Feeling Flabby Again... WTF???

vcancel
vcancel Posts: 96 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
OK ladies, after 9 months of working out, eating well and losing 30 pounds, I have a question.

I have been very consistent in my eating and also my workouts. I run about 3.5 miles a day and today I cycled over 8 miles. I also strength train 3 times a week. I'm almost in a 12, down from an 18/20 and a Large top down from a 2X.

I have been struggling with a plateau for the last three weeks (actually you can count all the way back to June since I've only lost 5 pounds since then after a very nice steady loss of about a pound a week since January.) I'm nowhere near goal yet and have to lose about 40 more pounds. The scale hates me and fluctuates anywhere between 3-4 pounds a day. I'm currently 204 but just cannot seem to break into wonderland. Anyway...

I've been enjoying my tighter, fitter more sexy body however.... Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

Is this the fat breaking up? Will this plateau, or series of plateaus, be over soon? Do I sound like I'm losing my mind? LOL

Any thoughts are appreciated... just need some opinions on why I feel like my whole body is just one big skin flap!!!!!

ARGH!!! :)
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Replies

  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    Bloating maybe?? I don't know, I go through periods where I feel like I look fluffy, too, even though my weight is lower or the same. I just keep doing what I'm doing, though, and I seem to go back to normal.
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Possibly but it feels like my entire body composition changed overnight.... it's very strange.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    I would definitely think it's bloating. Or sometimes we just have an off day mentally. Just keep fighting!
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Thanks MB... it's the plateau more than anything that is driving me crazy. I've been 5 pounds to 199 for 3 months. I'm very frustrated. I have no intentions on quitting but I wish I could figure out what is holding me back.

    I've changed up my eating, calorie intake, workout intensity, everything I could think of but it's just not working.

    Grrrrrr.......
  • dangerousdumpling
    dangerousdumpling Posts: 1,109 Member
    The flabbiness could be "the whoosh". It is an odd feeling.
    Since you have been losing, even though you feel it's slow, you aren't really on a plateau. Even three weeks isn't really a plateau. You could eat maintenance calories for a few days or a week and then cut your calories again to jumpstart things. You could increase the weight you're lifting. Or you could just ride it out and keep doing what you're doing.
    It's totally normal for your weight loss to slow down after a while. I've only lost 3 lbs all summer but I choose to focus on inches lost rather than pounds. The scale makes me crazy if I focus on it alone. My tape measure is my friend. My scale is not.
    When did you start weight training? Have you been doing it all along?
  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    Sounds like you have the squishy fats, a precursor to the woosh previously mentioned. Give it time. And second to Cheveux Noirs comments.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Thanks MB... it's the plateau more than anything that is driving me crazy. I've been 5 pounds to 199 for 3 months. I'm very frustrated. I have no intentions on quitting but I wish I could figure out what is holding me back.

    I've changed up my eating, calorie intake, workout intensity, everything I could think of but it's just not working.

    Grrrrrr.......

    Are you using a food scale?
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

    I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

    Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.
  • HarrietSmeltzer1
    HarrietSmeltzer1 Posts: 101 Member
    Go to the dollar tree buy exfoliating gloves and each tome you shower out some bath gel on the gloves than exfoliate all over your body. Afterward get a cream for the body that has collagen invite or some Bio oil or vitamin e oil put on each time. You will feel better in yourviwn skin will feel firmer.
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    The flabbiness could be "the whoosh". It is an odd feeling.
    Since you have been losing, even though you feel it's slow, you aren't really on a plateau. Even three weeks isn't really a plateau. You could eat maintenance calories for a few days or a week and then cut your calories again to jumpstart things. You could increase the weight you're lifting. Or you could just ride it out and keep doing what you're doing.
    It's totally normal for your weight loss to slow down after a while. I've only lost 3 lbs all summer but I choose to focus on inches lost rather than pounds. The scale makes me crazy if I focus on it alone. My tape measure is my friend. My scale is not.
    When did you start weight training? Have you been doing it all along?

    The scale makes me crazy too. It's like a mean kid on the playground with a magnifying glass and I am the ant. :(

    I go mostly by how my clothes feel but I do need to get more of this weight off so I don't have so much pressure on my knee. It's way better than it was when I first started but it still gives me problems and I just know it's the extra weight.

