Weight not coming off as easy as before

MsElphaba

I was started using MFP last year just after Mother's Day and lost 34 pounds by Thanksgiving. Yeah me! I considered myself lucky that I didn't really have a plateau during that time and the weight loss was rather steady. I slacked off over the holidays and into the beginning of the year. By Mother's Day this year, 10 pounds were back.

I have been eating pretty much the same as I was last year, eating most of my exercise calories back. I have been doing some sort of exercise almost everyday and keep it varied. The gym I go do does a different routine every morning, I fence once a week, do cardio class at my son's jiu jitsu dojo, and bike for 1-2 rides of about 6 miles a week and then sometimes on quick trips to the grocery store. This is way more active than I was last year, but I am enjoying physical activity for the first time in my life.

The problem is my weight is stuck. I came back at 156, dropped to 155 in 3 weeks, and now this week a half pound is back on. My measurements have been pretty stagnant as well. Hips are actually up this week and waist is the same.

Any ideas???

L

MissRose888

Have you been logging all your calories and dilligently sticking to your target? Also, what about eating your exercise calories? I've heard very mixed reviews about eating them back.

LessMe2B

Are you watching your sodium intake?

genie98

I have found that for me, I cannot eat my exercise cals. I know there are people that say you should but when I did, I didn't lose any weight! Make sure you are logging everything. I know this is hard but it really does work.

linsben

Try reducing your carb intake to 100 or less a day.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com//welcome-to-marks-daily-apple/

Starlage

i've been unable to eat my exercise calories also. This must only work if you're working out HARDCORE every day. I only workout 40-60 minutes a day and it's usually a dvd that combines cardio and toning stuff- weight loss still really slow for me though. My body only looses like 1 maybe 2 pounds a month if i'm lucky.

livi_cowgirl

I recently just broke a 3 week plateau, so I really do know how you feel. During that time I had been to the gym 5 days a week instead of my usual 3 days a week. So I looked at my diet and saw that it was still quite high in carbs (mostly from those foods that people think are healthy but really aren't, e.g. pasta, rice, potatoes, etc.) So I have tried cutting those down dramatically and that seems to have helped. Although I only lost 2lbs last week after eating very nearly nothing but salad. I'm starting to worry that I may be condemned to a life of eating rabbit food if I want to shift this weight.
So anyway, look at your carbs intake. x

Heatherbelle_87

OK s your diary is public and I flipped through a couple of weeks. The days you are EXTREMELY low in cals did you not finish logging? or did you really eat that little? If so you are sabotaging yourself, unless advised by a physician you need to eat atleast 1200 cals a day. period. Otherwise your body will hang on to pretty much everything. Also I would recommend adding sodium to the trackers in your diary. I noticed alot of high sodium foods, which cause fluid retention, especially in women. MFP allows 2500, to prevent retaining at that amount you need 10 glasses of water a day, so try to aim for 1000-1500. And the last 10 lbs really is harder!

ladybug1620

The last few lbs are always the hardest. Your ticker says you only have 11 lbs to go. You should only be aiming for about a half lb weight loss per week now. Change your goals in your MFP account to .5 per week, and make sure to eat your calories including the exercise cals.

MsElphaba

Thanks for the support and ideas. A couple of answers: There are some weekend days where the day gets away from me and I don't log in the whole day. Don't worry, I'm eating I just switched sodium to watch my calcium for a bit. I don't always log in my water, but I drink plenty and sweat a lot during my workouts. In fact, last night during my cardio jiu jitsu class I noticed my sweat was not burning my eyes like it did a few weeks ago.

I did adjust my goals for the .5 pounds a week. That changed my calories to 1450. So, today I burned 600 calories in a workout, not sure I will eat them all back. That seems like a lot. For those who suggested not eating the calories back, I lost all the initial weight eating them back so I don't think that is the problem. Let's see how this goes.

Thanks again.

TeaBea

The last few lbs are always the hardest. Your ticker says you only have 11 lbs to go. You should only be aiming for about a half lb weight loss per week now. Change your goals in your MFP account to .5 per week, and make sure to eat your calories including the exercise cals.

Yes - This !

The last 10 pounds are the hardest. Totally frustrating. 1/2 pound a week loss would be more attainable.