My weight loss is stalled....

robin68562

I changed my eating habits in about mid-May of this year and in that time I've lost thirty-five pounds. I started exercising three weeks ago, working out on the elliptical and stationary bike, working my way up to twenty-five minutes on the elliptical and thirty minutes on the exercise bike. I'm also doing the Nautilus machines at the Y and I've recently started swimming laps, working my way up to four laps, resting in between. Ever since I started exercising my weight loss has been at a virtual standstill, fluctuating up and down a few ounces each week. I work out three times per week, as recommended by the fitness trainer at the Y, who I assume knows what he's talking about. Some days when I exercise I eat more, sometimes I don't, depending on how hungry I am, but I'm always well within my 1200 calorie limit. I sometimes go a little over the 1200 limit during the week, a little bit more sometimes over the weekends, but it should certainly all balance out, taking into consideration my calorie intake during the week. With the calories burned through my exercise, it's all well under my limit.
It has been suggested to me that I eat more for a week, upping my calorie intake by about three hundred calories and also cutting down on my exercise, as I may be sabotaging myself and throwing myself into starvation mode.
My fear is, if I start eating more, even for a week, I'm afraid my determination to lose weight will lose momentum and I'll never go back to dieting again.
Is this even sound advice?

econut2000

Definitely eat more! You're doing too much exercise for so few calories.

kellicci

If you never exercised before and you are now, and doing great by the way, your muscles are probably storing water and glycogen as they repair which masks any weight loss...it's still there if you check your measurements you might still see a change but it will take time for your muscles to get used to your new active life.

I would suggest eating some of your exercise calories back if you're at 1200 chances are not eating them back puts you well below your BMR.

T34418l3angel

If you never exercised before and you are now, and doing great by the way, your muscles are probably storing water and glycogen as they repair which masks any weight loss...it's still there if you check your measurements you might still see a change but it will take time for your muscles to get used to your new active life.

I would suggest eating some of your exercise calories back if you're at 1200 chances are not eating them back puts you well below your BMR.

^ this! Stole the words right out my mouth.

robin68562

If you never exercised before and you are now, and doing great by the way, your muscles are probably storing water and glycogen as they repair which masks any weight loss...it's still there if you check your measurements you might still see a change but it will take time for your muscles to get used to your new active life.

I would suggest eating some of your exercise calories back if you're at 1200 chances are not eating them back puts you well below your BMR.

I think I may not have made myself very clear.
I do eat some of them back. If I work off, say, 800 calories through exercise, instead of eating 1200 calories, I may eat 1600 calories, eating half of the calories that I worked off --- some days maybe not so much. But I always eat more on my exercise days, feeling that by working off the calories, I've earned the license to splurge. The days that I don't exercise, I try to stick to my 1200 calories, sometimes winding up a little bit under, sometimes a little bit over. It all depends on how hungry I am.

robin68562

And what does anybody think about me cutting back on my exercise? As I said, I'm doing almost an hour between the bike and elliptical, about half an hour on the nautilus machines and maybe about fifteen or twenty minutes swimming laps --- about two hours, three times per week overall. Is this too much? I'm pretty much sedentary the rest of the week. Should I cut back?

stephanie1133

If you never exercised before and you are now, and doing great by the way, your muscles are probably storing water and glycogen as they repair which masks any weight loss...it's still there if you check your measurements you might still see a change but it will take time for your muscles to get used to your new active life.

Definitely this! I have experienced this myself! And ANY time I do a hard core workout I retain water, a couple pounds sometimes! Then it will come off in a big whoosh.

The scale will catch up! If you feel good at this exercise level, I would not cut back. I think you are doing great!

sleibo87

Give your body time to adjust. I usually try to burn between 300-700 calories a day, but I also wear a heart rate monitor. If you don't have one I suggest it! Love mine. But sometimes MFP over calculates exercise calories burned (Sometimes says the elipitcal can burn like 800 calories an hour, really not close!) and sometimes i wonder how accurate we are on our calories eaten if we don't measure everything to a T. If you have a HRM and measure most your food, then your body will drop that weight soon! Good luck!

gingerjen7

Perhaps you're overestimating your calories burned through exercise?

Akimajuktuq

Like me, you still have a lot of weight to lose; do you think that 1200 calories is sustainable long term? I know you eat more when you are more active, but bigger bodies require more calories even when sedentary. Contrary to other MFP "experts" I have personally experienced how weight loss can slow when I consume too few calories. My goal is currently 1550 and I weigh 204 and I've averaged a loss of 2.2 pounds per week for 10 weeks (rate is starting to slow down, as it should). At 226, I started out at 1650 calories, at 220 went to 1600, and at 210 went to 1550. My goal wouldn't be at 1200 until I'm under 150, which is below my goal anyway.

