Cannot get under 162!!

Cheval13

Everyone is different, but I am in a similar state with 10 pounds left to lose and staying stagnant. I have come to the conclusion that I am eating too much by eating my exercise calories and since not doing so, I have been losing again. It is very hard because I really have to work against the excuse that I burned it, it must being coming off, but somehow my body has gotten used to the exercise I do and no longer burns as much when I do it. Point of reference, I run 5 miles everyday and still gain/don't lose if I eat 1700 calories... my BMR is 1720 though...

Crisitunity

Maybe you're eating too much. Play around with your calories. I'm also 5'2 and have a small frame (like itty, I wear a size 4 ring) and for me to actively loose, I eat between 1200-1400 calories/day, and do not eat exercise calories back.

I'm 5'10 and wear a size 4.5 ring and waltzed on through the 162lbs point. I eat 1600 (this month, I reassess and change my target every month) before exercise. I work out 350-700ish calories a day and eat most to all of it back. When I went too low (1200) I was actuallly putting weight back on. So there's the other side of that coin.

cmriverside

Maybe you're eating too much. Play around with your calories. I'm also 5'2 and have a small frame (like itty, I wear a size 4 ring) and for me to actively loose, I eat between 1200-1400 calories/day, and do not eat exercise calories back.

I'm 5'10 and wear a size 4.5 ring and waltzed on through the 162lbs point. I eat 1600 (this month, I reassess and change my target every month) before exercise. I work out 350-700ish calories a day and eat most to all of it back. When I went too low (1200) I was actuallly putting weight back on. So there's the other side of that coin.

5'10" is quite a big difference from the previous poster's 5'2". Age, gender, amount of body fat percentage, all make a bigg difference as well as the amount of daily activity in the person's life. . .

Corjogo

Sometimes its not the # of cal you eat...it's what kind! Getting enough protein? Veggies? I go through periods that I can't turn off the Carb/sugar urges and all my cal. go that direction. So I have to consciously choose tuna, and chicken, cottage cheese and turnips. Good luck. Sometimes you never know why you linger on a plateau for so long...and who cares as long as you can roll on by.

Luckybarc

bump ... this has helped me alot THANKS:flowerforyou:

californiagirl2012

You have to find what works for YOU. Experiment.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

Some people will say you need to eat more. Some people will say you need to eat less. Only you can decide or check with your doctor. But what would make the most sense? Eating more or eating less, to lose weight? Hmmm..

Taller people have more room in their calorie budget to go up or down. Shorter people like me have less room and get frustrated with "eat more" because that typically does not work for us. If you are confused about it don't just listen to any of us, do some research and get approval from your doctor, then just do what you need to do and tune the rest of us out.

It really depends on your RMR. If you are short like I am then your RMR is really just above the 1200 limit so you really don't have much room for a calorie deficit and going up is less likely to work. If you are taller you will have a higher RMR and can go up or down and still be in a deficit so you can lose no matter what. All that matters is a calorie deficit. If you are short it can be hard to have a deficit while "eating more".

Once I got leaner I had to taper UP my calories. The leaner you get the less of a calorie deficit your body can handle. It needs to be a long slow shallow deficit. For me still under a doctor’s care, this is around 1000-1200 calories because I am so short, petite, and am under 12% body fat where I truly can go into starvation mode if I ate under 1000 calories. I have supporting documentation below. Again, you must seek your doctor’s advice. No one here can tell you how many calories to eat, either up or down.

Seek advice from your doctor. Myself or anyone else on here can’t tell you how much to eat, or to go up or down. If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for woman over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I pretty much proved that for myself by staying strong and building muscle and doing what I did. I'm the leanest, most muscular, and most fit that I have ever been in my life at almost 52 years old. My doctor looked at my blood work throughout my journey and it remained fine even with “taking breaks from eating” for periods of time and eating less. Even now at less than 12% body fat everything is A-OKAY. I am healthy, active, and vibrant, muscular not skinny. I have never had eating disorders nor do I now. If you have eating disorders you should not be on a diet unless you are under a doctor’s care and/or get those issues resolved first. I do not advocate unhealthy eating or promote eating disorders.

