Help/Advice with Weight Loss Stall?
Options
barbaratrollman
Posts: 317 Member
Hi!
I've been reading so much, trying to sort out if I'm doing things correctly. Frankly, it's been pretty head-spinning.
I posted in the thread, "Setting your Calorie and Macros Targets" and was asked to begin a new thread with some specific intake questions answered. So here it is:
Thank you very much for any help you can provide!
Barbara
Provide your stats (height/weight/age/bodyfat% if you know it/etc)
Height: 5’5” or 65 inches
Weight: 158 pounds
Age: 55
Bodyfat:
Not sure, because all the calculators show different amounts.
Covert Bailey: 28 % (I’m very sure that is wrong!)
Military Body Fat Calculator: 35.3 percent. (I think that may be high, but I don’t know.)
I have a scale that measures body fat (supposedly) and it says between 32 and 33 percent. I do this with no clothing on. If I use the same scale and put my clothes back on, it reports 56 %, so I’m guessing that the clothing skews the results.
The body fat calculating gizmo at the gym says 56 %, but then when I’m holding it, I have all my clothing and shoes on.
What's your current gross intake of calories, on average?
It varies. On workout days, It can be closer to 2,000, depending on how many calories I need to eat back to be closer to the MFP net calorie goal. On non workout days, it is closer to 1,400 currently, because I upped my net calories goal, in March, from 1,200. Today I was going to try lowering it to 1,200 again, because I just think I’m still not doing something right.
What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams? (GRAMS, not percent!)
Ummm! I’ve been experimenting with this, as I keep reading conflicted opinions in the MFP threads. I was working toward
35 to 40 % protein, 30 to 35 % good fats, and 25 to 30 % fruit/veggie carbs. So, in grams, that would be something like. 139 grams of protein, 46 g of fat, and 104 g of carbs, if the MFP “Your Fitness Goals” is accurate.
Do you use a food scale and measure everything?
Yes!
Do you track your entire intake, daily? (Everything?)
Yes! Except the straight decaf, green tea I drink sometimes. No calories.
Do you take cheat days or days off?
Not as a planned thing. I do let myself relax some days, maybe once a week, especially if there is a social event, so I may go over the goal sometimes, but even if I do, it is generally still the healthy foods I prefer to eat anyway. With the exception of once or twice a month, I have had small amounts of alcohol…like 3 Woodchuck “Crisp” ciders, 120 cal each, 6 grams sugar, for example. I have mostly stayed away from alcohol, since I feel it compromises my efforts to be the healthiest me I can be.
How much weight have you lost so far and over what time period?
I began at 185 pounds. I lost 24 pounds from Jan. 4th 2013 to around Feb. 23rd. I have only lost 3 pounds since. Total of 27 pounds.
Describe your activity (exercise and non exercise) and did you change that activity within the last couple of months?
I train with a trainer, when possible, since Jan. 5th, so he mixes it up a lot…between resistance training and yoga stretching.
On my own, I lift 3 to 4 days per week and do at least an hour of good cardio, treadmill running, intensive hooping, spin class, 5 to 6 days per week. That hasn’t changed since I began, except that I can lift more and I have to do more movement to get into my cardio workout zone than I did when I began. I use a Polar FT7 to watch my heart rate during workouts.
How long have you been stalled and if it is not a complete stall please be very specific as to how much you have lost over the stalled period.
I hit a plateau of 161 pounds that lasted from Feb. 23rd until March 22nd, when I jumped down to 158. Now I’ve been at 158 since March 22nd with no change in measurements or weight. So, I’m discouraged that I’ve only lost 3 pounds and almost no change in inches since Feb. 23rd, even though I continue to work hard at it and have tried adding more protein and upping my net calorie intake somewhat.
Are you breastfeeding?
No.
Do you have thyroid issues/risks or PCOS?
No.
Also, please ensure that you have your diary open.
I have had it open for some time now. Let me know if you have problems seeing it.
