Scale isnt budging ? in body of post.

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lessofkimberly
lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So the second person just told me after looking at my menus that I need to add more protein to my diet. That if I do so I should start losing more weight. I am so frustrated,that I am willing to try it. The only thing is, I will never be able to eat within my calories if I do. The suggestion was to add both a morning and afternoon snack that involves protein. Make sure I have protein at every meal. And after 2 weeks, see if the scale starts to go down again...I hear what they are saying, but dont want to see it go up in the other direction. Doing what I am doing isnt working, so any thoughts???
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  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    So the second person just told me after looking at my menus that I need to add more protein to my diet. That if I do so I should start losing more weight. I am so frustrated,that I am willing to try it. The only thing is, I will never be able to eat within my calories if I do. The suggestion was to add both a morning and afternoon snack that involves protein. Make sure I have protein at every meal. And after 2 weeks, see if the scale starts to go down again...I hear what they are saying, but dont want to see it go up in the other direction. Doing what I am doing isnt working, so any thoughts???

    Why will you never be able to eat within your calorie goal if you increase your protein?

    Every food is either protein, carbs or fat (or alcohol), so if you need more protein within your calories, you just have less carbs/fat.

    If you are following MFP's default of 15% protein, that is quite low, so don't worry about exceeding it. Treat it as a minimum, not a limit.
  • CoraGregoryCPA
    CoraGregoryCPA Posts: 1,087 Member
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    Check out other people's diaries to see how they do it. I just upped my calories. But the past three weeks, I was doing 1200-1400 while eating a good range of protein. Ignore Thursdays, Fridays and Sometimes Saturdays, those tend to be the days I fall of the wagon because of planned events. Nothing planned this week though!!
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Your diary isn't public, so it is hard to make concrete suggestions.
  • crjohnston12
    crjohnston12 Posts: 76 Member
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    What is your calorie alotment? Since starting MFP, I have found ways to add low-cal protein snacks to my day and I rarely go over my 1200 calories for the day. One idea is I buy turkey ham and slice it into 2oz portions. It is about 60 calories and 8 grams of protein. Also, I get goat chese in 1 oz packages (from Costco) and that is only 68 calories and 5 grahams of protein. You can buy Kashi Go Lean cereal and get like 10 grams of protein out of that. Or, eat boiled eggs in the mornings or for a snack. If you only eat the egg whites, you would be in great shape.

    I hope this is somehow helpful. I sure know how frustrating it is to not see the scale move!
  • seekingstrengthX2
    seekingstrengthX2 Posts: 771
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    First - you've lost nearly 100 pounds, so saying that nothing is working is a bit dramatic. :tongue:

    Second - agree with 1st poster. No idea why adding protein would make you gain weight. Eat foods higher in protein as opposed tk whatever it is you are eating now. I havent seen your diary...but eating protein doesnt make you gain weight. Obviously the people who told you this didnt mean to add EXTRA food and go over your calorie limit. They meant to make better choicez.
  • lessofkimberly
    lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
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    Thank you for the suggestions. I am at 1210 suggested calories from MFP. So these lo calorie ideas are very helpful.
  • lessofkimberly
    lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
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    I am using the defaults from MFP. Is there a way to change that setting? I will have to explore that.
  • lessofkimberly
    lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
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    Actually one of the ppl is a an health educator and tells me that i am eating too few calories...increasing protein is one thing, but calories scares me.
  • lessofkimberly
    lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
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    Not dramitic. I have been stuck within the same 10 pounds for months. Yes, I lost 96#, but I still have 40 to go and I dont want to be playing with the same 40 this time next year. So I am trying to find why I am stuck, and get back moving in the right direction. Thank you for your help.
  • seekingstrengthX2
    seekingstrengthX2 Posts: 771
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    We cant offer specific help without seeing your diary. With the amount of running your profile says you do I would guess you probably arent eating enough.
  • Schmelvie
    Schmelvie Posts: 233 Member
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    Not dramitic. I have been stuck within the same 10 pounds for months. Yes, I lost 96#, but I still have 40 to go and I dont want to be playing with the same 40 this time next year. So I am trying to find why I am stuck, and get back moving in the right direction. Thank you for your help.

    You're stuck because your metabolism finally adapted to eating only 1200 calories. It's not going to give up any more excess weight unless you make some dramatic changes. And since you mention you're "scared" of extra calories... Well frankly, your options are limited. You can certainly keep trying to do what you're doing and expect different results. Good luck with your journey.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Take what you are currently eating and half your grains to replace with proteins. Too make up more calories, add back in healthy fats.

    Instead of milk and cereal, have Greek yogurt and a half serving of cereal, or yogurt and fruit. Nuts will add healthy fats

    Instead of 2 toast and on egg, have one toast and two eggs.

    Instead of an oatmeal bar, find one with higher protein - we usually use Kashi.

    For your spaghetti, use half as much pasta and twice as much meat.

    Cut back on and/or change your low fat, but still high calorie dressing and add tuna fish or chicken or a hard boiled egg . That is, use a dressing with olive oil instead of this low fat creamy French with six grams of sugar!
  • crjohnston12
    crjohnston12 Posts: 76 Member
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    You're stuck because your metabolism finally adapted to eating only 1200 calories. It's not going to give up any more excess weight unless you make some dramatic changes. And since you mention you're "scared" of extra calories... Well frankly, your options are limited. You can certainly keep trying to do what you're doing and expect different results. Good luck with your journey.

    So, are you saying she needs to eat a little more to continue to lose weight? I'm so confused on the whole metabolism thing <sigh>
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    You're stuck because your metabolism finally adapted to eating only 1200 calories. It's not going to give up any more excess weight unless you make some dramatic changes. And since you mention you're "scared" of extra calories... Well frankly, your options are limited. You can certainly keep trying to do what you're doing and expect different results. Good luck with your journey.

    So, are you saying she needs to eat a little more to continue to lose weight? I'm so confused on the whole metabolism thing <sigh>

    Everyone needs to feed their body properly if they expect it to function properly!
  • lessofkimberly
    lessofkimberly Posts: 98 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. I changed my food diary to public. I didnt realize that it was limited to my friends only. Also added morning and afternoon snacks and am going to follow advice and add the protein. Since I exercise 6 days a week, I am going to make sure that the extra calories I am eating are heavy in protein. And I appreciate the one or two friend adds. :)
  • ladyace2078
    ladyace2078 Posts: 460 Member
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    Eat more - at least eat your calories back that you exercise off since it appears you are using the MFP method (which already calculates your deficit in the 1200 cal/day). A better method IMO:

    1. Find TDEE
    2. Eat at 15% less than TDEE (eat that amount every day and don't eat back exercise calories)
    3. Eat 1 g protein per 1 lb LBM
    4. Eat 0.35 g fat per 1 lb body weight
    5. Find something other than the scale to track progress (BF%, inches lost, clothing fitting, pictures, strength increases, endurance improvements, etc)
  • spud_chick
    spud_chick Posts: 2,639 Member
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    Hi Kimberly--

    TO CHANGE YOUR GOALS:

    On the My Home tab, click Goals, then Custom to adjust your macros by hand. You can also try just giving yourself more calories by using the Guided method and changing your weekly loss goal to give yourself more wiggle room temporarily. You also might have underestimated your Normal Daily Activities level and shortchanged how much baseline nutrition you need.

    I tried changing my macros manually a little while ago but it made life unpleasant so I went back to the default settings and just try to go over on protein whenever I can. I realized when I started MFP that I had been overzealous about avoiding fats for years and had not been eating nearly enough of them, so while I don't go out of my way to exceed on fat I don't mind if I go over a little. The only value I don't like seeing red at the end of the day is carbs.
  • 18352
    18352 Posts: 4 Member
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    Hi Kimberly . I also have same problem . I was exercise 5 days a week doing a mixture of crossfit with weights earning at least an extra 600 to 800 extra cals a day , and did not use exercise points . And was only eating 1200 cals a day . In fact my weight was going up. My personal trainner was always trying to get me to eat more but I couldn't my stomach could take large portions. I. Have had to try and increase gradually . Healthy snacks in between will help you . Example hand full of nuts or eat natural bars they have good fats . Don't know what sort of trainning you do , but if its all cardio try changing to cardio and weights . High intensity trainning is better for weight loss . Hope this helps . Regards . 18352. Posted 25 feb.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
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    Eat more - at least eat your calories back that you exercise off since it appears you are using the MFP method (which already calculates your deficit in the 1200 cal/day). A better method IMO:

    1. Find TDEE
    2. Eat at 15% less than TDEE (eat that amount every day and don't eat back exercise calories)
    3. Eat 1 g protein per 1 lb LBM
    4. Eat 0.35 g fat per 1 lb body weight
    5. Find something other than the scale to track progress (BF%, inches lost, clothing fitting, pictures, strength increases, endurance improvements, etc)

    Yup.

    Check here.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • KenosFeoh
    KenosFeoh Posts: 1,837 Member
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    I was just reading on the Livestrong web site that the most common reason for not losing weight is not enough muscle mass. It's muscle that burns calories. You might want to eat a maintenance for awhile and concentrate on building more muscle.

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