Do I need a reset?
Blueberry09
Posts: 821 Member
I have no idea where I'm at - except confused! (kinda long - sorry!)
A bit of background - my starting weight Jan, 2011 was 165lbs - I'm 5'7" - GW 140 lbs. I took MFPs recommendation of 2lbs a week and ate 1200 cals for the first three months. That wasn't nearly enough food so I upped to 1350 for a couple of months. It took me six months to lose 12 lbs doing this.
On a cruise vacation last year I had my BF% and BMR tested. (I was 153lbs the day I left) BF was 25% and BMR was 1605 so I upped my cals to 1600 from July to December. During this time frame I'd also do about 35 min of cardio 4 times a week - I'd run outside during the summer and then I'd do a couple of weeks on the stepper, a couple of weeks on the stationary bike and then a couple of weeks on the treadmill, trying to mix it up. I'd also do about 10 min of squats, lunges, various small weight dumbell exercises for a 45 min total workout before I left for work. Doing this I managed to lose another pound - whoopee! I also weigh myself daily to see if I couldn't pinpoint the reason for my stall at 153lbs. It's not really a stall - it can fluctuate a few pounds - mostly up! Once or twice down, but mostly up!
Getting tired of my plateau, I went down to 1450 cals starting Jan 1 and started the 30 day shred. I managed to lose two more pounds in three months - another whooopee! (I'm being sarcastic here just in case you couldn't tell). Although I could tell I lost a few inches as well so that part was good! Still with 45 min in the morning to work out, I started doing intervals on my treadmill or exercise bike for 12-18 min before starting Jillian. My burns as per my HRM were in the 400 range, the scale still fluctuating madly.
In March I went to a dietician for the same tests and boy did they come out different. They showed my BMR to be 1411 and my BF% at 31.7. I just about cried! (BTW - for the BMR test she attached some sort of breathing aparatus - I guess that tests the VO2?) So starting April 1 I set my cals to 1700 a day but instead of eating back daily burns, I estimate I'd burn at least 1400 a week so added 200 daily for a total intake of 1900. I traveled a lot for work through April and May so was unable to exercise but kept my cals pretty close. After getting back from vacation at the end of May, the scale tipped at 156! I chalked it up to a combination of eating more than normal and little to no exercise. So the last six - seven weeks I've been very consistent on the 4 days a week workouts and keeping fairly close to the 1900 cals. And the scale keeps going up! 157 yesterday, 155 this morning. I know I haven't eaten that many more calories. Whatever inches I've lost have seemed to found themselves attached to my middle again!
My Macros are set at 45 c / 25 f / 30 protein. I keep pretty close to the fat but what I don't eat in protein is made up of carbs. I eat about 80-90% clean - my treat is usually a mini cup of skinny cow ice cream but I'm going to stop that just to see if maybe the sugar is what's hurting me. It was such a good boost of calories for very little fat LOL
I guess I'm just really frustrated - I've been working my butt off for the last 18 months and really only have 12 lbs to show for it. Well today, it's 10lbs. I KNOW the scale is just a number, but I no longer have the inches to show for it anymore either. Check that - they show!! LOL I feel like I've tried just about every suggestion that's out there and nothing seems to work. The only thing I haven't tried is the heavy lifting - we're moving in November to a new house that will have an exercise room so I'm going to get some sort of weight machine - I've also ordered the New Rules book. Hopefully that will put me on the right path.
I've given the high cals time - do I need to give it more? Do I need to eat even more? Although that will be hard - snacking on vegetables all day doesn't raise the calories very high! It would probably be easier eating at my BMR than eating more!
A bit of background - my starting weight Jan, 2011 was 165lbs - I'm 5'7" - GW 140 lbs. I took MFPs recommendation of 2lbs a week and ate 1200 cals for the first three months. That wasn't nearly enough food so I upped to 1350 for a couple of months. It took me six months to lose 12 lbs doing this.
