Over 100 to lose and not making progress. Cry for help!
mrjason
Posts: 61 Member
The subject says it all. I've stuck to this thing for almost a month, have built up my exercise, but haven't lost anything in the last two weeks. People tell me I'm not eating enough calories but nutritionist says at my weight starvation mode doesn't come into play. I exercise for 45 minutes, it gives me 800 more calories. I know I consume too much sodium but even so, the weight still has to come off sometime. Is it possible that MFP is actually giving me TOO MANY calories. Last time I tried to lose weight it was all protien, now I try to do something sustainable and balanced..and nothing? Any other extra heavy people run into this issue? Losing weight should not be this hard when following a plan.
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Replies
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how many calories r u eating?0
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while I am no expert but are you drinking lots of water that can help instead of diet soda (granted I dont know if you are or not but that can help a bit.. Make sure to get lots of water every day at least 8 glasses0
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Cant really comment without knowing what you are eating.0
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Can you give me an example of what your eating. What is a typical eating day for you?0
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What sort of program are you following to exercise?0
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I'm in the same boat as you as far as the amount of weight to lose. I've been at a stand still for about month. Haven't lost a thing. I'm working on cutting my sodium and getting my exercise up. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror today and even though I'm not losing I can tell that my body is looking leaner. I don't have any magic suggestions for you but to encourage you that it may not ALWAYS be about the scale. Try to see the difference in your body and your health and hopefully you won't be so discouraged and stick with it. That's what gets me through. I'm rooting for you!!!!0
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I have been following the calories that MFP provides I just don't eat the extra calories after my workouts. I try not to eat past 7pm. I have been losing about a pound a week. Got to drink your water and watch sodium. If you don't you will hold tons of water weight and not lose anything. Hope this helps. I don't really know what your eating but maybe change things up a bit.0
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If you just started exercising on a regular basis recently then you shouldn't weigh yourself for a month because you might build up muscle before you lose the weight therefore it will make the scale look like it isn't moving. I had that happen too I started exercising and then for like 3 weeks I hadn't lost a pound, I stuck with the exercising and then all of a sudden the weight started to come off again. Measure yourself, you should see a difference there. Remember, you are building up the muscle which weighs more to help burn the fat so don't get frustrated you have to wait for your body to make that transition first, it is annoying though. But I promise it will be worth it!!0
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It's hard to give you advise without know what you're eating and drinking but have you looked into HCG? Look at www.clinicalHCGdiet.com0
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Sometimes the exercising can actually make you gain muscle which weighs more then fat. Prior to joining MFP I joined the gym and went 3 - 4 times a week and felt like I was eating the same amount of food. I never lost a pound and I felt 100% better. Had way more energy. Funny thing is I probably would have been gaining if I hadn't joined the gym. My clothes actually felt loser. Have you measured your inches. Maybe you are losing inches. Are you feeling good. Do you have more energy. If so then please don't get discouraged. It will all work out.0
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Hi
sorry to hear your frustration. I wanted to ask you if you are eating all the calories that you burn and if so I think personally that is defeating the purpose of burn more than you take in. Try not eating the calories you burn and just focus on eating the ones you get daily. Try focusing on how to make those calories fill u through the day and if you do go over a bit don't beat yourself up. It took time for us to put this weight on and its gonna take time and perserverance to get it off. Hold your head up high and be proud of the small victories at least you are doing something. I wish you all the best and God bless.:bigsmile0 -
likewise..i have 50 lbs left to lose, and i stick to my MFP calorie intake of 1200 perday, and my progress is slooooww going as well..i work out with my program 4 times a week 35 mins a day, and the other 3 days i do about 20 mins a day, and still in about 5 weeks, i have only lost about 8 lbs (would have been about 15 if i hadn't gained it back)..i totally feel your pain, so please feel free to add me if you like..best of luck0
