Plateau going on 5 weeks! HELP!
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The diet you are describing sounds low in many nutrients. You can enter it for one day in MFP to check if you are getting enough calcium, iron, etc. If you are not getting the basics your body needs, you will pay for it eventually. Your goal should be long-term health, for your sake and to be a good example to your children.
If you are actually only eating 900 calories a day and exercising heavily, you may be in ketosis. The ketones will make you less hungry, as your body breaks down your lean mass to keep you alive. You can see where this would be a problem, right?
That being said, the only way to be sure of your calories are only 900 would be by tracking them, and any potential extras (i.e. milk in coffee, finishing off your kids' meals/snacks, etc.) If you have 10 hours to exercise a week (quite an accomplishment when taking care of a todller, by the way), you should be able to find 10 minutes a day to log your food (if it really is the same everyday, you can copy meals from one day to the next in MFP). Some of the posters are being rude, but a lot of dieters find that tracking calories really makes a difference in how much weight is lost (it doubled my rate of weight loss), and ease of tracking is one of the main benefits of MFP. I'm sorry to hear you had such a hard time with it.
You say you like the way your body is looking. You can check your progress with a tape measure. If you are losing inches, you are not in a plateau, whatever the scale says, and you may be replacing fat with muscle.
If you are concerned, please talk to your Dr. Appetite loss is a symptom of many serious diseases, and, again, you need to be healthy for your family. Keep in mind, your Dr. may want you to track your calories and activities to be certain of your calories in/calories out.
If you are happy with your activity level, keep it up. There are, however, ways of losing inches that don't take up quite as much time, like HIIT workouts. Some dieters find they can get effective results working out 30 minutes a day. Changing up your workouts can also sometimes help with plateaus.
Plateaus do hit a lot of dieters. Sometimes changing things up helps, sometimes you just need to be patient a little longer until the scale or your inches start moving. I hope things work out for you. Good work on your weight loss so far (especially while working out and taking care of a toddler), and good luck
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Plateaus do hit a lot of dieters. Sometimes changing things up helps, sometimes you just need to be patient a little longer until the scale or your inches start moving. I hope things work out for you. Good work on your weight loss so far (especially while working out and taking care of a toddler), and good luck.
Thank you! I think I'm going to try and following for a month:
1 - Track calories using MFP and push for at least 1400 calories per day
2 - Follow the Paleo diet but track the calories
3 - Keep up my exercise regime (I bought the NordicTrack so I can exercise after my toddler goes to bed and whenever the T.V. is on. It was totally worth the investment to have such easy access to exercise and I got it on sale so it actually works out to be less expensive then a gym membership after just one year it would be free!).
4 - Book a physical for January to get bloodwork done.
I think the other strange symptoms I have is that I can't sleep even though I'm exercising so much you'd think I'd pass out. I have acne on my back too and my breakouts around ovulation are way worse so I'm thinking either it's from sweating so much more or that maybe there is a hormonal imbalance at play? It's all very bizarre!0 -
I'll come back and post here after my experiment and let you all know if it worked! Thanks for all your advice! Well the positive helpful advice!0
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StalgiaPasternak wrote: »
I think the other strange symptoms I have is that I can't sleep even though I'm exercising so much you'd think I'd pass out. I have acne on my back too and my breakouts around ovulation are way worse so I'm thinking either it's from sweating so much more or that maybe there is a hormonal imbalance at play? It's all very bizarre!
It could very well be hormonal. It's a good idea to talk to your doctor and make sure it's not something like PCOS..., again, good luck 0 -
StalgiaPasternak wrote: »
I don't know if you can read properly but as I've outlined I know exactly what I am eating. I find your attitude really negative and I am really tired of males in particular thinking it's okay to be rude and talk down to women on here as if you are Buddha on the mountain top. I'm not sure if you've heard the expression: "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything." Questioning the authenticity of my assessment of MY OWN BODY is a very condescending masculinist opinion. Evolve!
LOL. Did you miss all the women (including myself) basically saying the same thing as him?