Also, since you are very active, there is likely truth to the water retention, etc, that the others have mentioned.

It's not a race. If you foresee an end to what you are doing then you won't have long term success and you aren't on the right eating plan for you.

kellicci

If you feel good with that exercise routine by all means keep it up!

However, you probably should eat back some exercise calories on those days. 2 hours of working out has to burn over 600 calories each time that leaves you with 600 calories net on that day or less. half of what your body needs to function? What do you think will happen? What happens when you pay half your bills? Not good things I promise you that. My advise is to eat back enough exercise calories on your workout days to get back to your BMR. Add a protein shake after the workout maybe eat more calorie dense foods on those days like bananas with peanut butter or nuts. Don't worry to gain you have ingest more thatn you burn but MFP is set upto give you a deficit without extra exercise. Lots of people eat back those exercise calories adn lose weight MFP is designed to work that way.

onyxgirl17

You're ahead of me! I've lost slightly over 20 in the same period of time....

drakechic08

I agree with upping your calories. You also might want to swap some of that cardio for strength training. That will help you burn more on a daily basis and it will help make sure you are not losing lean muscle mass. Go to fattofitradio.com and plug in your numbers to find your TDEE and your BMR. IT is recommended to eat 10-20% under your TDEE regardless if you work out that day or not. A lot of people on here have had success with that. I haven't had much weight loss in the past 2 months (only 8 lbs) but I have lost 22 inches by combining cardio and heavy lifting and eating more calories. Good luck! Sounds like you are off to a good start.

robin68562

I agree with upping your calories. You also might want to swap some of that cardio for strength training. That will help you burn more on a daily basis and it will help make sure you are not losing lean muscle mass. Go to fattofitradio.com and plug in your numbers to find your TDEE and your BMR. IT is recommended to eat 10-20% under your TDEE regardless if you work out that day or not. A lot of people on here have had success with that. I haven't had much weight loss in the past 2 months (only 8 lbs) but I have lost 22 inches by combining cardio and heavy lifting and eating more calories. Good luck! Sounds like you are off to a good start.

Heavy lifting isn't an option for me. I've herniated five disks in my neck and have had spine surgery twice, removing two of them. That's why I opt for the exercises that I'm doing.

robin68562

So you're all saying I should eat more calories, even on the days that I don't exercise?

robin68562

Perhaps you're overestimating your calories burned through exercise?

I'm beginning to think that, too. I go by what MFP says I'm burning.

meshashesha2012

are you losing inches?

my weight loss (on the scale) has stalled for the past 3 months but i'm still steadily losing fat and clothing sizes, so i could care less about the scale

agent99oz

Eat 1200 cals for a month regardless of the exercise and see what happens - I was doing BMR etc etc eating back exercise cals and not losing a thing. I now eat 1200cals a day and exercise 6 days a week and I have lost 4 KG's in 7 weeks - try it.

Once I am at goal I can move back to my BMR range as I know I can hang at the weight once there - I did it for 7 months this year!

robin68562

are you losing inches?

my weight loss (on the scale) has stalled for the past 3 months but i'm still steadily losing fat and clothing sizes, so i could care less about the scale

The waist of my jeans is a little looser, but I'm a numbers girl. I like to see those numbers going down.

meshashesha2012

are you losing inches?

my weight loss (on the scale) has stalled for the past 3 months but i'm still steadily losing fat and clothing sizes, so i could care less about the scale

The waist of my jeans is a little looser, but I'm a numbers girl. I like to see those numbers going down.

so technically it's not a stall. regardless of what you may like to see, weight loss is not linear. sometimes it takes time for the scale to show what's going on with changes in body composition. google the woosh fairy . it gives a good explanation of why there are lags in inch loss and scale loss.

and as long as you're losing fat (inches) that's most important health wise

tryclyn

These may be helpful to you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/717565-in-place-of-a-road-map

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

robin68562

Like me, you still have a lot of weight to lose; do you think that 1200 calories is sustainable long term? I know you eat more when you are more active, but bigger bodies require more calories even when sedentary. Contrary to other MFP "experts" I have personally experienced how weight loss can slow when I consume too few calories. My goal is currently 1550 and I weigh 204 and I've averaged a loss of 2.2 pounds per week for 10 weeks (rate is starting to slow down, as it should). At 226, I started out at 1650 calories, at 220 went to 1600, and at 210 went to 1550. My goal wouldn't be at 1200 until I'm under 150, which is below my goal anyway.

Also, since you are very active, there is likely truth to the water retention, etc, that the others have mentioned.

I'm not trying to race, but when I get on the scale and I've only lost a few ounces or even gained, it's very frustrating. Especially when I'm working so hard.