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I also have a similar amount of weight to lose. I did plateau for a while after I'd lost 28lbs or so, but that was before joining MFP. Since then I never let my NET calories fall below 1200 and its been working fine for me. Also remember muscle weighs more than fat so maybe if you could see these values you would see that the fat % is decreasing and the muscle % increasing.0
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How do you get 800 calories for 45 mins of exercise - what exercise is that? (I want it!)0
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I feel your pain!! I have walked in your shoes, exercising, watching what I'm eating and nothing lost for months! Time to take a deep breath, the pounds will come off. Your body needs time to re-learn how to burn calories efficiently. One question I must ask, are you being true to the plan that MRP has worked for you? Are you eating just serving sizes? Measuring food, weighing food? Our eyes, or at least mine, don't do good job of "measuring" serving sizes or ozs correctly. It's a must to be true to that. I count out the estimated number of chips, if I'm having chips, or I pour my "drink" into a glass size I know or into a measuring cup. I use measuring cups when I eat cereal. But you have to be eating enough...that's really important. Remember it is a balance of carbs, fat, protein and calories. Also the water, is important. If you are doing all this, then my only other suggestion is change up the exercise you are doing. Muscles get used to doing the same exercise, they become efficient in how many calories they burn. So if you are walking, ride a bike one day, or do a yoga class, or jog. Or just do jumping jacks and sit ups, plus get some hand weights and do 5-10 minutes. You only have to do this 1 or 2 times in a week to jump start your fat burning potential. I know I've been there. Plateaus are hard, especially in the beginning. I am living proof what I'm saying works, I have lost 41 lbs since July. Best of luck!! Keep the faith and don't give up!!0
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One of the biggest pitfalls for people struggling to burn fat is that they take exercise as an excuse to eat more. It's not!!
1200 calories will ensure that your body does not go into starvation.
I think your best bet is to consume 1200-1600 per day (or whatever your planned daily calories are), keep it stuck at that- and NOT take your exercise into account. If you need to, just enter that you exercised in the notes so that MFP doesn't give you those extra calories. That really messes with your mind.
Cardio/exercise calories burned vary per person and per workout, so they're not accurate. and the one thing that MFP may do is encourage reward eating- i.e. eating because you exercised. I heard some good advice once ----
Forget you exercised and follow your normal fat-loss nutrition plan.
If you incorporate a good preworkout and postworkout snack -within your daily calorie intake-, it should boost your muscle growth and fat-burning potential. But I say stop letting MFP put those extra calories in, try it for a week or two, and see what results you get!
hope it helped : )0 -
How are you measuring your cals burned at the gym? 800 Cals in 45 minutes seems kinda high - on my best days I can burn 500 Cals in 30 minutes but that is going flat out. Do you have a heart rate monitor (HRM) with calorie calculations - they seem to be the most accurate: use that over a whole day (24hrs) without exercise to get your baseline:
The difference between your baseline and what you eat is going to be the weight you are going to loose.
If you work out, use the HRM to get your cals - not the machine (for me they are actually about the same so don't stress too much) - dont forget to subtract your baseline for that workout time.
Example:
Baseline 1800 Cals
Target 1400 Cals
Deficit 400 Cals (this is your weight loss margin)
Baseline = 75 Cals per hour (1800/24) - or better still - just take an average waking hours cal consumed - after all you burn less when you sleep)
So, in a 1 hour work out if you burn 600 cals I would only count 500 of them.
All that aside - if you started exercising and dieting at the same time there is a good chance you have lost fat and replaced it with Muscle - I had exactly the same for the first few weeks - after about 4 weeks - and after a very small further reduction of my target calories the weight started coming off - its been a pretty consistent pound or so a week - slow but steady - and I look and feel loads better because of the exercise.0 -
I think that this site has too many calories for people like myself who are clinically obese. After all a lot of the calorie calculations are based on sites that deal with sports medicine. Lets face it a person weighing 350lbs who is a football player is going to be able to eat differently than a person like myself who is 350 lbs of mostly fat. So what I did was set my lifestyle to sedentary even though I am a janitor and only log in a tiny fraction of my job as a workout. I also eat a big breakfast (500+ cal), smaller lunch (400+cal) and then have a yogurt and 10grams of almonds for dinner. Also have two or three snacks of apples and oranges or protein such as lean meat or boiled eggs during the day every two or three hours. I also allow for a cheat day to go over calories if I am feeling starved out. So far I have been losing steady and have dropped about 3 or 4 lbs a week since mid Jan. If you want you can friend me so you can see my food log.
