Need help breaking this pesky plateau.
LaChinaDoll
Posts: 168 Member
I've been stuck for 7 weeks. Up and down the same 1-2lbs. I started TurboFire right when I hit it which seems strange to me since I thought changing up your workout routine helps break it. So I have not lost any weight since starting the program 7 weeks ago. I have tried to eat as close to 1900 calories as possible. (I'm pretty sure that's my tdee -20%) I've tried lowering cals and upping. Burning an average 500 calories from exercise 6 times a week. Trying to eat as beat as I can. Drinking an average of 120 oz of water. I really don't know what else I can do. I do have bad hormonal issues I have been working with my doctor to level out. I have managed to lose 20lbs but that is since January. I have been as consistent as possible I will post my stats to see if perhaps I have my numbers wrong. My diary is also open if that helps.
27 yo
5'3"
I'd say I'm moderately active aside from my workout and light house cleaning like laundry, cooking etc.
167lbs
Thanks in advance.
27 yo
5'3"
I'd say I'm moderately active aside from my workout and light house cleaning like laundry, cooking etc.
167lbs
Thanks in advance.
0
Replies
-
I will add I would like to lose 30lbs. It seems like it is taking me forever to even get to 20lbs since I keep going up and down. I don't have any thoughts of quitting and plan to finish out this TurboFire program as I set out to do even with no results.0
-
what other calorie ranges have you tried? How long have you stuck with the change in your calories before going back to 1900? And you said your moderately active before your workout? or with your workout and all that you would consider yourself moderately active?0
-
Id say thats with my workout an hour a day 6 times a week. I tried 1700 and 1900. It hasn't budged since seven weeks I started at lower calories 1700 avg and now 1900 avg for the last two weeks.0
-
So 6 hrs a week of just exercise is not 3-5 hrs of Moderately Active.
What is your non-exercise day composed of, vast majority that use FitBit and BodyMedia discover on non-exercise day at sedentary desk job, they burn closer to lightly active level. Which means exercise in the chart just pushed you higher.
So you were eating at 1700 and now 1900 gross, and exercise burns off about 500 calories, leaving 1200-1400 for body to work with for BMR and other required functions, like repair from all that exercise.
And your BMR is actually .....
Are you eating enough? I'll bet not.
You didn't lose at 1700 because of suppressed metabolism and TDEE, you were eating at maintenance.
You went to 1900 and still no loss for same reason.
You haven't unstressed your body enough yet that it'll allow a deficit and weight loss.
Now, inches should be included here since you started a new exercise program that encourages carb burn, and that means body is going to try to improve by storing more carbs, but if not eating enough it can't, until after a day of eating more.
Then you deplete them.
Water fluctuations.
You weighing on a valid weigh-in day? Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels and not sore from last lifting session?
Just ran your numbers in this, if your bodyfat % is higher than avg, than your BMR is lower than expected, and that means eating too much. If it's better, than eating too little. But also depends on your other daily activity.
Should get your best estimates, especially of TDEE. Clearly in Very Active level or more.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/961054-spreadsheet-for-bodyfat-bmr-tdee-progress-tracker0 -
Hi and thanks for answering. On a normal day I take care of my two year old son, dress him, make meals, laundry,dishes, sweeping etc. My body fat according to the scale and formula with measurements I was referred to online says 40% body fat. I do use a fitbit if that helps and I've noticed my calorie intake is similar to what fitbit says my daily allowance is.0
-
I do sit on the computer desk to edit pictures plus other online time.0
-
According to my latest fitbit report 2361cals is the average of calories burned per day. I times that by .80 and the number I got was 1888. Would that be the correct number?0
-
I eat according to my fitbit but. One thing to check is make sure you have your activity level on mfp is set right if you are eating daily what your fitbit says. If you are using a custom set tdee(same number everyday with fitbit disconnected) then it won't matter as long as you had it set right in the first place. The different settings will give you a different mfp daily allowance to start with.
1888 is right for 20% or 2006 for 15%
I average 15,000 steps a day and have mine set at active.0 -
Ok I believe they are both set correctly because at the end of the day they are both within the same amount of calories usually off by 0-50 calories but close enough I would say. I do have negative calorie adjustment on as well. Should I turn that off? Also would it be better to follow fitbits allowance daily or eat 1888 daily? Thank you and my average step count is 9-10,000.0
-
Keep adjustments both ways enabled, because you took 20% off avg TDEE, but say days will be higher, some lower.
Now, you want MFP's estimate of your daily maintenance to be near that TDEE figure, for the least amount of adjustments, or usually that's easier doing this method.
