stuck and want to throw in the towel
goddess2go
Posts: 7 Member
Hi there, I've been on the plan for a while and no change. Seriously been keeping within a 1200-1400 range of good food. Cut out coffee, diet coke, hard candy, bread and all the cookies plus alcohol comsumption cut down to weekends only and switch from beer to red wine. Been exercising with Jillian Michaels dvds 5x week. Even though I've lost half an inch everywhere my weight has gone up. I'm thinking of going into starve mode and cut right down to oatmeal and fruit in the morning (as I exercise in the morning) and then keep it to salad and protein for rest of meals.
Any words of wisdom?
Any words of wisdom?
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Replies
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If I had to guess I would say you are not eating enough. I was in plateau for 2 months on 1200/day. Upped my calories and it worked, started losing again.0
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I am also same age. If you open your diary I can take a look. I truly think MFP sets all ppl at 1200 regardless and it isn't for everybody, also, the closer you get to goal it slows down and you need to up your calories. Have you done any of the calculators? The BMR and TDEE are pretty helpful and you will see that 1200 is not enough.0
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Hi
Don't give up.
I reckon that the reason you've put on weight is down to the exercising. You're probably building muscle and therefore weighing a bit more. Give it a few weeks longer and see what happens.
Nicola0 -
If you're losing inches, you're losing fat weight. Remember that with all your working out, you're building muscle mass, which is more dense than fat. A pound of muscle is much leaner than a pound of fat. So while your weight may be going up - it's probably muscle mass while you're still losing body fat. Keep eating right and working out. I do agree you may actually need to increase your calorie intake (as long as it's with good calories, not junk!). For a guy, 1200-1500 is pretty low.0
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and eat your excercise calories back - at least 1/20
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Up your calories to 15-20% below your TDEE, then you will lose. You're probably not eating enough and your body is holding onto what your putting into because it's thinking it won't be getting anymore...0
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There is no mystery to weight loss, everyone thinks something is wrong, their metabolism is broken, they have low thyroid, they have menopause or whatever issue, they are as unique as a snowflake, whatever. I thought a lot of these things once too but once the doctor helped resolve the health issues for me I learned there is still no magic pill. Most people eat more than they need to and are not at good at estimating calories as they think they are. Most people have a lower BMR than they think they do. The only way to know for sure is to go to a lab and have it tested. It doesn't seem fair to have to eat less and feel a little hunger. It's hard to face the truth of it, very hard. It's not fun. It's drudgery at times. But if you learn to enjoy your smaller amounts of food (necessary to lose weight, since the reason we got fat in the first place was eating too much whether we knew it or not), and rejoice in your victories it can be done.
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.
As far as calories…
To say eat more is wrong.
To say eat less is wrong.
If you plug in all your info (typically age, gender, height and weight) into one of those calculators what you get is the average metabolic rate of a group of people who share your age, sex, height and weight. What you DON’T get is YOUR EXACT calorie needs. It's a place to start.
To find the exact calories needed for YOU to be in a healthy sustainable calorie deficit is the right answer. Wait, if you need to adjust by 100 do it, wait, adjust, wait, adjust, wait. The tortoise wins this race.
All that matters is calories. A healthy balanced diet within a calorie budget for a deficit that is right for YOU is all that matters for weight loss. Don't make it complicated.
You want to eat as healthy as you can because it makes you feel better and perform better, and makes you healthier. There are a bunch of tricks and clean eating; reducing sugar (especially HFCS), fiber, white flour vs whole grain, low carb, low fat, on and on. All that matters is calories for weight loss. If you need to eat a certain way for health reasons or to feel better do it, but extensive good food and bad food lists will drive you insane at some point, it’s a constantly moving target. Just eat what you like, mostly healthy, mostly balanced, within a calorie budget. We all know what healthy is by now, just do it.
Also people play mental accounting games with calories just like with finances. Make steps to make sure you are making accurate measurements. Packaged foods can have MORE than they say but not less (they get in trouble if less so they would rather error with MORE).
If you typically intake sodium at a certain rate your body adjusts, but if you make a sudden change then you will see a spike.
Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories.
Everyone needs resistance training to improve their health and bone density and this will especially improve your quality of life when you get older. But you will not gain all that much lean body mass as fast as everyone thinks. Guys of course will gain more. A DXA scan will prove the point. There are lots of stories about changing size but no one REALLY knows unless they do a DXA scan. Here's more about that --> http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/intermittent-fasting-and-bulking/ this is true whether you IF or not. My DXA scans proved that I really didn't gain that much lean body mass yet I look very muscular for a female. I have very high bone density from over 30 years of lifting yet my lean body mass is still only 104 lbs and my RMR is still only 1380.
I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am. Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.
Cardio is good for you but it is optional. I love cardio, but you can't out exercise too many calories. Of course you burn calories, but not near what all the HRM's say. I learned the hard way, running marathon after marathon (yes even multiple runs during the day), as well as hitting the gym hard, martial arts, staying active all the time, not eating while watching TV, not binging, not mindlessly eating, not pigging out, not having emotional eating issues, yet I gained weight year after year, each decade putting on the pounds. I worked harder and harder, not able to figure out what was wrong. It didn't seem like I ate too much, but for my small size I did and didn't realize it until just a few years ago when I finally started losing weight by eating less.
Everyone is different, but it's very easy to do a lot of cardio and think you can eat more than you really need, especially when you need to lose weight. It is also easy to think that you are burning more fat than you really are. Just do cardio if you enjoy it and because it's good for you.
