And I have PLATEAUED!

jesz124

This thread rapidly went down hill went it was hijacked by the eat less calorie posters. I see 'i eat 1000 cals a day' and I automatically switch off.

metacognition

Not advocating eating less than 1200 calories a day, but one of the big reasons people stop losing weight is because they underestimate the amount they are consuming.

CristyMusicLovr

Are you exercising?

Katie187

lower your cabs and processed foods and eat more protein.

mockchoc

Soooo why did MFP tell me to eat less? I also do not feel "starved" or anything...1800 seems like a lot to me!

No idea why it does that but I'm sure someone that knows the reason why it does will fill us in. It's ruining your metabloism if you don't eat enough though so ignore it and do double check your BMR and TDEE. One of the ways you can work out what to eat is to find your TDEE and eat between 10-20% less than it. I eat 10% less since I'm close to goal.

That's not what the doctors and dieticians have told me.

So please fill us in on what they told you then? Mine said it was a good idea to eat not too far below TDEE, there is less muscle loss compared to when you eat way too little.

tmauck4472

This thread rapidly went down hill went it was hijacked by the eat less calorie posters. I see 'i eat 1000 cals a day' and I automatically switch off.

Was NOT higacked by the eat less calorie posters but taken over by the eat more posters. You eat the way you want and I'll eat the way I want. I guarentee you I'm eating just as healthy as you are, but with less calories. NOT everyone loses the same way some people have to eat less, some people can't eat back their exercise calories, NOT everyone's body works the same way, it it did we'd all have cancer or none of us would have cancer. Our body's are made up of the same things but the genes are different. I hate stupid comments.

tmauck4472

This never eat below 1200 and never eat below your BMR or only 500 Below what ever is the biggest crock I've ever read. I eat below 1000 since I've started this in January and I've only just now hit a stall and I've lost 143 lbs. I never eat back my exercise calories unless I'm hungry. (and I'm seldom hungry) I pretty much keep my food on track no devation and no cheating, if I want something log it and make it fit. It's a give and take, but you have to be willing to give and take. You don't have to exercise to lose weight but you do have to eat less. You exercise to help with weight loss, but IMO it's more for my heart health not the weight loss. When I started in January I was working and did no exercise at all until the end of April and I was steadily losing the same as I lost in June exercising everyday. But my heart rate has gone from 70's and 80's to 50's and 60's. I'm healthy I'm happy. My hair isn't falling out. I drink plenty of water. I get my fruits, veggies and meats in. I dont' eat junk, I don't eat processed food (with a few exceptions) You can eat low, eat clean, and still eat healthy. But you don't have to eat what I eat, but you certainly don't have to eat more. You'll be back crying that you gained weight. Stick with what your doing just cut out processed foods and add in clean foods. Don't eat your exercise calories back due to some things are entered in wrong in the database so you could be under estimating your calorie intake and over estimating your exercise calories burned. Don't cheat, if you want it make it work for you. I will not say I never cheat because I do, but it's few and far between very few and very far between.

Get ready for the fun now then.

You've really lucked out because when you have so much to lose (great job BTW) you have much bigger margin for error, meaning error in not doing it wisely for what is going to work until the end and be sustainable afterwards.

Stick to your plans and come back in 6 months when you've had no further weight loss for that time, and ask again about what you can do to your muscles by eating too little, and to your metabolism in addition to that.

Honestly I'm NOT so stupid as to believe I can live forever on this calorie count. I know what I have to do and I will do it. Don't assume you know more than I do about MY body or MY diet. But don't also assume you know more about how to diet than I do. Your right don't me me wrong.

jesz124

This thread rapidly went down hill went it was hijacked by the eat less calorie posters. I see 'i eat 1000 cals a day' and I automatically switch off.

Was NOT higacked by the eat less calorie posters but taken over by the eat more posters. You eat the way you want and I'll eat the way I want. I guarentee you I'm eating just as healthy as you are, but with less calories. NOT everyone loses the same way some people have to eat less, some people can't eat back their exercise calories, NOT everyone's body works the same way, it it did we'd all have cancer or none of us would have cancer. Our body's are made up of the same things but the genes are different. I hate stupid comments.

