Why has my weight loss stopped?

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I have been losing weight for over two months and have managed to lose 25 pounds but I haven't lost a pound for 2 weeks now and I have no idea why? ... I am eating around 1200 calories each day, I am still being active and I can't lose weight any more. The only thing I can think of is that I started taking cerezette just over two weeks ago but I have taken it before and I don't remember it causing me to gain weight....
I am thinking of upping my calories to 1500 a day as someone mentioned I might be eating too little but I'm worried this will make me gain weight. I am 5ft 7 so my body should be able to take it but I'm sure my metabolism is slow....can anyone help me here??

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  • seglass1
    seglass1 Posts: 15 Member
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    Hi

    Yes be careful about eating too little - 1500 cals good but if you want to burn more do more exercise. One tip is eat more greens like big bowls of brocolli or Kale or Cauliflower as it gets the whole digestive system going and working well. Good luck!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Okay I want to touch on several things in this post, so I apologize if I seem to be wandering a bit.

    First and foremost, two weeks isn't enough time to worry about a stall. Normal fluctuations in the body due to water weight and water retention (caused by stress, hormones, TOM, carbs, sodium, changes to your diet or exercise routine, changes to your prescriptions, etc) can cause these little stalls and gains on the scale, but they're really just masking the fat loss that's still happening in the background. It's okay to make some changes, but you should always be aware that it can take your body two or three weeks to bounce back when you do change something.

    It looks like you only have a few pounds left to lose, is that accurate? If so, and if you haven't done this already, it might be time to lower your weight loss goals to just 1/2 pound per week and focus more on some body recomposition work to try and get whatever goal "look" you're looking for. For most people that means eating a little more and focusing on some form of strength or resistance training.

    If you want to look for reasons other than water weight that might be causing your stall, the first thing to look at is always going to be your logging accuracy. Make sure you're logging everything, including things like veggies, cheat days, alcohol, cooking oils, etc. as accurately as you can. This includes measuring serving sizes accurately (a food scale is ideal, but anything is better than eyeballing portion sizes), choosing the right entries in the database (because a lot of them are entered inaccurately), and making sure that you've got a good estimate of your calories burned if you're eating your exercise calories back (because MFP and gym machines have a tendency to overestimate). There are some threads around here with guides on how to make sure you're logging accurately.

    Raising your calorie levels may or may not help you to lose weight at this point. I'd say it's unlikely, since you've only been stalled for two weeks. But if you're interested in body recomposition or any sort of training goals then it might be a good idea. 1500 calories should not make you gain weight unless it's above the calories you'd need to maintain. If raising your calories was enough to start putting on weight again then you'd never be able to transition to maintenance! You may see some small gains when you first increase your calories, but these will be water weight and temporary. As long as you're still eating at a deficit then you will start to lose again.

    tl;dr version: doble-check your goals, get as accurate as you can with logging, try not to stress about two weeks without a loss.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    I have been losing weight for over two months and have managed to lose 25 pounds but I haven't lost a pound for 2 weeks now and I have no idea why? ... I am eating around 1200 calories each day, I am still being active and I can't lose weight any more. The only thing I can think of is that I started taking cerezette just over two weeks ago but I have taken it before and I don't remember it causing me to gain weight....
    I am thinking of upping my calories to 1500 a day as someone mentioned I might be eating too little but I'm worried this will make me gain weight. I am 5ft 7 so my body should be able to take it but I'm sure my metabolism is slow....can anyone help me here??


    With 7 pounds to go a moderate goal would be 1/2 pound a week loss. Sore muscles = water retention, higher sodium day = water retention, time of month = water retention. A 2 week plateau is not that long.

    As for 1200 NET calories....probably too little for you. At 20 years old 5'7".....lets assume 145 pounds and moderate exercise (3 x weekly)....your TDEE would be 2,010 (less if you weigh less....more if you exercise more)....

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    So no - you would not gain weight at 1,500....that would be a 3,500 calorie deficit for the week....or 1 pound (2010 - 500 = 1510). 1,500 would still be pretty aggressive weight loss for this close to goal.

    The reason people choose moderate weight loss is too KEEP lean muscle while dieting. Fast weight loss can lean to skinny-fat.