Feeling lost

crows96
crows96 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I am really new to weight loss and being healthier and I'm feeling quite lost as to what I'm doing. I started eating healthier about 4-5 weeks ago and have exercised everyday for anywhere from 1-4 hours a day. Up until last week I had lost about 17 pounds but now I've hit a plateau. I changed my exercising to something different and it feels more strenuous of a workout than what I was doing. But so far still stuck. I'm thinking maybe my calorie intake is too low? I've been eating 1200 calories a day and its estimating I'm exercising 800-900 a day. I'm also 5'7" and currently around 260. Part of my problem is I'm a little limited as far as what I can do exercise wise. Part of why I'm trying to lose weight is I need to be a little thinner in order to fix a badly damaged knee. So things involving a lot of stress on the knee I can't do (in fact I can only walk with a brace and even that is limited.) So I'm not sure how to break this plateau. More calories? More exercise? Less exercise? A combination of things? I have a long term goal of losing enough weight to be in the normal range for my height. But right now, as far as surgery, I need to lose about 35 pounds and I feel really lost on how to get the scale going down again.

Replies

  • Saramelie
    Saramelie Posts: 308 Member
    You are doing 1 to 4 hours of exercice PER DAY and eating only 1200 cal???? My Gosh, you are starving yourself!! Up your calories and ease up on the exercice (like, 1 hour a day is more than enought) and then wait and see what happens. You should eat 1200 PLUS the calories you burn exercising. 260 pounds needs a LOT more. I am 206, still losing at 1700 cal/day. Aren't you hungry all the time?? Good luck with your journey.
  • prdough
    prdough Posts: 76 Member
    Whenever I hit a plateau or stop losing even when I am measuring food accurately and eating at a deficit, I take 2 days and eat a ton of fruit and vegetables and have a homemade smoothy for dinner (just fruit, spinach, some greek yogurt and a little milk). No salt, nothing prepackaged, all natural fruit and vegetables for 2 days.

    gives your colon a nice little boost and will help you get rid of all that salt and gunk in your gut.

    While it is water weight that will get flushed, it will get the scale to move and put your mind back on track for success.

    It has worked for me! give it a shot.
  • crows96
    crows96 Posts: 5 Member
    That's the thing, I'm not feeling hungry at all. But I had horrible eating habits before. I would eat once a day (and sometimes once every couple of days) because I really don't care to eat. Then when I would eat it wouldn't be healthy foods and I did no exercising. Now I'm completely changing everything. I'm eating something six times a day. And I got really dedicated to trying to exercise. But the eating thing has been hard. I eat vegetables, try and eat more proteins and snacks that have no fat. But the calorie thing I'm struggling with. I'm having to be creative to get 1200 calories (because vegetables are really low in calories) and I'm not sure how to 1) get past my fear that more calories will mean weight gain and 2) how to increase caloric intake in a healthy way without having to eat constantly all day.
  • bf43005
    bf43005 Posts: 287
    For your height and weight you aren't eating enough. I'm the same height and weigh less but eat more than that. You need to check your MFP settings. I had a similar issue and actually increased my calories and lost another 5 lbs. Eat something like nuts that are higher in calories but still good for you, unsalted of course.
  • crows96
    crows96 Posts: 5 Member
    Thanks for everyone's responses. I finally got frustrated enough that I went in and met with a dietitian. She gave me an idea of what my caloric intake should be and when I told her what I was doing for exercise she thought it was good but that I shouldn't exercise more than 90 minutes a day at most. I had to spend some time over the holidays unable to exercise because of an injury so I adjusted my calories accordingly and when I returned home it seems what I'm doing is helping because my weight went down another 7 pounds. Now I'm back to being able to exercise so I've increased my caloric intake to what the dietitian recommended and hopefully I'll continue to see results. My question, however, is this. I've read a couple differing things as far as when to exercise. I read that exercising in the morning before you eat anything can increase your metabolism and make you burn more fat. I've also read you should exercise at different times in an effort to "trick" your body, because if your body gets used to burning a significant amount of calories at the same time each day your body will respond by withholding or hanging on to calories in preparation for the exercise burning the calories. I'm really not sure if there is one right answer but I'm curious; what have any of you done? What seems to have worked or not worked? Again, I'm really new to all this stuff and there seems to be so much conflicting information. But I want to optimize my workouts so they'll be the most beneficial, so any suggestions or personal successes of things you've tried would be great. Thanks again!
  • nomeejerome
    nomeejerome Posts: 2,616 Member
    OP:
    Read this link and all of the links in it.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?page=1#posts-16625920

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