I've been reading so much, trying to sort out if I'm doing things correctly. Frankly, it's been pretty head-spinning.
I posted in the thread, "Setting your Calorie and Macros Targets" and was asked to begin a new thread with some specific intake questions answered. So here it is:
Thank you very much for any help you can provide!
Barbara
Provide your stats (height/weight/age/bodyfat% if you know it/etc)
Height: 5’5” or 65 inches
Weight: 158 pounds
Age: 55
Bodyfat:
Not sure, because all the calculators show different amounts.
Covert Bailey: 28 % (I’m very sure that is wrong!)
Military Body Fat Calculator: 35.3 percent. (I think that may be high, but I don’t know.)
I have a scale that measures body fat (supposedly) and it says between 32 and 33 percent. I do this with no clothing on. If I use the same scale and put my clothes back on, it reports 56 %, so I’m guessing that the clothing skews the results.
The body fat calculating gizmo at the gym says 56 %, but then when I’m holding it, I have all my clothing and shoes on.
What's your current gross intake of calories, on average?
It varies. On workout days, It can be closer to 2,000, depending on how many calories I need to eat back to be closer to the MFP net calorie goal. On non workout days, it is closer to 1,400 currently, because I upped my net calories goal, in March, from 1,200. Today I was going to try lowering it to 1,200 again, because I just think I’m still not doing something right.
What's your current average intake of protein, carbs, and fats, in grams? (GRAMS, not percent!)
Ummm! I’ve been experimenting with this, as I keep reading conflicted opinions in the MFP threads. I was working toward
35 to 40 % protein, 30 to 35 % good fats, and 25 to 30 % fruit/veggie carbs. So, in grams, that would be something like. 139 grams of protein, 46 g of fat, and 104 g of carbs, if the MFP “Your Fitness Goals” is accurate.
Do you use a food scale and measure everything?
Yes!
Do you track your entire intake, daily? (Everything?)
Yes! Except the straight decaf, green tea I drink sometimes. No calories.
Do you take cheat days or days off?
Not as a planned thing. I do let myself relax some days, maybe once a week, especially if there is a social event, so I may go over the goal sometimes, but even if I do, it is generally still the healthy foods I prefer to eat anyway. With the exception of once or twice a month, I have had small amounts of alcohol…like 3 Woodchuck “Crisp” ciders, 120 cal each, 6 grams sugar, for example. I have mostly stayed away from alcohol, since I feel it compromises my efforts to be the healthiest me I can be.
How much weight have you lost so far and over what time period?
I began at 185 pounds. I lost 24 pounds from Jan. 4th 2013 to around Feb. 23rd. I have only lost 3 pounds since. Total of 27 pounds.
Describe your activity (exercise and non exercise) and did you change that activity within the last couple of months?
I train with a trainer, when possible, since Jan. 5th, so he mixes it up a lot…between resistance training and yoga stretching.
On my own, I lift 3 to 4 days per week and do at least an hour of good cardio, treadmill running, intensive hooping, spin class, 5 to 6 days per week. That hasn’t changed since I began, except that I can lift more and I have to do more movement to get into my cardio workout zone than I did when I began. I use a Polar FT7 to watch my heart rate during workouts.
How long have you been stalled and if it is not a complete stall please be very specific as to how much you have lost over the stalled period.
I hit a plateau of 161 pounds that lasted from Feb. 23rd until March 22nd, when I jumped down to 158. Now I’ve been at 158 since March 22nd with no change in measurements or weight. So, I’m discouraged that I’ve only lost 3 pounds and almost no change in inches since Feb. 23rd, even though I continue to work hard at it and have tried adding more protein and upping my net calorie intake somewhat.
Are you breastfeeding?
No.
Do you have thyroid issues/risks or PCOS?
No.
Also, please ensure that you have your diary open.
I have had it open for some time now. Let me know if you have problems seeing it.
0
Replies
-
This was my original post from the "Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets" topic:
Hi!
I'm most grateful for this thread. Thank you!
I'm hoping that some of the more knowledgeable of you wouldn't mind looking at my diary and giving me a constructive critique. I'd welcome varying opinions as well. I am trying to eat what I enjoy and what makes me feel good, but still unsure of how to stay within some sort of macros guidelines and just how accurate I need to be with that.
I think I want to keep my protein levels higher, because I am exercising pretty heavily. Also, over the years, I've figured out that grain based carbs are not my friend. They cause me to have cravings and I seem to gain more when I regularly eat bread, pastas, etc...
I do eat a lot of fruit and veggies, which have always seemed to satisfy.
Most the fats I eat are from very healthy sources, salmon, tuna, raw, sprouted nuts and seeds, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, avocados, raw cacao, eggs, etc...
I tend to prefer foods that are considered healthy anyway. I don't really have issues with "junk food" cravings, so I'm lucky there.
I'm trying to lift heavy at least 3 to 4 days per week and I generally get in a very good, intensive cardio workout 5 to 6 days per week. My job is sometimes physically active, sometimes mostly driving. I have to travel a lot to get to job sites, so I'm sitting during travel time, obviously. Once on site the level of physical activity can vary so much, from unpacking and installing furniture and technology, Smart Boards, computers, etc...to simply sitting and training on the technology. It gets very complicated trying to calculate anything based on my daily activities, so I've just used the setting, "Light" and then try to log all my exercise calories burned accurately.
A couple of things have been fairly discouraging to me. I lost most of the weight I've lost, between Jan. 4th of this year and the end of Feb. Then, in March, I hit a plateau that wouldn't budge. I read so many MFP threads that stated that 1,200 calories as a goal, was not going to be enough and I began to feel that maybe I'd put my body in starvation mode. So I worked hard, in March, to vary up my calorie intake and get more calories. I did lose 3 more pounds toward the end of March, but have been in a plateau again for the last couple of weeks. Now I'm feeling like I may have upped my calories too high or I'm not adding in the correct calories burned in exercise. (See my comments below.)
I did some research and found out that the MFP default protein goal is likely too low for the amount of heavy lifting and other exercise I've been doing, so I researched some more and found a couple of protein supplements that are in keeping with my love for clean and organic foods...Garden of Life's "Raw Protein" and "Tera'swhey Grass-Fed, Organic Protein", which has really helped me to get my protein levels up. However, I still have been unable to lose any weight or inches for 2 or 3 weeks.
Another discouraging thing I have just stumbled across here is reports that the model of HRM I have, the Polar FT7, gives grossly inaccurate readings for calories burned in a woman's workouts. I'm pretty bummed about that. That would mean that all this time, I've been actually netting much higher amounts of calories than I thought.
The formulas for coming up with a more accurate reading are pretty complicated and my head was spinning a bit from trying to read them, so I'm just figured I'd go with one poster's suggestion of simply subtracting 10% of whatever the heart monitor states I burned.
Thank you for reading this and for any advise you can give!
Oh, and I'm 55-years old, 158 pounds, 5.5 tall. I have no health conditions and tend toward being pretty high energy and healthy.0 -
...and yet another thing that has me frustrated. I've been recording when I'm doing resistance training too. But, I've been entering it under "Cardiovascular" workouts, rather than under "Strength Training", because I wasn't sure how to enter the exercises.
So, today, I read from several posters here, that we should not be recording calories burned while lifting, under cardio. That lifting weights does not burn calories.
So, tonight, after returning from the gym, I attempted to enter my time/reps/weight (Whatever needed) on the weight machines.
It seems strange to me that none of that exercise is burning calories. I'm working and breathing hard and lifting as much as I can for between 40 min. to 55 min. How can that not be burning any calories?0 -
Either myself or SideSteel will get back to you shortly.0
-
Bodyfat:
Not sure, because all the calculators show different amounts.