On a cruise vacation last year I had my BF% and BMR tested. (I was 153lbs the day I left) BF was 25% and BMR was 1605 so I upped my cals to 1600 from July to December. During this time frame I'd also do about 35 min of cardio 4 times a week - I'd run outside during the summer and then I'd do a couple of weeks on the stepper, a couple of weeks on the stationary bike and then a couple of weeks on the treadmill, trying to mix it up. I'd also do about 10 min of squats, lunges, various small weight dumbell exercises for a 45 min total workout before I left for work. Doing this I managed to lose another pound - whoopee! I also weigh myself daily to see if I couldn't pinpoint the reason for my stall at 153lbs. It's not really a stall - it can fluctuate a few pounds - mostly up! Once or twice down, but mostly up!
Getting tired of my plateau, I went down to 1450 cals starting Jan 1 and started the 30 day shred. I managed to lose two more pounds in three months - another whooopee! (I'm being sarcastic here just in case you couldn't tell). Although I could tell I lost a few inches as well so that part was good! Still with 45 min in the morning to work out, I started doing intervals on my treadmill or exercise bike for 12-18 min before starting Jillian. My burns as per my HRM were in the 400 range, the scale still fluctuating madly.
In March I went to a dietician for the same tests and boy did they come out different. They showed my BMR to be 1411 and my BF% at 31.7. I just about cried! (BTW - for the BMR test she attached some sort of breathing aparatus - I guess that tests the VO2?) So starting April 1 I set my cals to 1700 a day but instead of eating back daily burns, I estimate I'd burn at least 1400 a week so added 200 daily for a total intake of 1900. I traveled a lot for work through April and May so was unable to exercise but kept my cals pretty close. After getting back from vacation at the end of May, the scale tipped at 156! I chalked it up to a combination of eating more than normal and little to no exercise. So the last six - seven weeks I've been very consistent on the 4 days a week workouts and keeping fairly close to the 1900 cals. And the scale keeps going up! 157 yesterday, 155 this morning. I know I haven't eaten that many more calories. Whatever inches I've lost have seemed to found themselves attached to my middle again!
My Macros are set at 45 c / 25 f / 30 protein. I keep pretty close to the fat but what I don't eat in protein is made up of carbs. I eat about 80-90% clean - my treat is usually a mini cup of skinny cow ice cream but I'm going to stop that just to see if maybe the sugar is what's hurting me. It was such a good boost of calories for very little fat LOL
I guess I'm just really frustrated - I've been working my butt off for the last 18 months and really only have 12 lbs to show for it. Well today, it's 10lbs. I KNOW the scale is just a number, but I no longer have the inches to show for it anymore either. Check that - they show!! LOL I feel like I've tried just about every suggestion that's out there and nothing seems to work. The only thing I haven't tried is the heavy lifting - we're moving in November to a new house that will have an exercise room so I'm going to get some sort of weight machine - I've also ordered the New Rules book. Hopefully that will put me on the right path.
I've given the high cals time - do I need to give it more? Do I need to eat even more? Although that will be hard - snacking on vegetables all day doesn't raise the calories very high! It would probably be easier eating at my BMR than eating more!
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Replies
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Hi and Wlecome to the group.
I know t can be really frustrating, when you work your butt off and eat right, and there are no results. The scale goes up
The bad news is, that you have done damage to your metabolism by eating low cals for quite a while. When you upped your cals, your body was storing everything for the next famine to come.
What you need to do is to refeed your body. Teach your body, that you will eat, so it will let go of the stored fat willingly.
To get to that point you will need to eat at TDEE for 6-8 weeks. You might be gaining some weight at that point, but you will teach your body, that you will fuel it properly.
After the reset you cut 10-15% and you should slowly be losing, without starving.
This is not a quick fix-it is a way of life and it is a sustainable way to lose weight. If you don't feel deprived you are less likely to binge.
If you need help with calculating your TDEE etc. give us a shout.
Also read through the stickies-there is a lot of information there0 -
Wow, congratulations on the dedication! It is hard to stick with something when you have not had the results you expected.
That being said, it sounds like you are getting pretty frustrated with the process and that can for sure do more harm than good.
1. I would recommend a reset. I ran your numbers and it looks like you would be Moderately active. Your TDEE would be 2204. They where pretty close on your BMR, so I would trust this number.