Stop attention seeking. Grumpy grumpster. Hungry by any chance? Happy news though, you have made it onto my very short list of people to ignore on the forums. It's brilliant, it means I no longer have to see grumpy posts by short tempered low cal people. hehehe.

cedarghost

honestly, i stopped reading at, "I have measured - and I have lost a few inches, but no weight" .. WHY are people so focused on weight. it's not like when people see you, you have a digital number over your head that states how much you weight. people see your inches, not lbs. please, stop worrying about the scale, and keep up what you're doing.

Yeah, back that train up there, hoss......if your body composition is changing, you are NOT plateaued.....

heybales

Honestly I'm NOT so stupid as to believe I can live forever on this calorie count. I know what I have to do and I will do it. Don't assume you know more than I do about MY body or MY diet. But don't also assume you know more about how to diet than I do. Your right don't me me wrong.

Well, there's the rub.

You are putting yourself into a position to exactly have to live forever on that lower calorie count. And like so many before you, a great majority of which rebound up to gaining weight, some the whole amount, some a large portion of it.

I don't need to know your body and your diet, the advice you've given on the face of it fits exactly with the studies of failed long term weight loss, sadly a fact.

You actually aren't a special flower, and the gene's aren't that different. Some differences in blood sugar issues is about the biggest differences in flowers.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html

tmauck4472

Honestly I'm NOT so stupid as to believe I can live forever on this calorie count. I know what I have to do and I will do it. Don't assume you know more than I do about MY body or MY diet. But don't also assume you know more about how to diet than I do. Your right don't me me wrong.

Well, there's the rub.

You are putting yourself into a position to exactly have to live forever on that lower calorie count. And like so many before you, a great majority of which rebound up to gaining weight, some the whole amount, some a large portion of it.

I don't need to know your body and your diet, the advice you've given on the face of it fits exactly with the studies of failed long term weight loss, sadly a fact.

You actually aren't a special flower, and the gene's aren't that different. Some differences in blood sugar issues is about the biggest differences in flowers.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html

LMAO...Really then how come eating the way you do doesn't work for me? IT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME...WHY Because I am different than you, but your clearly NOT grasping that fact and NO I'm not setting myself up for failure and NO I'm NOT setting myself up to have to eat this way the rest of my life....I know what I've got to do and working with my doctor we are confidant in my abilities to eat normal down the road and stay on track. Again you don't know me and my ability, I am different than those others who have failed before me...What makes me different you ask? Well because I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. I know what I have to do and I'm doing it. I would have quit 6 months ago just based on getting tired of not eating whatever I want, but this time I do eat whatever I want. What I've done differently this time is cut out processed foods, no more McDonalds, no more burger king and Wendy's. Now I don't even crave that stuff anymore. I can drive right by and can't wait to get home to get my GOOD food. I can go out to Olive Garden and stay away from the breadsticks and the pasta's and enjoy my soup and salad (with NO dressing). I can go to the Mexican joints and enjoy my chicken taco salad and not eat the shell. You "think" I'm setting myself up for failure, but I'm setting myself up to be healthy, to live longer and to win this battle once and for all. I'm a winner :bigsmile: and I'm thrilled with me. I've got this And for the record I'm NOT promoting anyone else to eat the way I eat. I just think all the eat more crap is BS and she'll be back on here crying because it didn't work for her and you people will carry the blame for her quitting because she listened to you instead of sticking with what she's doing now. She'll start gaining weight and you'll be saying well it works for me. No matter what you say my genes are different than yours and what works for you may not work for me, she's got to find what works best for her. It may mean eating more (but I doubt it). Sometimes your body just needs to catch up with your loss before it will start losing again.

tmauck4472

3 Reasons Why You're Not Losing Weight
Why Weight Loss is Harder for Some People than for Others
-- By Dean Anderson, Fitness & Behavior Expert

You've been sticking faithfully to your calorie range and exercise plans for awhile now, but you're not seeing the results you want on your scale. Meanwhile, your weight -loss buddy is happily watching the pounds melt away week after week. Not fair!

Or maybe you're losing weight but not from the areas where you really want to shed some fat. (Skinny feet are nice, but not so much when your muffin top is still as big as ever.) And then you have that other friend who can eat anything and everything without gaining a pound, while just watching him or her eat seems to make you gain weight.

