BEYOND Frustrated!!!

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Replies

  • melonclarinet
    melonclarinet Posts: 163 Member
    I use a heart rate monitor. I don't trust MFP's calories. They are WAYYYYY over.
  • melonclarinet
    melonclarinet Posts: 163 Member
    I am lifting heavy...even though some people keep telling me not to. I like it too much to stop anyway!

    As for the yogurt, it is Greek Yogurt. I can't eat plain and the Dannon has the lowest sugar out of any of the flavored Greek yogurts I've tried.

    I will try eating more...I say this with a little trepidation. I've done it before and gained; granted, it was only for a couple of weeks. It scares me, but I need to do something different obviously.

    Oh, and I've been doing the running and everything for about a month or so now, so I don't think that's what has caused the slow in weight loss.

    I actually get a lot of fruits and vegetables as well...every recipe I make is loaded with them. I try to have 4-5 large servings a day.

    Thank you all for your help so far!
  • Bssh
    Bssh Posts: 123
    Increase your calories but very slowly - say 100 cals more for two weeks, then another 100 cals for another two (or more) weeks.... This may be a less scary leap up to eating more :-) Best of luck.
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    According to the "In Place of a Roadmap" (Fat2Fit) websites listed I just figured out that my BMR is 2152 and my TDEE is 2425...but when I use other sites for BMI I get anywhere from 1300-1600. I just did these numbers again today (because I had gone with a number that said 1200 from some website before). Several other websites put my TDEE at about 2100

    2152 seems REALLY high for BMR.

    Fat2Fit and scooby have been right on for me. What did you put in for your activity level?
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    Increase your calories but very slowly - say 100 cals more for two weeks, then another 100 cals for another two (or more) weeks.... This may be a less scary leap up to eating more :-) Best of luck.

    This is a great idea. The scale jump should be less dramatic doing it this way as well.
  • melonclarinet
    melonclarinet Posts: 163 Member
    I redid the BMR on Fat2Fit entering my goal weight and it says I should eat between 1800 and 2000 calories a day (I think I'm lightly active) and my BMR is between 1300 and 1550 a day. Wish me luck on raising my calories.

    1800 still seems like A LOT of food. I think I need to allow myself to try something new, because what I'm doing is obviously not working. I wanted to raise my calories a couple of months ago because I thought that might be the problem, but I had too many people tell me "calories in vs calories out" so I got scared.
  • jbug100
    jbug100 Posts: 406 Member
    Bump
  • grlygrl123
    grlygrl123 Posts: 55 Member
    I agree that adding more calories is a little scary.

    I had been sticking to 1200 calories for a long time. I lost weight quickly when I first started out but it slowly plateaued. I have decided to slowly creep my caloric intake up towards TDEE -20%. For the last week I have been eating around 1400 calories and have lost 2 more pounds. It seems to be working. Next week I will bump it up to 1500 and keep going.

    Give your body some time to adjust. We can go through this change together if you want to add me. I have about another 30 pounds to lose.
  • Avanabanana
    Avanabanana Posts: 4 Member
    Just a thought - I personally do water challenge days. I drink a measured cup of water every hour on the hour from when I wake up till I go to bed. It flushes out the crap and sodium and any of the cheats that I have had. I don't change my eating habits, but I do cut out tea on those days. I notice a difference a few days after on the scale.

    Also, just discovered this product called True Lemon which resides in all my water bottles as the health benefits are amazing. And when I am working out, it helps me feel like I am hydrated. They are packets of freeze dried lemon, so I don't have to keep cutting up lemons and putting them in my water.

    From what I have read, room temp water is what you want. Cold water shocks the system in a negative way and does not aide digestion like room temp water.

    Pasted below are some of my favorite articles on both. It seems to be helping myself, and as a few have already said, lower your sodium intake.

    http://www.bewellbuzz.com/general/cold-or-warm-water-whats-better/

    http://lajollamom.com/2011/01/drink-warm-lemon-water-in-the-morning/
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    I redid the BMR on Fat2Fit entering my goal weight and it says I should eat between 1800 and 2000 calories a day (I think I'm lightly active) and my BMR is between 1300 and 1550 a day. Wish me luck on raising my calories.

    1800 still seems like A LOT of food. I think I need to allow myself to try something new, because what I'm doing is obviously not working. I wanted to raise my calories a couple of months ago because I thought that might be the problem, but I had too many people tell me "calories in vs calories out" so I got scared.

    Try not to be scared. I've lost all my weight eating between 1,750-2,000 calories. And if you look around on here, most of the successful women that have been MAINTAING for a while, eat a great deal more than 1,200 cals a day.
  • AdrieneJ
    AdrieneJ Posts: 141 Member
    I doubt you are gaining fat when you eat more. I tend to retain water when I switch up my routine or change my calories. Iwould use the TDEE calculator and switch things up.

    Agreed!
  • twinketta
    twinketta Posts: 2,130 Member
    I redid the BMR on Fat2Fit entering my goal weight and it says I should eat between 1800 and 2000 calories a day (I think I'm lightly active) and my BMR is between 1300 and 1550 a day. Wish me luck on raising my calories.

    1800 still seems like A LOT of food. I think I need to allow myself to try something new, because what I'm doing is obviously not working. I wanted to raise my calories a couple of months ago because I thought that might be the problem, but I had too many people tell me "calories in vs calories out" so I got scared.

    In honesty, you have had a lot of good replies with suggestions, Maybe try to move away from the negativity

    A lot of the replies you have had, you have responded in a negative way? Try to think more positive and react to some suggestions in a more positive way...take that into your eating/exercise?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    I redid the BMR on Fat2Fit entering my goal weight and it says I should eat between 1800 and 2000 calories a day (I think I'm lightly active) and my BMR is between 1300 and 1550 a day. Wish me luck on raising my calories.

    1800 still seems like A LOT of food. I think I need to allow myself to try something new, because what I'm doing is obviously not working. I wanted to raise my calories a couple of months ago because I thought that might be the problem, but I had too many people tell me "calories in vs calories out" so I got scared.

    I know it seems scary...when you've restricted yourself the way you have for so long, 1,700 or 1,800 calories seems crazy. It'll likely take your metabolism a few weeks to catch up to what's going on...it's been stalled for quite some time. Basically, when you eat at massive deficits (especially since you weren't eating back exercise calories) your metabolism stalls to conserve energy...essentially, your deficit becomes the new maintenance. When you kick it back up, it's not entirely unusual to gain a little because your metabolism is stuck at the lower level. Don't worry...in a few weeks, your metabolism should catch on to what you're doing and adjust itself accordingly.

    It is for this very reason that I eat to maintenance for a week or so every 6-8 weeks...just a friendly reminder to my body that this thing I'm doing isn't permanent and there's still food.
  • Have you tried mixing up your exercise routines? If you haven't that could help. Our bodies adjust to an exercise routine at about six weeks and then we get muscle memory.
  • kkenny0146
    kkenny0146 Posts: 66 Member
    It is that point in my year as a band director that stress just seems to pile on, as we go through preparations for Music Performance Assessment, or festivals. It has seemed that I gain weight or fail to lose every year around this tie just due to stress.

    I have found that drinking water and making sure to eat ( I went years without eating breakfast) has made a huge difference. I know sometimes our schedule does not condone good eating times, but I make sure to prepare healthy snacks when I know I have a longer day and eat either between classes or on my planning at the end of the day.

    I have also found that not taking work home with me has done wonders for my stress levels, and I do attribute it to helping me lose weight, and the end of the day I leave the work at school and focus on myself. If was hard to do this initially, but I was finding I was burning out by not doing it.

    I joined CrossFit in November and that has helped. Just high Intensity workouts, even when I have been at school from 7-5pm. It is those days when I need it most.

    Hope some of this helps :) good Luck!
  • melonclarinet
    melonclarinet Posts: 163 Member
    Thank you all for your replies. Starting yesterday, I am upping my calories to 1400 (I was averaging about 1200-1300 before). This isn't a huge difference, but I will slowly move it up each week until I find a better point. I have vowed to be patient with this and stick out the upped calories for a while before saying it doesn't work.

    Tanks again for all of the support everyone!
  • melonclarinet
    melonclarinet Posts: 163 Member
    Well, in case anyone read this...I upped my calories to 1400 and made sure to eat back enough to net at least 1200 a day. I lost almost 3 pounds!!! I'm going to keep it here for a bit and see what happens in the next couple of weeks. I'm excited to see it moving in the right direction again :)

    Thank you everyone!
  • sivapc
    sivapc Posts: 12
    Wow I'm glad I found this chain. I've been reading everyone's responses to melon's frustrations - and I share her frustrations. I went to my doctor and had my thyroid checked, thinking perhaps my mediation was too low, but my levels were normal. I am not frustrated after 2 weeks of working at this - it's more like 2 years! I've gone back and forth keeping the food diary, getting frustrated and stopping. Initially the MFP 1200 - 1300 calorie goal worked when I started a couple years ago, but it stopped working, and I gained back the 8-ish pounds I'd initially lost. I got discouraged and stopped tracking (but kept up vigorous exercising and watching what I eat). That didn't work either, so I started tracking again semi-regularly. I've spent the afternoon reading about TDEE and BMR and so forth, so I'm going to up my goal to 20% of my TDEE, which is 1520 calories. I'm also going to try and track better and I sure hope this works because nothing else is. Congrats melon!