It's not a race. If you foresee an end to what you are doing then you won't have long term success and you aren't on the right eating plan for you.

GomesDavid

So you're all saying I should eat more calories, even on the days that I don't exercise?

Yup!! go for it always maintain proper balance....just exercising and not taking enough calories r not going to work for u..

eeeekie

I've been bouncing between the same 10lbs since January =\

It can be VERY frustrating but you have to keep going. Try to outdo yourself (having a hard time with that myself because I workout HARD most times). Def eat into your exercise calories, watch your sodium and get enough water.

atjays

Definitely eat more! You're doing too much exercise for so few calories.

This exactly. Bump up your daily average to 15-1800 and the rest will fly off with how much you're exercising. Your weight loss stalled because your body stopped breaking down muscle (which is some of that 35 lb you lost) because you're using them now and since you're not eating enough, your body is clinging to what fat stores it has left.

You can also insert generic "muscle weighs more than fat" comment here as well. Just because the scale isn't changing doesn't mean you aren't getting thinner and looking better.

Lastly, introducing exercise, even moderate stuff like you mentioned, can be quite the shock on your body since it's not used to it. This takes some time to adjust to. Once it gets over the panic mode of being thrown in the pool 3 days a week, it will relax and it's stress levels will go down.

barkervision

Some good advice on here so far but the question I have not seen asked, is what type of Calories are you taking in. I would follow the meter to a T and double check you are measuring calories burned right. But back to the Calories. I am not saying this is what you are doing, but If your 1200 Calories consists of refined Carbs, Saturated Fats and Sugar with little Fiber and Protein you are fueling your fat and it doesn’t matter how few Calories you take. In this case, the earlier comment that stated you may have lost a portion of your 35 lbs in muscle may be accurate. You have to watch all of the metrics that MyFitnessPal provides not only the calories. Which ones are you focused on? I would change it to track sugar and trans fat along with the Carbs and Protein. Then keep the sugar and trans fat completely out, keep the carbs slightly low and keep the protein slightly high. Once I did this I broke my plateau weight which I hadn’t been able to get below in 10 years.

smantha32

I would say just measure yourself for a couple months and don't worry about the scale as much if the tape measure says you're getting smaller.

hughtwalker

You probably wouldn't want to listen to me anyway, because I don't believe in this so-called "Starvation Mode".

wahmx3

You need to eat more, 1200 is quite low, especially for anyone doing exercising. Secondly, and most importantly.... this is NOT a diet... it is a lifestyle change, a diet way of thinking is short term.... if you want to keep the weight off, think long term changes.... you can't live on 1200 calories forever. Keep up the exercise, there should be some strength training you can do, even with back problems, it doesn't mean you have to life 50 pounds or anything crazy like that. Are you eating good clean foods, watching your sodium? How much water are you drinking? Unless you have a HRM, eat back about half of your exercise calories but do this every day you exercise and seriously consider upping your calories every day.

Roseygirl1

Do not stop exercising! It's critical for long-term success AND good health.

The first thing to remember is that plateaus are a normal, expected part of the weight loss process.

There are a few things you can do to nudge the scale in the right direction:

1. Improve the quality of your diet: decrease how much sugar, white flour, and other empty calories you consume and replace those calories with nutrient dense foods. (If you don't know what nutrient dense foods are, google "the world's 100 healthiest foods" to find out.)

2. You can do strength training even with your spine condition. (I have similar spine issues, with fusions from C3 to C7) Try doing strength work in the pool using water weights. Working to build muscle, however gently, really helps with weight loss! Be mindful of breathing OUT when you move the weights through water so you don't increase pressure in the spinal canal with a Valsalva.

3. Try to keep your carbs at 100 gms./day or lower and make those really high quality carbs, vegetables and fruits, grains like quinoa, starchy veggies like winter squash or sweet potatoes.

You are doing so well....just don't give up!

(Oh, and....reduce stress and make sure your sleep is restorative!)

Susie

Gramps251

You probably wouldn't want to listen to me anyway, because I don't believe in this so-called "Starvation Mode".

So that just leaves under counting calories or over counting calorie burn.

Logically that makes sense but I've been at a stall for 3 weeks and I've been consistant in my food and exercise. I've found it frustrating to do what has worked for me in past weeks and not see weight loss results, though I have been losing inches.

I've been thinking about shaking things up to get some movement again and since I just had surgury and can't work out for a couple of weeks I'll use this time to see if my muscles are holding water to repair themselves. I've been drinking lots of water and keeping everything else pretty much the same. Tomorrow I'll see if my weight drops when I weigh in.

OP (Robin?), are you eating below your MBR?