Stay strong.0 -
I have been following the calories that MFP provides I just don't eat the extra calories after my workouts. I try not to eat past 7pm. I have been losing about a pound a week. Got to drink your water and watch sodium. If you don't you will hold tons of water weight and not lose anything. Hope this helps. I don't really know what your eating but maybe change things up a bit.
Exactly what I was thinking. If you eat too much sodium you would have water weight...I think if sodium is just the problem try to knock that lower and you'll be fine.0 -
From my personal experience, this is what I would suggest.
1 - Make sure you are really tracking all your food. If you grab 5 M&M's while your at work, then an hour later, take a tiny bite of a cookie, etc. Make sure your being completely honest with yourself and not brushing off calories.
2 - Sodium! I know you want to say sodium shouldn't matter, but it does. I'm not a doctor, scientist whatever, but I swear because I'm 100+ overweight that I retain like 15 more lbs of water weight than a skinny mini person. I was stuck forever at the same weight for over a month until I started watching my sodium and making sure I was drinking enough water through out the day. Now its finally starting to come off at a good pace.
3 - Carbs. I don't mean go all crazy and try to not eat any, but I know MFP alots me almost 200 carbs a day. And my body likes to soak up them carbs! lol Try lowering your carbs to around 125 a day. (But honestly I'd try to conquer sodium first).
Those are things that have either stopped me from losing in the past, or have stopped me from losing while on MFP.
Good luck!0 -
One of the biggest pitfalls for people struggling to burn fat is that they take exercise as an excuse to eat more. It's not!!
1200 calories will ensure that your body does not go into starvation.
I think your best bet is to consume 1200-1600 per day (or whatever your planned daily calories are), keep it stuck at that- and NOT take your exercise into account. If you need to, just enter that you exercised in the notes so that MFP doesn't give you those extra calories. That really messes with your mind.
Cardio/exercise calories burned vary per person and per workout, so they're not accurate. and the one thing that MFP may do is encourage reward eating- i.e. eating because you exercised. I heard some good advice once ----
Forget you exercised and follow your normal fat-loss nutrition plan.
If you incorporate a good preworkout and postworkout snack -within your daily calorie intake-, it should boost your muscle growth and fat-burning potential. But I say stop letting MFP put those extra calories in, try it for a week or two, and see what results you get!
hope it helped : )
You definitely don't HAVE to replace those calories - If you do, in terms of weight loss is the same as if you didn't go to the gym at all. Personally I eat some of them: but my target is 'happy and healthy' not 'lose weight as quickly as possible'.
From a pure health perspective I would suggest that you do consume some of them as protein - say 30% - this is important for rebuilding your muscles.0 -
Patience and be precise in your logging. I've come to believe that the main two reasons people aren't losing is because either a) they are expecting 2.8 pounds to fall off every Tuesday at 7:13 pm and weight loss doesn't work like that or b) they aren't being accurate as to their calories eaten and/or calories burned. They don't count the sauce, the drinks, the condiments, the bites here and there and they guess at the portion sizes (most people are WAY off). And/or, they overestimate how much they're burning during exercise.
The machines at the gym say I burn 300 calories for 30 minutes on the elliptical, well I can tell you after wearing a fitbit for 2 months that I don't burn anywhere near that. And on top of that, my normal, already counted, burn is 36 calories per half an hour. So if I am actually burning 120 calories for 30 minutes and 36 calories are already in my normal 24 hour maintenance, then I actually only burned an extra 84 calories. Woohoo! Let's go to the all you can eat buffet! :noway:
So be patient, and be precise. It will happen.0 -
hi jason, glad to see your posting. I read your diet, youve had more junk food in the last 5 days then I ve had in the last 3 months........I m here to help you, but if you want an honest answer, then I have to say that your sodium intake is out of control,. You are consuming 1000 - 4000 + extra mgs of sodium daily, and youre not going to lose weight doing that
Maybe you can talk to a nutritionist and go over your diet........I gotta say, you are not eating any fibre, no fruits or vegetables, only processed , salt laden, sodium rich processed food.........youre not going to lose weight that way ,...........I know personally ,been there dont that...........
