Basically the Same Weight After a Month

phildawson75 · February 2013

To Phildawson75:

you can't eat only eat crap food below your calories and lose weight?? So I can eat only hershey bars for the rest of my life below my calorie count and still lose weight? I don't think so and you will never convince me of that.

You wouldn't be happy but you would lose weight. You can eat nothing but butter as long as you burn more calories than you take in. (But I wouldn't suggest either option.)

Exactly this, you would probably want to take some vitiamin supplements but yeah you could solely live off Hershey bars and as long as the calories of the bars you ate each day added up to less you expended in a a day you would be losing.

Food good or bad has calories, you could put on weight just eating healthy and never touched anything "bad". You have to see its just fuel for your body.

Wed 02/06/13 03:21 PM

QUOTE:

(possible starvation mode?). I have a problem with "white" carbs.

nothing to do with starvation mode, this is probably the worst spread myth on MFP caused by lots of misguided people reading and regurgitating the same bullsh.it.

Just found this for you Irysh

[..copy and pasted text..]

Im not disagreeing with that text, its very valid, the body will protect itself if you enter a period of consistently eating a very, very low number of calories. It's smart like that and does its best to keep you alive. People misuse the term completely.

So how is that applicable to the OPs situation? It's not.

tdr7336 · February 2013

I've had plateaus before that have lasted as long as 2 months. I find its very difficult for me to lose with just the calorie reduction. Your walking is good, but are you really walking fast, pumping your arms? Trying to speed up your walking would be one way to get off the plateau. Do you have access to a gym? If so, try the eliptical, it won't hurt your joints and you can burn 600 calories easily in 30 mins. Resistance training (weight lifting) will also boost your metabolism. If you want to get off the plateau you need to do something different - exercise is usually the answer. Good luck!

nomeejerome · February 2013

Bump

mizzie1980 · February 2013

1220 calories does seem low. I weigh about 166 and I eat between 1200 and 1600 daily (I burn about 400 calories when I work out, so that's why the 1600). Given that you are 60 pounds higher than me right now, it follows that you need more fuel for your body. Yes, it CAN be a plateau this early, if you aren't eating enough.

Try setting MFP to 1.5 pounds a week and eat at that rate for a few weeks. See what happens.

minijag06 · February 2013

Hi. I'm sure other people touched on this but I didn't want to read 3 pages of posts! My personal experience: I started my diet/exercise plan on January 1st. I lost 5 right away. None the next week. I started a log book of what I am eating and times I exercise, my attitude, etc. I started making weekly changes and I've lost 15 lbs now. One thing I noticed is with all the salad and veggies - I was constipated. I drink a glass of metamucil every morning. It works! You can drink 3 glasses a day, if you need to. I also drink a lot of water. Sassy water is my favorite. One other thing - I read that your body works best at certain times of the day. So find out when exercise works to burn more calories. I was working out an hour before bed. Not good for me. Now I work out in the morning and I'm more energetic and am losing inches everywhere!

bball6565 · February 2013

I think you should look at this as a life style change and not a diet. If what you are doing isn't working tweak it one way or another and see if you have results from it. Don't get to worked up about what the scale says and go on how you feel. Over time it will work out for you! Keep it up and welcome the new life style change. One day you will reach your goal. It took a long time to get where you are now and your not happy. So, it's not going to hurt you to have a healthy lifestyle and see where that may lead you. That's what I'm trying to do anyway. I am looking at exercise as something fun to do now and before you wouldn't have ever heard those words come out of my mouth. Good luck!!

crazycleo · February 2013

I would encourage you to stick with it, if you lost a lot at the beginning, you're bound to plateau eventually. Drink at least 8 cups of water every day, i find that if I space it out over the course of the day its really easy. If you eat a lot of salty food, I would encourage you to drink even more than that. I don't know if you drink "diet" soft drinks but you should cut them out if you do, studies show that aspartame can actually make you heavier. Basically, only drink water.
Keep up the amount of exercises that you are doing but you should try to challenge your body a bit more because if it can do something easily, it will burn less calories doing so. Mix up your workout, do cardio one day on, one day off and strength training on non-cardio days. Also, when you're walking, make sure that your heart rate is up and you're sweating or you're not really accomplishing much and should switch to something more intensive.
Also, don't weigh yourself too often, once a week is plenty because within a day you can go up and down a couple pounds depending on what you eat.
Try to stay positive, no one ever said that this was easy, but it will be worth it in the end!

gypsyrose64 · February 2013

Didn't have time to scan through all the replies, so I'll just slap this out there.