    I'd be terrified to up my calories more for fear of gaining only to have to lose it again. Yikes!
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

    I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

    Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

    It does sound a bit like the "squishy fat" phenomenon. But it could also just be that you're feeling mentally fatigued and you're not seeing yourself as you are. When was the last time you took a diet break?

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

    If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

    When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
    Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Go to the dollar tree buy exfoliating gloves and each tome you shower out some bath gel on the gloves than exfoliate all over your body. Afterward get a cream for the body that has collagen invite or some Bio oil or vitamin e oil put on each time. You will feel better in yourviwn skin will feel firmer.

    I already do all of those things and it's wonderful!! I use exfoliating gloves with Olay exfoliating body wash and then Nivea Q10 skin firming cream afterwards. I love it and I feel like such a pampered princess!! LOL
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

    I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

    Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

    It does sound a bit like the "squishy fat" phenomenon. But it could also just be that you're feeling mentally fatigued and you're not seeing yourself as you are. When was the last time you took a diet break?

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

    Hahaha... I've seen that article and have been waiting for the whoosh but so far I've been whoosh-less. :(

    My husband and I go out regularly for dinner/drinks with friends etc. I log everything and hold myself accountable but never feel like I'm missing out or deprived or anything. My favorite is wings and beer and have that quite a bit on the weekends. So I don't really need a diet break unless you maybe were referring to mentally then I need one big time. I'm just afraid of not going back to it. I've developed very healthy habits over the last 9 months. :)
  • jaecamp1
    jaecamp1 Posts: 120 Member
    Congratulations on what you've done already!

    I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants :) I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

    If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Today I woke up and I felt like flab central. It felt like it used to feel. Flabby and yucky and loose.

    If you didn't feel that way yesterday, then it's an emotional thing, not a physical thing.

    When I have days like that, I put on a bikini or something equally revealing and take some photos to compare them to the photos I took last time I felt good. Then I can see if I really had a backslide, or if I'm just being stupid. More often than not, I look the same as my last photos, sometimes better, and very, very rarely any worse. It's usually the smack upside the head I need to snap out of it.

    I could be smacked. That could work!!! LOL I haven't taken any photos or measurements since starting. I've been going with the scale and how my clothes fit. :)
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Have you recalculated your TDEE since losing 30 lbs?

    I didn't calculate it for the first time until a couple of weeks ago. :)
  • vcancel
    vcancel Posts: 96 Member
    Congratulations on what you've done already!

    I think a lot of the feeling flabby vs feeling fit is more of a mental thing than a reality thing, for the most part. Some of it may have to do with bloating, just try and remind yourself that you are still in the smaller pants :) I went from a tight 22 to now a 12 and I still feel and see the same size most of the time. I think the brain takes longer to catch up sometimes.

    If my scale doesn't want to budge for longer than I'd like I will do a fasting day, or a few days of super clean eating. So far that's been enough to give my weight loss that little push and start the scale moving again.

    I've never thought of a fasting day... my changes have usually been thinking I wasn't eating enough. Do you just not eat anything???
  • dangerousdumpling
    dangerousdumpling Posts: 1,109 Member
    I started weight training my second week of my new lifestyle so that would have been the second week of January.

    I'm currently eating 1822 calories a day which is my TDEE minus 500 calories. MFP had me at 1400. I was fatigued, moody and starving. Just wasn't enough food. I've also increased my water intake to about 90 ounces a day starting last week. I'm thinking I wasn't drinking enough.

    Yes I have weighed/measured every ounce of food that has crossed my lips since January 1st. I'm very honest with my food diary otherwise what's the point! LOL I use the biggest loser digital scale.

    When was the last time you recalculated your TDEE? You may need to adjust those numbers if you are losing inches even if you're not losing many pounds.
    Like I said, I am losing weight slowly, too. I have made the choice to accept slow weight loss over lowering my calories. I don't do well with hunger so I'm sticking with TDEE - 10-20%. If you are afraid to eat at maintenance for a while keep in mind that you may put on a pound or two of water weight but it's not actual weight/fat gain. It's just fluid if you aren't eating a calorie surplus. You're eventually going to have to eat maintenance calories anyway so hopefully it's not too scary for you. You could increase by 200 calories for a few days or a week and then go down to 1772 and give that a few weeks or a month and see if that works. If you've changed your workouts, weigh your food carefully, and are logging calories faithfully then you can either accept that this might be your current rate of weight loss or you can change up your caloric intake. Who knows? You may need to eat more. I don't know what your activity level is.

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