New member :) Struggling with a plateau & general weight los

ashleeistanbul

Hi everyone! This is my first post. I am reaching out to these forums today because I am at a plateau. I need a knowledgeable person to take a look at what I have been doing and let me know what I should be doing..

About me: I am 20, going to be a senior in college, have been consistently gaining weight for all of my life. I do have mild hormonal imbalances that may be affecting my weight.. But for now I'd like to pretend like they don't exist. My BMR is calculated at approximately 1500 calories. MyFitnessPal tells me I burn 1800 a day through a sedentary lifestyle, and that with a "net" 1200 calories a day, I should be losing a pound a week.

First 4 weeks: I ate about 1200 calories a day, walked / lightly jogged 10 hours a week. I lost 13 pounds.

Since then (it's been 5 weeks): Eating, on average, 1400 calories a day. Some days I eat 1200, some days I eat 1500, a few days (maybe 5 or 6) I've eaten 1900. I got about 2 hours of worthy exercise a week. I worked on my feet at a very busy coffee shop about 20 hours a week. I gained 2 pounds in these 5 weeks.

I do know that:
- Building muscle will speed up my metabolism
- Eating small frequent meals and being active throughout the day will speed up my metabolism
- My metabolism may have slowed down due to too high of a calorie deficit

But I don't understand:
- Why switching up my calorie intake throughout the last 5 weeks has not helped
- Why I gained weight
- Is it possible that, though my BMR is calculated at 1500 for my height / weight / age, my actual BMR could be a few hundred calories lower due to biological factors?
- What sort of medical professional would be able to give me the attention and information I need to help me lose weight, given my mild hormonal imbalances and current plateau?


I appreciate any help / insight any of you can provide. Thanks in advance!

ToningtheButt

sometimes it not about the calories but the other stuff like carbs, sodium, sugar.
Ive hit lots of plateus since i got smaller, sometimes when i eat low cals i gain weight, ive learned to kick the scale out for a while and focused on hoe i look and feel, as women our hormones control us a lot.
just keep eating right and exercising.

cutelashawn

sometimes it not about the calories but the other stuff like carbs, sodium, sugar.
Ive hit lots of plateus since i got smaller, sometimes when i eat low cals i gain weight, ive learned to kick the scale out for a while and focused on hoe i look and feel, as women our hormones control us a lot.
just keep eating right and exercising.

Agreed!1...Your diary is not open so we really cant help you with your food choices. Try opening up your diary and we can help u better

Broken_

General rules I shoot for are:

No Bread
No Dairy
No Junk (sugars/fried/crap)

That being said, if you are already eating cleanly...
Spend 1 day and eat all the nasty greasy, sugary crap you want... to the point you are going to feel sick if you eat anymore.

Doing this throws your system into a reset and it sends out the message "Release the fat stores!"

I don't recommend doing this often, but it has gotten me through a few plateaus.

Best of luck!

ashleeistanbul

I just opened my diary!

missxchelly

This is what I've done. All I know is what has worked for me, and maybe it can work for other people.
I start a new job tomorrow, but I used to work at a job where I sit around all day. I go to the gym 5 days a week (until school starts) I burn on average about 600 calories everytime I go. I sometimes eat back all of the calories, other times I don't. I usually leave around 300 for the day. That way, when I work out I feel like I'm working towards something I would love to eat for dinner rather than something small and stupid because I have no calories left. I am constantly switching up my cardio routine, and just recently added some strength training. My suggestion is just to exericse more. Keep your body constantly guessing, and induldge sometimes. You could maybe keep doing what you're doing but just adding a little something extra like a work out DVD or something. I also drink a tonnnn of water, and stay away from sodium!! Again, this is just what has worked for me. Good luck!!