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Stalgia just start meticulously weighing and measuring your food/drink intake over the next month and see what happens. Yes weighing every morsel of food that touches your lips is a pain and a tad obsessive. But it might give you some answers. Good luck xx0
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StalgiaPasternak wrote: »More accurately: "that's not what's actually happening".
OP is clearly eating more than they think. There's not even a hint of a question about that.
I don't know if you can read properly but as I've outlined I know exactly what I am eating. I find your attitude really negative and I am really tired of males in particular thinking it's okay to be rude and talk down to women on here as if you are Buddha on the mountain top. I'm not sure if you've heard the expression: "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything." Questioning the authenticity of my assessment of MY OWN BODY is a very condescending masculinist opinion. Evolve!
Well, at least you're cheapening feminist rhetoric so it loses power, but as long as you do so to serve your own selfish ends it's all good.
I'm a woman, I posted earlier in your thread. I think your post here is more offensive than any I've seen in your thread. It's so dishonest and manipulative, it's kind of sickening.
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StalgiaPasternak wrote: »
More accurately: "that's not what's actually happening".
OP is clearly eating more than they think. There's not even a hint of a question about that.
I don't know if you can read properly but as I've outlined I know exactly what I am eating. I find your attitude really negative and I am really tired of males in particular thinking it's okay to be rude and talk down to women on here as if you are Buddha on the mountain top. I'm not sure if you've heard the expression: "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything." Questioning the authenticity of my assessment of MY OWN BODY is a very condescending masculinist opinion. Evolve!
[/quote]
jissn.com/content/11/1/7
LolBroScience shared the above link this week that hits on the subject of plateaus and helps us understand why deficit dieting can be counter productive especially if we have yo yo'ed many times. I agree with LolBroSciene's article that points out how critical it is to understand our hormones that controls our weight level.
Best of luck.
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jissn.com/content/11/1/7
LolBroScience shared the above link this week that hits on the subject of plateaus and helps us understand why deficit dieting can be counter productive especially if we have yo yo'ed many times. I agree with LolBroSciene's article that points out how critical it is to understand our hormones that controls our weight level.
Best of luck.
I'm flattered that you are so infatuated with me Gale.0 -
OKay, soSo when I was counting calories I would get a Starbuck's breakfast sandwich (390 or 400 calories for lunch), have a Subway sandwich for lunch (550 calories) and then have Chicken and some veg for dinner with maybe a cookie or two (European cookies I buy only have about 40 calories for two!!!) The only place that I would be less ***** about measuring calories was at dinner time since it wasn't a pre-bought meal but I would use super healthy recipes that are clean eating or for a while WW recipes.
Now, without counting calories (which I have to say was a huge stress relief and I honestly do believe that not having that stress helped me to lose 18lbs in a far more relaxing manner) I have the same breakfast sandwich from Starbuck's (400 calories) and then I don't eat lunch just drink lots and lots of water and then I eat a similar dinner but I probably eat more rice or pasta than I did when I was measuring or counting but I know all about how those two things can be uber calorie dense so I don't exceed a cup that's for sure.
1) Fast food/restaurant foods are not likely the actual calorie count they provide. It's a generic estimate. Much like when you buy a rotisserie chicken, they give calorie count for the whole chicken, but white meat and dark meat have different macro values. So that breakfast sandwich and subway sandwich were likely more calories than you thought. Chicken, assuming you eat a whole breast, can easily be up to 200+ calories, then 50-100 calories for veggies or more depending on which ones (starchy? not starchy? I just added 50g of frozen peas and it was way more calories than the 50g of celery, and 50g was like... enough for maybe 3 bites and clearly not a serving). Just because something is "healthy" or "clean" doesn't mean it's low calorie. So you likely ate more than 1200 at this point, considering you a) didn't weigh your food, and b) didn't measure any of your food. So let's say you ate, idk, 1500+ calories.
2) sandwich is again probably more than 400 calories.
3) You did not provide me with an actual outlined menu of a typical day in the way I asked. You did not give measurements or weights, you did not tell me if there were any small little things most people forget or don't bother to log, etc.
