Petrified of eating more...

lozzieemayjenkins

I've lost 31lbs in the last 11 weeks.. I've followed my own plan that fit in with my lifestyle which consisted of eating very low calories for six days of the week with one high calorie day where I could eat treat foods such as pizza or mcdonalds etc..

My low calorie days would be from anything between 800-1200 calories, and the high calorie day would be between 2000-3000. I basically used MFP to ensure that each week I was averaging out to 1315 calories daily.

It's been working well & I've felt good and obviously much better for losing just over two stone, but now things have come to a very harsh halt.. As I kinda expected they would.

I've stayed at 13st 9lbs the last fortnight, my body fat percentage has stayed the same & I haven't lost any inches in this two week period neither. It is not my time of the month, and the only change I've made is I've started back at the gym this week & now workout for 60 minutes daily combining weight training and cardio..

So I'm aware I could be retaining water due to the sudden shift in activity, but I don't think it is this.. I think it's more a case of my body adjusting to such a low calorie intake that everything's slowed down.

Also I feel pretty flabby.. even after losing 31lbs I'm still very soft and flabby and am not seeing fat loss anywhere. In total I've only lost an inch from my bust and two inches from my waist - but all other measurements have remained the same..

And my body fat percentage was 40.8% mid January and is now only 38.8%

Should I increase my calories to a steady higher number and ditch the cheat day?

I feel like I'm working too hard to be seeing such slow results.

Confuzzled4ever

You're working out.. you body needs more fuel for it's workout. You're scaring your body into holding onto fat, becuase it's not getting enough fuel.

I struggle terribly with eating more.. My goal is between 1400-1600 daily depedning if I work out or not. i still miss it a lot. But each day is a step closer right? I probably need to eat more then that.. but unless I go out to dinner or eat junk, i struggle to even eat this much.

Just do baby steps.. bump it up a hundred calories, then another hundred until you are where you need to be.

Francl27

Incorporate what you'd eat during your cheat day on the other days, so you consistently eat 1350. Then eat back your exercise calories (I don't know if you have a heat rate monitor or not, but in 60 minutes you can probably add 200 calories a day easily).

SteelySunshine

Same here. Well actually it's a combo of that and not being hungry or sometimes being hungry and not wanting to go to the bother of eating. This has never happened in my whole life. If I didn't have so much to lose I might worry about that. I am not convinced fear is a bad thing. So, what I do is try to eat on schedule even if I don't particularly want to. I try to make sure my calories count; no junk food, less processed, no added sugar etc... So even if it isn't quite enough calorie wise that I am getting other nutritional needs met. I haven't been at this long enough to know if it's even a problem. I will know more Monday after I talk to my doctor.