2.5 month stall! So frustrated!!

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howpeculiar7
howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
(Sorry!! I don't mean to repost, but i originally posted this in the wrong spot, it think, under "introduce yourself" when it should have been here)

Hello,
I've been using MFP for about 3 months now. I dropped 10 lbs fairy quickly, and only 2 lbs in the past 2 months! I am so frustrated! I have been following it pretty closely, but the scale has been jumping up and down the same 4lbs. I go to the gym about 2-3 times a week. I started with weight training and cardio, but for the past couple weeks i've switched to running.

I am 5'11, i started at 199 and i am jumping between 186-189lbs daily. I have set my calories to lose 2 lbs per week which gives me 1320 calories. I originally had it set to lose 1.5 lbs but i could not eat all of my calories back at the end of the day after my workout (close to 900!!).

I was wondering if anyone has any tips? I was doing so well at first, but i'm beginning to feel defeated.

Thank you!
Becka

Replies

  • DellaWiedel
    DellaWiedel Posts: 125 Member
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    How are you determining the amount of calories burned? Myfitnesspal is notorious for over-estimating the calories burned, so if you're eating back based on what MFP calculates, you might actually have more net calories than you think. You would get a more accurate measure of calories burned using FitBit or a similar product.
  • GoForLew
    GoForLew Posts: 22
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    Are you tracking your measurements? You might be gaining muscle which might explain the stall in weight loss since muscle weighs more than fat. Sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of success.
  • howpeculiar7
    howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thanks for the reply!
    I use the treadmill calorie counter (calometer?? Ha!) but i'm sure that isn't accurate. And when i was weight training i used an online calorie calculator and subtracted a few to be on the safe side. I noticed MFP estimated calories burned quite high and i didn't trust that.
  • howpeculiar7
    howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
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    Are you tracking your measurements? You might be gaining muscle which might explain the stall in weight loss since muscle weighs more than fat. Sometimes the scale isn't the best indicator of success.

    I haven't kept track of measurements, although i know i have lost inches, my clothes are looser. I was fine with stalling for a couple weeks thinking it was just muscle, but after two months i just figured nothing was happening at all.
  • FitOldMomma
    FitOldMomma Posts: 790 Member
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    Must be frustrating!
    In my experience, MFP is way overestimating the number of calories burned during my workouts. I swim laps 2-3 x's a week and I swim for nearly 2 hours straight. I checked the 'light- moderate' freestyle swimming choice and for my 120 minute workout I'm allotted about 1700 EXTRA calories, lol. My normal daily allotment to lose 1.5 pounds per week is just above 1500 per day. So what I've done is just added 150 extra calories PER DAY which equals a bit over 1000 calories per week and ignore the extra exercise calories.
    It's slow going, but the pounds are coming off.
    Maybe for one week you could NOT eat back the exercise calories and see if you begin to lose again?
    Good luck.
  • DellaWiedel
    DellaWiedel Posts: 125 Member
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    Thanks for the reply!
    I use the treadmill calorie counter (calometer?? Ha!) but i'm sure that isn't accurate. And when i was weight training i used an online calorie calculator and subtracted a few to be on the safe side. I noticed MFP estimated calories burned quite high and i didn't trust that.

    You're welcome! :) I've never trusted the MFP exercise calculators either. For now I try to just not eat back all of the calories it estimates, but now that I've gotten more serious about exercising lately, I'm saving to get a FitBit. I know the closer I get to my goal, the more stubborn that weight will be, so I'll need things to be more accurate.

    Good luck, hopefully you'll break out of the stall soon, I know how frustrating that is.
  • beckytcy
    beckytcy Posts: 135 Member
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    I think the 900 calorie estimate from your workout may be the problem. Those machines lie to you, I hate to tell you. So does the mfp estimate. I would shave off at least 20% of what the machine says, maybe more. Good luck!
  • howpeculiar7
    howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thanks all! I will cut down on the eat back calories and see how that goes.
  • howpeculiar7
    howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
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    I think the 900 calorie estimate from your workout may be the problem. Those machines lie to you, I hate to tell you. So does the mfp estimate. I would shave off at least 20% of what the machine says, maybe more. Good luck!


    It's actually 400-500 that the treadmill tells me i burn from running (i'm sure it's lying), but i was adding those burned (eat back) calories to my dinner calories(400) which totaled 900. Eep!
  • lawrenceraybon
    lawrenceraybon Posts: 6 Member
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    I had a similar problem. I was eating exactly the amount of calories I was supposed to each day, but after a month and a half of amazing progress I stalled out. It turns out my body had reached a kind of equilibrium and needed a jostle to get the fat burning again. I started balancing my calories over a week rather than daily. My goal was 2000 cal per day, so I changed it to 14000 a week. Then I varied my daily intake between 1500 and 2500 (I read 1200 is a bare minimum for healthy functioning on a daily basis and I have personal experience that confirms this, just fyi). After a week I started losing weight again and it kept coming off. My body no longer had a baseline calorie count to depend on so I was fooling it out of its equilibrium. Anywho if nothing else works its something to try. Good Luck!
  • AnthonyThrashD
    AnthonyThrashD Posts: 306 Member
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    Plateau buster's check list
    1.) Weighing food with digital scales for accurate calories in. (grams measurement)
    2.) Chest strap heart rate monitor for accurate calories out. (Polar FT4 maybe) I use an Ironman
    3.) Increase intensity of workout intervals. (Make sure you're hitting your aerobic zone for heart rate)
    4.) Only eat back half of calories burned from exercise for a week...not recommended for long term
    5.) Switch it up...if you're a die hard treadmill fan, try the elliptical for a week.