Covert Bailey: 28 % (I’m very sure that is wrong!)
Military Body Fat Calculator: 35.3 percent. (I think that may be high, but I don’t know.)
I have a scale that measures body fat (supposedly) and it says between 32 and 33 percent. I do this with no clothing on. If I use the same scale and put my clothes back on, it reports 56 %, so I’m guessing that the clothing skews the results.
The body fat calculating gizmo at the gym says 56 %, but then when I’m holding it, I have all my clothing and shoes on.
ROFL! I mean it reports 36 %, NOT 56 %, when I have my clothes on. Without my clothes, my scale at home reports my BF is around 32.4 %.0 -
Apologies for the delay, this got 'lost' in the plethora of recent new threads. We will respond soon.0
-
No problem.
I could see that you'd been busy and also that you had hurt yourself.
I've been working a lot lately myself, so haven't been able to exercise as much. Only been every other day for the last few days.
I'm off to get some sleep now. Going to spin class in the a.m. and I haven't had enough sleep the last couple of days.
I hope your shoulder is on the mend.0 -
Thank you re my shoulder - much much better now which is a relief. It's really hard to doing much lifting that does not impact your shoulder.
Will respond a little later today.0 -
Great! Thank you! 0
-
A couple of things have been fairly discouraging to me. I lost most of the weight I've lost, between Jan. 4th of this year and the end of Feb. Then, in March, I hit a plateau that wouldn't budge. I read so many MFP threads that stated that 1,200 calories as a goal, was not going to be enough and I began to feel that maybe I'd put my body in starvation mode. So I worked hard, in March, to vary up my calorie intake and get more calories. I did lose 3 more pounds toward the end of March, but have been in a plateau again for the last couple of weeks. Now I'm feeling like I may have upped my calories too high or I'm not adding in the correct calories burned in exercise. (See my comments below.)
The term starvation mode is thrown around seemingly willy nilly here and usually completely incorrectly. You will not have entered any form of 'starvation mode' (usually used to mean that you have a significantly suppressed metabolism over and above that which you get from dieting at a reasonable caloric deficit).0 -
...and yet another thing that has me frustrated. I've been recording when I'm doing resistance training too. But, I've been entering it under "Cardiovascular" workouts, rather than under "Strength Training", because I wasn't sure how to enter the exercises.
So, today, I read from several posters here, that we should not be recording calories burned while lifting, under cardio. That lifting weights does not burn calories.
So, tonight, after returning from the gym, I attempted to enter my time/reps/weight (Whatever needed) on the weight machines.
It seems strange to me that none of that exercise is burning calories. I'm working and breathing hard and lifting as much as I can for between 40 min. to 55 min. How can that not be burning any calories?
You burn calories lifting - I have no idea why they would have said that as it's incorrect.
HRMs are in no way accurate however.0 -
Do you weight yourself weekly? If so, could you give me a weekly breakdown of your losses. Thanks!0
-
I weigh myself every morning. I record any drop, but when it rises again, by a pound or two, I don't record that. Once I've recorded a drop, I leave it dropped in my MFP Records.
For the last couple of days, I was back up to 158, then this morning, I was back down to 156 again.
I am not bummed about the minor fluctuations. I expect that. I was bummed when about a month went by with no loss at all. I just stayed at 161 or went up and back down to 161. I wasn't losing much, if any, in the way of inches either.
Then, on March 23rd, I got on the scale, and it had dropped 2 pounds. Then it went back up again, which I didn't record. Finally, on March 30th, it went down to 158. Then back up and down a few more times, 'til it finally got down to 156. And now I'm back and forth again for a while, I suppose.
Or maybe not. Maybe the adjustments I've made will help keep me on track again.
01-04-13: 185
01-13-13: 179
01-19-13: 177
01-20-13: 176
01-21-13: 174
01-26-13: 173
01-29-13: 172
01-31-13: 170
02-05-13: 168
02-07-13: 167
02-16-13: 166
02-20-13: 165
02-21-13: 164
02-23-13: 162
02-25-13: 161
Plateau for a month
03-23-13: 159
03-30-13: 158
04-13-13: 1560 -
Your weekly numbers show a weekly consistent decrease outside the month that you stalled, which could have been masked by water weight fluctuations. You need to look at the long term trends rather than the day to day fluctuations.
Also, you need to give something at least 4 weeks to see if it is working re weight loss as water weight can cause havoc with the scale and mask 'real' losses.
I would suggest keeping static calories to 1,800 with the following macros:
Protein: 120g
Fats: 56g
The balance where you like based on energy, preference and lifestyle, however, I would try to limit carbs a bit. I am not an advocate of low carb at all, but as we get a little older we *can* become more sensitive to carbs and protein becomes more important. I do not have that issue (well, I don't think I do) but some women do. Don't stress too much if you cannot get to 120g protein, just get as close as you can.0 -
Thank you!
I'm not a fan of low-carb diets, as I've seen a friend get pretty unhealthy while trying to follow one. She wouldn't eat fruits and so many veggies, because the diet she was following stated that those foods were too high in carbs. I think a low-tech way of ensuring the likelihood that I'm getting enough micro-nutrients is to get all the bright colors (natural colors) into my intake and those are going to include carbs. I'm very lucky that my food preferences lean that way anyway, so it's not like I'm having to force food I don't care for down.
In my efforts to ensure I'm getting a pretty balanced amount of the micro nutrients I need, I am eating a healthy amount of veggies and fruits.
I remain very high energy, so I think I am getting enough carbs. I think it is interesting that every time I tell a friend/family member, that I've pretty much eliminated grains from my intake, they start informing me about how bad low-carb diets are for you. Do most people not know that pretty much everything, other than meat/dairy/eggs has carbs in it? Anybody who knows me knows how much veggies/fruits/nuts/seeds I eat. Why is the assumption that with no grains, I must be going low-carb?
Anyway, though I haven't tried to go low-carb. I've simply adjusted my percentages to raise protein and fat somewhat, which of course, results in a bit lower carb intake.
So, if you think I should lower my carb intake a bit more, I can try that. Many days, I am staying fairly close to the percentages I set up in MFP, which don't allow for what I was trying for. I was trying for something in between the 35% and 40% levels for protein, but could only do one or the other, so I set it to 40% and if I don't meet that, oh well. That's just fine.
I have been trying to get at least the 30% I set in fat and if I exceed that, I am fine with that too. Really, I'm going to just use the macros as I guideline and not get too awfully stressed about it if I can't match those percentages exactly.
When you look at my diary, do you see anything amiss? Do you think I should be being more careful to stay closer to particular levels of macros.
I became aware that low-fat diets were bad BAD years ago, back when I began to read reports about partially hydrogenated oils, like "I Can Completely Believe it's Not Butter" and such...I think the late 80s or early 90s was when I started getting a clue about why anytime I tried to cut fat in my diet, I failed.
Also, around that time, I noticed that anything labeled "Fat Free" almost *always* included corn syrup. Seems like the manufacturers came to the conclusion that if folks wanted fat free dressing, etc...they needed the fat to be replaced with something. I hate sweet dressings, so I have avoided fat free products completely.
I try to eat a lot of avocados and on the days I do eat one, it brings my fat % up to more like what you are suggesting. It is sometimes difficult to ensure I have ripe ones. I live rurally, so it isn't convenient to shop for produce each day. I will usually have to buy 5 or 6 at a time and avocados being what they are, I sometimes can't eat them before they over ripen. I HATE throwing out foods that cost so much money!
I've been adding avocado oil to veggies I cook too...to keep that nice fatty mouth feel. I think I'll go back to eating a tbsp of coconut oil each day.
I'll work on increasing the nuts/seeds I eat also, to raise my fat intake a bit.