Shoot me an email, Ill try to help you, but again, youre asking us a question and I did go thru your diary and Jason, Jason.........you cant eat cookies, rolls, taquitos, mint chocolate chip sundaes ,turkey burgers that are processed that had 1.062 mgs of soduim, which is about HALF your allowed input, your McDonalds biscuit and bacon/cheese/egg sandwich which Jason HAS 1,160 MGS OF SODIUM, ON THE SAME DAY YOU ATE SUSHI WHICH HAD ANOTHER 1970 MGS OF SODIUM..........JUST THOSE LAST 2 FOOD ITEMS HAS OVER 3500 MGS OF SODIUM.........
Jason, you cant lose weight eating like this, you cant............Again, Im not preaching, just reading your diary blows me away..........I care about your health, thats why Im typing all this for you, because you have people here who care........but you cant, and you WONT lose weight on the diet you are following.........you wont
Take care, please shoot me an email, Ill help you in any way I can, but man your sodium is going to really wreak havoc on your weight loss journey.........Best wishes, please email me..........Lloyd0 -
This is the best reply I've seen so far. I think you're very smart taking the time to *kitten* the situation and you truly want to help.hi jason, glad to see your posting. I read your diet, youve had more junk food in the last 5 days then I ve had in the last 3 months........I m here to help you, but if you want an honest answer, then I have to say that your sodium intake is out of control,. You are consuming 1000 - 4000 + extra mgs of sodium daily, and youre not going to lose weight doing that
Maybe you can talk to a nutritionist and go over your diet........I gotta say, you are not eating any fibre, no fruits or vegetables, only processed , salt laden, sodium rich processed food.........youre not going to lose weight that way ,...........I know personally ,been there dont that...........
Shoot me an email, Ill try to help you, but again, youre asking us a question and I did go thru your diary and Jason, Jason.........you cant eat cookies, rolls, taquitos, mint chocolate chip sundaes ,turkey burgers that are processed that had 1.062 mgs of soduim, which is about HALF your allowed input, your McDonalds biscuit and bacon/cheese/egg sandwich which Jason HAS 1,160 MGS OF SODIUM, ON THE SAME DAY YOU ATE SUSHI WHICH HAD ANOTHER 1970 MGS OF SODIUM..........JUST THOSE LAST 2 FOOD ITEMS HAS OVER 3500 MGS OF SODIUM.........
Jason, you cant lose weight eating like this, you cant............Again, Im not preaching, just reading your diary blows me away..........I care about your health, thats why Im typing all this for you, because you have people here who care........but you cant, and you WONT lose weight on the diet you are following.........you wont
Take care, please shoot me an email, Ill help you in any way I can, but man your sodium is going to really wreak havoc on your weight loss journey.........Best wishes, please email me..........Lloyd0 -
I will go for a couple weeks and not really see the scale move and then one week I drop like 5 lbs. It will happen, give it time!0
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thanks skinny, I sure hope Jason understands, hes emailed me in the beginning and I really think the world of him. , really I do, that is why I took the time to type what I did, and go over his diary
I ve been there, buying low fat, fat free , low in calories diet food, ONLY TO GAIN MORE THAN I WIEGHED, LOL
I can truly say that Jason needs some professional nutritionist to help him. I got one, got about 50% of my daily food is vegetables, 14% fruit, tons of beans and cilantro, and protein from chicken breast
I m not an expert, I just had to lose weight or else die........it was that simple ..I wasnt trying to look hot for the prom, look sexxy in the latest pants I bought.........I was warned by my Dr that I was killing myslef weighting 360 lbs and being 55
Read my bio, its me..................
