My weight won't go below 146 lbs

I am 5'4 1/2" and after stalling for almost two months after I started exercising a little more everyday plus raising my caloric intake by 500 calories (from 1200 to 1700) the weight started to come off. It came off slooooowly but it did come off!

Believe me, it is so frustrating sticking to what you think is right and not having the scale move AT ALL. I was really nervous about going up in calories because it didn't make any sense but it really worked. Now I'm up to between 1800-1900 calories and I still lose about 1/2 pound a week. I was grouchy and tired only eating 1200 calories a day too!

Kim your posts are so lovely and positive. I actually found a thread you started on getting your BMR tested and how that gave you so much more to work with. QuietBloom mentioned it yesterday so that is something I now want to get done. I have no idea where to go but I will research it.

All of you on this thread are such a wonderful and warm group of people. I cannot thank you enough for your support.

Your welcome!

I forgot to mention something else important. I was in defecit from April 2010 - January 2013 and for some of the months i would eat at a moderate defecit being 20% defecit and then when I felt like I needed a bit of a break from the 20% defecit , I would eat slightly below/or at maintenance

Here is what happened to me:

When I ate at 20% defecit I lost scale weight and measurements.
It was a faster process

When I ate at maintenance/slightly below maintenance I lost measurements. (no scale weight)
It was a slower way to go. Very successful but just slower

Read Lyall Mcdonald body recomposition. If you haven't actually lost scale weight in the past 4 months then maybe you are eating closer to maintenance than you think.

I would continue if I were you to do your exercise program for a couple more months to see if it's the new exercise that has caused the scale to stop moving or if it's because your recomping. Maybe once your body gets over the shock of the new exercise regime the scale will start to move again. So I guess it's wait and see.

Hi Phaedra, just came across your post, this is my first time posting something but I'd like to give you some insight and my own experiences in the matter, however i have not dealt with such an extreme weight loss as yourself so congratulations on all the hard work and continuation with consistency.

Those who are telling you that you need to increase your calories or have a diet break are probably right.

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So this is from personal experience... (not that important so skip passed it down to my suggestions)

At the peak of my fat loss, i was consuming about 1500 calories a day, keep in mind, this was down from 3000-3500 a day, with my maintenance originally being about 2700 calories (I'm a male btw) by the time i got to 1500 calories in a 4 month period, i hit a plateau hard, and i was also doing cardio most days on top of the deficit along with 6-7 days a week of heavy weight training. I hadn't lost almost any weight in 3 weeks of doing that.

After going on a holiday, for 3 weeks onwards starting from my holiday (i track calories everyday no matter what), i was consuming 3000-4500 a day, up from 1500 which was my low point, i had stopped all activity, no cardio no weight training for 3 weeks since i didn't have access to it. In those 3 weeks, i gained about 5 pounds, buit only took me about 1.5 weeks to get back to my weight pre-holiday, and my maintenance is now up to 2400 and I'm able to lose weight on anything less than 2400

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Not only is your maintenance calories not a static number, but especially when you've been in a caloric deficit for too long, it really messes with your metabolism and such. So whilst you may believe your maintenance to be 1600 per se, your metabolism may have adapted beacuse of your prolonged deficit - and considering you've been doing this for weeks on the same numbers with no success, then all is likely.

There are a couple ways i think you can go about this

1) A real break from diet, not just a couple hundred calorie increase here and there, but i mean a full on break for a week or two. Be prepared to gain a couple pounds but in the long term for your health and such, you make that sacrifice to achieve your future goals, you will be happy you did so. You maybe skeptical at first but it can be well worth it. Any extra poundage you gain from 149+ should be easy to work off once you go back to your deficit, but keep in mind if you don't do this all out (like consuming a extra 200 cals vs 600+++cals per day) you won't reap the benefits and you will probably be less satisfied with the end result.

2) A carb refeed day (cheat day) - Basically a more planned out cheat day which you choose to purposely go over your current deficit, mainly through carbohydrates with your fats and protein being pretty similar as it would in your normal deficit. Apologies if you are already doing this as I didn't go through all 7 pages of posts but basically if you're not doing this already, you need to incorporate this weekly or 10 day cycles, just have it there.

The point of carb refeed days other than keeping someone sane throughout their prolonged diet is that it replenishes your muscle glycogen, probably give you some boost in energy for your workouts, may help you burn more calories and retain muscle mass. Again in some cases (depending on how much you go over your calories) that you gain a little weight, but nothing that won't be detrimental to your goals, it's also possible that you eat 600 up to 1000 extra calories on that day and not gain any fat off it.

