Tried for 2 months. Losing nothing

Tigermad

Hello

I lost 80lbs on a 1200-1400 cal diet over 9 months. A few months ago after reading the road map thread I decided to up my calories. This was because I havent got that much more to lose.

The problem is I have stayed the same weight. Up and down a few pounds per week. I have not lost any inches either :-(

I am at 28% fat but was nearly 50% before I lost all the weight.

I am 64 inches and 40 years old. I began at 1600 calories for a month but no losses anywhere so I upped to 1700 the past month. Still the same pound or so goes one and comes off. I found out this week I have hypothyroidism. So I am lucky I have lost this weight really.

I used to do cardio 4 times a week with my lower calories. I then started chalean extreme about a month ago for a weeks week and drop the cardio down a bit. For just over 2 weeks I have been doing the NROLFW workout 3 times a week and cardio 2 times a week with walking now and again in between. I also have a sedentary job.

I can only conclude that my bmr and tdee are probably way lower than I think because of my hypo. So I lost fine on the lower calories but have completely stopped after upping them.

I think I am now going to try eating 1300 on non workout days and 1450 on workout days since this is what the NROLFW spreadsheet recommends. It will only be 1300 for 2 days and 1450 for the remainder. Let's see how I get on for a few weeks.

SweatpantsRebellion

I'd be careful. I'm hypo and low cal kills my metabolism further. I know because I've lost the same weight repeatedly. I'm going to stick to high cal and lose it slowly. If you'd like to stick around, I'm sure there are people who'd help you tweak your numbers. Perhaps some adjustments need to be made.

gemiwing

ly.

For just over 2 weeks I have been doing the NROLFW workout 3 times a week and cardio 2 times a week with walking now and again in between. I also have a sedentary job.

Starting a weight lifting program like NROLFW will cause water-weight gain in your muscles and cause them to swell as well. Water being held by muscles makes them swell up larger so it hides potential weight loss in inches. It also holds onto water which can affect your scale weight- masking any losses there.

You haven't been eating more AND doing lifting long enough to get a real good pass/fail result yet. General rule of thumb- change one thing. Stick with that one change for a month or longer then reevaluate.

You've upped your cals- just long enough to start seeing changes THEN you added on weight lifting.

I'd stay where you are cal wise and workout wise- give it three more weeks then reevaluate. It's possible your medical issues are requiring tweaking- but until you give this new tweak (adding heavy weights) time to settle in, there's no way of knowing if it was your thyroid or simply an adjustment period.

wonderkitten711

I'd second Gemi's advice. I'm hypo as well (to the extreme, I had cancer when I was 17 and don't have a thyroid anymore, rely entirely on synthetic hormone replacement) and I lose steadily eating more. I admittedly have a lot to lose still, but based on my results so far and my bodymedia fit data my BMR and TDEE are right around where the calculators said they would be based on my stats. You just made two huge changes in quick succession (upping cals and then starting heavy lifting) and that will mess with your "results" for sure. Are you feeling more energetic eating more? Are you feeling healthier, stronger, etc, with eating more and lifting heavy? If the answers there are yes, then I would give this a little while longer before giving up on it

nannabannana

bump for later reading

31prvrbs

Have you done your calculations, to know your BMR and TDEE?

Are you making sure not to net below BMR?

You have to give the changes long enough to make a difference. Lucia is also hypothyroid, and has no prob eating more. I'm not sure if you've watched her vid on Hypothyroidism? Also consistency is the *biggest* issue w/EM2WL troubleshooting. 9xs out of 10, we are quitting just a bit too early. These are lifestyle changes, that will stick with you for the rest of your life, not a quick fix that you will be trying to dig your way out of again next year.

ANY change needs to be stuck to for a minimum of 4-6 weeks to determine even the slightest need for further adjustment. Hopping from one thing to the next, just makes us a hamster on a wheel.... :ohwell:

I encourage you to make sure you have all of your calculations done, and then stick it out and trust the process. It does work.


~Kiki

Tigermad

Have you done your calculations, to know your BMR and TDEE?

Are you making sure not to net below BMR?

You have to give the changes long enough to make a difference. Lucia is also hypothyroid, and has no prob eating more. I'm not sure if you've watched her vid on Hypothyroidism? Also consistency is the *biggest* issue w/EM2WL troubleshooting. 9xs out of 10, we are quitting just a bit too early. These are lifestyle changes, that will stick with you for the rest of your life, not a quick fix that you will be trying to dig your way out of again next year.

ANY change needs to be stuck to for a minimum of 4-6 weeks to determine even the slightest need for further adjustment. Hopping from one thing to the next, just makes us a hamster on a wheel.... :ohwell:

I encourage you to make sure you have all of your calculations done, and then stick it out and trust the process. It does work.


~Kiki

Hello. There is one thing I dont understand regarding not netting under BMR. If I was eating different calories on my workout days to non workout days I would eat the extra calories on the days I might net under BMR. But I was eating 1700 cals a day over the week so on the days I didn't exercise I would have a very low deficit but the days I exercise would make up for those days. Basically I looked at it as a weekly thing as well as daily. So it balances out over the week. I also try to hit my macros which most days I have done quite well.

Tigermad

My bmr is 1400 and for my tdee -15 I took the average between light and moderate exercise and rounded it off to 1700. Since I do between 3.5 and 4 hours exercise I thought that would be the best thing to do.

Tigermad

So if I stick to 1700 for a few more weeks and burn 150 cals on my 3 lifting days,I don't eat any more. But for the 2 cardio days I burn at least 500 cals maybe 600 some nights according to my hrm. I will minus 100 which I would have burnt anyway in that hour. That gives me either 400 or 500. So I would eat either 100 or 200 back depending which one it is that day to net bmr.

I think I will try this for a couple of weeks then and see how I go.

31prvrbs

The reason for not netting below BMR is because it causes your body to believe that you are binging on higher days. The body stays in a state of confusion as to whether or not you are trying to starve it and then it will fight you on it. In order to gain your body's trust it's best to eat at a consistent amount until your body has fully stabilized to the higher levels. If it thinks that you are starving it, it will hoard the "extra" cals from the higher days, in order to "survive" on the lower days. This will be a constant obstacle in reaching your goals.

Remember that our bodies don't care about our weight loss goals, only about survival. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the sticky about what to expect when upping cals, as it breaks this down a bit further.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/521728-upping-cals-what-to-expect-why-you-need-patience

The videos in EM2WL vid sticky can be quite helpful on this as well. Be sure to check them out
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/579855--new-vids-for-em2wl-faqs

~Kiki