Thanks for understanding my message to Jason.. I know what hes going thru, but all that diet, processed , sodium and sugar laden food that is marked "Diet' or Sugar Free is going to destroy his weight loss journey........hes had bi pass surgery and gained more than 70 lbs back, so he can reallly really use the help...........Take care, Lloyd
please read my bio ,its what I have been thru in the last year.....0 -
lloydrt
I have a lot of admiration for your honesty - mutual encouragement shouldn't just be about saying 'its all ok' and you clearly really took the time to look at Jason's diary. Good for you - and - I hope - good for Jason!0 -
Thanks to everyone for your posts. To answer some of the questions.
1) The site give me 1900 calories to start with. I do not eat all 1900 calories on the majority of the days.
(I believe all but 2 of the last 23)
2) My workout is strictly elliptical, built up from 5 minutes a day and am at 40-45 right now. Doctor tells me to stick with cardio for now. Being a fat person, the site gives me a significant number of "extra calories" for this exercise. I do not eat them.
3) This far I've had 2 “cheat meals" and they were while I was on the road.
4. No soda, ever!
5. Due to my hours worked and the nature of my job, I eat most of my calories later in the evening. My doctor and nutritionist have both told me that the time of day is not relevant to the number of calories we eat.
6. I've lost 10 pounds so far. It was in the first week but still, I'll take it!
7. I had lap-band in December 2009 and lost my insurance so never got it filled. I lost around 100 pounds prior and after but NONE due to the lap band. It was from sticking to a diet with fewer than 100 grams of carbs a day. The moment I started eating normally I gained it back slowly, got depressed, lost my job, started eating out of control, got a new job, got happy, started eating again out of control. Anyone who is obese or even just struggles with weight has been there. Otherwise we wouldn't be fat.
So, I've gone from eating and drinking like a pig to keeping well under my calories and bumping up my exercise from sedentary to 40+ minutes a day 5-6 days a week.
I understand that I need to increase my veggies and decrease my sodium, and have been working on that. My nutritionist has told me that making 1-2 changes per week will be the way to go about this, and I've been making way more than that.
I could eat a full package of Oreos or a bag of M&M's in an evening and most nights I did just that. I've cut out THOUSANDS of calories a day. Every night I would binge on high calorie foods and in great quantity. It's called Nighttime Eating Syndrome and I've come a long way with books and the help of my doctor, shrink (an md) and nutritionist.
Not making excuses, but going over my progress so far.
It's interesting, Lloyd regarding your comment om processed foods. Although I do take in some processed foods, the majority of what i eat are low cal, home made recipes my wife has obtained from Weight Watchers or Hungry Girl. The McDonalds, definitely a "cheat" thing and calories were accounted for and budgeted. In the airport there's not too many choices at 5:00am. Taquitos...Just the name she gave the meal. Stuffed with veggies. Baked, etc. Not from a store. Cookies? Not here. I had a chance to eat a cookie and didn't touch it. Closest is a "breakfast cookie" by quaker which is a breakfast bar in cookie form. As for the sundaes, again, Weight Watchers., 150 Calories. Turkey Burger, made at home by my wife. It sounds like I'm on the defensive but I'm leading to a point, which is....
Let's assume yesterday was ALL junk food. Let's say I ate a gallon of ice cream. I'm given 1900 calories by the site (with exercise it's 2846) , I ate 1890 calories. I was still UNDER my calorie goal for the day, as I am on a lot of days. I understand the quality of the food I eat and things like sodium will have temporary impacts like water retention, etc, but my nutritionist tells me that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. For HEALTH reasons I definitely need to refine my diet and make the changes that you've talked about and am doing so more each day. Based on your feedback, it sounds like you're saying that not all calories are the same. Ultimately I'm burning more than I'm taking in. That should eventually lead to weight loss. Even the thought of eating a salad, which I do almost daily, would have been shocking to me. I'm amazed with the willpower that I am able to summon in regards to sticking to the calorie plan.
I'm in this for the long haul, even a pound lost a week is sufficient. It's not a race, I realize that, but I was hoping to get some advice. Diet will change both because I understand the nutritional and health value of "eating right" and I'm on the right track and continue to make changes to lead to that plate that's 25% protein, 25% carbs and 50% veggies. Extreme changes lead to failure and I can't fail this time. *I* don't want to die either. The no carb thing was quick but not effective when getting off of it.