Thanks for your replies and advice. You and SideSteel seem to have the most sensible responses to folks' questions and pleas for help in these threads. I appreciate any guidance and support you may give.
Sometimes it's just helpful to have somebody you feel knows what they are doing, lend some moral support and mentoring. I see that you guys dedicate a lot of your own, personal time to helping others here. I can see that so many members have gained from your experience.0 -
Hi!
I am not a fan of low carb diets at all - for a bunch of reasons, including the one's you gave. However, I consider anything over 100g to be moderate carbs and should allow for a bunch of fruits and veggies. When I am on my lowest calories while cutting (lowest I think was 1,600) I can hit very similar macros to those I gave, and I am a vegetarian who eats lots of fruits and veggies and most of my food sources have carbs in them. When you hit the macros, then carbs self govern themselves. If you do not quite get there...no biggie, just aim for those targets, Fats are really good for hormone balance as well as satiation - and they are tasty.
Eggs are also a good source of fats that also has protein but is low in carbs.0 -
I would suggest keeping static calories to 1,800 with the following macros:
Protein: 120g
Fats: 56g
The balance where you like based on energy, preference and lifestyle, however, I would try to limit carbs a bit. I am not an advocate of low carb at all, but as we get a little older we *can* become more sensitive to carbs and protein becomes more important. I do not have that issue (well, I don't think I do) but some women do. Don't stress too much if you cannot get to 120g protein, just get as close as you can.
By "static calories" do you mean what folks here are calling maintenance calories...or what I would burn in a normal day with no workouts?
That has been one of the things that I'm unsure about...how much I may burn without workouts. The calculators return with results varying from 1,500 and change per day to 1,900 and change per day. I wish I knew more accurately what I burn on a day where I mostly sat and drove or worked on the computer, and on other days when I'm walking from parking lots into schools, shopping, gardening, etc...more active.
MFP has set my maintenance calories at 1,630 per day, which I've no idea if that is anything like accurate. I sure would prefer that it was closer to 1,800 per day.
0 -
OK...I got into MFP goal settings and adjusted the macros there to 30 carbs/35 protein/35 fats, which equates to 104g carbs/122g protein/54g fats ...Pretty close to what you advised. I'll work toward being close to that each day and let you know how it goes. 0
-
I would suggest keeping static calories to 1,800 with the following macros:
Protein: 120g
Fats: 56g
The balance where you like based on energy, preference and lifestyle, however, I would try to limit carbs a bit. I am not an advocate of low carb at all, but as we get a little older we *can* become more sensitive to carbs and protein becomes more important. I do not have that issue (well, I don't think I do) but some women do. Don't stress too much if you cannot get to 120g protein, just get as close as you can.
By "static calories" do you mean what folks here are calling maintenance calories...or what I would burn in a normal day with no workouts?
That has been one of the things that I'm unsure about...how much I may burn without workouts. The calculators return with results varying from 1,500 and change per day to 1,900 and change per day. I wish I knew more accurately what I burn on a day where I mostly sat and drove or worked on the computer, and on other days when I'm walking from parking lots into schools, shopping, gardening, etc...more active.
MFP has set my maintenance calories at 1,630 per day, which I've no idea if that is anything like accurate. I sure would prefer that it was closer to 1,800 per day.
Hi!
No, sorry for any confusion - I mean eat to that number every day - no 'eating back of exercise calories'.0 -
OK...I got into MFP goal settings and adjusted the macros there to 30 carbs/35 protein/35 fats, which equates to 104g carbs/122g protein/54g fats ...Pretty close to what you advised. I'll work toward being close to that each day and let you know how it goes.
Great - keep us updated and feel free to post any additional questions.0 -
Locking so we can keep track of active threads easier. Please feel free to PM either myself or SideSteel, and include a link to this thread. and we will unlock should you wish to add anything to it. We would love to hear how you are getting on.0
This discussion has been closed.