Stuck, help appreciated

Hi all,

SW 351
CW 285
GW 150-160ish (aiming for normal weight range for my height, but I go back and forth on a specific target number)
Height 5'7
My log is public if anyone wants to have a look at it.

I think I've screwed up. Sort of. On the one hand, I am loosing weight, but on the other I plateau for weeks at a time. I started nearly 2 years ago and thought I'd be a heck of a lot closer to goal by now then I am. I've been trying to 'fix' things on my own, but it isn't working and I'd love your thoughts on what I've been doing right/wrong.

Before I get into the details of what I've been trying, I have a favor to ask... If you reply (and my thanks in advance to those who do!) please please keep acronyms to the bare minimum. Typing the word out in full would be best, but I know it can be annoying so my thanks if you can. My brain just doesn't process short hand well. While I know what the short hands used here mean, my mind can't read a sentence with them (especially a lot of them) and then process the information in a way that lets me really understand it and apply it.
I have the same problem with craft patterns (such as knitting patterns), programming languages, and math. Seems to be an error in processing words or signs that represent other words or processes.
Because of this reading the how-tos around here has been difficult. I've gone through them all many times. I can parrot back what they say. But a lot of what I've read doesn't make useful could-apply-the-information sense to me. (I know, it is weird. Was super 'fun' learning math in school, knowing the steps of how a problem could be solved, able to reiterate what I read about how it could be solved, but not actually use the process to solve one even after having just told the teacher the steps I should use).

Ok... So when I started I used the counter tools and figured out my basal metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure. I read conflicting advice about whether or not someone should use a caloric intake below the basal number. Some said not to, some said it's fine when you start out really heavy. I was really heavy. The number suggested by MFP for a 2 pound a week loss was pretty much the same as my total daily number minus 25%, so I used that. If memory serves it was in the mid to high 1900s.

I stuck to the MFP numbers and had the initial success in the first few weeks from water weight loss, but relatively soon after I noticed my weight loss started and stopped, and on average I was loosing 4-5 pounds a month. This was some progress though, and I wasn't' feeling deprived in what I ate, so I figured 'why rock the boat' and just continued. I figured as long as that rate of loss could be maintained I'd be happy, I'd reach my target eventually. But in the past several months the rate of loss has really slowed, and I'm averaging 1-2 pounds a month.

My current caloric target is 1540. I suspect this is too low, but I'm not sure raising it will help. I tried going to the 1.5lb suggested number (1850 I think? can't recall) for a few weeks, but it didn't make much difference. Perhaps I didn't stick with it long enough?

The 1.5lb number was about the same as what Scooby's site suggest for 25% less then BMR. Numbers from there:

BMR 2035
TDEE 2442
25% reduction 1831
20% reduction 1953 (which is about what I was eating back at 351lbs, so it's a bit scary to try that amount...)

My last 12 weeks of average weight (I weigh daily and log it on a spreadsheet, paying more attention to trends over time then the day to day weight since hormones and water retention can nudge that up and down a lot), and the calories logged in those weeks has been:

289.57 9130 (week of July 14th)
289.40 9206
288.11 8706
288.82 10231
288.17 10769 (start of trying to eat at the 1.5lb a week number)
287.82 11613
287.57 11406
287.45 10873 (lowered goal at about the end of the week back to "2lb a week" number)
286.71 9505
285.20 8127
284.94 9269
285.31 10030 (this is last week)

I'm sure part of the problem is that I'm not a perfect logger (e.g. if it's late and I'm tired I'll forget to log a snack that I knew I had room for), and I eyeball many of my portion sizes. I check my estimated amounts now and then and I'm generally very close to what I think they are (and when they are wrong they are usually smaller then I thought, not greater).
I do weigh some things like pasta and pre-pack them into the serving size. And If I'm eating something that can be counted instead of measured, I do count them into the portion amount. Generally the things I don't measure are butters, dips, and ketchup. So my intake may be a little higher then what I log if I misjudged a tablespoon and the amount was closer to two then one, but the calorie difference wouldn't be huge, not enough to cause a stall, just perhaps less of a loss.