I joined in Oct.2012 at 240 and lost 18 lbs in first 2 wks doing the 1200/day suggestion everyone gets. I then bounced around, going nowhere until end of year. At which point I read this http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12 and revised my thinking.

I slowly (about 100 cals at a time) increased my daily intake to where I am now (1600/day) and I lost 7 lbs in January. I usually eat back some of my exercise calories.

Other suggestions:

Calculate your BMR and TDEE and don't make a habit of eating below your BMR.
http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Full-Body-Analysis&Group=Fitness-Calculators

Be careful to not underestimate calories eaten. Digital scales and weigh everything.

information read:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833500-what-do-i-do-common-sense-cliff-notes
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Get bloodwork done at the beginning, so you have a baseline and know if your thyroid is slow. Mine was borderline.
** ask doc to test you for Vit-D deficiency. Many overweight people are low in this and it can cause fatigue among other stuff.
(I found it interesting that the minute I got my Vit-D levels up, the weight started coming off again)

Eat more potassium rich foods.
a good read: http://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/nutrition-101/more-potassium-please-00400000001125/

Be patient.... I'm losing 1.5 lbs/week and think that's acceptable. Some people take a few weeks for their body to catch on to the changes you're making.

lambeas · February 2013

The frustration you are experiencing is the EXACT reason why the gyms are packed from Jan- mid Feb, then half empty the rest of the year. People tend to give up if they feel like they are stalling or are not seeing the numbers move on the scale move fast enough.

Trust me... it takes time! Slow and steady wins the race.. it is annoying as all hell that there is not a "thin" button - but keep doing what you are doing, because it IS working and you are doing AWESOME.

I might suggest adding 10 minutes onto every workout... a little extra will mix your body up and challenge it a bit more!

As for calorie intake, keep it simple. Stick to your daily allowance - but if you find yourself hungry after you get there, drink some water and eat fresh fruit, veggies or meat NOTHING PROCESSED. If you are not hungry after you hit your daily allowance then leave it. Don't make it complicated.

MinnieInMaine · February 2013

The exrecises you are doing now are worthless. You need high intensity interval training HIIT, pick up programs like, 30 day shred, insanity, les mills combat, work hard, eat healthy and you will see results.

I am doing 3 workouts atm, 2 in the morning (50 min) and 1 at night (30-60 min)

Come on...don't be a fitness snob. There's nothing wrong with just walking, it's great exercise! Plus, you really need to go back and read her original post. She said she's doing what she can right now but is in pain when she does certain things. Trying to do jumping jacks and all that's included with higher intensity workouts isn't feasible for her right now.

OP, I think you just need to be patient and maybe up your calories a bit. And it is possible to have a plateau this early. I had one my 2nd and 3rd week after starting Weight Watchers 3 years ago (at 260 pounds) because I started exercising. When you increase your activity or increase the intensity of your activity, you're sore and when this happens, your muscles are retaining water as part of the healing process. You will see weight fluctuations for other reasons related to activity and eating as wel. If you're not tracking your sodium currently, add that to your diary because a day or two of high sodium will definitely stall your weight loss, especially since you're not great about drinking enough water.

Averaging your weight loss over weeks is a great way to get perspective. So for you, that's 15 pounds (I don't care, I'm counting your lowest seen) over 6 weeks which is an average of 2.5 pounds. Even if we use your 10 pounds, that's 1.67 pounds per week which is still pretty damn fantastic!