So take that TDEE figure / Mifflin BMR that MFP is using (under Apps - BMR calc).
TDEE / BMR is activity factor.
Set MFP activity level to whatever is closest to that number.
1.25 - Sedentary
1.35 - Light Active
1.45 - Active
1.55 - Very Active
Set weight loss goal to maintain.
MFP should have daily goal near that TDEE, or as close as you'll get it anyway.
Now go manually set your NET eating goal to 1888.
Any adjustments to that goal should be followed.
FitBit and MFP both go by block calorie deficit, 250, 500, 750, 1000.
TDEE deficit method you are using now is by %, and usually allows better control - so follow MFP's goal now since you manually changed it to TDEE Deficit method.0 -
Thank you very much!!! My activity level is 1.61 according to calculations. Ok one last thing. You said follow adjustments as in any negative adjustments or positive ones to calories? Will I need to stop entering exercise calories?0
-
bump0
-
Thank you very much!!! My activity level is 1.61 according to calculations. Ok one last thing. You said follow adjustments as in any negative adjustments or positive ones to calories? Will I need to stop entering exercise calories?
Both adjustments. Though it appears you'll mainly receive positive ones, so hit your goals. Would you give up on goal weight if 10% away from it? Don't miss your eating goal by 10% either, reach it.
Whatever exercise you log, you merely replace what FitBit had estimated for that time.
So if you do a lifting workout for 60 min.
FitBit saw a burn of 150 calories, badly underestimated because it saw hardly anything.
You log workout and take MFP estimate which is still small compared to cardio, but very true, of say 350 calories.
That 150 is replaced by 350, and your TDEE goes up that day.
You'll likely receive a correct adjustment to eat more, say 200 more.
Then on rest day, you'll receive 100 adjustment down.0 -
Thank you very much!!! My activity level is 1.61 according to calculations. Ok one last thing. You said follow adjustments as in any negative adjustments or positive ones to calories? Will I need to stop entering exercise calories?
Both adjustments. Though it appears you'll mainly receive positive ones, so hit your goals. Would you give up on goal weight if 10% away from it? Don't miss your eating goal by 10% either, reach it.
Whatever exercise you log, you merely replace what FitBit had estimated for that time.
So if you do a lifting workout for 60 min.
FitBit saw a burn of 150 calories, badly underestimated because it saw hardly anything.
You log workout and take MFP estimate which is still small compared to cardio, but very true, of say 350 calories.
That 150 is replaced by 350, and your TDEE goes up that day.
You'll likely receive a correct adjustment to eat more, say 200 more.
Then on rest day, you'll receive 100 adjustment down.
Ok so like a day like today I already have it set for 1888. I exercised burned 531 calories and with fitbit adjustment it's telling me so far for today I can eat 2107 calories. I've seen many people log in exercise as "1" calorie so I was thinking that's what I had to do from now on since I set my goal to tdee -20%. So in reality I was eating way less than I should've been??? Not too much?0 -
Ok so like a day like today I already have it set for 1888. I exercised burned 531 calories and with fitbit adjustment it's telling me so far for today I can eat 2107 calories. I've seen many people log in exercise as "1" calorie so I was thinking that's what I had to do from now on since I set my goal to tdee -20%. So in reality I was eating way less than I should've been??? Not too much?
The 1 calorie is when they do total TDEE method, and all exercise is included.
You are not using that method, you are using movable goal based on FitBit findings each day, but initially based on average FitBit TDEE - some days you were higher, some days lower.
And MFP doesn't go high enough in it's activity level frankly to work with your schedule.
Your logging of calories may or may not change your goal.
Some workouts FitBit may inflate the calorie burn, but then you log less. Negative adjustment maybe, or not as much positive probably.
Today, you'd have to see what FitBit already had estimated for that time, you could have entered exactly what FitBit already had for that time, your increased calories today was based on other increase to daily activity over the avg.
If you want to do total TDEE method, you'd need to unsync your FitBit and just use it for encouragement to keep walking as much as you do, but NO back and forth to MFP.
You'd use it's best estimate of your normal week to figure out an avg TDEE level, replacing it's bad burn estimates with more accurate ones.
Just gotta decide how you want to do it.0 -
Ok so like a day like today I already have it set for 1888. I exercised burned 531 calories and with fitbit adjustment it's telling me so far for today I can eat 2107 calories. I've seen many people log in exercise as "1" calorie so I was thinking that's what I had to do from now on since I set my goal to tdee -20%. So in reality I was eating way less than I should've been??? Not too much?
