Refeed/diet break or cut calories lower - a plateau discussi

_GlaDOS_

Thank you for responding!

Ok, here's the math I figured: Let's pretend I eat exactly 1800 each day and meet my goal of burning 3000. If you add all that up and divide by 7 that would give me a NET each day of around 1371. I feel like that's not crazy low enough to put me in starvation mode, right? I feel like I should at least be losing something.

How much do you try to NET each day?

I’m confused by your math, but I’m assuming you mean you burn 3,000 calories per week?

So, you have MFP set up to lose how many lbs per week? 1 lb? If you told MFP you wanted to lose 1 lb per week, and it gave you 1,800 calories, that means it already calculated a 500 calorie deficit per day. So if you did no exercise and ate 1,800 calories, you would be at 500 calorie deficit. If you exercise and burned 1,000 more calories, and did not eat any of those calories back (meaning you still ate 1,800 calories), you would be at a deficit of 1,500 calories that day. Does that sound like a good idea? Besides that, most people tend to say the “sedentary” activity level on here is set pretty low. Most people are “lightly active”, which means you could have a deficit of another 200-300 calories added on to that 1,500 calorie deficit if you are set to “sedentary”. Your body is essentially starving, and storing your fat to survive because it (in evolutionary terms, the way we were “made” to be) is thinking food is scarce. On top of that, running and cycling with not much weight lifting is likely doing some damage as well.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

Sorry for the confusion - I'm not using MFP's calculations. I used it when I first started and they had me eating even less and the scale still didn't budge.

I'm not trying to lose a certain number per week. Right now I'm just trying to find the magic number of calories to eat everyday that, combined with my lifestyle, will finally get the scale moving back down in the right direction. I'm basing my numbers of of the calorieline TDEE chart that says if I eat 1820-1920 cals I should slowly "drift" down to my goal weight of 130#s. I am not quite eating that much yet, but I'm trying to give myself a buffer in case I am underestimating things. I measure everything, but even so...

Does your TDEE calculation include you exercise/activity level then? If you don’t include your exercise, then even burning 1,000 extra calories per day is a large deficit.

Have you thought about getting a bodybugg or bodymedia fit? I use the bodymedia fit, and it helps give me a total daily burn and I can calculate a moderate deficit off of that. I am willing to bet your TDEE is a lot higher than you think it is. And I would keep increasing calories and take deficit and exercise breaks (eating at maintenance or above with little to no extra exercise, and putting away the scale during this time). I hear it helps a lot of people to take a break like this every 6-8 weeks.

Davy_RockHit

I guess my plateaus only last 2 or 3 wks at a time so I'll have to wait but I'm so impatient =P

stroutman81

Can you troubleshoot me??
1. Plateued for over a year
2. my log is open, so feel free to take a look, but right now I'm eating 1700-1800 a day. Trying to burn 2500-3000 over the course of a week via running, biking, circuit style lifting but with a little bit heavier weights
3. Highest weight = 210. I lost 70 pounds over the course of 2 1/2 years, then gained back 15 very quickly (Summer of 2010) and now I'm stuck!
4. I do not use a food scale

BMR is typically 10 cals per pound in healthy people.

People who've lost substantial weight tend to have lower BMRs for whatever reason... it's part of that whole adaptive component to weight loss where the body overshoots its reduction in metabolic rate. So let's pretend you're at 9 cals/lb.

It looks like you're 155 lbs now, so your BMR would be roughly 1400.

Add to that exercise and miscellaneous activity. You say you expend roughly 400 calories per day via exercise. That would bring your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) up to 1800. Say you're very sedentary outside of exercise, so you only burn another 100 on top of this, putting your true TDEE at 1900.

Given that most people under estimate their calorie intake and over estimate their calorie expenditure, I'd wager that you're closer to maintenance than you think.

stroutman81

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stroutman81

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stroutman81

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RuthieCass

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Pwrpuff83

Okay, so I know that this is a year old topic, but it speaks directly to my current problem. I was hoping maybe there'd still be someone knocking about who could help me?

I've been stuck for about 3 months - gaining and losing the same two pounds. And that last pound lost took me a month and a half to achieve. I am on 1668 calories (I don't log on this site) and exercise 6 times a week using a dvd (Jillian Michael's Body Revolution, if it matters) which my site calculates at a 180 burn for 30 minutes.

I've been trawling the interwebs for advice and hints and tips and tricks and only really coming up with conflicting advice. I don't know if I'm in need of a break from calorie counting and should go for maintenance cals for a while or if I'm just more lazy than I think and should push harder working out. Stress!

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

stroutman81

Okay, so I know that this is a year old topic, but it speaks directly to my current problem. I was hoping maybe there'd still be someone knocking about who could help me?

I've been stuck for about 3 months - gaining and losing the same two pounds. And that last pound lost took me a month and a half to achieve. I am on 1668 calories (I don't log on this site) and exercise 6 times a week using a dvd (Jillian Michael's Body Revolution, if it matters) which my site calculates at a 180 burn for 30 minutes.

I've been trawling the interwebs for advice and hints and tips and tricks and only really coming up with conflicting advice. I don't know if I'm in need of a break from calorie counting and should go for maintenance cals for a while or if I'm just more lazy than I think and should push harder working out. Stress!

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!

Height? Weight? Age? Highest Weight? Activity level outside of structure exercise?

CallMeCupcakeDammit

I have a friend who needs to read this.

socalkay

From MFP Blog:

Five Unusual Reasons You're Not Losing Weight

stroutman81

BFDeal wrote: »

I don't really get the whole plateau thing. All everyone says is "eat 20% below TDEE." OK, so I'm doing that already. Why would my losses just stop randomly. It's BS.

No.

You seem to be implying that the numbers we're dealing with are exact sciences and that they're fixed.

Hint.

They're not.

Calories, by their very nature, aren't 100% accurate. Do some research on the atwater factors. For example:

xhttp://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/86/6/1649.full

Even if they were 100% accurate... the only constant in the body is that it's not constant.

If you actually had the resources to ensure a true 20% deficit today (you don't), that doesn't guarantee that same level of food intake will create a 20% deficit day after day going forward. Things change as the body adapts to hypocaloric conditions.

Heck, even the loss of tissue creates a lower TDEE given the lower energy cost associated with moving a lighter body around. Not to mention the fact that muscle AND fat are metabolically costly tissues... so when we lose one or each... total energy requirements go down (and thus the original deficit begins to shrink).

But beyond tissue loss, we're still dealing with things such as reduced thyroid output, weaker signaling of leptin to the brain, and a host of other changes that can and do alter TDEE.

stroutman81

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