AAAHHHH! Sooooo frustrated... and sad... help... :(

acrego

Give Jilliam Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD a try. You might need to change up you program some.

I keep hearing ppl on here talk about this! And I love Jillian Michaels! But right now we don't have a TV set up in the living room, and there is no room in the bedroom for exercise. (Well not that type of exercise anyway! LOL!!)

acrego

Hi,
I had an initial weight gain too, but one thing I've found helpful, is that I've really cut my sodium down down down, so that it's under 1000 mg / day. That seemed to make a big difference. Good luck. Hang in there.

Good point. I will start keeping closer tabs on my sodium. I usually don't pay too much attention to it, b/c I know it's just water gain, but right now it's messing with my head!

firesoforion

I was in a similar place, and in fact still sort of am, and I had the same reasoning as you do. But then I went to 1200, and I didn't gain. I didn't lose either, but I didn't gain going up from 1000 (which I was only on for like two weeks). And sometimes the 1200 calories DID feel like too much food. Then I stayed there for a while and STILL didn't lose weight! And then I just sort of started to say F it (F standing for forget, of course!). So I decided (on the suggestion of someone here) to change my diary settings to eating AT my BMR, and then not eating back exercise calories unless I burned 1000 calories exercising. And I didn't gain, and the scale started to inch downwards, but *ever* so slowly. Sigh. So then I decided, ok, let's just see what happens if I eat at my maintenance calories, the calorie level that equations say will keep me weighing the exact same amount, for two weeks. I'm only giving it two weeks, enough for my body to respond but not so long that I'll put on a lot more weight that I'll then have to include in my loss.

So, I bumped up to 1700 calories (I'm 5'4" btw, and I was always "dense" for my weight growing up, what's your height?). First day, I bumped up 2 pounds, bit my lip and kept going. I figured it couldn't hurt at all, because if I kept doing what I'd been doing, I wasn't going to get anywhere anyway, and at least this way I could start to understand what I was doing. Next day, a little raise. Third day? Drop. I'm on my third consecutive day of dropping now, and that's my first set of three days with a downward trend in one and a half months. Another thing I did was to start intermittent fasting. It works really well with the way I tend to eat, anyway. Basically you get in all your calories in a period of 6-8 hours, and you can change the hours up if you want to to fit your lifestyle, etcetera. I start eating between noon and 2:00pm, and then I finish 8 hours later. I eat about 1700 calories (for at least another week!) in that time. In the morning, I drink lemon water, or tea. We'll see how it goes! But I'm hopeful. 3 days after eating at my maintenance, and I'm back down to where I started before eating maintenance.

acrego

I don't know how true this is, but I got told running on a flat surface burns fat, running on an incline builds muscle. Also, how long have you been exercising? It took nearly 2 months before I started seeing ANY difference, even then it was only very slight. Your body doesn't change that quickly, so you need to keep it up and give it time. I know it can get you down a lot, it does with me too at times. You just have to remember that this isn't a quick fix, it is a lifestyle change.
Also, your body changes constantly, you fluctuate like 2.4lbs every day, so you should only try to weigh yourself once a week and accept that certain weeks in your month you will weigh more than others.
I hope you can pick yourself up, if you ever want to talk, message me.
xx

Thanks :flowerforyou:
I never heard that about the incline, but does it really matter that much? I would think that either way it's going to improve your shape.
And yes, I know it takes time... I've been thru this cycle before, and have been in really good shape before, but somehow that does not help me today. :ohwell:
And yes, I only weigh myself once a week. I was just SO certain that this was going to be a good day to weigh after all the work I've done this week!
I will friend you & message you too! Thanks again!

thekarens

Something else to consider is getting a physical from your doctor. There could be something else going on that's causing the weight gain.

annabellj

according to your ticker you only have 10 pounds to lose...with that goal you should be aiming for 1/2 pound a week. You are severely undereating and being unnecessarily strict.

you do not have to give up every single food that you love in order to reach your goals.