2. NROLFW is a great work out and would be great to start out with as a heavy lifting program. You will have to up your protein for this, 45/30/25 wont be enough
3. Keep focusing on your health diet and work out routine and throw out your scale while doing your reset. The best results will come from fueling your body, strengthening your body.
You can wait for the mod's insite as they are more experienced than me, but thats my 2 cents
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Based on my BMR (1411) x a sendentry (other than the workouts) lifestyle, my TDEE is just shy of 1700 - which is what I'm eating plus exercise calories. It's been 7 weeks already. Do I hang on longer?0
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Based on my BMR (1411) x a sendentry (other than the workouts) lifestyle, my TDEE is just shy of 1700 - which is what I'm eating plus exercise calories. It's been 7 weeks already. Do I hang on longer?
If you are working out you are not sedentary. Many people underestimate their activity level and it trips up their progress. Go with the moderately active number!
I'm going to second what Noor said. You will likely not see results if you go straight to your cut value. You need to do a reset where you eat your full TDEE. Based on your history, a longer reset will probably be needed. You may want to aim for 8 weeks or more. I do know that it sucks to hear this. I'm getting towards the end of my reset and it's not a fun process in some respects. But you have nothing to lose - especially if you're not losing weight right now anyways or gaining. You will see your weight fluctuate up when you start eating at TDEE, but you have to trust the process and know that you will stabilize!0 -
you have to trust the process and know that you will stabilize!
The thing is I've been eating at 1900 cals since April - through April and May I wasn't able to exercise as much due to being on the road and vacation. It's only been since the last week of May that I've been able to combine diet AND excercise.
OMG - you don't know how hard trusting the process is for me! Even the dietician said I needed to eat closer to my BMR. She used a multiplier of 1.3 for my TDEE putting it at 1800 ish. Losing inches at 1450 cals makes it hard to believe this is going to work! Gaining back those inches and doing the same workouts after increasing calories to 1900 makes me very concerned! I don't want to have to start all over again - it took forever to get here!0 -
UPDATE
It's been six weeks since I last posted in this thread and I'm more frustrated than ever! I've had two vacations in that time frame with little exercise (other than regular tourist type walking), not the best food choices but not completely horrible either and more drinks than normal so my calories have been up there. I wasn't logging but I'd guess I was probably averaging 2300 day - at least. Restaurant food can be so hard to judge so it could even be higher.
So, in a nutshell - I've gained 9lbs since setting higher cals to 1900 back in April. I'm back in the 160s again :sad: I did a quick calculation - knowing each pound is 3500 cals and I upped my cals 141 days ago:
9lbs x 3500 cal = 31,500 divided by 141 days = 223 extra calories a day! Which is pretty much how much I bumped my calories up by!
So now I don't know what my next step should be. Have I actually reset? How will I know? Should I start cutting now? And if so, by how much? Come fall when we're no longer weekending at the lake, I can add another hour to my existing exercise routine (makes the total 4 hours/week). I won't be able to lift until the new year (need to get the house settled first) but in the meantime I'm trying heavier hand weights with my DVD workouts.
I know I often cried in frustration in the early days of my journey - all of those old feelings are coming back. I'm almost right back where I started and I don't want to go through it all again :sad: Some positive results would be nice for a change!0 -
UPDATE
It's been six weeks since I last posted in this thread and I'm more frustrated than ever! I've had two vacations in that time frame with little exercise (other than regular tourist type walking), not the best food choices but not completely horrible either and more drinks than normal so my calories have been up there. I wasn't logging but I'd guess I was probably averaging 2300 day - at least. Restaurant food can be so hard to judge so it could even be higher.
So, in a nutshell - I've gained 9lbs since setting higher cals to 1900 back in April. I'm back in the 160s again :sad: I did a quick calculation - knowing each pound is 3500 cals and I upped my cals 141 days ago:
9lbs x 3500 cal = 31,500 divided by 141 days = 223 extra calories a day! Which is pretty much how much I bumped my calories up by!