While there is no one size fits all I listed the things that worked for me here --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

I found the following quotes helpful for sorting through all the myths plastered all over the place

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

The Theory of Fat Availability:
•There is a set amount of fat that can be released from a fat cell.
•The more fat you have, the more fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•The less fat you have, the less fat can be used as a fuel when dieting.
•Towards the end of a transformation, when body fat is extremely low you
may not have enough fat to handle a large caloric deficit anymore.

At the extreme low end, when your body fat cannot ‘keep up’ with the energy deficit
you've imposed on your body, the energy MUST come from SOMEWHERE. This is
when you are at risk of losing lean body mass during dieting (commonly referred to
as ‘starvation mode’). This happens at extremely low levels of body fat, under 6% in
men and 12% in women [Friedl K.E. J Appl Phsiol, 1994].

-Brad Pilon and John Barban (from The Reverse Taper Diet in The Adonis Index and Venus Index manuals)

trophywife24

Maybe you're eating too much. Play around with your calories. I'm also 5'2 and have a small frame (like itty, I wear a size 4 ring) and for me to actively loose, I eat between 1200-1400 calories/day, and do not eat exercise calories back.


I'm 5'10 and wear a size 4.5 ring and waltzed on through the 162lbs point. I eat 1600 (this month, I reassess and change my target every month) before exercise. I work out 350-700ish calories a day and eat most to all of it back. When I went too low (1200) I was actuallly putting weight back on. So there's the other side of that coin.

Well there's a reason why I said "find what works for you". That was/is my (obivously successful) experience.

TT_luvs_fitness

people saying here that you should absolutely eat back calories frankly should consider that maybe your overall situation is different than theirs....friend me if you like

Maxiumresults is right. He has helped me and now I'm loosing again. I eat no more then 1500 cals I workout 6-7 days a week and never eat back my cals and I'm losing. So what he is saying works I'm proof

shealeigh2

Yes yes yes omg lets please be friends.. i am in the same spot i cant get under 164, ihave been here for three months.. three months of eating 1200 calores or less, working out six days a week and yes i eat my excercise calories back they average around 300.... lets see what happens if we don't eat them back????

bronnyd

My experience is that most folks underestimate what they eat, and over estimate what they burn.

YES. I recommend getting a food scale. Once my eyes were opened to the magic that is a food scale, I realized that when I thought I was eating 1 serving of cheese just by "eye-balling it", I was actually eating 3 servings. That kind of stuff can make a big impact.

I also always manually change the calories that MFP tells me I burned. I find their calculations to be really high. If you use a machine at the gym, change it to whatever their screen tells you you burned, and if you are doing something like cycling or walking I recommend lowering MFP's estimation by about 50...

bronnyd

I am 5'2, 162 pds. According to MFP ibshould have 1200 cals. I aim for 400 cals when I workout giving me 1600 a day. Should I eat more? I am confused now!! Lol

With 5'2", female, 35 YO, 162, I get 1487 for your BMR. Assuming you are doing all that exercise, set your Activity Level to Active.

"Lose 1/2 pound per week". Stick with the numbers for a month. Eat your exercise calories. It sounds like you've done all that.

Stop having "weekend over" days. Try to stay consistent for the entire week. Since you have such a little deficit (looks like 200 calories) you can't afford cheat days. One cheat day could be erasing all the week's deficit. Do you follow? You have a 200 calorie allowed deficit for each day, to lose weight. On the weekendif you over eat by only 500 calories each day, that effectively erases the deficit for the five previous days. That's just a dessert or a couple donuts or an extra piece of pizza. It doesn't take much.

The only other think I can think is measure and weigh your food and drinks and enter them accurately. Use a digital scale. You don't have much to lose, so you have a very slim margin of error here. Patience and accuracy are super important at this point. Make one change at a time, and stick with it long enough to see if it is working.

But, and correct me if I'm wrong, if you set your activity level to "Active" because you are accounting for the exercise that you do, you should NOT log your exercise or eat back your exercise calories, right?