Plateaus STINK! Help, advice!?

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Giantess
Giantess Posts: 213 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Despite what the ticker says, I have lost 40 lbs by basically eating around 20-30g of carbs a day. When I was losing rapidly (I started at 301) I was working out twice a week--on the weekend--by running an hour or so. I did not work out during the week, but ate an average of 1400 calories during those times. That is about 300-400 below what MFP recommended for someone my weight.

Now it is summer, and I am home, and I am logging everything. I am exercising about every other day, and eating at or below my calorie goal. If I go over, I usually have a few lower days the next couple days.

I'm not losing weight for a month or more now. (Well, I go up and down about 3 lbs depending on the day.) I'm so frustrated! It's the age old question: How can I not be losing weight when I'm doing so much work?!

Also, I checked, my measurements have not changed at bit since the plateau started.

I'm at that desperate "I wanna-give-up-what's-the-point-I-have-not-eaten-bread-in-months-why-me-God-ARGH" stage.

Help? My diary should be public, I would appreciate input. I would love your forever, and stuff. :D

Replies

  • ZenBJR
    ZenBJR Posts: 13
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    During the time you did not work out during the week, were you working?

    For example, I am a construction worker. I probably burn 1,000 calories a day, if not more, from work alone. 8-12 hours a day.

    If I suddenly went from that, to not having a job and staying at home, I would probably gain a lot of weight even if I exercised a extra hour every day without a job.

    Not sure if you factored in that change, but just an thought.
  • 1longroad
    1longroad Posts: 642 Member
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    I wonder with the extra exercise, if your calories are too low? I have a friend who had bariatric surgery. She has lost 100 pounds and was exercising daily, from 3 x a week. She was plateaued for a month. I suggested she up her calories by 200 daily. Over a year she has gained muscle, plus the extra exercise.

    She lost 2 pounds this week!!

    Good luck breaking your plateau! Don't give up as you have come far already!!
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
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    Are you weighing and measuring all of your food? It's common for people to under estimate the calories they're eating. The opposite is true for exercise. As we get closer to our goal weight there's less room for error and it's easy to eat at maintenance. Be exacting with your calorie counts for a couple weeks and see how you make out.
  • Flowers4Julia
    Flowers4Julia Posts: 521 Member
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    I would suggest searching this site for the "in place of a road map" and the "eat more to weigh less" groups. To me it sounds like you are under eating and your body is plateauing because it thinks you need to store fat. Bodies do that when they think there is a famine. So, by working out a lot and eating under calories, you are creating a famine of sorts.

    If you want, just google around the Internet and find a BMR calculator that uses your body fat as part of it. The best one in my experience is the Katch-McCardle one, not the one MFP uses. To find your body fat use you measurements if you don't have another reliable source. From there, you'll get a better BMR and TDEE estimate. So eat at that for a bit, your body will think you are not starving, then make a modest cut like 15-20% in calories. You'll begin to lose again.

    Many people like the fat2fit website and many like Scoobysworkshop. Choose what makes sense to you and good luck.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    You go over budget often and I'm not sure how you measure the exercise calories you eat back. It doesn't really matter what you eat (low carb, no carb, low fat, no sugar) but how much you eat unless you have a medical reason for needing to stick to one of those diets. You lose quickly at first on a low carb diet because you're depleting your body of glycogen which stores water. You can only lose so much and then that is over. If you start eating carbs again the water comes right back.

    Your budget doesn't look too low, if anything you may be eating too much when you eat back exercise and if you aren't weighing and measuring all your foods you may be eating even more than that.
  • PepperWorm
    PepperWorm Posts: 1,206
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    If you're exercising more, you need to eat more.
    If you're consistently eating under goal, you need to eat more.
    If you like bread and carbs, don't just eliminate them out of your life. Learn to integrate them in a healthy menu. Unless you have a medical reason to lower your carb intake, it isn't necessary for weight loss.

    Are you incorporating resistance training with cardio?
    Are you weighing your food with a food scale?
    Have you tried In Place Of A Roadmap? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

    Best of luck.

    ETA: Your exercise calories look especially high. If you go by MFP estimations, they are drastically higher than what it should be. Do you have a HRM to back those numbers up? If you do IPOARM, you don't have to worry over counting/tracking exercise calories, so then there's no worry over overinflated calories burned. :smile:
  • Giantess
    Giantess Posts: 213 Member
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    Thank you to all you helpful people! Here are answers to questions some of you have asked!

    1. I do weigh all my food. Every speck.
    2. I do use a Polar HRM set to my stats for my calories burned during exercise. I can't use it when I swim, however, so I usually am leery of eating back all my calories on swim days. The MFP estimates, as PepperWorm noticed, don't seem to jive with what my body does in general, so that may be one thing. Perhaps I shouldn't log my swimming?
    3. When I go over, I usually go under on other days, since I heard that calorie cycling is all good as long as you make the overall goal by the end of a week or so. Has anyone heard of that, or is that currently discredited? That said--I'll be more careful for a few weeks.
    4. I don't do resistance training. I have looked online for a few "lift weights at home" type of workouts, and should probably do them on days I don't do cardio. I'll try it. I usually feel futile, just me and some soup cans, in my living room, haha. Like I could be doing so much more sweating it out jogging. But you're right--research doesn't lie, and that's something I'm going to try.


    As for the carbs--yeah, what Monkey41 said is true. I ate a piece of cake and some pancakes at a wedding, and gained ten pounds by the next day from water. Woosh! Scary. On the other hand, if I DO eat carbs--over, say, 40g a day--I DO NOT LOSE WEIGHT. I just don't. : ( Also, eating simple carbs seems to trigger severe cravings that lead to binges and progressively poorer choices. It's sad, but I kinda have to be like an alcoholic--I tell everyone I don't eat breads, fruits, and sugars, and then live like a monk in my carb-free monastery. As hard as it is, it is easier than limiting myself only slightly. Plus, the thing about not losing a pound. My doctor told me to cut the carbs out, when a battery of blood tests showed I had no other reasons why I shouldn't be losing with 2000 cals a day (I'm 6'1) plus an hour of cardio. It's the only thing that works for me. : (

    Well, worked. Now it's kinda stalled.

    It is also possible that I just am lazier during the summer, as one fellow suggested. I mean, I do have an on-my-feet-all-day job (teacher) so that when I'm working from home for the summer, despite extra cardio sessions, I probably burn less overall during the day. To compensate, I may need to cut calories more?

    I am super leery of eating too many cals. I have tried upping my calories to lose in the past, and just gained weight. it seems like such a hard thing to gauge--how many more calories should I add, if I add? Any recommendations?

    Also, thank you for the website suggestions. I'm going to go check them out now.

    And if I didn't say it enough, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the help! People like you folks who reach out to total strangers are what make these boards a priceless resource. I promise, if I figure this out, I'll pay it forward with some advice to needy others when the time comes.
  • pixelled
    pixelled Posts: 70 Member
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    Are you doing Atkins? I took a look at your food diary and I see you're also eating Atkins bars and Bryer's smart carb bars. I would suggest cutting those out. I know they satisfy a craving but they can stall people. I think you'd be better off to do a low carb whole foods approach. Meats, eggs, veggies and also fruits in small quantities.

    I just looked at the past week of your diary but I see almost no veggies. I think if you added them to your diet and took out the processed bars you'd see some changes.
  • Giantess
    Giantess Posts: 213 Member
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    Agreed, Pixelled, I need to learn to like veggies. At the moment my range of veggies is celery, lettuce, and kale chips. I don't know much about preparing tasty veggies. When I eat veggies I tend to get all my servings in one day, half of them the next, and by day three I'm veggie'd out. I have no consistent plan for how to include them in my regular diet, except for putting chicken or salmon on lettuce.

    I will probably cut out the Breyers stuff--I suspect the sugar alcohols give me indigestion at any rate. But the Atkins bars are sometimes the only thing that I can grab in the morning for breakfast and lunch. I have zero time to cook during the work week, though I could probably do so now. At any rate, I was losing lots of weight eating just two of those a day as breakfast and lunch, then having a dinner (sounds like the weight watchers or special K plans, doesn't it?) I should also cut them out as snacks when I'm hungry.

    Any tasty, low-carb ideas for salads and veggies would be appreciated! The only restrictions are no broccoli or cauliflower. I literally can't make myself swallow them, they smell and taste like a skunk to me. : D
  • QuilterInVA
    QuilterInVA Posts: 672 Member
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    You'd do better with a protein shake than and Atkins bar in the morning.
  • currierand
    currierand Posts: 155 Member
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    To the OP: have you tried roasting your vegetables? I am not a big veggie eater myself, but roasting brings out the natural sugars and frankly, just tastes better. Cut up your favorites (I like red bell peppers, onions, zucchini, fennel, garlic, tomatoes) roughly the same size, toss with a little olive oil, s&p and spread on a baking sheet in an even layer. Roast in. 400 degree oven for approx 20 mins or until cooked through. Again, you can do this with just about any fresh vegetable. Summer is the perfect time to try something new.

    Hope,this helps.

    Kelly

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