Too many changes at once can be hard on some people. I've always eaten healthy so it easy for me to simply eat less. Eating at a calorie deficit is hard on people; even a small deficit puts your body in a state of flux with hormones and such. Everyone is different. Some people can handle a deeper calorie deficit than others, this is not right or wrong, it just is. Stress in your life affects your hunger hormones; lack of sleep, fatigue, job stress, family stress, financial stress, etc. Add in emotional eating issues and it gets even more complicated. Most people can only handle so much change/stress at once, they try to do too much and fail. Sometimes it might be a better strategy to eat at maintenance and make some small changes first, it really depends on how much stress you are taking in at the moment.
The good thing is you don't have to worry about the starvation mode myth if you are fat. Only skinny people have to worry about starvation mode. It does not mean you have the capability to eat at a large calorie deficit if you have emotional eating disorders or other issues going on, but at least you don't have to be afraid of it anymore.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)
I am short, petite, small; my RMR is low compared to others. With my doctors approval I had to eat less than or right around 1000 calories to lose weight. We are all different. There is no one size fits all. Even people my height and gender are different and some need more calories than I do. My doctor checked my hormone levels throughout my 60 lb weight loss journey (from obese down to 10% body fat) and everything was fine. I got stronger and stronger at the gym, my running and weight lifting strength improved even while eating on a significant calorie deficit. My DXA scan proved I did not lose lean body mass or go into starvation mode.
Also you do not have to eat the same amount of calories every day. You can think of it as a weekly calorie budget. You can eat low some days and high some days. You can be flexible. You can find what is sustainable for you.
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)
For me it's all about a calorie budget. I had less of a budget available when I was losing weight, more to spend now that I'm maintaining and all the tools I used for weight loss come into play for the rest of my life maintaining.
When you have accumulated excess fat, you have accumulated a debt. It is hard to pay off the debt (you have less calories to spend). If you are sitting next to someone your same gender and height and they are not overweight and you are, they get to eat more than you (have more calories to spend) because they are debt free. You have less calories to spend because you are paying off your debt.
Wishing you the best! -Bobbie0 -
dear, muscle weighs more than fat.
lol0 -
Make sure you eat more protein than carbs. (That helped me get off my plateu. I was stuck for a long time.)
Make sure you meet your daily protein needs.0 -
dear, muscle weighs more than fat.
lol
God this phrasing is almost as stupid as 'I could care less'.0 -
Try upping your calories. Eat 1600, or even 1200. Or! Even! And I know this is going to infuriate folks, take a day or two off. Relax. Have some ice cream. Then go back into it. Above all, don't stress. It'll come off eventually.0
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dear, muscle weighs more than fat.
lol
Erm, no. :noway:0 -
As the others have said...you need to up your calories...your body is saying...'there is an emergency...I need to keep hold of all this weight...other bodily functions will slow down and suffer because of it.0
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Here's what I did...
I was stuck too for a couple weeks too. I was also doing the 1200/wk because I told the system I wanted to lose 2lbs/wk. As soon as I changed it to 1.5lbs, because I have 48 to lose still, the scale moved. Really and honestly, set your goal to 1 or 1.5lbs/wk and eat!! I don't eat all the calories I burn off back, I usually have a 100-200 deficit still. I also pay attention to my sodium intake as I seem to hold onto the water otherwise.
Couple things... as others said, you lost inches therefore, you know the exercise is working. Are you giving it your all? Breaking a serious sweat? If not, up the intensity of your workout, try different things, your body may have adapted to what you were doing and needs challenge. Cardio and weights!!
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i do different kinds of fasts all the time, it works for me!0
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Inch loss is better than weight loss. You body carries fluids and waste products and other substances to maintain function. If you are losing inches you are losing something. Its not about a magical number. I have lost .8lbs in 2 months but I lost 2.5 inches around my waist. As you lose fat you will lose the "space" the fat occupied. Muscle is leaner and takes less space. You could be replace the weight of the fat with weight of muscle. No muscle isnt lighter just less compact thus the inch loss.
Hang in there, body recomposition is a slow process.0 -
Any words of wisdom?
Yeah. Don't do it! You already said you've lost inches. Congrats! Be happy, and keep up the good work. If you're new to this type of strength training it is normal that you're weight loss won't necessarily show up on the scale for awhile. Don't go doing anything crazy or irrational.
Continue to just stay within your calorie goal, and eat your exercise calories back (especially if you told MFP you want to lose 2lbs a week, because your deficit is already built in).
If anything you might not be eating enough. Here is a great tool you can use to see if you are eating the right amount http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/0 -
Thank you to everyone. You are wonderful. Think I will up calorie intake with more veggies for a few weeks, as I'm eating plenty of protein, and see what happens in a couple of weeks. Nice to know you are there!!!!!0
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yes i will agree please give increasing your calories a try... i was sure i had ruined my metabolism on 1200 cal a day for months bc i was stuck at a plateau and soon as i upped my calories i started losing again and im UNDER my goal weight now, the more i increase the more i lose lol! tryin to find that happy number that will allow me to maintain now. there may be an initial gain of like anywhere from 0.5 - 2 pounds but dont let that discourage you! just stick to it and do it slowly0
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Are you getting stronger? If so you may be adding muscle which is a GOOD THING!!! If you are losing inches then the fat is burning away. Muscle is denser than fat, so it weighs more. If you lose a pound of fat, but gain a pound of muscle, you will look MUCH BETTER.
So keep it up, let the mirror and your clothes be your guide, not just the scale.0 -
Increase your overall protein with lean meats, tofu or eggs.0
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dear, muscle weighs more than fat.
lol
Erm, no. :noway:
I'm sure they meant, "Muscle is denser than fat and therefore a volume of muscle will weigh more than an equivalent volume of fat."0 -
Want to thank everyone for their wisdom and words of encouragement. I upped the calories with added veggies and almond milk and finally felt some movement. Appreciate you all!!!0
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What is your TDEE?0
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When you don't eat enough you gain weight, so starving your self will make you get bigger.0
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