3 weeks dieting and not a lb lost - check my diary?

Maybe you're not eating enough calories? I am not training, however I hit a severe plateau when I first started out. I was eating around 1900 calories a day and not losing a dang thing. After two months of this my doctor sent me in for a MedGem which tests your resting metabolic rate. It turned out that just to lay in bed and be alive would take me a little over 2000 calories. Add in walking to classes, walking home, water aerobics and normal life and I was needing around 3000 calories if I wanted to maintain. My dietician bumped me up to 2100 calories a day and since then I have steadily been losing weight.

^^This^^
Also at this level, the types of food as many people mentioned can make an impact.
Good Luck!

Wow I didn't think of that. Maybe I should get my metabolism re-tested. interesting!

First sorry for the long reply.

I would agree with the above. Metabolic slow down IS real.
I am not a racer but I do like doing a lot of biking and 12 months ago I was having the same sort of results as you current are. I was training about 10-15 hours a week and kept dropping my calories with no real loss of weight/body fat. I started with dropping to 1,500 calories per day (eating back exercise calories) lost a couple pounds in 2 days then stalled. After about 3 weeks I dropped to 1,200/day and once again dropped a few pounds in the first couple days then stalled. Finally I dropped to 1,000 cal per day (which including what I burnt off doing exercising meant 1,500-1,800 total eaten) with the same sort of results. At this point I was so ravenously hungry I started to be in a bad mood and not able to function as well. I also had no energy for my workouts and would look forward to the first gel/clif bar I would allow myself 45min into my bike ride after which my energy level would pick up. After a few months late last summer of not tracking calories (and completing my first solo 20+mph bike ride!) I discovered www.iifym.com and used the calculators to calculate out my TDEE and macro nutrients. After testing for a few months last fall I realized it was quite accurate (though works best for steady/weightlifting type workouts where you are not burning multiple thousands of calories in a single century ride). Just remember for TDEE you do NOT eat back your workout calories. This winter I kept on a strict diet/workout plan for 2 months following the TDEE from iifym and while eating 2,450 cal a day (650-950cal more then my lowest 12 months ago- but much more carefully measured) lost at a very STEADY 1.5-2lbs, 0.5% body fat and 0.25” waist measurement per week for all 8 weeks.

As others have been mentioned the start of your race season is not the best time to be dropping weight or re-figuring out your maintenance calories. Any cutting of calories means you are not going to be building muscle very effectively (or at all) and will have less energy to train. To train/compete at the level you are I know you must have great will power and self motivation so if you say you feel like you are starving you might actually be.
If previously you tested out as maintenance calories between 1,950-2,250 then with calculating what you burn exercising you could easily eat 2,000 or even 2,500 on some days and still lose 1lb/week. I know it takes a big leap of faith to up your calories by that much (and normally a couple weeks for your body to readjust from starvation mode to being properly fed) so it is something you will have to decide to do on your own or not though it did work for me. Best of luck!

Wait...you're running 12 miles at under 6 minutes a mile? 12 miles divided by 70 minutes? That's close to world record territory. I find that amazing.

I didn't scan the comments to see if anyone else suggested this, but I was working out 6 days a week, eating under 1200 calories/day and never lost weight UNTIL I tried a Ketosis regimen. I upped my calories to 1400 (so my body stopped clinging so desperately in starvation mode to those fat calories), made sure my fat intake was *higher* than my protein and I cut all processed sugars and grain carbs out of my diet. It is not sustainable (because who can eat that much fat all the time - gross), but it will train your body to eat fat after about a week, and it worked to kick my notoriously sluggish metabolism in the *kitten*. I dropped the majority of my remaining body fat in a month, and when I finally started eating normally again, my metabolism has been much more efficient.

cut calories down to 1500-1600, cut carbs down under 200.

I would try never going over with calories. Vegetables can be very filling and yet low on calories. Good luck! Keep at it!

I am not trying to argue or prove them wrong. I am just adding more information as not everyone can get the whole picture from just a food diary/not the same athletic background as that changes things and can make some suggestions actually wrong. I am weeding out the suggestions I know are incorrect and finding the ones that I think might be spot on or something I didn't think about before.

Understandable. I appreciate your trying to explain your situation and sorry if I repeat something that's already been said. But...

You better not be losing weight on 1500 net calories - that is, if you're using the world correctly. I'm a 152 lb 5'5" female and 1500 net is my target to lose 1/2 lb per week and has been working pretty consistently. One main thing to drastically change the equation for you is if you're very active *outside* of exercise. Like if you don't really do cars and walk everywhere , if you're a waitress , mail man or contractor for a living, etc. All things being equal, caloric target of a tinier chick would be less.

Edit: but hey, three weeks is a very short length of time. In the improbable event that you're eating below maintenance, could just be your muscles retaining water for repair due to all of your strenuous physical activity or some such reason

With high caloric foods, be sure to weigh/measure accuately. 'cause even if you're off a bit in measuring, the calories can be off a HUGE amount.

Peanut butter ~ think you're using 3 Tablespoons ? take the amount that you normally do. Then RE-measure with an official measuring Tablespoon. Level it off with the back of a knife, ie run the knife over the top and remove any excess /rounded amount.

you may be surprised that you're consuming more than 3 Tablespoons, ... might even be consuming an extra 100 calories or so.

Are are you able to track 8 different nutrients ? Please share

My settings only allow 6 nutrients.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/reports/printable_diary/zekerella


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cut calories down to 1500-1600, cut carbs down under 200.

You realize she is training for a distance event right? A half Ironman in the next couple of months if I am correct.

alrighty the whole "starvation mode" is total crap. Starvation mode is when you're so skinny that you barely have any muscle so you're not burning any calories, and it needs every single calorie to do basic bodily function. This comes from a gradual metabolic adjustment to that low weight, but by the time you actually got to "starvation mode" you'd be well underweight.

That's not starvation mode either.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss