Can't beat the 220 lb curse

KBSwinger

The least I would eat is to your BMR anything less than your just asking for trouble long term

simplynaturalfarm

I had an almost 5 week stall which was VERY hard for me as I was absolutely anal about my diet the entire 8 weeks and not seeing that scale move was hard. Thankfully i still stuck to it, because i was simply devoted to healthier eating, but I had lost 10lbs before that relatively quickly and i am no where near my weight loss goal, so to stall was hard for me. It was suggested I up my calories, which I did to 16-1700 (more if I work out more) and two days later I lost 2lbs - yes it seems counter intuitive but I am losing weight weekly now!
My husband is insanely carbohydrate sensitive. He eats low carb for his health and weight just drops off him when he is careful (did I mention it just melts off him immediately and he reaches goal weight in 3 months . . . ). He suggested I try it (tons of protein, fat and good veggies), and I lost no weight for 5 weeks. I decided to up my healthy carbs (adding a bit of rice, quinoa, a healthy fruit etc) and that makes a difference on my personal cravings as well as my weight loss. If he eats grain, rice, breads etc his bp suffers - interestingly enough, his Mom is that way are is his two aunts and his Grandma (really really carb sensitive).
If I eat too much fat (he eats a lot of healthy fat) I get nauseous and may even throw up. SO, each of us has to fiddle with things to get what works for our bodies.

You work out an insane amount compared to me. If i can get my outside chores done (we milk and have lots of animals), i am happy to also get in a good walk or a step routine with light weights. Maybe somebody else can kick in in re. to the exercise - sometimes it helps to cut back (in place of a road map talks about cutting the cardio back to 3 days instead of 5 and losing weight).

stephvt1977

I think I'm going to go 1600 a day for a week or two and see what happens. If nada I will up it again. However, as I said in a previous post I will be losing my gym access at the end of this month so I will have to shift it all again based on whatever new workout plan I can devise and adhere to at home. I think that will be another thread.

Thank you everyone!

haymancm

What has recently worked for me, I've changed my focus from the calorie intake to making sure I get over an hour of a workout yielding more than 1,000 calories burned w/ cardio using my HRM, walk more than 10k steps/day, lowered my sodium from 2500 to 1500 mg, upping my potassium to strive to achieve 4,000 mg min/day, and drinking more than 1/2 my body weight in oz of water.

In the beginning of the day, I start out w/ 1660 cal, but if I stay under my sodium level of 1500, I maybe go up 200 calories of my 1,000+ calories from my workout. Eating more fruits & veggies keeps me from feeling hungry.

wendybird5

1. It's only been a month. Calm down! As long as you are averaging 1-2 pounds lost a week, you are doing good and you are well above that. The weight doesn't come off consistently. Some weeks you lose inches and not pounds and some weeks you get a drop.

2. I agree that 1200 is too low. Plus I looked at your food diary and what you are eating is kind of crap. If you insist on eating that low, you need to make sure you are eating the right foods and getting the proper percentage of fats, carbs and proteins. I did 1200 calories with my trainer using this meal plan:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/wendybird5/view/low-sodium-low-sugar-diet-413023

Otherwise, you need to eat more and opt for something better than an entire cheese pizza. 80% of weight loss is what and how much you eat. Exercising harder wont make up for it and may get you injured instead. That was the mistake I always used to make

stephvt1977

Just to be clear, the "entire cheese pizza" was one day out of 30 and it was not accurate but the closest I could find to what I did it, which were several very small pieces of cheese pizza. Sometimes I prefer to over estimate rather than under especially when it comes to something like pizza. This last week I allowed myself to eat some things I wouldn't eat normally because I felt I earned a bit of a break.

CoderGal

I think I'm going to go 1600 a day for a week or two and see what happens. If nada I will up it again. However, as I said in a previous post I will be losing my gym access at the end of this month so I will have to shift it all again based on whatever new workout plan I can devise and adhere to at home. I think that will be another thread.

Thank you everyone!

Chances are you'll gain weight in a week or 2. On a suppressed metabolism if you feed it food you'll have glycogen come back with a vengeance (noticed how I said glycogen and not fat and muscle). Give it a few weeks at least. There's lots of "upping calories and what to expect" threads wandering around here somewhere. To give you an idea though I would definitely be losing weight on 1600 calories a day, I lose weight on more then that and as you can see by my profile pic and ticker there's not much to me anymore.

stephvt1977

I agree that what I eat is very important and I have eaten less variety than I started out with. I have slacked on the cashews and almonds, avocados and I really don't want to eat animal protein anymore than I have to so I have been struggling with that. I have been increasing the animal protein in an effort to balance it out but it sure is hard for me.

Noted, mix it up and add back some of the foods I have ignored recently + some berries which I love!

Thank you everyone!

stephvt1977

Thank you Coder, I will look up the "upping calories and what to expect" threads. So complicated I need a dietician!