Next possible part of the problem is I don't always meet my calorie goal. This happened more when that number was higher then it does now, but there are still some days where I just wasn't terribly hungry, or got busy with work and missed a meal, or what I ate for dinner was lower in calories then I left room for because my dinner plan changed... one way or another I sometimes end up with 100-400 calories uneaten at the end of the day.

Exercise, and lack there of, may also be contributing. What I've read here has said that exercise helps, but I should be able to loose without it. Well, I swam 1-3 times a week for at least an hour at a time all summer, and it didn't seem to make a difference. I logged and ate back most of the calories, since my set MFP number doesn't include exercise calories in the calculation.
I don't get much exercise usually. I work from home, so I don't even have the exercise involved in getting to work and back.
I walk and play with my dog, and now that we have a treadmill I'm trying to use it to increase how long I can walk. I don't bother logging it since the calories burned are only around 30 (per my HRM).

Part of the problem could be what I eat. I have a lot of allergies, and in addition to that I'm very picky. I'm working on the pickyness (just recently tried dried figs for a new source of fiber and I didn't hate them - didn't love them either but maybe they will grow on me). Nothing I can do about the allergies. Because of the allergies I can't change a lot about what I eat (can't switch out ingredients for a lower cal option because they all either kill me, or make me quite ill), just portion sizes.
This is why MFP works for me (or was working) while all the diet books and whatnot with meal plans do not.
What I eat has a lot of carbs, not very many veggies, and sometimes I don't meet my goal for protein. Theoretically if calorie total matters more then where those calories come from, this should be ok. Or so says a lot of what I've read here. Lately I'm wondering if that's wrong. But I don't think I could go low carb, as there just isn't a lot else left for me to eat.

I haven't had my thyroid tested in about a decade. It was fine before. I don't have symptoms associated with a thyroid issue, except for difficulty loosing weight, but I'm thinking about getting tested again.

So that's about where I'm at. If you read this far I appreciate it. :)

Your thoughts,tips, insights, etc would be most welcome.
Btw, just a reminder of what I noted above: The less shorthand in a reply the better. I have read the threads that are often shared here for new members, and that includes the 'eat more to weight less' topics which is part of why I'm concerned about my goal calorie number. Very little of that has stuck as usable information that has 'clicked' for me. I've read it, I "know" it in that I could tell you what they say, but I don't know it in a way that I can apply it.

Replies

  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
    Salt is doing you in. All the processed foods you eat contain tons of salt. I looked at lots of entries from several months and it is really obvious.

    I suggest that for ONE WEEK, you eat the same number of calories you have been, but turn on the sodium column in your diary and keep your intake under 2,300 units a day. I don't know that you can eat the exact things you have been, don't know what you are allergic to and what you are too picky to eat, but you do, so find foods you can stand to eat for a week that are not so laden with salt and see what happens.

    Also, along with the lowered salt intake, try drinking 6 or 8 glasses of water a day.

    My gut says you will lose a few pounds.
  • Lialena
    Lialena Posts: 45 Member
    Thanks, that's something I can try. I hadn't thought of salt intake as a cause. Also hadn't thought my salt intake was very high, since I only use a dash here or there. I imagine it is high on things like breaded chicken though. ll try to read up on the impact of salt on weight loss. I thought it would just impact water retention, not fat retention.

