We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!
I'm new to the group - have questions
chelleymae1105
Posts: 36 Member
Hi All,
I'm new to this group and have gone through most of the stickies and must reads (as well as the questioning my intake sticky). So here's my story.
Background: Overweight since 9 years old. Always in sports, and when not in sports, I've worked out in some way, shape, or form.
I'm 35
Feb 2012 - April 2013: Lost 34 lbs on WW. Before starting WW I was working out 4-5 days a week...mixture of HIIT, Extreme Intervals, Spin circuit, and Kickboxing. I also walk my dogs every day for about 25 mins. The weight came off slowly and steadily on WW, eating 1300-1500 cals/day (I figured this out later when i double tracked with MFP and WW). In April, I went to Disney for 10 days, didn't track, so I expected to gain weight, which I did, 5 lbs in total. When I got back home, I was back on WW and back to my normal workout schedule. I could not take off any weight...for 7 months. I recommitted, making sure i measured and tracked everything, played with the amount of weekly points I ate, increased exercise, etc. Nothing seemed to work. Then the Holidays came and there were lots of parties and holiday meals....I was so frustrated with my 7 month plateau that I stopped tracking. I did continue to make good food choices 80% of the time, and the other 20% I was at parties, drinking, eating, etc...but definitely not to the level I've ever indulged in the past. Well, I gained 5 lbs in about a month.
Jan 2014: Recommitted to WW, making sure to track, researching like crazy on "plateaus on Weight Watchers". Again, after being on the WW program, doing the same thing I did to lose the first 34 lbs, I started playing with my weekly points again (I was eating 22-30 of these when I initially lost the 34 lbs), upped my exercise, tried the Maggie Plan, the Wendie Plan, calorie Zig Zagging, etc. No weight lost. After 2 months of this, I finally quit WW, but not before double tracking on MFP to get an idea of my actual cals.
March 2014: MFP started and major research on the boards. Found EM2WL where it talked about how so many people on very low cal diets would plateau after a while due to metabolic adaption or something like that. It also talked about lifting heavy, so I did incorporate this into my routine. I also found TDEE/ BMR calcs and the science behind it made sense. This is when I found out I had been eating below my estimated BMR for 2 years essentially (TDEE calculations below), that that could have slowed down my metabo, etc. So I decided a metabolism reset was in order and that's that I've been working up to for 6 weeks...slowly adding in cals to get to my TDEE (avg of several calculators) of 2500, which I've been eating for about 2 weeks (trying anyway, it's hard to eat that many cals!). Since starting this, I have gained another 4 lbs, which the group boards told me would happen so I was prepared.
Weight: 215
Height: 5'7"
Age: 35
BF% (measured w/ calipers, 5 measurements taken): 27.9%
Activity currently: HIIT once a week (50 mins), Strong Lifts 5X5 3 days/ week, Kickboxing 1 day, walking the dogs every day.
Scooby:
BMR: 1713
TDEE: 2656
Lowest TDEE Calculation I found on the web gave me this:
BMR: 1682
TDEE: 2386
So my questions are basically, am I on the right path? Should I be eating at maintenance to return my metabolism to a normal level? What are your thoughts on eating below your BMR (I did read some stickies that said this was not really a big deal, but if not, why did WW stop working after working for 11 months?)?
And most of all, what do I need to do to start losing weight again?
Thanks!
I'm new to this group and have gone through most of the stickies and must reads (as well as the questioning my intake sticky). So here's my story.
Background: Overweight since 9 years old. Always in sports, and when not in sports, I've worked out in some way, shape, or form.
I'm 35
Feb 2012 - April 2013: Lost 34 lbs on WW. Before starting WW I was working out 4-5 days a week...mixture of HIIT, Extreme Intervals, Spin circuit, and Kickboxing. I also walk my dogs every day for about 25 mins. The weight came off slowly and steadily on WW, eating 1300-1500 cals/day (I figured this out later when i double tracked with MFP and WW). In April, I went to Disney for 10 days, didn't track, so I expected to gain weight, which I did, 5 lbs in total. When I got back home, I was back on WW and back to my normal workout schedule. I could not take off any weight...for 7 months. I recommitted, making sure i measured and tracked everything, played with the amount of weekly points I ate, increased exercise, etc. Nothing seemed to work. Then the Holidays came and there were lots of parties and holiday meals....I was so frustrated with my 7 month plateau that I stopped tracking. I did continue to make good food choices 80% of the time, and the other 20% I was at parties, drinking, eating, etc...but definitely not to the level I've ever indulged in the past. Well, I gained 5 lbs in about a month.
Jan 2014: Recommitted to WW, making sure to track, researching like crazy on "plateaus on Weight Watchers". Again, after being on the WW program, doing the same thing I did to lose the first 34 lbs, I started playing with my weekly points again (I was eating 22-30 of these when I initially lost the 34 lbs), upped my exercise, tried the Maggie Plan, the Wendie Plan, calorie Zig Zagging, etc. No weight lost. After 2 months of this, I finally quit WW, but not before double tracking on MFP to get an idea of my actual cals.
March 2014: MFP started and major research on the boards. Found EM2WL where it talked about how so many people on very low cal diets would plateau after a while due to metabolic adaption or something like that. It also talked about lifting heavy, so I did incorporate this into my routine. I also found TDEE/ BMR calcs and the science behind it made sense. This is when I found out I had been eating below my estimated BMR for 2 years essentially (TDEE calculations below), that that could have slowed down my metabo, etc. So I decided a metabolism reset was in order and that's that I've been working up to for 6 weeks...slowly adding in cals to get to my TDEE (avg of several calculators) of 2500, which I've been eating for about 2 weeks (trying anyway, it's hard to eat that many cals!). Since starting this, I have gained another 4 lbs, which the group boards told me would happen so I was prepared.
Weight: 215
Height: 5'7"
Age: 35
BF% (measured w/ calipers, 5 measurements taken): 27.9%
Activity currently: HIIT once a week (50 mins), Strong Lifts 5X5 3 days/ week, Kickboxing 1 day, walking the dogs every day.
Scooby:
BMR: 1713
TDEE: 2656
Lowest TDEE Calculation I found on the web gave me this:
BMR: 1682
TDEE: 2386
So my questions are basically, am I on the right path? Should I be eating at maintenance to return my metabolism to a normal level? What are your thoughts on eating below your BMR (I did read some stickies that said this was not really a big deal, but if not, why did WW stop working after working for 11 months?)?
And most of all, what do I need to do to start losing weight again?
Thanks!
0
Replies
-
I have two very important questions for you that require self reflection and honesty:
1) Do you own and regularly use a digital food scale?
2) Do you log everything on a daily basis including condiments, nibbles of this or that, cooking oils, etc?0 -
1 - I admit I do not own a food scale, but I do measure everything I can. However, I also did not own a food scale when I lost the 34 lbs on WW either so......
2 - YES, everything. I made sure to be very diligent about my tracking the multiple times I tried to make WW work for me again.
Thanks0