What is your current heigh/weight. You surely need to be eating at least 1500 calories considering your activity level and possible more. I know it's discouraging and scary to up your calories but it's absolutely necessary for your long term success.

this! and dont listen to the damn scale! take pics it helps so much

acrego

I was in a similar place, and in fact still sort of am, and I had the same reasoning as you do. But then I went to 1200, and I didn't gain. I didn't lose either, but I didn't gain going up from 1000 (which I was only on for like two weeks). And sometimes the 1200 calories DID feel like too much food. Then I stayed there for a while and STILL didn't lose weight! And then I just sort of started to say F it (F standing for forget, of course!). So I decided (on the suggestion of someone here) to change my diary settings to eating AT my BMR, and then not eating back exercise calories unless I burned 1000 calories exercising. And I didn't gain, and the scale started to inch downwards, but *ever* so slowly. Sigh. So then I decided, ok, let's just see what happens if I eat at my maintenance calories, the calorie level that equations say will keep me weighing the exact same amount, for two weeks. I'm only giving it two weeks, enough for my body to respond but not so long that I'll put on a lot more weight that I'll then have to include in my loss.

So, I bumped up to 1700 calories (I'm 5'4" btw, and I was always "dense" for my weight growing up, what's your height?). First day, I bumped up 2 pounds, bit my lip and kept going. I figured it couldn't hurt at all, because if I kept doing what I'd been doing, I wasn't going to get anywhere anyway, and at least this way I could start to understand what I was doing. Next day, a little raise. Third day? Drop. I'm on my third consecutive day of dropping now, and that's my first set of three days with a downward trend in one and a half months. Another thing I did was to start intermittent fasting. It works really well with the way I tend to eat, anyway. Basically you get in all your calories in a period of 6-8 hours, and you can change the hours up if you want to to fit your lifestyle, etcetera. I start eating between noon and 2:00pm, and then I finish 8 hours later. I eat about 1700 calories (for at least another week!) in that time. In the morning, I drink lemon water, or tea. We'll see how it goes! But I'm hopeful. 3 days after eating at my maintenance, and I'm back down to where I started before eating maintenance.

Hmmm... something to consider. You bring up something I always wonder about, tho... if you "eat back" all the calories you exercise away, then what's the point? I read about, and hear from trainers, that you must maintain a deficit if you want to lose fat. Does the calculator take that into account?
I also recently started reading a trainer's blog about intermittent fasting. I forget his name, but I'd like to go back and read it again. Sounds like something I could try.
Thanks!

annabellj

according to your ticker you only have 10 pounds to lose...with that goal you should be aiming for 1/2 pound a week. You are severely undereating and being unnecessarily strict.

you do not have to give up every single food that you love in order to reach your goals.

What is your current heigh/weight. You surely need to be eating at least 1500 calories considering your activity level and possible more. I know it's discouraging and scary to up your calories but it's absolutely necessary for your long term success.

this! and dont listen to the damn scale! take pics it helps so much

so I thought I would add my weight literally has not changed in 3 months but when you look at my pics my body has changed soooooooooo much!

acrego

according to your ticker you only have 10 pounds to lose...with that goal you should be aiming for 1/2 pound a week. You are severely undereating and being unnecessarily strict.

you do not have to give up every single food that you love in order to reach your goals.

What is your current heigh/weight. You surely need to be eating at least 1500 calories considering your activity level and possible more. I know it's discouraging and scary to up your calories but it's absolutely necessary for your long term success.

this! and dont listen to the damn scale! take pics it helps so much

Pics? Should I post pics of my flab? :noway:

tigersword

according to your ticker you only have 10 pounds to lose...with that goal you should be aiming for 1/2 pound a week. You are severely undereating and being unnecessarily strict.

you do not have to give up every single food that you love in order to reach your goals.

What is your current heigh/weight. You surely need to be eating at least 1500 calories considering your activity level and possible more. I know it's discouraging and scary to up your calories but it's absolutely necessary for your long term success.