So now I don't know what my next step should be. Have I actually reset? How will I know? Should I start cutting now? And if so, by how much? Come fall when we're no longer weekending at the lake, I can add another hour to my existing exercise routine (makes the total 4 hours/week). I won't be able to lift until the new year (need to get the house settled first) but in the meantime I'm trying heavier hand weights with my DVD workouts.
I know I often cried in frustration in the early days of my journey - all of those old feelings are coming back. I'm almost right back where I started and I don't want to go through it all again :sad: Some positive results would be nice for a change!
You got your reset.
You also know your TDEE for that level of exercise now.
Avg daily eating 1900 - 223 = 1677 (I'd really look at that avg daily eating. Goal may have been 1900, but if several weeks were higher, changes that avg.)
So your personal multiplier for this level of activity is 1677 / weight 160 = 10.5.
So when weight drops with this level of activity, that is the new TDEE, figure the new 15% deficit from that.
So first, really try to figure out that daily avg eating level during the 9 weeks of gaining and confirm that math.
So I would say to keep too many variables from changing at once, do NOT change your exercise routine right now.
Eat at that 15% deficit for 4 weeks with the same average level of exercise you had during the 9 week gain.
Then the weight lost in that time will help further nail what the true TDEE is for that level of activity. That way when you do increase activity, it's merely adding on known HRM burn estimates, or rounding up an activity level, or such.
Use this spreadsheet to log your stats right now, enter in the 1677 (or whatever you get when you better estimate daily avg eating) in the TDEE to use near bottom, and see what the deficit amount is.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE
Topic with description of spreadsheet.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/677905-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calc-macro-calc-hrm0 -
bump0
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You got your reset.
You also know your TDEE for that level of exercise now.
Avg daily eating 1900 - 223 = 1677 (I'd really look at that avg daily eating. Goal may have been 1900, but if several weeks were higher, changes that avg.)
So your personal multiplier for this level of activity is 1677 / weight 160 = 10.5.
So when weight drops with this level of activity, that is the new TDEE, figure the new 15% deficit from that.
So first, really try to figure out that daily avg eating level during the 9 weeks of gaining and confirm that math.
So I would say to keep too many variables from changing at once, do NOT change your exercise routine right now.
Eat at that 15% deficit for 4 weeks with the same average level of exercise you had during the 9 week gain.
Then the weight lost in that time will help further nail what the true TDEE is for that level of activity. That way when you do increase activity, it's merely adding on known HRM burn estimates, or rounding up an activity level, or such.
Use this spreadsheet to log your stats right now, enter in the 1677 (or whatever you get when you better estimate daily avg eating) in the TDEE to use near bottom, and see what the deficit amount is.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE
Topic with description of spreadsheet.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/677905-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-calc-macro-calc-hrm
Well it wasn't really 9 weeks of gaining - it was 9lbs since April. More like 20 weeks of gaining. I'm not at a computer I can check your spreadsheet out, but I do keep one of my own and my avereage since April is about 1848 - keep in mind the times I was on vacation (had a cruise in June, weekends in the mountains etc) or travelling for work I did not log so those higher numbers won't be included in that average.
If I understand the initial part of your post correctly, I'm to cut 15% from 1677?0 -
Well it wasn't really 9 weeks of gaining - it was 9lbs since April. More like 20 weeks of gaining. I'm not at a computer I can check your spreadsheet out, but I do keep one of my own and my avereage since April is about 1848 - keep in mind the times I was on vacation (had a cruise in June, weekends in the mountains etc) or travelling for work I did not log so those higher numbers won't be included in that average.
If I understand the initial part of your post correctly, I'm to cut 15% from 1677?
Oops, got the time span wrong, at least I used your math for avg calories.
So you saw that the 1677 is reached by taking the 233 from what you were eating, supposedly 1900. But I would redo your figures with the vacation times in there, even if you low ball it at 2500 say for all those days.
Avg eating level over the time you gained weight, minus what must have been the surplus, equals the better estimated TDEE.
15% off that, which sounds like it will be higher than 1677 because of the vacation times. 141 days, and if 14 of them were vacation and higher eating, that could have a decent effect.
But you got the idea.0 -
OK that makes sense. I will start a little higher than 1677 as my starting point to cut from. Thanks for your help!0
