the same thing all the time.

hearthwood

Ok, so I got down to my original goal weight of 140/135ish. Apparently I still need to lose though because my lower half is still fighting the battle of the bulge. I keep getting hung up at this weight though, so I'm guessing I'm at my plateau. I've been eating 1200-1400 calories, exercising daily (about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic/weights), but nothing.

HELP!!

On women fat is usually stored in hips or thighs, and you'll have to work those areas to thin them down. Muscle takes up 1/3 the space that fat does. I don't know how tall you are but if you have hit your goal weight, you're at your fixed healthy weight already and trying to lose more is going to be difficult and painfully slow. It's just simple math, at your current calorie intake your only choice now is to exercise it off.

paulawatkins1974

bumping to read later. I'm sure I'll need it someday.

arditarose

Ok, so I got down to my original goal weight of 140/135ish. Apparently I still need to lose though because my lower half is still fighting the battle of the bulge. I keep getting hung up at this weight though, so I'm guessing I'm at my plateau. I've been eating 1200-1400 calories, exercising daily (about 30 minutes of moderate aerobic/weights), but nothing.

HELP!!

On women fat is usually stored in hips or thighs, and you'll have to work those areas to thin them down. Muscle takes up 1/3 the space that fat does. I don't know how tall you are but if you have hit your goal weight, you're at your fixed healthy weight already and trying to lose more is going to be difficult and painfully slow. It's just simple math, at your current calorie intake your only choice now is to exercise it off.

?

paulawatkins1974

Here is a great article about diet breaks: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I also made a video about diet breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jqAXpjCV0

Just watched the video. I've been cutting about 750 to 1000 cal deficit daily for 7 months. Does diet breaking apply to people with 75 Lbs. more to go? (Love your videos btw)

paulawatkins1974

Here is a great article about diet breaks: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
I also made a video about diet breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0jqAXpjCV0

Just watched the video. I've been cutting about 750 to 1000 cal deficit daily for 7 months. Does diet breaking apply to people with 75 Lbs. more to go? (Love your videos btw)

Oops sorry just watched the rest. Question answered lol.

BaldheadSlick

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

Good post and I agree whole-heartedly.

Now may be a good time to focus less on the scale and more on decreasing body fat if you still want to "lose".

sandicliff7

I've lost a bunch of weight and hit a plateau that lasted about a year. I went to a nutritionist and she explained how our bodies use less calories, so my count should be lower, however, she says I should stay around 1800 because anything lower puts my body in starvation mode. Well actually she says that in the long term, the body adjusts to weight loss better at about 1800 then doing 1400 for a year and then changing it. She says that helps body maintain weight better. Also it is easier to maintain. She told me that I should focus more on changing my diet to more whole, less processed foods, and cutting way back on sugar. She also said to watch out for artificial sweeteners because the body thinks they are sugar and gear up to receive the energy, and when it doesn't come, it makes you hungrier. My lifestyle also changed from working to staying at home, so my exercise needs to go way up! I am so used to doing the standard, but my endurance has improved a lot, so I need to increase the intensity. She said I need to walk 1-3 miles /day at least 5 days a week to replace the time spent working, plus do a workout at least 3 times a week. I am still working on these things. It is a definite adjustment. She also said that I should move at a slower rate of weight loss to keep it low, (9 lbs in 6 months). These things should combat the bodies desire to stay at a certain weight. My example is that in this past year, my body weight fluctuated up and down within a 10 lb range. Whenever it got 3-5lbs lower, it would pop back up and vice versa). I've also noticed and learned that body weight can fluctuate 2 lbs or so a day depending on the depending on the digestive cycle.
I hope these things help people who are also on a plateau. If possible, I also recommend visiting a nutritionist or attending a TOPS club. These two things do help a lot when you are working on losing weight! By the way, even if the weight is not changing much, the body will tone and build muscle. Mine did!

tsalagi82

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

It's like this, whenever I tell people in person that I need to lose weight they look at me like I'm crazy. With clothes on, I look decent. Without clothes, holy cow the fat is ever-apparent. I do weight train and cardio, (been doing this about 1 1/2 months) about half and half. It's like I lose, and gain, lose and gain. It's VERY easy for me to gain, and takes everything to lose.

tsalagi82

Are you completely stalled or just losing very slow? If you are losing very slowly, that's simply the reality of being relatively lean. Weight loss slows and becomes less linear. You might go 2-4 weeks with no weight loss then all of a sudden lose a lb or 2 in a few days. Also, have you been in a deficit for a long time with no break? This can cause some slowdowns to your metabolism. It is not damage (a word people love to through around), its just a temporary adaptation that can be easily reversed. You can do a 2 week "diet break" to aid with this. I do a break every 8-12 weeks of eating in a deficit. You do not stop counting calories on a break, you simply raise them to maintenance for 2 week, then go right back to your deficit. It's a mental break as well as physiologically beneficial. This can also help things like water retention causing stalls to resolve.

Also, many times when you weight is where you want it but you don't look like you want to, it's more a problem of being under-muscled rather then over weight. Do you do any kind of resistance training? If not, you really should consider it!

It's like this, whenever I tell people in person that I need to lose weight they look at me like I'm crazy. With clothes on, I look decent. Without clothes, holy cow the fat is ever-apparent. I do weight train and cardio, (been doing this about 1 1/2 months) about half and half. It's like I lose, and gain, lose and gain. It's VERY easy for me to gain, and takes everything to lose.

You can see from my profile pic though that there is fat on my legs and tummy, so it's not like I'm trying to starve myself or set unrealistic goals.

enipla

Bump

tsalagi82

Holy cow is that you in your profile pic? Yes, I lift...do cardio. ::sigh::

Yeah...but flexing ha. I don't know. I've been at 142/143 for an entire month and it's getting annoying. How long have you been stalling?

Wow you look amazing! I'm a tub of fat compared to your pic, even if I am a few pounds lighter. It just goes up and down. I may not be consistent enough.

coronalime

Maybe your not fighting weight right now but body composition. Your older with kids and maybe judging your body in younger years or ideas of what it should be. My body is doing that now. Things are moving and changing and sometimes with the weight staying the same it doesn't look the same.
Just keep at it.

PrettyPearl88

I find that I don't care quite as much what the scale reads when things look nice from lifting.

^ THIS!

The scale is just a number. How you look and feel is what's really important. So just focus on that and forget the number on the scale.

arditarose

Holy cow is that you in your profile pic? Yes, I lift...do cardio. ::sigh::

Yeah...but flexing ha. I don't know. I've been at 142/143 for an entire month and it's getting annoying. How long have you been stalling?

Wow you look amazing! I'm a tub of fat compared to your pic, even if I am a few pounds lighter. It just goes up and down. I may not be consistent enough.

No, you are definitely thinner. Anyway it is useless to discuss that. We are all shaped differently. I hold a lot of weight and fat in my butt and legs. Even at 163 pounds I didn't have a very large stomach or upper body. I do support lifting heavy and staying on a routine as best as you can though.

tsalagi82

Maybe your not fighting weight right now but body composition. Your older with kids and maybe judging your body in younger years or ideas of what it should be. My body is doing that now. Things are moving and changing and sometimes with the weight staying the same it doesn't look the same.
Just keep at it.

Nope, not the case at all. I'm the smallest I've been even before kids and high school! I've always fought with fat on my lower half though. I thought at this weight though it would've disappeared. Perhaps I'm built smaller than I thought.