    I forgot to note I do drink water. I go through a 1.5l bottle in 1-3 days, depending on other fluid intake from my coffee, the occasional OJ, etc.
  • sodakat
    sodakat Posts: 1,126 Member
    I tend to eat high sodium foods myself so this is why I'm aware of how salt affects weight loss. In fact, once I was logging and made a mistake on the quantity by placing the decimal point in the wrong place. I wanted to enter .5 of something and instead entered 500 servings. I noticed the mistake at the end of the day just as I was going to click to complete the entry for the day. What caught my eye was the red numbers for sodium and especially because they were not only red, they were in the tens of thousands! So I went back and edited that entry. Now, mind you, it only made a slight calorie difference because whatever it was (I think home made salsa) had very few calories, but it made a huge sodium difference and most surprisingly of all, the "projected weight" if "every day were like today" was REALLY different. Apparently MFP takes sodium into consideration when projecting weight loss.

    Its worth a shot for you, I think. Most likely the pancake mix and most everything you buy ready-to-eat is loaded with sodium. That's how manufacturers enhance flavor, along with preserving the shelf life.
  • cynthiamm67
    cynthiamm67 Posts: 52 Member
    I Don't know if this is possible for you, but what I've seen other people suggest is to try to eat different foods for a couple weeks. I'm with you in that I lose very slowly (I'll be thrilled if I've lost 65 lbs in a year). I'm eating mostly paleo and that is working well for me. I guess for some it's considered fairly extreme, but I also have a lot of allergies and family history of autoimmune and other issues and I've decreased my stomach aches by at least 75% on this diet.

    Feel free to add me if you think it might be helpful.

    Cynthia
  • jennifurballs
    jennifurballs Posts: 247 Member
    You answered some of your own questions in your original post.

    MEASURE, WEIGH & LOG EVERYTHING

    Try not eating your exercise calories back. Especially since you've said you're not accurate with your logging, eating them back has probably eliminated any deficit.


    I started at 362. It took me a year to lose 87 lbs., but I lost the last 45 in 4 months because I started exercising (weights & cardio every day) and logging in MFP. Prior to that, I just reduced portions and ate more frequent, smaller meals. I don't eat any of my exercise calories back.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    Congrats on the weight loss!

    Before you start looking for creative explanations, I think you should try tightening up your logging. You said in your post that you don't weigh butter and dips. These are calorie heavy items and could easily be adding 100 calories a pop if you aren't eyeballing properly.

    Also I saw... 1 cup of pasta, 1 cup of cereal, 1 cup of rice. These again could be adding measurable calories if the 1 cup entry in MFP doesn't match the weight of what you fit into the measuring cup.

    I also saw a lot of Tim Hortons. There is nothing wrong with eating fast food (I do several times a week) but understand that the calorie count on the website is the count for how it is supposed to be prepared, not the way your meal that day was prepared. While the food always seems smaller than the picture :laugh: they could have used more oil in cooking or put more mayo or something like that which would slip extra calories in. If you eat fast food every day, an extra hidden 50 calories here or 100 calories there can add up!

    So why would it just be causing you problems now? Because when you have a lot of weight to lose, the difference between how many calories you were eating & how many you eat now that you are logging is so big you are bound to lose weight. But as you get closer to goal, your margin of error gets smaller and these annoying little differences are the difference between losing or not.

    Just some ideas, I hope you figure it out!
  • Lialena
    Lialena Posts: 45 Member
    Good points. I do need to log better. Measuring out ketchup, dips and butter has always felt like a bit, I don't know, silly I suppose, and more work rinsing out measuring spoons then I was interested in for sure (not to mention called attention to the weight loss attempt, and when I started I didn't tell my family). Perhaps if I treated it more like other items I do up in batches ahead of time though... buy more tiny reusable containers and do enough for a week or two worth at a time...

    The daily Tims is because I'm soooooo not a morning person. I have to be awake for a few hours before I'll even think about cooking. So a few years ago I just started buying it. Pancakes this past week is part of experiment in not buying breakfast (well, except the coffee, not giving that up). Froze a batch to reheat in the morning. The calories are too high, so I don't plan to keep having them often.
    Mulling over trying overnight oatmeal next.