Seriously, log properly for a week and then come back and let us know how many calories you estimate to have eaten, and then add about 200 calories to that to account for error with the take out and lack of weighing food.0 -
Yep. I always tack on extra calories at the end of the day. As nothing is 100 % full proof perfect0
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Could it be that you don't need to loose anymore weight? Perhaps you need to stop reading the scale and worry more about your body composition. (I think you do since you work out religiously, but my point is that the number on the scale is just a number. There are so many things that affect that number. For most of them, higher is good: bone density, muscle mass, water that you have consumed, etc...)0
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Several MONTHS ago, I asked the same question as OP is asking now, and truthfully, I received several relatively low nonhelpful answers, many of which were very negative about what was perceived as being my mistakes.
I continued to stick with what I was doing, and have recently learned a few things that I'll throw out that have helped me re-start.
FIRST- I stopped losing after a significant and very painful personal loss. I'm quite sure that disrupted the balance of my previous year's "losing" streak.
SECOND- I realized recently that my body prefers eggs over meat as its protein source of choice.
THIRD- I realized that my body doesn't need a lot of sodium, and doesn't work as well if it has too much.
So now, after several months, I'm returning to my earlier loss pattern.
I'm still logging and basing my eating on Paleo principles and intermittent fasting and tweaking with whatever I learn about things that have worked for other losers like me.0 -
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happieharpie wrote: »Several MONTHS ago, I asked the same question as OP is asking now, and truthfully, I received several relatively low nonhelpful answers, many of which were very negative about what was perceived as being my mistakes.
I continued to stick with what I was doing, and have recently learned a few things that I'll throw out that have helped me re-start.
FIRST- I stopped losing after a significant and very painful personal loss. I'm quite sure that disrupted the balance of my previous year's "losing" streak.
SECOND- I realized recently that my body prefers eggs over meat as its protein source of choice.
THIRD- I realized that my body doesn't need a lot of sodium, and doesn't work as well if it has too much.
So now, after several months, I'm returning to my earlier loss pattern.
I'm still logging and basing my eating on Paleo principles and intermittent fasting and tweaking with whatever I learn about things that have worked for other losers like me.
1) You likely ate more food in this period - people bring you comfort food, you don't really care about your intake, you may do stupid things (two years ago I spent the summer getting drunk after my sister fell into a coma, had I not "canceled" this out by basically not eating on and after my drinking days I would have gained a lot of weight).
2) This has nothing to do with weight loss other than a) eggs have much less protien than does meat, and b) eggs are likely lower in calorie as you might be eating less compared to how much you'd eat in meat.
3) This has nothing to do with fat loss, at most it will affect scale weight via water retention.
so basically, calories.0 -
Delete.
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Seriously, log properly for a week and then come back and let us know how many calories you estimate to have eaten, and then add about 200 calories to that to account for error with the take out and lack of weighing food.[/quote]
Yes, well as I said I'm going to log religiously again for a month but try and stick to Paleo principals (except for a few days on the holidays which are impossible!) and log through the holidays (Chanukah and Christmas!) and see if keeping to 1450 cals a day works as well as cleaning up my diet of grains and dairy (I really don't get why Paleo is so anti legumes!). If I find that I lose even just 5 pounds over the course of the month then I'll be happy with that and keep logging. If I don't lose anything and stay stuck then I think there could be a problemo somwhere.
@skinny0000 I am increasingly happy with the toning I'm seeing and I have seen pics on here of women my height weighing only 2-5 pounds less than I do right now but are so ripped with muscle they look smoking hot! I do believe that you are correct and often times the scale is B.S. because there is a huge difference between weighing less with flab and weighing more with muscle. I've started kettlebells to build muscles and once those get easy for me (right now I'm working my way up to 20lbs kettlebells) my plan is to get a personal trainer and do some serious weight lifting at the gym and build up my muscle. This could mean that I end up weighing way more than my goal (135lbs) but being happy with that because I'm so toned and could kick *kitten*.
