Can't lose weight

johnemler
johnemler Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have been trying to lose weight for a while now. At one point I was nearly 400 lbs. Now I fluctuate between 330 and 340. I've been at my current weight for a couple of years and cant seem to get below 330. I am very active being a contractor and handyman. I eat relatively healthy meals. I used to eat more than one helping but now I stick with 1. Any suggestions on what to do to break this plateau? I would like to lose another 100lbs. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Replies

  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Do you weigh/measure and log your foods?

    If not...start. That's step one.

    You have to have a baseline of how many calories you're eating a day (on average) before you can start making adjustments.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    How many calories are you eating? Food type is irrelevant if you're eating too much.
  • paxbfl
    paxbfl Posts: 391 Member
    After about 2 years doing MFP, the biggest thing I've learned (and continue to learn) is that I want to eat WAY, WAY too much food.

    When I started, I logged a 'typical" day and found I was eating/drinking about 4,000 calories. According to my weight and age at that time, I should have been eating around 2,500. It's so incredibly easy to do it. Just have a 2nd helping. Have a couple beers or sodas. Go out to eat at a restaurant. Treat yourself to a little ice cream. BOOM - you're way, way, over. It's no wonder we have an obesity epidemic. What we consider "normal" eating is really feasting.

    These days, I eat about 2,250 and burn at least 500 calories in the gym most days - and that deficit helps offset the occasional "free day" where I eat 4,000 calories again. I can do that without being hungry in the least. But I have to be careful and log everything carefully. If I don't, my weight starts to creep up again.

    Use a calculator like the one below to determine your TDEE (how many calories you burn in a day). Then make sure you eat under that number, and you will lose weight. It's simple math. Consider investing in a heart-rate monitor (I love my Polar) to see if you're really burning as many calories at work as you think you are. I don't typically log anything other than real exercise unless I'm working hard in the yard or something. On this calculator I use "Desk Job" and factor my exercise in separately into my equations. Hope that helps!

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
  • jasonmh630
    jasonmh630 Posts: 2,850 Member
    How many calories are you eating? Food type is irrelevant if you're eating too much.

    x2 ^^^
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
    I had to guess at your height, but to maintain that weight you would have to be eating an estimated 3,300 to 3,500 calories a day. So my best guess is that your portions are better but much bigger than they actually should be.

    Get a food scale and start seriously measuring what you're eating.
  • SpikeTailTurtle
    SpikeTailTurtle Posts: 60
    Honestly I would measure your food if you are not. I can eat only one round of whatever I put on my plate but it's so easy to stack your plate with 1000 calories and have no idea unless you are counting and measuring everything. Before I started counting cheesy squash was one of my favorite foods but I had no idea that the way I cooked it was nearly 500 Calories for a 1 cup serving of something I thought was modestly healthy. It's easy to think we are being healthy if we don't know the real values of the food we are eating.
  • pander101
    pander101 Posts: 677 Member
    How many calories are you eating? Food type is irrelevant if you're eating too much.

    x2 ^^^

    ^^^This X3

    You need to accurately log your food. Get a food scale.
  • SpecialKH
    SpecialKH Posts: 70 Member
    It's easy to underestimate calorie intake. It's also hard to estimate calories out! No slam to MFP but if I put in 30 minutes on the elliptical it credited me with 450 calories burned. Then I decided to get the Body Media Armband. I actually burn 300. But that INCLUDES my basic metabolic rate for that time as well so it's only 270 EXTRA calories burned above what I need for that same 30 minutes being sedentary. Also the less you weight the less calories needed to maintain the lower weight.

    What about logging every morsel accurately for about a week. Now you know how many calories you need to MAINTAIN your weight and will have to cut about 500 down per day for a 1-pound/week loss.

    To help with that, incorporate a healthy morning and afternoon snack if you need to (counting the calories and including those in your daily count, of course) like an apple dipped in a small amount of peanut butter, etc. Combine a high fiber carb with a protein/fat combination for instant energy/satisfaction + lasting energy/no recurring hunger.

    Fabulous on the first 60 pounds, though!!! You've got this!
  • mbarnson
    mbarnson Posts: 14 Member
    I echo the sentiments above mine: unless you weigh and measure every bite of everything that goes into your mouth, you have no way of knowing why you're not losing weight.

    The hard part -- for me -- is not lying to myself about my consumption. It's really easy to fudge the scale. To make that tablespoon of peanut butter a tablespoon and a half. To kid myself that when I sit down to three "snack-sized" packages of chips that it's not really that much food, and that I don't need to add it to MFP.

    Add EVERYTHING.

    If you carefully track, weigh, and measure for 30 days, I promise at the end of the month you will know exactly why you're not losing weight. Or your weight loss will "magically" resume :-)

    The easy part is behind you. The trivial diet & fitness changes are made, right. Now comes the hard work: figuring out the one hundred tiny things you do all the time that affect your weight loss.

    Because that's the lesson I'm ultimately learning right now: I can do a few big things and lose some fat, but to keep the progress moving I must start isolating many very small habits in my life and change them, one-by-one. It's about making and keeping very small, achievable promises to myself every day, and as my old promises become new habits, finding new promises that I am capable of keeping.
  • thegreatcanook
    thegreatcanook Posts: 2,419 Member
    Add me and I'll check out your food diary.
  • HanamiDango
    HanamiDango Posts: 456 Member
    Some good reads

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=guide+logging&page=1
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    You're getting good advice here.

    You've already got a leg up on a lot of us -- you've got an active job. That makes it easier to lose, for sure.

    And great job losing that first 70 pounds -- that's quite an accomplishment in itself!

    Definitely log your food -- keeping a food diary is easily one of the biggest enablers for losing weight. And the MFP app on a smartphone makes it way easy. Weighing the food is optional -- it's more accurate, but I'm all about starting with as simple as possible -- log everything you eat or drink for a week, and then you can figure out what you need to cut to start losing the weight.
  • johnemler
    johnemler Posts: 3 Member
    All great advice. When I started using mfp I was logging regularly but I haven't logged in months. I have a hard time remembering to log. I think my biggest problem has been discipline and motivation. I need to download the app again and get back on track. Thank you all for the advice.
  • zamphir66
    zamphir66 Posts: 582 Member
    A serving of lean meat (generally) is about the size of a deck of playing cards.

    The first time I measured out a serving of breakfast cereal and a serving of milk, I was flabbergasted. I was sure that I would starve to death before 9 am.

    My typical spaghetti dinner used to be on the order of 4 to 5 servings on a single plate.

    My "special healthy" popcorn treat added a 500-calorie cherry to the top of my 3,000 calorie day.

    This is how many of us get obese -- portion distortion. I think sometimes people who have never been obese look at us and think we must eat pizza for breakfast, ice cream for elevenses, lard for lunch, tacos and burritos at tea time, and more pizza for dinner, all washed down with a Big Gulp. But that's just not the case.

    Go to the Goodwill, get some 8-10 inch dinner plates.
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    It's physically impossible not to lose weight if you're burning more calories than you're eating. So my advise is to weigh your food and really watch your portion sizes.
  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
    All great advice. When I started using mfp I was logging regularly but I haven't logged in months. I have a hard time remembering to log. I think my biggest problem has been discipline and motivation. I need to download the app again and get back on track. Thank you all for the advice.

    ^^ this is why.

    Download the app, log your food. Consume less than you burn and you'll lose weight

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