Don't be so hard on yourself. Just keep doing the right thing and making those small changes and finding exercises that you enjoy. And be patient!

soccerella · February 2013

Probably going to echo what other people are saying here but

1) sounds like your calories may actually be too low - what are your stats for height and age and such. I know my TDEE is over 1700 and i need to eat about 1450 calories a day for my program

2) It would be beneficial to open your food diary so we can see what it looks like. I thought I was doing well because I was below my calories every single day and had low fat, but I was being horrible with processed foods and going way over on things like sodium and sugar, plus not enough protein

3) Make sure you are tracking EVERYTHING. Each tiny little piece that passed your lips. No guessing and picking something that looks equivilent from the food list. Get a scale if you dont have one already (they are cheap) and weight your portions out. You may be suprised at how little/ how much some items actually are

4) dont weigh yourself every day and try not to focus on it too much - you could be stressing yourself out and having a negative impact on your body

5) try to mix it up with slightly different exercises too. Weight training does wonders for weight loss. Get some hand weights and do bicep curls or lunges while you are watching tv.

It sounds like you have made some great changes so far and I hope you keep it up and figure out something that works for you!

IryshWhiskey · February 2013

The exrecises you are doing now are worthless. You need high intensity interval training HIIT, pick up programs like, 30 day shred, insanity, les mills combat, work hard, eat healthy and you will see results.

I am doing 3 workouts atm, 2 in the morning (50 min) and 1 at night (30-60 min)

If you enjoy killing yourself...Irysh...my friend is doing something like this (P90X). YES, she is seeing results, but she HATES doing it, loves the results, but hates it. I would rather see you change your routine a bit, (maybe lifting some weights) but ENJOY your exercise. I know I have to enjoy my exercise or I would never stick to it....I have been for 5 weeks because it is not making me dread it. If you would like to ramp it up, GO FOR IT! But your results will come, without doing Insanity.

I agree. I did Insanity for a week or two and it just hurt! Guys don't get that women bounce in all kinds of places, and it's even worse now that I am carrying this extra weight. That is why I wanted to start slow - but I have no intention of staying slow. As someone said: The tortoise wins the race.

When I was in my early 20s I NEEDED to lose weight NOW, but as I approach 30, I'd rather take it easy and not kill myself. (I also work a full-time job with a 2 hour commute and have to cook dinner and do homework when I get home... who has time for 3 workouts a day?!)

I can't express in words how much I appreciate everyone's advice. It has completely changed my perspective on this whole process. I raised my calories to 1600 for now, and will start walking faster and add low-impact cardio to my days as well. Plus lots and lots of water!! =D I also gave my scale a sneer this morning on the way out the door. It's on a time-out for a bit.

soccerella · February 2013

The exrecises you are doing now are worthless. You need high intensity interval training HIIT, pick up programs like, 30 day shred, insanity, les mills combat, work hard, eat healthy and you will see results.

I am doing 3 workouts atm, 2 in the morning (50 min) and 1 at night (30-60 min)

If you enjoy killing yourself...Irysh...my friend is doing something like this (P90X). YES, she is seeing results, but she HATES doing it, loves the results, but hates it. I would rather see you change your routine a bit, (maybe lifting some weights) but ENJOY your exercise. I know I have to enjoy my exercise or I would never stick to it....I have been for 5 weeks because it is not making me dread it. If you would like to ramp it up, GO FOR IT! But your results will come, without doing Insanity.

I agree. I did Insanity for a week or two and it just hurt! Guys don't get that women bounce in all kinds of places, and it's even worse now that I am carrying this extra weight. That is why I wanted to start slow - but I have no intention of staying slow. As someone said: The tortoise wins the race.

When I was in my early 20s I NEEDED to lose weight NOW, but as I approach 30, I'd rather take it easy and not kill myself. (I also work a full-time job with a 2 hour commute and have to cook dinner and do homework when I get home... who has time for 3 workouts a day?!)

I just finished my first week of insanity and while it was hard, everyone tells me that it gets easier after the 2 week or so. Its very high impact though and I find I have to wear and extra sports bra haha

Im like you that I have an 8-5 job and its an hour each way to work. I wish we had a gym at work but nope! That kinda the good thing about insanity though, its done in 45 minutes after I get home at least