The 1 calorie is when they do total TDEE method, and all exercise is included.
You are not using that method, you are using movable goal based on FitBit findings each day, but initially based on average FitBit TDEE - some days you were higher, some days lower.
And MFP doesn't go high enough in it's activity level frankly to work with your schedule.
Your logging of calories may or may not change your goal.
Some workouts FitBit may inflate the calorie burn, but then you log less. Negative adjustment maybe, or not as much positive probably.
Today, you'd have to see what FitBit already had estimated for that time, you could have entered exactly what FitBit already had for that time, your increased calories today was based on other increase to daily activity over the avg.
If you want to do total TDEE method, you'd need to unsync your FitBit and just use it for encouragement to keep walking as much as you do, but NO back and forth to MFP.
You'd use it's best estimate of your normal week to figure out an avg TDEE level, replacing it's bad burn estimates with more accurate ones.
Just gotta decide how you want to do it.
Thank you for taking the time to answe me. Means a lot and you've been a lot of help. In your opinion what method works best from what youve seen around? I am just wanting to find what amount of calories i should really be eating and like you said try to aim to that goal. Also what about fitbits suggested calorie intake at the end of the day should my MFP match it or is that something I shouldn't worry about? For instance yesterday MFP gave me a total of 1959 with adjustments but Fitbit gave me 1835.0 -
Oh and I see what you mean my totals yesterday went from 2100 to around 1900 so yes it did even out. That got me a little confused lol0
-
Thank you for taking the time to answe me. Means a lot and you've been a lot of help. In your opinion what method works best from what youve seen around? I am just wanting to find what amount of calories i should really be eating and like you said try to aim to that goal. Also what about fitbits suggested calorie intake at the end of the day should my MFP match it or is that something I shouldn't worry about? For instance yesterday MFP gave me a total of 1959 with adjustments but Fitbit gave me 1835.
Depends if your routine is really pretty steady except for odd day out, but mainly consistent.
But eating to a very common amount daily really seems to help ones at the start of eating at reasonable deficit, which compared to before means eating more, and that allows for better meal planning.
Syncing at almost end of day and having 900 calories to go can backfire badly if you constantly miss out on all or most of it.
So FitBit goal and MFP goal are not going to match, they use different BMR's to start with, and FitBit's is based on actual activity, MFP is based on your non-exercise level with exercise added when done, and both let you select amount of loss.
Stick with MFP if you want daily adjustment level.
But I'd suggest the total TDEE deficit method to start with, either with minor adjustments for daily activity, or total straight number all the time.0 -
Thank you for taking the time to answe me. Means a lot and you've been a lot of help. In your opinion what method works best from what youve seen around? I am just wanting to find what amount of calories i should really be eating and like you said try to aim to that goal. Also what about fitbits suggested calorie intake at the end of the day should my MFP match it or is that something I shouldn't worry about? For instance yesterday MFP gave me a total of 1959 with adjustments but Fitbit gave me 1835.
Depends if your routine is really pretty steady except for odd day out, but mainly consistent.
But eating to a very common amount daily really seems to help ones at the start of eating at reasonable deficit, which compared to before means eating more, and that allows for better meal planning.
Syncing at almost end of day and having 900 calories to go can backfire badly if you constantly miss out on all or most of it.
So FitBit goal and MFP goal are not going to match, they use different BMR's to start with, and FitBit's is based on actual activity, MFP is based on your non-exercise level with exercise added when done, and both let you select amount of loss.
Stick with MFP if you want daily adjustment level.
But I'd suggest the total TDEE deficit method to start with, either with minor adjustments for daily activity, or total straight number all the time.
OK so either one or the other but dont follow both. How I have it set up now is TDEE with adjustments right? Now if I wanted a straight number would I base that off Fitbit TDEE or say a scooby calculator?0 -
Interesting. Trying to "fine-tune" my fitbit, etc. so trying to see what everyone says about it.0
-
bump0
-
OK so either one or the other but dont follow both. How I have it set up now is TDEE with adjustments right? Now if I wanted a straight number would I base that off Fitbit TDEE or say a scooby calculator?
Why guess at 5 levels when you have a device that is telling you what you burn?
FitBit of course. May or may not match a level exactly, doubtful.
If you have a week of exercise it measures well, and replaced time and calories with stuff it doesn't (like lifting or spinning), then take a normal couple weeks and find your avg daily TDEE.
Take 15% cut, set that as goal, and unsync the FitBit.0 -
Bump0