If you're doing this already, than you may have to resort to #1

In any case, i hope this all works out for you, remember not to give up and keep training hard as we all strive to be fitter and healthier for our future. Good luck!

Thank to this tread, I became to believe that I have been eating at my maintenance level all along..because I haven't lost any single pound for over a year...although my body fat dropped and my six packs are clearly visible. I will fine tune my diet again...

But you don't need to tune your diet!! Just keep doing exactly what you have been doing. Who cares that you didn't lose a pound! You have had wonderful success! Your body fat dropped & your ABS are visible now !! Visible 6 pack abs.........VISIBLE !

Did you take regular photos from 12 month ago to today ? I would love to see the transformation photos !!!! I would kill to see my 6 pack!!


I'm not directing this just at you but what I've noticed on here is far too much obsession with that scale number.

thank you Kim for the kind words. The picture on my profile was taken a couple of weeks ago although it was just one arm.

I know, right? by now I should really care less about the number on the scale but...I can't; it has been in my head since I remember. I was a chubby kid and till now I still see myself so in the mirror. I don't wear swimsuit so killer abs means not as much as you would think...I look bulky with clothes on and that's why.

Phaedra,

That's wonderful! I'm so very proud of you!

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

Just wanted to say that my weight did end up moving down. I've lost 4 pounds since I first posted on this thread. I can't exactly pinpoint what I've done so far but it could be a combination of:

Drinking an extra 2 cups of water.

Sticking to a range of 100 to 110 gr. of carbs (I never was a big carb consumer anyway).

Jogging and extra mile or two per week.

Increasing my calories to 1350 but not eating exercise calories back. This I don't think I can stick too. I need more calories in me but, for now, I've moved past 146 pounds.

It's going to take some more tweaking, adding, removing, to find that sweet spot where I go back to losing steadily every week. I've also dropped a few inches since I first posted on this thread.

What I've gained:

I've gained several of the kind, sweet, patient, supportive, encouraging posters who replied to this thread as MFP friends. Without their daily rallying around me the four-pound loss would have been even harder.

Good! Remember the plateau also may have broken if you'd changed nothing at all. It's pretty hard to really pinpoint what has what effect.

The 'weight x 12' thing is just a quick and dirty RMR estimator. Because it ignores age and gender, it's too high for me when I'm sedentary, but not by a ton. Sometimes you see advice to eat 'current weight x 10' in calories, too, or 'ideal weight x 12'.

Just wanted to say that my weight did end up moving down. I've lost 4 pounds since I first posted on this thread. I can't exactly pinpoint what I've done so far but it could be a combination of:

Drinking an extra 2 cups of water.

Sticking to a range of 100 to 110 gr. of carbs (I never was a big carb consumer anyway).

Jogging and extra mile or two per week.

Increasing my calories to 1350 but not eating exercise calories back. This I don't think I can stick too. I need more calories in me but, for now, I've moved past 146 pounds.

It's going to take some more tweaking, adding, removing, to find that sweet spot where I go back to losing steadily every week. I've also dropped a few inches since I first posted on this thread.

What I've gained:

I've gained several of the kind, sweet, patient, supportive, encouraging posters who replied to this thread as MFP friends. Without their daily rallying around me the four-pound loss would have been even harder.

Good job. Yeah, if you can bump up the calories a bit, without eating back, that would be good.
But well done! Keep doing the other stuff for sure!

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

That would be too few calories for me. It might get some/most people in the ballpark, but for me that's at least 200 calories short of what I should be eating for optimal energy and muscle preservation.

Here's the "key" and it works for EVERYINE I promise.
Take your exact weight of what you are right now. 130lbs
Multiply that by 12 okay, THAT number tells you how many calories your eating
everyday right now.
The trick is to stay under that calorie figure.
& in doing so you'll lose weight.
SERIOUSLY read every calorie intake on labels you'd be surprised how fast
calories add up.
I personally use a salad plate not a dinner plate for every meal.
When I'm done with my first plate, I push it away. Yes my tummy is a little hungry but I don't cave into it.

That would be too few calories for me. It might get some/most people in the ballpark, but for me that's at least 200 calories short of what I should be eating for optimal energy and muscle preservation.

Too low for me too. My daily expenditure without exercise, is around 1700. I weigh 123 lbs.

Yet another opportunity for me to say I LOVE MY FITBIT,

Interestingly, it's reasonably close for me. I too LOVE MY FITBIT!

I think after losing a lot of weight , things become different

secondly weight loss is complicated at lower weights

:flowerforyou:

did things improve now for you ?

I think after losing a lot of weight , things become different

secondly weight loss is complicated at lower weights

:flowerforyou:

did things improve now for you ?

It's certainly a smaller window.