    6.) Go a week without working out so you get no extra burned calories from exercise. Weigh your food, and stay under your goal. (If you lose this way, then you've isolated your problem to "overestimating calories burned from exercise")
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
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    According to this BMI chart, you should have a goal weight no higher than 175 lb, so eating no more than 1750 calories per day.
    http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf

    My weight loss doc says to treat exercise like a bonus toward weight loss, not to include those calories in what I plan to eat.
    If I'm really hungry, I'll eat 1/3 to 1/2 of what I supposedly burned, but I usually don't need to.

    So...:
    take measurements - you might be progressing that way
    drink more water
    measure food, estimate accurately, record everything
    switch up how much you eat & how much you exercise
    don't eat your exercise calories (but don't go below 1200)
  • plexuslaurenrichmond
    plexuslaurenrichmond Posts: 1
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    I battled my weight all my life, up and down... It was bipolar.
    I had weight loss surgery, lost it, gained it back. I was at 220 now I weigh 165. Still losing! I've been taking PLEXUS. An all natural pink drink you mix in 12oz of water before breakfast each morning and I take the all natural "accelerator" pills. Y'all, it gives me energy, endurance, helps my pain from fibromyalgia be managed, it's DIABETIC FRIENDLY, helps regulate blood levels, may help lower blood pressure, and just make you feel better. Need more info?
    Feel free to contact me at:
    870.637.2763 (text or call)
    plexus.laurenrichmond@gmail.com
    www.plexusslim.com/laurenrichmond
  • howpeculiar7
    howpeculiar7 Posts: 7 Member
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    Ah, calorie shifting. thanks lawrenceraybo, I will try that!! Do you know if MFP has a setting for this, or did you just work it out yourself and follow your own calorie routine?

    Thanks AnthonyThrash, I am a die hard treadmill fan, I like to run. I feel the elliptical just doesn't do anything for me, but if i'm not seeing results, i guess i gotta start switching it up.I don't weigh my food, but i do measure it. so i suppose i should get a scale.
    EEP! a week without working out???!! well, I am on vacation next week, so i guess I can test out that theory. good idea!!

    MKEgal, I have been around 175lbs before, and I could still stand to lose a little.and it wasn't just a matter of toning. so i'm trying to aim for 160, but would love to be 150 Yes, I know, it's just a stupid number, and I shouldn't be obsessing about that.
    And I don't know if there's anyone in the world who drinks more water than me, 4 or more litres a day. I don't drink coffee or anything else, except wine maybe twice a month. But I think I might be a little low on the calories. I had MFP set at 2lbs a week and it gave me 1320 calories, and just recently it updated itself to 1290 calories! So I think I gotta up the calories and lower the loss to only 1.5lbs a week. thanks for the tips.

    thanks all!!
  • lawrenceraybon
    lawrenceraybon Posts: 6 Member
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    I use MFP to keep track of calories and set my own upper and lower limits (like 2500 - 1500). I seem to always err on the side of too little calories, so at the end of the night if I see I had a 1500 calorie day I know I need to eat more the following day. (It usually ends up being a 1500 cal day followed by two 2250 days). Unfortunately MFP doesn't have a simple calorie shifting setting, but keeping track of it daily wasn't much trouble for me. I don't really do a set routine, but just adjust calorie intake on a day to day basis. I lost 75 lbs this way a few years ago (and have since gained it back :ohwell:. But I'm working to lose it again)

    One more thing, I never went by net calories. I always treat exercise calories as a bonus. Hope this helps!
  • shinisize
    shinisize Posts: 105 Member
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    MFP can actually be tweaked to make calorie cycling reasonably easy. Under the nutrition section you can see a graph for the entire week of how many calories you have eaten each day, average daily calories for the week, and it gives you a number for how many calories under/over you are for that entire week. This over/under number is great, except it includes the days you haven't tracked anything on yet (at least in the app), so you either have to constantly do math to figure out where you are in the week OR just input dummy calories equal to your daily goal number for every day at the beginning of the week and delete them when you are ready to track on that actual day. The dummy calories make that weekly calculated number into a real time number for where you currently stand compared to your weekly goal, and you can see your calorie pattern and average calories for the week on the graph section.

    I really hope that makes sense in writing, I usually explain this in person where I can actually show people what I'm talking about.

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