I'm not losing anymore---What should I change?

daniellemillergilliam

I haven't lost anything for almost 5 months now!!!!!
I exercise 6-7 days a week, for 30-60 minutes per workout, burning between 200-360.
I have my calorie goal set to a 400 deficit from my normal daily activity calorie needs. According to MFP this is a projected weight loss of 0.8 lbs/ week....but I never have lost that much. I do go over my caloric goals a few days a week (especially on hard workout days when I get hungry or on the weekend when I have some wine). But I never go over the goal more than 200 calories....which would still give me a 200 calorie deficit. I have been doing this for about one year now. I have lost 29 lbs over this period. But now I've stalled out and I still want to lose another 5-10 pounds....or about 2 inches around my waste.

I have heard that sometimes increasing your calorie goal slightly helps to get over a slump. Should I do this?
Or should I work out more?
Or?????????

linz1125

I would change up your workout. Maybe do 4-5 days a week with a higher calorie burn. Also incorporate some strength training into your routine. Keep in mind rest days are very important in strength training.

daniellemillergilliam

My workouts are usually a mix of HIIT. I do not go to the gym.
I do Zuzana Light's body weight workouts (origianl Body Rock host), Peter Carvell's strength/weight workouts (six week six pack), Jullian Michael's, etc.

Any recommendations on what to change or do?

oldsalty1

All I know is what I struggled with and what worked for me....
I had stalled for almost 5 months..and even gained...was eating 1200 plus my exercise calories back...Began paying attention to some of the guru's on this site. Finally gave up...took a week off of exercise...up my calories to 1600 at first and back my exercise to 3 days a week..that was hard!! Did not gain or loose for 3 weeks...upped my calories again to 1800...added back in 5 days of exercise..Eat most of my exercise calories and I have lost...almost 11 lbs in 7 weeks...
I have my calorie goal a 1/2 lb a week... and I exercise hard...not much in weights at this time but I plan to add them in next month.

Tonight for example...before I exercised i had 500 or so calories banked for dinner...after exercise I had 900 cals for food...
At this point I have about 130 cals left...I will not be eating those back...Stuffed and ready for bed...

If you want to add calories..the formula is pretty simple Figure your TDEE and BMR...look at how they average with your daily calories burned..and raise your daily calories to stay above your BMR..(way above) But below your TDEE...

There are many more folks on MFP who have more knowledge than me...In the end it is up to you...It took me a while of adjustments to my intake to find a new balance where I was loosing again...I really don't want to loose more than a 1/2 lb a week...this weight loss is for life not a temporary fix...

Good Luck...I hope some other MFPer's will post to...

WintersMoonlight

I was on a 3.5 month plateau.
I have cut out all fruits from my diet recently,took me awhile to figure out that the sugar was inhibiting my weight loss.
I've also gone lower carb. I was consuming 100 carbs a day,I cut down to 50 and sometimes lower.
I've also cut out all breads,rice and pastas from my diet, caffeine (rip)
No more cheat days. I watch my sodium intake and never exceed 1500 mg of it or else I retain water for a long time.
i've been consuming Healthy fats,Egg Whites,Meats(mostly chicken and fish,I watch red meat),Cheese(no more than 3 oz a day),once in awhile a greek plain fat free yogurt, and lots of veggies.
The weight has been coming off now.
Also let me tell you I tried everything to get off my plateau; eating more,eating less,exercising more,exercising less,stopping exercise and taking a week off,lifting heavy weights,lifting moderate weights,no weight lifting,removing all grains and bad carbs but it seems that fruit was my culprit. I was consuming 3-5 servings a day of it and going way over my sugar intake limit.
I hope this helps anyone out who might need want to try something a bit different.

nikbolok

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Check it out, it works. Same here. Plateau, underfeeding myself for the activity I was doing.

kazzsjourney

How much processed foods are you eating? Could you increase your protein and lower your carbs? Maybe try different exercise...depending what you currently do...if you dont do much weights throw in weights...if you do classes try some different classes.

heybales

I haven't lost anything for almost 5 months now!!!!!
I exercise 6-7 days a week, for 30-60 minutes per workout, burning between 200-360.
I have my calorie goal set to a 400 deficit from my normal daily activity calorie needs. According to MFP this is a projected weight loss of 0.8 lbs/ week....but I never have lost that much. I do go over my caloric goals a few days a week (especially on hard workout days when I get hungry or on the weekend when I have some wine). But I never go over the goal more than 200 calories....which would still give me a 200 calorie deficit. I have been doing this for about one year now. I have lost 29 lbs over this period. But now I've stalled out and I still want to lose another 5-10 pounds....or about 2 inches around my waste.

I have heard that sometimes increasing your calorie goal slightly helps to get over a slump. Should I do this?
Or should I work out more?
Or?????????

30-60 min only burns 200-360 calories?

Frankly, that's terrible. That's like walking 2mph. Now, if that is the exercise, that's fine and dandy and actually pretty great, just don't eat that kind of increase to daily activity back, it's mainly fat burning.

But you say the workouts make you hungry, which tells me either it's more intense than walking, or you really do burn more than that.

What says you are only burning that much?

So if you were only burning that many calories - you aren't pushing yourself very hard at all.
2 reasons why that may be the case even though you feel you are pushing yourself - you aren't eating enough to support the level of activity you are trying to do, and/or you are not giving your body the rest it needs to actually get stronger and have reached an exercise plateau, as well as weight loss stall.

So if you haven't seen any measurement changes lately either, besides just weight loss, than you obviously don't have a deficit, right.

Now, you don't mention anything about how much you eat and your diary is closed, so not sure what sort of advice you could hope for from folks have no info on the situation.

Wise move selecting only 400 cal deficit (how did you do that exactly, since the options are multiples of 250? or manual setup?) from a daily maintenance figure you have no idea if it's correct or not.
The 400 is smart, but you really don't know what it's being subtracted from.
MFP's activity levels have nothing to do with exercise, hence the reason you eat exercise calories back.

So what is your avg eating level? Not just your goal, but real avg.
What are the workouts you are doing for 30-60 min that only burns 200-360 cals?

daniellemillergilliam

30-60 min only burns 200-360 calories?

Frankly, that's terrible. That's like walking 2mph. Now, if that is the exercise, that's fine and dandy and actually pretty great, just don't eat that kind of increase to daily activity back, it's mainly fat burning.

But you say the workouts make you hungry, which tells me either it's more intense than walking, or you really do burn more than that.

What says you are only burning that much?

What are the workouts you are doing for 30-60 min that only burns 200-360 cals?

I am a 42 year old female. 5'1" weighing 115 lbs.
My calories burn during exericise is measured by a MIO heart rate monitor watch (not as good as a Polar but it was a Mother's Day Gift! :flowerforyou: ) My resting heart rate is 64 and during a hard workout goes up to 140-160ish. I do various exercises like JM 30D shred, Zuzana Light's (or BodyRockTV) workouts ( http://www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight?feature=g-all-u ), various HIIT, sixpackfactory challenges ( http://www.sixpackfactory.com/ ), etc.

EDITED TO ADD:
My husband will do the same 30 minute circuit training workout as me...we keep up with each other rep by rep and he will burn at LEAST twice as many calories as me. I am a small framed person and don't seem to burn as much....Size makes a big difference in calorie burn.

Wise move selecting only 400 cal deficit (how did you do that exactly, since the options are multiples of 250? or manual setup?) from a daily maintenance figure you have no idea if it's correct or not.
The 400 is smart, but you really don't know what it's being subtracted from.

Yes, I set up my goal manually. MFP had me at 200 calories more a day, so I went in and manually changed it. Also, that this was back in November 2011. I'm not sure if I should change it since I did lose 29 lbs in those first several months.

The 400 is smart, but you really don't know what it's being subtracted from.
MFP's activity levels have nothing to do with exercise, hence the reason you eat exercise calories back.

So what is your avg eating level? Not just your goal, but real avg.

I definitely eat my exercise calories back. If I didn't I'd pass out from hunger! :laugh:
My average eating level (after adding in additional exercise calories) is between 1200-1400.

heybales

I am a 42 year old female. 5'1" weighing 115 lbs.
My calories burn during exericise is measured by a MIO heart rate monitor watch (not as good as a Polar but it was a Mother's Day Gift! :flowerforyou: ) My resting heart rate is 64 and during a hard workout goes up to 140-160ish. I do various exercises like JM 30D shred, Zuzana Light's (or BodyRockTV) workouts ( http://www.youtube.com/user/ZuzkaLight?feature=g-all-u ), various HIIT, sixpackfactory challenges ( http://www.sixpackfactory.com/ ), etc.

EDITED TO ADD:
My husband will do the same 30 minute circuit training workout as me...we keep up with each other rep by rep and he will burn at LEAST twice as many calories as me. I am a small framed person and don't seem to burn as much....Size makes a big difference in calorie burn.

Yes, I set up my goal manually. MFP had me at 200 calories more a day, so I went in and manually changed it. Also, that this was back in November 2011. I'm not sure if I should change it since I did lose 29 lbs in those first several months.

I definitely eat my exercise calories back. If I didn't I'd pass out from hunger! :laugh:
My average eating level (after adding in additional exercise calories) is between 1200-1400.

If you are smaller with less muscle keeping up with someone bigger with more muscle - it actually would even out a bit because of the increased effort you'd have to supply to keep up. But that's a rather high HR and more what I'd expect from those workouts, and likely burning more too.

Yes, once you manually setup MFP, the auto changes to daily goal don't happen. And as you lose weight your BMR does go down, therefore your daily calorie burn goes down, and your exercise burns go down. Even more so because you are more efficient, but that is likely reflected in HR anyway.

So yes, lower your goal - Maybe!

If you can do a treadmill walk sometime at known speed, incline, time, you can use a calculator that will be more correct than the HRM, that'll let you see how much it's off by. It may be some stats on the HRM need to be tweaked, like HRmax if it has it, age, weight, ect.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs.html

Use Gross to compare to HRM. Of course for eatback, you'd use NET.

You could actually crank the incline to hit the same 150 AHR those other activities give you, and see what that speed and incline mean for calorie burn to HR.