scales not moving, losing inches,stay the course? geeky

Carfoodel
Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I use a fitbit and a polar HRM and have kept a spreadsheet from the start of the year - my weightloss is slow and I seem to drop a few lbs one week then stay the same for the next few. I feel like I am getting ready for a "whoosh" as my belly is like jelly but dunno if I should drop my calories to push it along or not.

My average TDEE for March so far is 2946, my average food intake for the month is 1903
my average HRM burn is 338 per day and the average from other sources combined (runtastic and fitbit calorie adjustments and my HRM etc) is 918 per day

my routine consists of 3 days cardio, 3 days resistance and loads of walking, I am also doing things like bridge to 10k and hillwalking. resistance is a combination of kettlebells, planks, plyometrics, I also try and fit in swimming. This year I have signed up for a 5k and a 26 mile walk in May, two 10k's in June and in August I will be climbing Ben Nevis and finishing strong with Tough Mudder - so my exercise is training for all these different events

my dairy is open - it is a bit erratic as I do eat when I am hungry and am trying to get cleaner so low sugar, healthy fats like nuts, try and get the protein up there it's not perfect but like me a work in progress lol.

All the indications seem to tell me I should be eating more - but I am very scared to do so - and fed up with the scales not moving - although I know my body fat is reducing and that's the important thing. I did post on road map but it scared me how many cals it suggested I should eat and have been trying to increase it a bit but it's really hard when I know that overeating got me massive in the first place.

sorry if you got half way and it was TL;DR but my question is - do you think it's ok to drop my cals a bit to go for a bit of actual weight-loss - I still feel like I am eating too much despite what the figures say, or should I just be content that I am losing inches (albeit slowly)

thanks if you got this far lol

Replies

  • tricksee
    tricksee Posts: 835 Member
    Fat-loss progress should be measured over a long period of time not on a week to week basis as your weight WILL go up and down. It's totally normal for that to happen.

    My advice is to not be scared of upping your calories and see how your body reacts when you do it.

    Also try adding WEIGHTS to your workout not just cardio based. Weights burn calories for 36 hours after the workout unlike cardio.

    p.s drink water!!!! *kitten* loads of it!!!
  • lauren3101
    lauren3101 Posts: 1,853 Member
    I have no idea of your stats, but what I got from that is that you are eating at a 1000 calorie deficit a day?

    I noticed you've already lost a significant amount of weight (congrats :smile:) and while a bigger deficit is ok in the beginning, as you get closer to your goal you need to start to rein that in a little bit.

    Really, you should be looking at 1lb a week weight loss, so I would recommend upping your calories slowly till you are only at a 500 calorie a day deficit. Be prepared for the possibility of a gain in the beginning.

    Having said that, in my opinion losing inches is far more important than what you weigh. People notice the inches, but you don't walk around holding a banner with your weight on it. :wink:
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    Fat-loss progress should be measured over a long period of time not on a week to week basis as your weight WILL go up and down. It's totally normal for that to happen.

    My advice is to not be scared of upping your calories and see how your body reacts when you do it.

    Also try adding WEIGHTS to your workout not just cardio based. Weights burn calories for 36 hours after the workout unlike cardio.

    p.s drink water!!!! *kitten* loads of it!!!

    I tend to look at monthly weight loss trends not weekly - I have looked over my weight-loss for the past 70 weeks to see trends and patterns, so I know i can go weeks without losing then drop a few lbs so it;s not short term I am looking at. My overall trend is slowly down.

    I do weights 3 times a week (deadlifts, clean and press, assisted pull ups etc) I know this is why I am losing inches - , my cardio is to increase my stamina, improve lung capacity and cause I love it.

    I hear what you are saying about increasing cals and yeah I do not bad on water - thanks :)
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    I have no idea of your stats, but what I got from that is that you are eating at a 1000 calorie deficit a day?

    I noticed you've already lost a significant amount of weight (congrats :smile:) and while a bigger deficit is ok in the beginning, as you get closer to your goal you need to start to rein that in a little bit.

    Really, you should be looking at 1lb a week weight loss, so I would recommend upping your calories slowly till you are only at a 500 calorie a day deficit. Be prepared for the possibility of a gain in the beginning.

    Having said that, in my opinion losing inches is far more important than what you weigh. People notice the inches, but you don't walk around holding a banner with your weight on it. :wink:

    If I only take my HRM working out calories into account I am eating a net of about 1600 cals daily but this is well below my TDEE according to my fitbit. I do a ton of walking every day so that gives me calories back but I don't like to eat them and try to just eat what I have burned in sweaty gym work outs if that makes sense? (unless I am hungry). My average over the last 14 months comes in at about1.3lbs loss a week - so its on track - but just wish it was a bit more lo

    maybe this is good enough and I should be a bit more patient with the process? - thanks for your response :)
  • tricksee
    tricksee Posts: 835 Member
    Having said that, in my opinion losing inches is far more important than what you weigh. People notice the inches, but you don't walk around holding a banner with your weight on it. :wink:

    Love this.
  • AbsyPernet
    AbsyPernet Posts: 145
    Hi there

    Well done on your weight lost journey, you should be proud of what you have achieved so far and keep on doing what you have been doing. I don't get too "attached" to the scale anymore because mine, just like you, is a none mover for the last few months. But, I am leaner, dropped a couple of dress sizes and I am happy.

    Like "tricksee" says, drink loads of water

    You should see the results soon. Good luck and keep on moving :D
  • ramonafrincu
    ramonafrincu Posts: 160 Member
    Inches, all the way inches!!! Losing around 1 lb a week is great so please stay positive, you will get there!!
  • karenf289
    karenf289 Posts: 47 Member
    Great feedback, very relevant to me at present, so its giving me something to think about, cheers ev1 :happy:
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    Thanks - just at a bit of a re-evaluation of where I am and where I want to be - slow but sure I guess lol

    thanks everyone :flowerforyou:
  • frasergentles
    frasergentles Posts: 11 Member
    I would agree with some of the posts above, I think you want to up your calorie intake. My TDEE is 3417 (similar plan to you, I do 5 days cardio, 3 days strength and various bits of walking etc...). You really want to be looking at a fat loss calorie intake of 85% TDEE so for you this would be 2946 x 0.85 = 2504 calories per day. This will also optimise fat loss as opposed to lean muscle loss. A deficit in this region should yield around 1lb per week loss. I totally agree that loss should be monitored as a trend over a longer period (Hard to stay off the scales I know!!). Bear in mind that by incorporating the strength training your body composition will also be changing i.e. your lean muscle mass will be increasing so perhaps you should consider monitoring your body composition as opposed to weight by using scales which determine body fat %, calipers or measurements of waist, arms, hips etc.... Check out some of the texts on sports nutrition and they will direct you towards my calculations above... it was a big thing for me to move away from the automated mfp calculations and override them with manual calcs but it is worth it. On a side note, make sure you are eating around 1.6g of protien per kg body weight, this will help conserve and indeed build lean muscle mass.
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    Hi there

    Well done on your weight lost journey, you should be proud of what you have achieved so far and keep on doing what you have been doing. I don't get too "attached" to the scale anymore because mine, just like you, is a none mover for the last few months. But, I am leaner, dropped a couple of dress sizes and I am happy.

    Like "tricksee" says, drink loads of water

    You should see the results soon. Good luck and keep on moving :D

    thanks - sometime you feel like you are the only one when you see so many people get much bigger weight losses in far less time - but yeah scales & I have a love hate relationship wish I could just chuck them away but I am a slave to my stats lol - it's what motivates me :) - congrats on the inches and dress sizes :)
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    I would agree with some of the posts above, I think you want to up your calorie intake. My TDEE is 3417 (similar plan to you, I do 5 days cardio, 3 days strength and various bits of walking etc...). You really want to be looking at a fat loss calorie intake of 85% TDEE so for you this would be 2946 x 0.85 = 2504 calories per day. This will also optimise fat loss as opposed to lean muscle loss. A deficit in this region should yield around 1lb per week loss. I totally agree that loss should be monitored as a trend over a longer period (Hard to stay off the scales I know!!). Bear in mind that by incorporating the strength training your body composition will also be changing i.e. your lean muscle mass will be increasing so perhaps you should consider monitoring your body composition as opposed to weight by using scales which determine body fat %, calipers or measurements of waist, arms, hips etc.... Check out some of the texts on sports nutrition and they will direct you towards my calculations above... it was a big thing for me to move away from the automated mfp calculations and override them with manual calcs but it is worth it. On a side note, make sure you are eating around 1.6g of protien per kg body weight, this will help conserve and indeed build lean muscle mass.

    thank you :) - when I look around at sports nutrition sites I have come across similar calorie numbers like that - but 2504 a day seems huge! - I have tried increasing my intake with nuts and eat a lot of chicken and fish for protein -

    I can't even begin to say how relieved I am that I am no longer over 311lbs and eating as much as that makes me feel as if I am going to put it all back on again and I find it very stressful (I have lost and gained a lot of weight more than once now and I am determined never to let that happen again) I know this time I am doing it the right way and have never been healthier and I am smaller than I have been for decades - maybe I need to just increase it by 100 or so at a time? it just seems so counter-intuitive possibly just because I started off morbidly obese?
  • tomcornhole
    tomcornhole Posts: 1,084 Member
    You rock! 90 lbs and still motivated. Obviously you are doing something right. A lot right. I have been doing this long enough to know that no one knows you better than you. And experimentation can teach you a lot about you. And you track data, so you can experiment effectively. Start changing one thing at a time and see what you think. Don't just go by the scale, though. Use inches and the best / worst measuring device: the mirror. Strength gains are also a good measure. Give each experiment a fair shot (enough time) and evaluate what effect it has on your mind and body.

    I just finished a week of trying intermittent fasting. Curious concept. I think it might work, but I had to stop it because it was not compatible with me. No ding on IF, just wasn't making me happy. I have tried more exercise, more weight training, less calories, more calories, cold showers, ice packs on my neck, 3 eggs right before bed and I even went a week eating like I did before I started "dieting". I tracked the results and found a few things:

    1. It's all about the diet (I hate calling it a diet). The single biggest impact was eating better than I used to. That didn't mean eat less, just better. As I have seen on these fora, "better" has a different meaning for everyone, so I'll leave it up to you to decide what "better" is.

    2. Exercise to feel good. It is not required to lose weight. But I really enjoy exercising. So I do it. I just don't stress too much about what I'm doing. If it makes me happy, I don't care what the scale says.

    Enjoy the ride,

    Tom
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I can understand being afraid to eat "too much", when that is what lead to you gaining weight in the first place. However, with all that data, it seems like you have a pretty good idea of what your TDEE is. Logically, you know that if you don't eat over your TDEE you won't gain fat. It can be very stressful, but sometimes it's best just to stop over-thinking things so much.

    Try gradually increasing your calories. You're keeping a close eye on things, so you'll know if you start gaining. Obviously, be aware that you may well gain a little when you increase - water weight as well as having more food/waste in your system. If you gain a pound or two, just stay at that level until it stabilises. If you keep gaining, you'll know to ease back on the calories. You are not going to wake up 90 lbs heavier. :smile:

    Honestly, I do understand the anxiety that goes along with this, but imo it's better to get your head around it as you're going along, rather than being super-restrictive right up until you reach your goal and then trying to come to terms with eating more. Food isn't the enemy, eating isn't the enemy, it's just eating more than your body needed that got you to obesity. There's a big, big gap between the amount you're eating now and the amount you'd need to eat to gain. It probably feels scary because you fear losing that control, but you've been doing this for a while now, you've lost a hell of a lot of weight - I think you've got this! :flowerforyou:
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member


    1. It's all about the diet (I hate calling it a diet). The single biggest impact was eating better than I used to. That didn't mean eat less, just better. As I have seen on these fora, "better" has a different meaning for everyone, so I'll leave it up to you to decide what "better" is.

    2. Exercise to feel good. It is not required to lose weight. But I really enjoy exercising. So I do it. I just don't stress too much about what I'm doing. If it makes me happy, I don't care what the scale says.

    Enjoy the ride,

    Tom

    Thanks Tom - yes that sounds like perfect sense to me :) I can see the changes in my clothes fitting better/looser, I can see a change in the mirror where I can very much see a difference and my fitness levels are so improved and I do eat better it's just the scales not reflecting that - silly way of measuring success I know but for the moment I think I am still a bit of a slave to the scales - maybe that's what I need to improve lo
  • Carfoodel
    Carfoodel Posts: 481 Member
    I can understand being afraid to eat "too much", when that is what lead to you gaining weight in the first place. However, with all that data, it seems like you have a pretty good idea of what your TDEE is. Logically, you know that if you don't eat over your TDEE you won't gain fat. It can be very stressful, but sometimes it's best just to stop over-thinking things so much.

    I think this is it in a nutshell lol - thank you I am sometimes the queen of over-analysing things haha

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