OK, first of all, I guess I need to change my ticker, because after last week plus this week, I now have 15 pounds to lose, not 10! Or maybe I should just put my goal weight?

Plus, I appreciate the advice, and you may be right, but I just don't see how it's possible I am not eating enough. I eat healthy food, I do enjoy the food I eat, and I am NOT suffering from feeling hungry! I spread my food over the day and I actually feel weird eating the whole 1200. It doesn't feel right, and now I'm seeing weight gain.

But, if I were to eat more, what should I increase? Protein? Does it matter? Should I eat even more for breakfast?

Low calorie food is not the same thing as healthy food. Also, the quality of food is irrelevant when it comes to energy needs. 1000 calories of vegetables is the same as 1000 calories of bread as far as your body's energy needs are concerned. Also, hunger is a very poor indicator of whether you are getting enough nutrition or not. Your hunger is controlled by hormones, and chronic under eating reduces the hormones that signal hunger. In other words, the less you eat, the less you feel hungry. Basically, hunger pangs are distracting, and if you're distracted, you might walk by food without seeing it, so your body shuts down the hunger pangs so you don't miss it. It doesn't understand the difference between wanting to lose weight, and starving due to famine conditions, it just knows it isn't getting enough food and adjusts your metabolism and hormonal output down as a survival mechanism to keep you alive as long as possible.

Without being able to see your diary, there is no possible way for anybody to suggest foods for you to eat, as I have no idea what your macros currently look like. However, based on your first post, it sounds like you are seriously under eating.

LynneWyre

I am not sure that 115 lbs is realistic for you, at 5'6! But it does sound like you need to eat more! You are burning
calories while sweating it out on the treadmill, but you are not eating enough of them back. Are you tracking your
exercise against your food and if so what is your calorie deficit? And you need some good fat in there - like an avocado,
and some nuts! Add a snack of Chobani yogurt or a protein bar.....they taste great and it feels like a treat.
I might have missed how long you said that you have been working out, but it sounds like you need to shock your
bod and change up your workout. The body gets bored. Do you have any hand weights? Start doing some upper
body moves with some weights - will bump your metabolism up. You can find some workouts on line if you can't use
a DVD. PLUS, don't forget that you work you put in last week is going to show up next week! It takes 3500 calories
to lose a pound.

mstawnya

The calculator is designed for you to lose weight without any additional exercise. If you exercise, you should eat back most, if not all of those calories. A lifestyle change shouldn't be miserable so please drink your wine now & again-just work it into your daily allowance. Do you have a heart rate monitor? I think that has helped me a lot instead of guessing what I'm burning each day. Have you tried taking your measurements instead of focusing on the scale? How about doing some lower body strength training? You may not lose the pounds, but you'll improve your trouble spots. Or maybe take off that incline and up your pace on the treadmill? Good luck!

SARgirl

I know everyone has a different body type but I was surprised at your height and CW and GW. I am 5' 5" and 136 lbs and my GW is 130. 118 seems really low? You said you wanted to get to that weight "again".how long ago was that? Maybe where you are is where you are suppose to be weight wise and if you worked more on toning rather than losing and use meaurements instead of pounds maybe you would see better results? Just my 2 cents:)

lin7604

A little calculation for you that might help. You should take your goal weight then multiply it by either 10 (less active), 11, or 12 (more active). The total is the approx calorie intake you should aim for each day. So as an example, I am aiming for 180lbs. So I usually aim for about 2160 as my calorie intake each day. Withing those calories I take in about a gram of protein for each pound of my goal weight. You should also try and stay away from foods that have lots of added sugars and carbs. Don't worry so much about fat content in food cuz if you are staying active you will burn it off quickly. It's the added sugars and carbs that settle inside you and stay longer. As stated above, it very well may be water weight used to repair your muscle fibers. Hope that has helped some, best of luck to you.