    Pasta I weigh and bag in portions when I get it (ditto with the pre-cooked roasted chicken I often have with it). Cereal (and popcorn) I eat dry out of a 1 cup size container (and I've checked the weight on what fills the cup, they matched the grams on the box for the calorie info). Rice I don't measure, I estimate a cup per ladle scoop. Visually it looks about right, but I should check.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    I agree on the measuring spoons. Weighing is easier AND more accurate, so try weighing. :)
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    Hi all,

    SW 351
    CW 285
    GW 150-160ish (aiming for normal weight range for my height, but I go back and forth on a specific target number)
    Height 5'7
    My log is public if anyone wants to have a look at it.

    I think I've screwed up. Sort of. On the one hand, I am loosing weight, but on the other I plateau for weeks at a time. I started nearly 2 years ago and thought I'd be a heck of a lot closer to goal by now then I am. I've been trying to 'fix' things on my own, but it isn't working and I'd love your thoughts on what I've been doing right/wrong.

    Before I get into the details of what I've been trying, I have a favor to ask... If you reply (and my thanks in advance to those who do!) please please keep acronyms to the bare minimum. Typing the word out in full would be best, but I know it can be annoying so my thanks if you can. My brain just doesn't process short hand well. While I know what the short hands used here mean, my mind can't read a sentence with them (especially a lot of them) and then process the information in a way that lets me really understand it and apply it.
    I have the same problem with craft patterns (such as knitting patterns), programming languages, and math. Seems to be an error in processing words or signs that represent other words or processes.
    Because of this reading the how-tos around here has been difficult. I've gone through them all many times. I can parrot back what they say. But a lot of what I've read doesn't make useful could-apply-the-information sense to me. (I know, it is weird. Was super 'fun' learning math in school, knowing the steps of how a problem could be solved, able to reiterate what I read about how it could be solved, but not actually use the process to solve one even after having just told the teacher the steps I should use).

    Ok... So when I started I used the counter tools and figured out my basal metabolic rate and total daily energy expenditure. I read conflicting advice about whether or not someone should use a caloric intake below the basal number. Some said not to, some said it's fine when you start out really heavy. I was really heavy. The number suggested by MFP for a 2 pound a week loss was pretty much the same as my total daily number minus 25%, so I used that. If memory serves it was in the mid to high 1900s.

    I stuck to the MFP numbers and had the initial success in the first few weeks from water weight loss, but relatively soon after I noticed my weight loss started and stopped, and on average I was loosing 4-5 pounds a month. This was some progress though, and I wasn't' feeling deprived in what I ate, so I figured 'why rock the boat' and just continued. I figured as long as that rate of loss could be maintained I'd be happy, I'd reach my target eventually. But in the past several months the rate of loss has really slowed, and I'm averaging 1-2 pounds a month.

    My current caloric target is 1540. I suspect this is too low, but I'm not sure raising it will help. I tried going to the 1.5lb suggested number (1850 I think? can't recall) for a few weeks, but it didn't make much difference. Perhaps I didn't stick with it long enough?

    The 1.5lb number was about the same as what Scooby's site suggest for 25% less then BMR. Numbers from there:

    BMR 2035
    TDEE 2442
    25% reduction 1831
    20% reduction 1953 (which is about what I was eating back at 351lbs, so it's a bit scary to try that amount...)

    My last 12 weeks of average weight (I weigh daily and log it on a spreadsheet, paying more attention to trends over time then the day to day weight since hormones and water retention can nudge that up and down a lot), and the calories logged in those weeks has been:

    289.57 9130 (week of July 14th)
    289.40 9206
    288.11 8706
    288.82 10231
    288.17 10769 (start of trying to eat at the 1.5lb a week number)
    287.82 11613
    287.57 11406
    287.45 10873 (lowered goal at about the end of the week back to "2lb a week" number)
    286.71 9505
    285.20 8127
    284.94 9269
    285.31 10030 (this is last week)