What's going on here? Why don't your efforts seem to be paying off while weight loss seems so easy for other people? Is there anything you can do to get better results?

Sometimes there is a simple, general reason why one person loses weight faster than another. For example, men tend to lose weight more quickly than women, mainly because most men naturally have more lean muscle mass (thanks to their higher testosterone levels), and more muscle translates into a faster metabolism. Men and women also tend to store excess weight in different places—men in the abdominal area ("apple" body type), which is usually easier to lose; women in the hips and thighs ("pear" body type), which is usually harder to take off.

People who have more weight to lose may also drop the pounds more quickly in the beginning of a weight-loss program. This is because the more you weigh, the more calories you burn during any given activity. (Walking with an extra 50 pounds on your frame is harder than walking with 20 extra pounds of weight.) A person who weighs more can also cut more calories from his or her diet without jeopardizing the body's ability to function efficiently. If you weigh 300 pounds, you may need 3,500 calories per day or more to maintain that weight; cutting 1,000 calories from your diet (down to 2,500/day) will let you safely lose 2 pounds per week. But if you weigh 150 pounds, you may only need 1,800 calories to maintain your weight, and if you try to cut the 1,000 calories from your diet (down to 800/day), your body won't have enough fuel and your metabolism will slow down drastically, making fat loss harder, not easier. Therefore a person with less weight to lose needs to aim for a smaller calorie deficit, which will translate to a slower rate of weight loss.

Likewise, factors like age and body type can affect how fast you can shed extra pounds. Older people, for example, often lose weight more slowly, perhaps because of hormonal changes and/or because they have less muscle mass or may be less physically active.

So, if you're comparing your weight loss to someone else's, make sure you're not comparing apples to oranges (or pears)—that's just going to be frustrating and won't tell you anything useful about your own efforts.

Sometimes, though, people who seem to share a lot of these factors—similar body size, weight, age and activity levels—just don't get the same results, even when they do the same things. A lot of individual factors, including your individual genetics and quite a few medical conditions (like hypothyroidism, PCOS,and insomnia) and medications (like corticosteroids, or antidepressants), can make weight loss difficult. If you're in this boat, you may need to work closely with your health professional to find an individualized approach that will maximize your weight loss results without jeopardizing your health.

But more often, slow or non-existent weight loss can be traced to very common problems that can be identified and overcome with the right kinds of changes in diet, exercise, or daily activity patterns. That's what we'll be looking at below.

The No. 1 Problem: Your numbers aren't right.

In a healthy, "normally" functioning body, weight loss occurs when you use (burn) more energy (calories) than you take in from food. This calorie deficit forces your body to take fat out of storage and turn it into fuel that your cells can use to maintain necessary body functions. A pound of fat represents about 3,500 calories of stored energy, so you can predict that a calorie deficit of 3,500 will translate into one lost pound, give or take a little.

By far the most common reason why weight loss seems to be going slower than people expect is that their calorie deficit is not as large as they think it is. Either they're not burning as many calories as they think they are, or they're eating more than they think they are, or a combination of both.

The formulas used to estimate how many calories people need to maintain their current weight aren't accurate for everyone—they can be off by as much as 30-40%, especially if your body fat percentage is pretty high, your physical activity level is significantly higher or lower than average, or you're counting almost everything you do (e.g., light housework, grocery shopping, walking up one flight of stairs) as "exercise" even though it doesn't actually meet the parameters of what counts as fitness (a high enough intensity to elevate your heart rate to an aerobic range; a duration of at least 10 continuous minutes for the activity; the moving of large muscle groups in a rhythmic way).

You can have the same problem on the other end of the energy equation: calorie intake. It's very common to underestimate how much you're actually eating, even when you're tracking your food consistently. If you just eyeball your portion sizes instead of measuring them, or if you tend to forget the little "extras" you eat during the day (like licking peanut butter off the knife while making your sandwich, or tasting your pasta sauce while you're cooking it), you can easily add a few hundred uncounted calories to your daily total.

To fix this problem, make sure your calorie numbers are as accurate as you can get them. Track your calorie intake carefully and diligently, until you can recognize portion sizes of the foods you eat often without measuring. And don't count the regular activities of daily life you've always done as part of your "exercise."