Net-net, I appreciate the advice and take it to heart. I aspire to have a success story like yours.
I'm really trying to understand the barriers that are keeping me from moving even slightly in the right direction. Lifestyle changes, extreme calorie reductions should show more results than they are. I've been given a lot to think about here. Thanks to everyone.
What's the next step? More protein, more veggies, less sodium, fewer carbs!
I'll get there. It fills my heart almost to the point of tears reading everyone's replies to my post. I'm fortunate to have this site and I know it will work thanks to people like you.
Jasonhi jason, glad to see your posting. I read your diet, youve had more junk food in the last 5 days then I ve had in the last 3 months........I m here to help you, but if you want an honest answer, then I have to say that your sodium intake is out of control,. You are consuming 1000 - 4000 + extra mgs of sodium daily, and youre not going to lose weight doing that
Maybe you can talk to a nutritionist and go over your diet........I gotta say, you are not eating any fibre, no fruits or vegetables, only processed , salt laden, sodium rich processed food.........youre not going to lose weight that way ,...........I know personally ,been there dont that...........
Shoot me an email, Ill try to help you, but again, youre asking us a question and I did go thru your diary and Jason, Jason.........you cant eat cookies, rolls, taquitos, mint chocolate chip sundaes ,turkey burgers that are processed that had 1.062 mgs of soduim, which is about HALF your allowed input, your McDonalds biscuit and bacon/cheese/egg sandwich which Jason HAS 1,160 MGS OF SODIUM, ON THE SAME DAY YOU ATE SUSHI WHICH HAD ANOTHER 1970 MGS OF SODIUM..........JUST THOSE LAST 2 FOOD ITEMS HAS OVER 3500 MGS OF SODIUM.........
Jason, you cant lose weight eating like this, you cant............Again, Im not preaching, just reading your diary blows me away..........I care about your health, thats why Im typing all this for you, because you have people here who care........but you cant, and you WONT lose weight on the diet you are following.........you wont
Take care, please shoot me an email, Ill help you in any way I can, but man your sodium is going to really wreak havoc on your weight loss journey.........Best wishes, please email me..........Lloyd0 -
I started my journey to weight loss at a whopping 418 lbs.. now 7 months later I'm down to 349.. you can do it! Sodium was a huge problem for me and after I started really watching and upping my water intake I lost consistantly.. then I hit a plateau for awhile and so I upped my calories and started losing again. I also started eating more calories in the morning and afternoon and less in the evenings and that helped alot.. because whatever you eat at night just sits in your belly while you sleep however whatever you eat in the morning you burn off during your day. The last plateau I hit (didn't lose for about a month, but maintained) I added one cheat day every week.. nothing too drastic just not as low fat and now I"m back to losing again. I pray that your journey goes well and that you get where you want to be. Calories are calories and that is true but in the long run you need to try to find the healthy calories and eat the bad ones in moderation.
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So you ate MORE calories and started losing again. This is so bizzare. A wonderful MyFitnessPal pal gave me some great advice (Thanks McKay) saying the same thing, it's just so hard to believe that eating close to 3000 calories a day would spur weight loss.
Thanks!
P.S. You're going to love your goal for 100 pounds! Kindle is awesome.I started my journey to weight loss at a whopping 418 lbs.. now 7 months later I'm down to 349.. you can do it! Sodium was a huge problem for me and after I started really watching and upping my water intake I lost consistantly.. then I hit a plateau for awhile and so I upped my calories and started losing again. I also started eating more calories in the morning and afternoon and less in the evenings and that helped alot.. because whatever you eat at night just sits in your belly while you sleep however whatever you eat in the morning you burn off during your day. The last plateau I hit (didn't lose for about a month, but maintained) I added one cheat day every week.. nothing too drastic just not as low fat and now I"m back to losing again. I pray that your journey goes well and that you get where you want to be. Calories are calories and that is true but in the long run you need to try to find the healthy calories and eat the bad ones in moderation.0
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