CoderGal

Thank you Coder, I will look up the "upping calories and what to expect" threads. So complicated I need a dietician!

I figured a few things out along the way:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/637094-cinderella-s-weight-loss-knowledge

smw1023

As an undereater that was gaining weight on 800-900 cals a day I say eat more! I have slowly been upping cals over the last few months and continue to lose.
Also, 15 pounds is nothing to sneeze at, I can imagine your body is just leveling off a little, you can't have been stuck long. I have been stuck for a month before and only started losing again by eating more. You have been given lots of good advice allready and even tho I know the thought of eating more is scary, do the numbers and eat what you need instead of picking a random number that you think sounds right. As for how to eat all those cals pick calorie dense stuff like nuts, nut butters, avocado.

CoderGal

1. You lost 15lbs in the beginning of a month. That is concerning, and a ****ton of weight to lose in less then a month.
2. The weight you lost was on a highly restrictive diet. Initially that will get rid of allot glycogen and the like, not much muscle or fat. That's the kind of weight a healthy person wants to keep.
3. Weight loss is not linear, you shouldn't see a consistent drop of continuous weight loss, that would be a concerning health problem.
4. Way to go on the exercise, that is impressive! Keep up the great work. Be careful though, on a highly restrictive diet this can result in getting easily injured when you are not supplying yourself with enough food to repair. You can only get as much energy out of a system as you put into it.
5. You are a 35 year adult and eating less then a child, why?
6. Eating healthy food doesn't necessarily mean health when you're not eating enough. That's why my sister showed no signs of health problems until she started a diet that consisted of mostly vegetables and chicken. Sounds like a good idea right? Well both of your ideas of healthy is concerning. "Healthy food" doesn't consist of a particular thing, it's all the things together as a whole that makes it healthy. Eating the things you consider healthy are mostly low fat. You're not going to be absorbing the nutrients in those nutrient dense 'healthy foods' if you're not eating enough fat, as those nutrients are fat soluble.

Do not rely on trainers to know about nutrition. If someone tells you something, look it up. I know many trainers personally, and I while some are well meaning, I would trust them as far as I could throw a car. In fact doctors know little about nutrition as well, that can be observed just by looking at many of them. I know 2 friends who lost a lot of weight. Both were told to go on highly restrictive diets by their doctors. One did it and he admits the way he went about it was torturous and wasn't very effective compared to the other friend. The other friend cut down calories slightly and gave himself enough fuel to run triathlons. Both of them lost about 100 pounds, guess who looks better now and actually changed their view on how they look at themselves?

Eat more, there are many people who have been stuck in the same situation you are, take it from my friend Taso:

Not necessarily, as starvation mode is a overused/abused terms. But there is a high probability that it will hinder your long term success.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/419136-what-am-i-doing-wrong
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/419393-need-serious-help-please
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/420759-gaining-weight-on-a-low-carb-diet-please-help
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/421412-so-fed-up-there-has-to-be-an-easier-way
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/446248-why-am-i-gaining-weight
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/447513-disillusioned
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/448803-not-loosing-weight-or-inches
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/454374-gaining-with-scrict-diet-and-workouts
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/455392-no-results-at-all-despair
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/457566-why-cant-i-loose-weight-or-inches
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/457037-feeling-disheartened
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/467001-why-1200-c-a-day-and-still-no-weight-loss
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/480698-assistance-please-this-is-getting-ridiculous
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/480186-tiredness
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/487729-the-scale-wont-move
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/493331-i-need-some-straight-up-advice-on-this-dieting
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/503342-mfp-lied-help
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/509836-i-can-t-seem-to-lose-any-weight
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/517635-what-is-wrong-with-me
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/526497-1000cal-day-diet-daily-work-out-not-losing
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/552142-giving-up
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/557832-why-am-i-not-loosing-weight-help-im-doing-everything-i
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/585081-help-working-out-and-eating-1200-calories-no-change
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/589043-sick-of-trying-with-no-results
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/665625-could-someone-look-at-my-logs
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/668039-why-haven-t-i-lost-weight-in-2-weeks
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/680195-helppppp
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/705854-hair-loss
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/713154-900-calories-a-day
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/713967-not-seeing-any-progress
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/721909-1200-every-day-and-no-change-demotivated-completely
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/739340-1200cal-daily-for-3-weeks-and-havent-lost-a-single-pound
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/854231-calorie-problem
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/854236-stuck-fat
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/867360-i-m-scared
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/873449-need-advice
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/890176-not-losing-with-1200-calorie-plan
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/892991-4-weeks-dieting-and-haven-t-lost-1-pound
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/901715-anybody-busting-their-butts-and-seeing-no-results
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/905033-why-am-i-not-losing
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/905493-daily-600-net-calories-no-weight-lost-what-s-wrong
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/922076-plateau-time-again

And a favorite of mine:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/572503-why-you-should-eat-more-a-lion-s-tale