Remember that fitness trackers and cardio machines only estimate how many calories you truly burn, and these trackers and machines tend to overestimate how much you're really burning. For a more accurate reading, you could invest in a good heart rate monitor that better estimates your calorie burn based on how hard you are actually working during exercise.

The Second Most Common Problem: Excess muscle loss

We'd like to think that every pound lost is a pound of fat, but in reality, all weight loss involves some combination of fat loss and muscle loss. To get the best results from your weight-loss efforts, you want to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss. The best way to do that is to include adequate strength training in your exercise routine. Without strength training, a substantial amount of the weight you lose could be muscle (lean tissue), which can reduce your fitness and lower your calorie burning capacity. To avoid these problems (and make it much easier to keep the lost weight off), be sure to include at least two full-body strength training workouts in your weekly routine. You can get plenty of strength-training ideas from SparkPeople's workouts, videos and fitness resource center.

The Final Problem: WHAT you eat may matter almost as much as HOW MUCH you eat.

How your body handles the food you eat is governed by a very complex set of biochemical interactions that determine when and where any excess calories are stored, and how easily this energy can be retrieved for later use. For some people with certain genetic predispositions, a diet high in fast-digesting carbohydrates like refined sugar and refined grains can make it easier for their bodies to store excess calories as fat and harder to get that energy back out of fat cells later on when it's needed. It can also lead to increased appetite and more cravings for high-sugar foods. There aren't yet any easily available tests that can identify people with this problem, but if you've been significantly overweight for a long time and you struggle with appetite, carbohydrate cravings, and slow weight loss, it may be worth your while to experiment with a diet higher in protein and healthy fats, and lower in refined carbohydrates and sugar. Be sure to discuss this with your doctor first, especially if you have any medical conditions/medications that can be affected by your diet.

Weight loss seems so simple on the surface: Eat less than you burn and your body will drop pounds. But for many people, there's more to the equation than counting calories in and calories out. We are all an experiment of one; you cannot compare your results to someone else's, just as you can't expect to have the same results as another person, no matter how similar you may seem to be. Think of your weight loss as a continuous journey. There will be bumps in the road, along with times when the sailing is smooth, but no matter what, you'll just have to pay attention to the route and be open to making changes in your approach or direction along the way. When you follow those guidelines, weight loss will become that much easier!

mockchoc

tmauck4472, I cannot believe that you think for a minute that eating your 800 calories a day is ok! What are your doctors plans for when you stop eating like a sparrow?

tmauck4472

tmauck4472, I cannot believe that you think for a minute that eating your 800 calories a day is ok! What are your doctors plans for when you stop eating like a sparrow?

moc, people who have as much weight to lose as I do can safely eat 800 calories for a much longer period of time than someone who has 50 lbs to lose. You go into it knowing you will have to increase your calories at some point. And I don't eat like I sparrow, I eat my fill. I have tons of energy, I exercise 5 to 6 days a week.

DebbieLyn63

tmauck4472, I cannot believe that you think for a minute that eating your 800 calories a day is ok! What are your doctors plans for when you stop eating like a sparrow?

moc, people who have as much weight to lose as I do can safely eat 800 calories for a much longer period of time than someone who has 50 lbs to lose. You go into it knowing you will have to increase your calories at some point. And I don't eat like I sparrow, I eat my fill. I have tons of energy, I exercise 5 to 6 days a week.

You rock, Terri! Good for you for consulting with your doctor and figuring out what is the best plan for YOU in YOUR situation! We should all do that. (by which I mean figuring out what is best for us. Calorie levels can vary greatly)

tmauck4472

Thank you Debbie, People knock what they know nothing about but THINK they know everything there is to know about it. Their problem is they have a closed mind to something different. I've been at this for 11 months now, 5 months LONGER than any other diet change in my life. I've tried them all, all the fad diets out there, they were fads and I tired of them rather fast. This is a change and one I seem to be happy with. After 143 lbs lost, I have just now hit a wall and haven't lost anything in a month or so, but I havent' given up (like they said I would) I just keep pushing forward. Slowly increasing my calorie count in 50 calorie increments per week and holding steady at one weight, how smart am I? LOL, they think they know it all..but I got this :bigsmile: