BMR, TDEE, stuck on a plateau, oh my!

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ShannaSwitzer
ShannaSwitzer Posts: 15 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I've been a bit stuck for the last six weeks. I've been consistently working out 4 or 5 days a week for a while. I run or do the elliptical, and do weights 2 or 3 of those days. I have have MFP set to a 2#/wk loss level. That gives me 1380 calories, and I eat the calories I earn by working out. (Otherwise I feel like I'm starving!)

I've only lost 3# since mid-February. And I got on the scale yesterday morning to see a 2# gain, despite doing everything "right". Argh!!

I eat whole food, nothing "diet" - real butter, mostly vegetarian, I do eat eggs & dairy & some fish.

After searching threads here, I figured my BMR (1728) and TDEE (2377) and now I'm wondering if I'm just eating too little? Even if I eat my exercise calories, I'm always below 1700.

What gives? Ideas/opinions/advice?

Replies

  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
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    My opinion is that anyone that does a fair bit of exercising should not have MFP set to a 2lb loss per week. You can't fuel your workouts that way. I think you should change to 1 lb or .5 lb.

    So. No. I don't think you are eating enough.
  • warmachinejt
    warmachinejt Posts: 2,167 Member
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    ^^^ Apart from that, what has your waist mesarument been?
  • ShannaSwitzer
    ShannaSwitzer Posts: 15 Member
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    ^^^ Apart from that, what has your waist mesarument been?

    My measurements are definitely going down, the scale isn't. I've lost almost 2" in my waist in the last month, 3.5" since January.
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
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    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152
    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/10-ways-to-move-beyond-a-weight-loss-plateau
    http://www.oprah.com/health/Weight-Loss-Advice-Fitness-Plateau-Dr-Katz

    Read above. And note that most reputable websites will tell you not to up your calories as your metabolism will not slow down enough to justify it unless you are under 8% body fat. Stick with what you are at and change up the macros or the exercise. You will eventually break through the plateau and move down again.
  • quiltbugj
    quiltbugj Posts: 89 Member
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    Since your inches are decreasing, keep up what you are doing. You are building muscle, which weighs more. Congrats on your successes! I go more on how my clothes feel rather than the scale.
  • Devlyn_P
    Devlyn_P Posts: 294 Member
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    Since your inches are decreasing, keep up what you are doing. You are building muscle, which weighs more. Congrats on your successes! I go more on how my clothes feel rather than the scale.


    Kind of right. Muscles don't weigh more than fat, it just takes up less space
    Than fat. A pound of muscle is a pound and a pound of fat is a pound. The more you lift and eat at a safe deficit you will see the results.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    If your BMR is 1700ish, and your TDEE is 2300 or so then you eating 1300 calories is undereating causing you to stall. I'm sure you lost weight in the beginning but now you've plateau'd.

    Eat more food.
  • Shelby814
    Shelby814 Posts: 273 Member
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    Are you doing steady state cardio or HIIT?
  • ShannaSwitzer
    ShannaSwitzer Posts: 15 Member
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    Are you doing steady state cardio or HIIT?

    I vary it up. Run/jog/walk, circuit training, steady on the elliptical.
  • JoJo_fat2fab
    JoJo_fat2fab Posts: 297 Member
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    Bumpudy bump
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    The closer you are to goal, the more reliant your body should be on food for energy. That being said, the advice I have been given in the past is that you should be netting 80% of TDEE (maintenance + exercise calories). I don't trust MFP to calculate my calories anymore. I use the FitBit instead. But most of my exercise is walking and that works for me.

    According to MFP, to lose 1.5 lbs a week I had to eat at a 700 calorie deficit which was presumed around 1500 to 1600 calories net. After using the FitBit, I realized that my actual TDEE is generally around 3000 calories a day (that is just my daily steps plus my exercise walks). Now I eat 2300 to 2500 calories a day! I broke my plateau!
  • pumpkin_mel
    pumpkin_mel Posts: 13
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    bump
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152
    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/10-ways-to-move-beyond-a-weight-loss-plateau
    http://www.oprah.com/health/Weight-Loss-Advice-Fitness-Plateau-Dr-Katz

    Read above. And note that most reputable websites will tell you not to up your calories as your metabolism will not slow down enough to justify it unless you are under 8% body fat. Stick with what you are at and change up the macros or the exercise. You will eventually break through the plateau and move down again.

    I'm sorry. You consider Oprah.com to be reputable?
  • AmandaCaswell1982
    AmandaCaswell1982 Posts: 170 Member
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    My opinion is that anyone that does a fair bit of exercising should not have MFP set to a 2lb loss per week. You can't fuel your workouts that way. I think you should change to 1 lb or .5 lb.

    So. No. I don't think you are eating enough.

    This. For sure.
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152
    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/10-ways-to-move-beyond-a-weight-loss-plateau
    http://www.oprah.com/health/Weight-Loss-Advice-Fitness-Plateau-Dr-Katz

    Read above. And note that most reputable websites will tell you not to up your calories as your metabolism will not slow down enough to justify it unless you are under 8% body fat. Stick with what you are at and change up the macros or the exercise. You will eventually break through the plateau and move down again.

    Oprah.com is a reputable weight loss website? Um. Okay.

    And I'm sorry, but there are a ton of people on this site that will tell you that raising their calories helped them to break a plateau, helped them to start losing weight consistently, helped them to maintain, etc. I'm one of those people. I don't give a hoot what a website - who knows nothing about me - tells me I should do. The results I've had speak volumes. And I'm sure if you ask more people on this site, they'll tell you the SAME things.

    Too large of a calorie deficit has been shown to cause slowed or stalled weight loss.

    End of story.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
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    Consider this...

    MFP uses the Harris-Benedict formula for calculating BMR which is considered the most accurate. However, MFP is only able to guesstimate your activity level and the amount of calories burned for exercise. Without a daily monitoring device recording your activity for the day, there is no way to know how many calories are burned throughout the day. Therefore, if we rely on MFP's guesstimates strictly then we may or may not be eating the calories our body needs. It has been established that this works well for those who are obese, but the closer you get to your ideal body weight, the metabolism changes gears to preserve fat, a needed tissue for healthy bodily function. Anything can happen throughout the day that can increase the number of calories you burn. Your car might break down, your boss might have you do a special project, you might have to bake cookies for your kid's school. Your activity levels vary from day to day. In general, most people using this site probably aren't eating enough.
  • ShannaSwitzer
    ShannaSwitzer Posts: 15 Member
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    I really appreciate the input!
  • ShannaSwitzer
    ShannaSwitzer Posts: 15 Member
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    What would be a good base calorie level?

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