really..... so for me i should be at 1240 - 1500 max. right now mfp says my maintenance is 1502. and i seemed to only loose weight when i was on 1200 cals a day. I didn't know about my bmr and stuff then, my bmr right now is 1252. so what shall i do to get the weight loss kick started again, it's been 2.5 month of no loss.... i can't set myself for a 1lb loss as it's not possible for me, so i have it set to .5 loss a week, and i can't even loose that ...

lmelangley

Everyone is different, but 1200 cals throws me into a plateau every time. I have to eat 1350ish to lose anything. Maybe you're eating too few calories?

annabellj

according to your ticker you only have 10 pounds to lose...with that goal you should be aiming for 1/2 pound a week. You are severely undereating and being unnecessarily strict.

you do not have to give up every single food that you love in order to reach your goals.

What is your current heigh/weight. You surely need to be eating at least 1500 calories considering your activity level and possible more. I know it's discouraging and scary to up your calories but it's absolutely necessary for your long term success.

this! and dont listen to the damn scale! take pics it helps so much

Pics? Should I post pics of my flab? :noway:

you are so funny! you look fine!

JadeRabbit08

Stop guessing what you need calories wise, it just leads to frustration and time lost while you experiment.

Calculate what you Basic Metabolic Rate is.
Thats how much your body burns in calories just to keep organ, brain, function at homeostasis. So your BMR is what you would burn if you were in a coma. You always want to eat above that number and if you burn calories that put you below that number you eat those back.

Then calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)
Thats the total calories burnt per day. So its your BMR plus whatever normal activity you do. Sedentary for some Active for others.

Now you can work out a healthy deficit. Any deficit (less than your TDEE) however small should produce weight loss. You can either eat less or exercise more or both to produce the deficit needed.

I wasnt hungry at 1200 but when I jumped up to 1800 I lost more weight. I did that after calculating what was right for my height and current size.

This post will help you with the calculations -

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/512956-tdee-what-is-it-and-why-you-should-not-eat-below-your-bmr

If you get stuck repost, there are alot of people on the forums who can help you work out your BMR and TDEE.

Good Luck!

alharbour

I carry my weight in my lower body also and I am also using a treadmill. From the research I have done, you should not be using the incline if you are bottom heavy. Incline will bulk up your lower half, while walking on the flat surface will slim it down. I am down a total of 18 lbs since last Thanksgiving, doing only treadmill and I am losing inches like crazy! I am 5'2, on a small frame and eat around 1500 - 1600 calories a day, and burn around 500 excercise calories...I eat ALL my excercise calories back and it is working for me.

shell3986

I also think you may not be eating enough. 1200 is the absolute lowest calorie count for anyone. It will probably be hard to bump it up at first (trust me, I had to do this too) but your body is probably just trying to hold onto every calorie it is getting. I am 5'3", 100lbs and I eat 1550-1580 calories/day and workout 1-1.5 hours 5 days a week. I neither gain nor lose (I am maintaining, not trying to lose anything anymore) on that many calories a day. I would suggest to try to eat around 1400 per day.

mstawnya

Great read on plateauing http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/501511-great-read-on-plateau-ing?page=8#posts-7150335

These statements were a real eye opener for me-

You may need to consume more calories if:
· You exercise regularly (4+ times per week), strength train 2-3 times per week, and are on a calorie-restricted diet, but you do not consume the minimum calories plus most or all of the calories you burn through exercise
· You consume less than 1200 at least once a week
· You consume less than 1500 calories most days of the week
· You regularly consume fewer calories than your BMR (basal metabolic rate)
· You have headaches, lethargy, aches, and/or lack of concentration
You may need to change cardiovascular work if:
· You are mostly sedentary
· You engage in cardiovascular work fewer than 4 times per week
· Your cardiovascular workouts last shorter than 20 minutes
· Your heart rate does not remain in the 55-70% max. range at least two times per week
· Your heart rate does not remain in the 70-85% max. range at least three times per week
You may need to modify strength training if:
· You do not currently engage in strength training
· Your weights seem very light, thereby not stressing your muscles
· You have reached your goal weight, but still feel “flabby”



Excellent information on why not eating enough works against you... http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing