DESPERATE...3 Year Plateau
Options
bswilson12
Posts: 4 Member
I am not even sure if I am doing this correctly, this is my first post ever to Discussion groups.
Someone gave me the advice to log a post and maybe someone will have some advice for me.
Here is a little bit about me.
4 Years ago I started my journey, within the first year I lost 50lbs by working out and eating right. Our YMCA had a challenge and we had to complete a paper journal to log our food (tracking calories, protein, and fiber) and our workouts. It took me a year which seemed forever but I was making progress! And this was motivating me to do more and more things.
I am still over 200lbs. It has now been 3 years and I am at the exact same weight as I was January 2010.
In the past 3 years here are some of the sample workouts I have done (I switch things up from time to time)
I have ran (completed) 2 half marathons
Inclines on the Treadmill 5% to 15%
StairClimber
Treadclimber
LesMills BodyPump
Spinning
Running/Intervals
Walking
Weight Machines
30Day Shred
StrongLifts 5x5 program (completed for 2 months and only gained weight) (Currently doing this)
I workout 4x or more a week (usually in the evenings after work)
I go back and forth with counting my calories on MFP and paper journaling. I always feel like I do better with paper journalings so you will see I go back and forth. I like the accountability on MFP rather than paper journaling so I always seem to come back.
People who weigh way less than me (I work with them) trained for the half marathon with me and we basically ate the same things and she lost weight and I stayed the same.
I was eating near 1200calories until I bet my friend Lora (from MFP) and she helped me tweak my calories to eat more calories for the StrongLifts. I bumped them up to 1800 calories and in 2 months I gained 8pounds. I am not perfect. I tend to eat worse on Fridays it's kinda my cheat day. We usually have pizza which was good for my big runs for saturdays. And I am a mother of 2 small boys, we eat out, but I try to make good decisions.
I am so tired of killing myself at the gym, and taking time away from my kids to see no progress.
My "normal" is I try something new I lose weight the 1st week, I gain the 2nd week, and it's a consistent yo-yo and I never go anywhere. I have tried low-carb, focus on proteins (even drank protein drinks), focused on cardio, done the weight lifting.
I am completed obsessed with my weight and this weight loss journey. I wake up and think about it and I think about it all day long as I read dozens of blogs, Instagram accounts, and facebook posts. It isn't healthy. I had a breakdown 2 weeks ago and my husband suggested I just take a break. My husband is a marathon runner, he always works out, he is naturely skinny and can eat whatever he wants basically--side note! I decided to walk only for 2 weeks. Spend more time with my family and not stress over working harder and harder at the gym and fitting in extra walks and workouts to try to lose weight. And spending time with my family has been nice. I have stayed the same the past 2 weeks (no gain). I am walking about an hour each night.
I go to the doctor on the 20th. I have my 7 paper journals ready to show my doctor. I have already had my thyroid checked a few years ago, I was checked for PCOS and that was fine as well. I truely believe something is wrong with me. All my workout buddies say I workout harder than anyone they know yet I never see results.
Desperately wanting to see the scale move. I want advice but I want real suggestions and ideas because I have done almost everything.
Someone gave me the advice to log a post and maybe someone will have some advice for me.
Here is a little bit about me.
4 Years ago I started my journey, within the first year I lost 50lbs by working out and eating right. Our YMCA had a challenge and we had to complete a paper journal to log our food (tracking calories, protein, and fiber) and our workouts. It took me a year which seemed forever but I was making progress! And this was motivating me to do more and more things.
I am still over 200lbs. It has now been 3 years and I am at the exact same weight as I was January 2010.
In the past 3 years here are some of the sample workouts I have done (I switch things up from time to time)
I have ran (completed) 2 half marathons
Inclines on the Treadmill 5% to 15%
StairClimber
Treadclimber
LesMills BodyPump
Spinning
Running/Intervals
Walking
Weight Machines
30Day Shred
StrongLifts 5x5 program (completed for 2 months and only gained weight) (Currently doing this)
I workout 4x or more a week (usually in the evenings after work)
I go back and forth with counting my calories on MFP and paper journaling. I always feel like I do better with paper journalings so you will see I go back and forth. I like the accountability on MFP rather than paper journaling so I always seem to come back.
People who weigh way less than me (I work with them) trained for the half marathon with me and we basically ate the same things and she lost weight and I stayed the same.
I was eating near 1200calories until I bet my friend Lora (from MFP) and she helped me tweak my calories to eat more calories for the StrongLifts. I bumped them up to 1800 calories and in 2 months I gained 8pounds. I am not perfect. I tend to eat worse on Fridays it's kinda my cheat day. We usually have pizza which was good for my big runs for saturdays. And I am a mother of 2 small boys, we eat out, but I try to make good decisions.
I am so tired of killing myself at the gym, and taking time away from my kids to see no progress.
My "normal" is I try something new I lose weight the 1st week, I gain the 2nd week, and it's a consistent yo-yo and I never go anywhere. I have tried low-carb, focus on proteins (even drank protein drinks), focused on cardio, done the weight lifting.
I am completed obsessed with my weight and this weight loss journey. I wake up and think about it and I think about it all day long as I read dozens of blogs, Instagram accounts, and facebook posts. It isn't healthy. I had a breakdown 2 weeks ago and my husband suggested I just take a break. My husband is a marathon runner, he always works out, he is naturely skinny and can eat whatever he wants basically--side note! I decided to walk only for 2 weeks. Spend more time with my family and not stress over working harder and harder at the gym and fitting in extra walks and workouts to try to lose weight. And spending time with my family has been nice. I have stayed the same the past 2 weeks (no gain). I am walking about an hour each night.
I go to the doctor on the 20th. I have my 7 paper journals ready to show my doctor. I have already had my thyroid checked a few years ago, I was checked for PCOS and that was fine as well. I truely believe something is wrong with me. All my workout buddies say I workout harder than anyone they know yet I never see results.
Desperately wanting to see the scale move. I want advice but I want real suggestions and ideas because I have done almost everything.
0
Replies
-
This is a great place to look for help. Sara and SS are amazing and there's lots of wonderful, already-filtered-the-crap-out links and advice.0
-
Tagging0
-
Tagging to follow0
-
Do you use a digital food scale and if so, how frequently?0
-
Here are our recommendations but it's important to us that you know that this is a process where we intend to hopefully get things working for you. The following recommendations may not be easy but these steps will be quite helpful and we'd like you to do all of them without exceptions.
1) You need to use a digital food scale to weigh out your food whenever possible.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
2) Moving forward we need you to log everything (EVERYTHING) on MFP so that we can continue to monitor your intake. Condiments used, any snacking/etc, everything needs to be logged and you need to put it on the food scale first, when possible.
3) While we don't ever expect anyone to avoid eating out, you may wish to reconsider the frequency at which you do so simply because the calorie and macronutrient content of these items are not nearly as reliable/accurate as it would be were you to eat at home where you can control your food intake. The days you do have logged show that you eat out almost daily, sometimes multiple times per day.
Would it be possible for you to only eat restaurant food once or twice per week for the next couple of weeks while we monitor your progress at a given intake? Let us know.
When you DO eat out, you should attempt to be as accurate as possible. Consider only selecting places with posted nutritional information and it would be beneficial to order items that won't have a lot of caloric variance, for example ordering a steak and steamed vegetables rather than a chicken alfredo, or w/e else.
Once again to reiterate, we are suggesting this as a temporary change so that you can increase the accuracy at which you are tracking/logging things.
Consider this your chance to take a deep breath, start from scratch so to speak, and compile accurate data. That is what we are doing right now with these proposed changes.
As far as setting your intake, please customize your goal intake as follows and you are to eat to this level daily:
1650 calories
125 carbohydrate
70 fat
125 protein
We would really like to see you eating significantly more vegetables and fruits to comprise the bulk of your carbohydrate intake. You will increase satiety this way, improve micronutrient density in your diet, it will improve your fiber intake, and focusing on this should indirectly assist you in reducing the quantity of restaurant and other possibly nutrient-lacking food in your diet.
If you take this advice, we would like you to follow up in 1 week with an update. If you do not take this advice, that's fine, just politely let us know so we can not track this.
Let us know if you have any questions.0 -
To add to SideSteel's comments, on looking at your diary, there were a lot of 'generic' and 'homemade' meals entered. Do you use recipe builder for these or select something already in the database?0
-
interested to see how this goes!!0
-
Tagging along0
-
As someone who has taken SS's advice....try it!!! Weighing your food sucks in the beginning. You see how grossly you were over estimating, but the pay off is worth it!!0
-
tagging along as well.0
-
bump0
-
I am so excited to see you responded.
Thank you SideSteel for your advice. I am new at this Message Board stuff and I didn't realize you had replied, I thought I would get a notification. I am going to go over your advice with a fine tooth comb and I will follow your advice and I am thankful you have taken the time to help me. I will let you know if I have any questions.
I do use the recipe builder to add "homemade" items so I can get a more accurate count of calories etc. For the items I eat more frequently.
I do have a scale at home and I use it alot and I use measureing cups a lot.0 -
Please also read the link I attached and give it some thought. Follow-up with us in 1 week with an update please.0
-
Locking for now to keep track of active threads. Please PM one of us, including a link to this thread, to unlock when you are ready to update us.0
-
Unlocked at OPs request.0
-
It has been one week and here is my update.
I have to admit I started off the week alittle rocky. I was unprepared and I had several eating out days but I tried to make good choices. Even as I tried to eat right I was noticing my calories, protein, and fat was not aligning to the goals that you set out for me.
I had a friend suggest that I should do the Shakeology 7 day challenge to help me kick bad habits and start a fresh routine. The challenge was a bit expensive. It hit me that years ago I did the Slim Fast plan and did rather well. I googled Slim Fast and they have a plan called Slim Fast 321. I decided to start that program on Monday to help me get on track with a better eating plan. If I don’t have an odd medical issue than it has to be my eating which would be causing my lack of weight loss issues. So far I am loving the plan. It’s easy for a busy, working mom like me. I have replaced my breakfast (which I usually didn’t even eat breakfast) and my lunch with the Slim Fast shakes (or the Atkins Advantage shakes whatever I have at the moment). I have 2 to 3 healthy snacks and a sensible dinner.
I have done great with my measuring my food and documenting everything I put in my mouth.
I have continued to walk daily. I have added some walking at work (I try to walk 2 times at work) and a nice long walk with my husband in the evenings. I have logged those into MFP as well.
Now for the results a week later………….I have to admit I am trying not to be discouraged.
Here is my Weigh-In log since last Monday to show a pattern.
8/5 Monday 213.2
8/8 Thursday 212 (Before any changes)
8/11 Monday 212.2 (Started Slim Fast 321)
8/15 Thursday 213
I won’t lie, I was so excited to jump on the scale this morning. I thought for sure I would be down a little. I did have pizza last night for dinner with the family as we celebrated the first day of school. I am hoping this is just a sodium water retention issue. But even if that is the case, it looks like I am staying steady at the same weight. As I always do. I plan on continuing the Slimfast 321 plan for the next week.
I am ready to hear your comments and thoughts.0 -
I am ready to hear your comments and thoughts.
My thoughts are that you should examine what caused you to fail to successfully apply the advice we gave you in the previous replies. I don't say that with any ill intent, I mean it quite literally.
Edit: we can discuss those reasons if you would like. For starters, is there anything preventing you from reducing your eating out temporarily? If so, what? Is there something preventing you from hitting the nutritional targets? If so, what?
Is there something slim fast is going to do to assist this process? If so, what?0 -
track and following along. Plateau as well.0
-
Well, I have to say I am a bit shocked at your response SideSteel.
I feel like I have taken the advice you gave me. If I run a report of my nutriention on MFP I am very close to the nutrient goals you set for me. I am not a nutrientist obviously and I am using trial and error to figure out what foods give me the macro percentages you gave me. Maybe a little under.
I ate out one time this week and even doing so I stayed within my calorie range. And if I can't stick with a plan and be able to eat out one time a week (because that is life with a working mother of 2 children who travels an hour to work and after work).
What is Slim Fast giving me............Protein, Vitamins, and a fresh start to get away from old habits. I need that. I tend to fall into the same eating patterns (eat the same things, well the same things are helping me OBVIOUSLY!).
I beat myself up enough and obsess over every single thing I eat and do (exercise). I was hoping for real advice. Are you telling me to eat more? Are you telling me to eat more protein?
And you never answered me about exercise? Do you want me to exercise more?0 -
I am confused.
Here was what you said with your follow-up:I have to admit I started off the week alittle rocky. I was unprepared and I had several eating out days but I tried to make good choices. Even as I tried to eat right I was noticing my calories, protein, and fat was not aligning to the goals that you set out for me.I am ready to hear your comments and thoughts.
Followed by this today:I feel like I have taken the advice you gave me. If I run a report of my nutriention on MFP I am very close to the nutrient goals you set for me.
Additionally, the goals we set for you were as follows:
125c
70f
125p
Here is what you hit for the first week:
162.2c
53.7f
72.2p
As for this:I was hoping for real advice
You're getting it.
We are not always going to have a one-step solution. Often times we will need to establish a process and work through it. Such is the case with your situation as we didn't have accurate data to rely on to make initial decisions.
As for the recommendations, they are identical to what we first suggested for the time being.0
This discussion has been closed.