    I'm sure part of the problem is that I'm not a perfect logger (e.g. if it's late and I'm tired I'll forget to log a snack that I knew I had room for), and I eyeball many of my portion sizes. I check my estimated amounts now and then and I'm generally very close to what I think they are (and when they are wrong they are usually smaller then I thought, not greater).
    I do weigh some things like pasta and pre-pack them into the serving size. And If I'm eating something that can be counted instead of measured, I do count them into the portion amount. Generally the things I don't measure are butters, dips, and ketchup. So my intake may be a little higher then what I log if I misjudged a tablespoon and the amount was closer to two then one, but the calorie difference wouldn't be huge, not enough to cause a stall, just perhaps less of a loss.

    Next possible part of the problem is I don't always meet my calorie goal. This happened more when that number was higher then it does now, but there are still some days where I just wasn't terribly hungry, or got busy with work and missed a meal, or what I ate for dinner was lower in calories then I left room for because my dinner plan changed... one way or another I sometimes end up with 100-400 calories uneaten at the end of the day.

    Exercise, and lack there of, may also be contributing. What I've read here has said that exercise helps, but I should be able to loose without it. Well, I swam 1-3 times a week for at least an hour at a time all summer, and it didn't seem to make a difference. I logged and ate back most of the calories, since my set MFP number doesn't include exercise calories in the calculation.
    I don't get much exercise usually. I work from home, so I don't even have the exercise involved in getting to work and back.
    I walk and play with my dog, and now that we have a treadmill I'm trying to use it to increase how long I can walk. I don't bother logging it since the calories burned are only around 30 (per my HRM).

    Part of the problem could be what I eat. I have a lot of allergies, and in addition to that I'm very picky. I'm working on the pickyness (just recently tried dried figs for a new source of fiber and I didn't hate them - didn't love them either but maybe they will grow on me). Nothing I can do about the allergies. Because of the allergies I can't change a lot about what I eat (can't switch out ingredients for a lower cal option because they all either kill me, or make me quite ill), just portion sizes.
    This is why MFP works for me (or was working) while all the diet books and whatnot with meal plans do not.
    What I eat has a lot of carbs, not very many veggies, and sometimes I don't meet my goal for protein. Theoretically if calorie total matters more then where those calories come from, this should be ok. Or so says a lot of what I've read here. Lately I'm wondering if that's wrong. But I don't think I could go low carb, as there just isn't a lot else left for me to eat.

    I haven't had my thyroid tested in about a decade. It was fine before. I don't have symptoms associated with a thyroid issue, except for difficulty loosing weight, but I'm thinking about getting tested again.

    So that's about where I'm at. If you read this far I appreciate it. :)

    Your thoughts,tips, insights, etc would be most welcome.
    Btw, just a reminder of what I noted above: The less shorthand in a reply the better. I have read the threads that are often shared here for new members, and that includes the 'eat more to weight less' topics which is part of why I'm concerned about my goal calorie number. Very little of that has stuck as usable information that has 'clicked' for me. I've read it, I "know" it in that I could tell you what they say, but I don't know it in a way that I can apply it.


    I must parrot what the others have said about the weighing every bit of the food and watching the sodium. You also mentioned you were eating between 1900 and 2000 calories per day at one point. I would go back to consuming that amount. I know that you want to see results but I don't think going down to 1600 calories or less is necessary at this point. I really think it is the lack of food weighing( those condiments, especially) and the salt holding you back.
    Also, you could go back to the doc and get some blood work done. I don't think it would hurt.
  • Catter_05
    Catter_05 Posts: 155 Member
    I know it's a pain, but weigh/measure everything and log it. You may be surprised how quickly it adds up. I would also suggest finding some fruits and veggies you can tolerate. Fiber is good for you and weight loss :). Salt will make you retain water, and I am also often over on my salt a lot.
    I found adding exercise really kicked my weight loss into second gear!
    I also think it never hurts to see your dr. It doesn't hurt to checking make sure that everything is ok.