I need help

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darbbb
darbbb Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
I am male, 52, and weigh 250 pounds. I am trying to lose weight/body fat. Going with mfp's suggestion, I am eating about 1800 calories a day. I am working out 4-5 days a week, a combination of cardio intervals and resistance training. In the last three months, I have gained 14 pounds. I guess the answer is to go low carb, but i was going on the idea that calorie deficit alone would work. It isn't. I need help and suggestions. Thanks.

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  • caitconquersweight
    caitconquersweight Posts: 316 Member
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    Do you weigh your food or do you just use measuring cups or what you think is the correct portion? Do you count every single bite that goes into your mouth? Are you taking your measurements? Are you drinking enough water? Lol, sorry for all the questions, but there's a lot that goes into it.
  • darbbb
    darbbb Posts: 12
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    I measure the things that need to be measured (liguids, etc), and weigh the things that need to be weighed (chicken, etc). The only things I don't track are things like coffee/tea and lettuce. I drink a ton of water. I don't take measurements, but my pants are much tighter.
  • darbbb
    darbbb Posts: 12
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    It's helpful if you read the posts first. I am using a food scale.
  • darbbb
    darbbb Posts: 12
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    *bump*
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    Are you eating back your exercise calories?
  • darbbb
    darbbb Posts: 12
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    I generally eat back about 1/3 or 1/2 of exercise calories. I track exercise calories with a HRM.
  • SKME2013
    SKME2013 Posts: 704 Member
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    I assume you have calculated your TDEE and BMR? There are calculators online to do this. To lose weight you should stay between those two numbers.

    I have also realised that I probably burn much less calories through my exercise than I thought and I tend to ignore exercise calories and do not eat them back.

    Personally, I believe food controls weight and exercise controls fitness, albeit exercise can help to lose weight.

    I do intermittent fasting, a combination of 5:2 fasting, 4:3 and ADF. You can google those if you are interested.

    I hope you find a way to get off the plateau!

    Best of luck
    Stef.
  • Nikiki
    Nikiki Posts: 993
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    have you had a physical to see if there is any medical reason you may be having trouble losing? I have hypothyroidism and without my meds I would be a blimp no matter what I ate...
  • ag27404
    ag27404 Posts: 47 Member
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    have you had a physical to see if there is any medical reason you may be having trouble losing? I have hypothyroidism and without my meds I would be a blimp no matter what I ate...

    I agree with this if you are trying to lose weight (honestly trying) and it isn't working, I'd talk to a doctor. If you log your food on MFP, it is easy to print out. Bring this with you to start the discussion. Good luck.
  • Annie_01
    Annie_01 Posts: 3,096 Member
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    I generally eat back about 1/3 or 1/2 of exercise calories. I track exercise calories with a HRM.

    It is hard to say what someone else is doing wrong...theoretically it appears that you are on track.

    I had to play with my figures and methods to get things to work for me.

    I use a combination of what MFP says and my TDEE. I experimented until I found what worked. After some tracking I figured out that my BMR was probably lower than what the calculators were telling me...not by much but enough to stall my weight loss. I just wasn't burning what I thought that I was.

    Try not eating back your exercise calories for a short time and see if that starts a loss. You are not burning that much anyway so it probably won't hurt you.

    One other thing that I have done when I hit a stall is increase the intensity and/or the amount of time that I exercise.

    I also find that sodium will play a role in my weight loss.
  • darbbb
    darbbb Posts: 12
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    THanks. I have resent my net calories at 1500, which seems crazy for a male who is 6'2 and weighs 250, but I'll try it. I think from my own n=1 experiment here that 'calories in, calories out' is hooey, and this probably has something to do with macros.
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    Be stricter on yourself. Based on your diet, you eat all the calories back and often some more.
    Second, the best estimate of your TDEE is experience: if you are not losing at X calories, then these calories are above your TDEE. So readjust your calories.
    And third, try changing your habits. You have several meals of 1000 calories or so, not here and there, but on a daily basis. If this reflects reality and it is not just careless logging (e.g. logging all day's calories in one meal), it is perhaps time to reevaluate eating habits to allow yourself to fill fuller all day long, but decrease calories. You are also not logging so much lots of food, but rather fattening food and a rather unbalanced diet. I mean, 7 tablespoons of peanut butter and some honey on top, they are going to increase your calories a lot, but are not giving you a very filling lunch. I looked at random on a few days in your diary, and there appears to be almost no "normal" meals. Lots of combinations of highly fattening stuff with things like cereal bars and turkey slices, but this sounds very hard to maintain regarding calories, get everything you need and not feel hungry. Making more balanced choices would help you.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    I am male, 52, and weigh 250 pounds. I am trying to lose weight/body fat. Going with mfp's suggestion, I am eating about 1800 calories a day. I am working out 4-5 days a week, a combination of cardio intervals and resistance training. In the last three months, I have gained 14 pounds. I guess the answer is to go low carb, but i was going on the idea that calorie deficit alone would work. It isn't. I need help and suggestions. Thanks.

    Randomly looking at 3 days in December and your calorie intake was above 2,000 all 3 days. Also, gaining 14 pounds over this period indicates you are under counting your calories by roughly 500 per day every day. Resetting your calories to 1,500 will not change the fact you are not accurately logging your food intake. By keeping your diary open it provides folks an opportunity to assess your food as well and enjoy the discussion or thoughts they provide if you want to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. A starting point would be to use the scale consistently since you've indicated you have one. Some of the 14 pounds may be water retention so give your sodium intake a second look. Good luck.

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