53 and treading water

Buddogmom
Buddogmom Posts: 15
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a 53 year old woman who joined MFP 2 months ago. I eat no meat, lots of fruits, vegetables, fish and whole grains, a little non-fat dairy, and the only sweets I ever eat is a 6-oz indiv serving of slow-churned low-fat ice cream each night. Other than the occasional diet coke (I swear I have an addiction), all I drink is water, ice tea or coffee, except for a glass or two of red wine 2-3 nights/week. Once or twice on the weekend I "splurge" on a serving of fat free pretzels, but no snack food otherwise. I stay between 1,200 calories or less on the days I don't exercise, and under 1,500 on the days I do. I usually do the 4-mile, 58-minute Leslie Sansone Walk Away The Pounds workout 3-4 days/week, and use the exercise bike or treadmill for 20-30 minutes another 1-2 days. I lost 7.5 pounds the first 5-6 weeks, but for the last 3 I've not lost so much as an ounce (literally - I have a scale that gives ounces!). I'm just under 5'7" and 213 lbs. Goal is 60 lbs less then that. Any ideas about why nothing is happening last 3 weeks?

Replies

  • Angie_1991
    Angie_1991 Posts: 447 Member
    Did you do measurements? How do your clothes fit? Better? The same?
  • itsuki
    itsuki Posts: 520 Member
    Open up your diary. It'll help.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Read this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • larnsperger
    larnsperger Posts: 161 Member
    I'm also 53 and it can be a slooooowwww journey. It is however doable. Without seeing your diary I will refrain from commenting. I personally cannot drink alcohol or eat ice cream (with any regularity) and lose consistently. Everyone is DIFFERENT. If you are tracking your food and logging everything, maybe try keeping the wine and ice cream to one special day per week until you get a better handle on things. I also drink a TON of water. Good luck!
  • Angie_1991
    Angie_1991 Posts: 447 Member
    I'm also 53 and it can be a slooooowwww journey. It is however doable. Without seeing your diary I will refrain from commenting. I personally cannot drink alcohol or eat ice cream (with any regularity) and lose consistently. Everyone is DIFFERENT. If you are tracking your food and logging everything, maybe try keeping the wine and ice cream to one special day per week until you get a better handle on things. I also drink a TON of water. Good luck!

    No way are you 53.
  • Buddogmom
    Buddogmom Posts: 15
    Just opened up diary.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    Do you weigh and measure food? Most of us are really really bad at eye balling portions. Ice cream cartons usually give a calorie count for a 1/2 cup! I can get almost that much on a spoon! I was shocked to find out what I thought was a portion of pasta was actually 3. It's really important to know for sure exactly what you're eating. And the things you put on bread, into coffee or tea, on veggies or salad count too.

    If you're eating exercise calories back you might want to back off on those a bit. Depending what you're using to measure those calories it could be over estimating. I find MFP a bit high and all exercise machines lie.
  • hughtwalker
    hughtwalker Posts: 2,213 Member
    It goes in spurts - are you exercising more than you used to? That builds up weight too.

    You know those squishy bits that used to feel so solid you thought they couldn't be adipose fat at all? - well, the squishiness is lots of water, reserving the space until you feed back the calories it's missing. (also handy for stopping you tripping over yards of loose skin)

    As you exercise and your body eventually gets the hang of the idea that you aren't going to bring on the calories like you used to, the skin tightens and the water swishes down the loo and suddenly the scales don't hate you after all.
  • deb3129
    deb3129 Posts: 1,294 Member
    I lookeda t your diary back to the middle of October, and there are quite a few days you are over on calories, one that is over 1000 beyond your goal. That may be part of it.
  • sherrirb
    sherrirb Posts: 1,649 Member
    You may not eat red meat but you definitely eat meat; but the good kind, fish and chicken. My only suggestion is that you add Sodium to the nutrients that you track. Sodium is the bane of my existance and most often the culprit when I'm not losing. It causes you to retain water which equals weight.

    Many foods that you would not suspect are quite high in sodium.
  • kat759
    kat759 Posts: 2 Member
    I'm also 53 and totally understand your frustration. I looked at your diary and noticed that your carb intake is high. Try to keep your carbs to under 100g a day. It will mean a change to your diet, but the benefits of not craving food all day long and weight loss is well worth it.
  • Camille0502
    Camille0502 Posts: 311 Member
    I reached a plateau in the second month of my weight loss. I changed up my workout routine (added some circuit training) and upped the intensity plus I actually ate MORE calories and my weight loss resumed. For me, I think my calorie consumption had crept too low. Plus, I was not counting the calories burned during strength training - so on the days I strength trained, I was in a huge calorie deficit. I bought a heart rate monitor to track the calories I burn during every exercise session and am seeing great results.
  • shipshape55
    shipshape55 Posts: 47 Member
    I am 55 and am pretty much in the same boat. I am sending you a friend request, perhaps we can help each other out
  • brown6267
    brown6267 Posts: 476 Member
    Have you tried adding some High Intensity Interval training (HIIT) to your routine? HIIT is going hard for 30 seconds and getting your heart rate high, then reducing your activity for 1 - 2 minutes, doing this again for around 15 - 20 minutes, approximately 8 times. For me, this type of training 3 times/ week really melted the fat but kept the muscle mass or actually added to the muscle mass.
  • Buddogmom
    Buddogmom Posts: 15
    I lookeda t your diary back to the middle of October, and there are quite a few days you are over on calories, one that is over 1000 beyond your goal. That may be part of it.


    Yeah, that was my 20th anniversary dinner out with hubby. Don't regret it, but it is hard to break habit of celebrating with food! Most other "over" days I was still under 1500 cals/day.
  • Buddogmom
    Buddogmom Posts: 15
    Read this:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

    Ok - so when I put my current weight instead of my goal weight into the BMR calculator, what I get for Light Activity is my TDEE? If so, I took 80% of that and set it as my daily caloric goal...did I do that correctly?
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    Yes, that sounds correct. If you have questions, there is a group based around that method:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7965-in-place-of-a-road-map
  • theseus82
    theseus82 Posts: 255 Member
    Try counting only half of your exercise calories on the system. I incorporated that aspect of WeightWatchers, since you used to only get 1 point back for every 100 calories, but 100 calories eaten usually costs 2 points.

    If you stay within your calorie allotment but only eat half of your exercise calories, you may push through your plateau.

    Also, whenever your stagnating on your progress, always make sure you are counting foods correctly. I have, on several occasions, misjudged how many calories were in my servings until I noticed that I was not losing the weight I expected on my weigh-in day.

    If you're in a plateau and you don't know why, it's probably because you're eating more calories than you realize. Don't forget that it's natural to not lose weight every week. Our weight changes daily from food/water intake. I would recommend only weighing in once a week at the same time each week.
  • mabug01
    mabug01 Posts: 1,273 Member
    It's really a lot harder to lose weight at our age. I have found that portion control and accurate measuring is the only way for me to lose weight. I can't pound away at the gym anymore without consequences on my joints and I can't splurge on anything and still lose weight; especially anything with sugar in it.

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