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Ok, I have read all the comments on here. I actually think they all have very good points that they are making. I work in a dietary department and what I get out of what you are saying is the following. You are in no way meeting your calorie needs per day for the amount of exercise you do and just the amount your body needs on a daily basis for fuel. What I have found is that when people exercise a lot they are not as hungry. You need to find an even balance between the 2. You said you had to do Yoga because your muscle's were getting too tight. I believe that is happening cause you are not fueling your body for the amount of work out you are doing. Our body's need fuel to sustain themselves. Also try eating 3 balanced meals a day. I believe this is something you can do to get the fuel you need. And yes you should be concerned about how little you eat. Be aware now of this fact cause it could very easily turn into a eating disorder. Not saying that you have one, just advising you that It could be coming. Try getting small amounts of protein in at all 3 meals. Also make sure you are getting 6 or more servings of fruit and/or veggies in daily. At first you will of course have to make yourself do this because you have denied your body of nutrition for so long that it will take awhile for it to adapt to it. Also make sure you eat protein after your work out. What do you have to lose by trying this. Cause the way I see it, you have more to lose by not trying. You said you have a child. You need to stay healthy for that child and yourself. I am very concerned about you at this point. Would love to be kept updated on what you are doing and how things are going. If things do continue on then you need to see a dietician. I really wish you luck.
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You don't need to follow a fad diet to lose weight. If you want to eat paleo for life, go ahead. If not, then it's not something you should do while losing weight. I just age 40g of smarties (chocolate). Granted I'm taking December off and eating maintenance, but I still do this while in a deficit.
If you do not lose while eating 1450 it's because you are logging incorrectly. opening up yur diary will allow others to help you pinpoint any errors and can guide you on how to log better if this becomes a problem.0 -
happieharpie wrote: »Several MONTHS ago, I asked the same question as OP is asking now, and truthfully, I received several relatively low nonhelpful answers, many of which were very negative about what was perceived as being my mistakes.
I continued to stick with what I was doing, and have recently learned a few things that I'll throw out that have helped me re-start.
FIRST- I stopped losing after a significant and very painful personal loss. I'm quite sure that disrupted the balance of my previous year's "losing" streak.
SECOND- I realized recently that my body prefers eggs over meat as its protein source of choice.
THIRD- I realized that my body doesn't need a lot of sodium, and doesn't work as well if it has too much.
So now, after several months, I'm returning to my earlier loss pattern.
I'm still logging and basing my eating on Paleo principles and intermittent fasting and tweaking with whatever I learn about things that have worked for other losers like me.
1) You likely ate more food in this period - people bring you comfort food, you don't really care about your intake, you may do stupid things (two years ago I spent the summer getting drunk after my sister fell into a coma, had I not "canceled" this out by basically not eating on and after my drinking days I would have gained a lot of weight).
2) This has nothing to do with weight loss other than a) eggs have much less protien than does meat, and b) eggs are likely lower in calorie as you might be eating less compared to how much you'd eat in meat.
3) This has nothing to do with fat loss, at most it will affect scale weight via water retention.
so basically, calories.
Ana, I'm THRILLED that the equation approach has worked exactly as you wanted it too. After having lost (and regained) several times during my life, I decided to do some extra planning this time, and it has worked fine FOR ME.
For example, salt has been implicated in increasing a tendency towards severe cravings, a problem of mine, and my personal loss caused none of the issues, NONE, that you suffered. As to eating eggs, ere is also research going on out there that yes, differing sources of protein CAN impact on weight loss.
As I have experimented with some tweaks in my originally successful eating/exercising regime, I have now observed that even having logged and exercised as I had previously in my current weight loss, FOR ME some things DO seem to have an effect on weight loss. Even within scrupulous record keeping.
There are many, MANY people here with a central goal. People ARE different. Weight loss is not an LOL issue for me. I find it very encouraging to read success stories and suggestions for achieving success, but having failed so many times myself, I would never dismiss or put down another poster's question or comment, unless it was dangerous or potentially self-defeating. I have no objection to being disagreed with, but since I know that some weight loss absolutes are not really absolute, I do object to being addressed as though I were a plump teenager embarking for the first time on fighting the fat wars. Once again, I TOTALLY accept what you say you use to solve YOUR problem.0 -
StalgiaPasternak wrote: »
I see what you are saying and this could work only as I said I really find having to count calories depresses me that's why I'm considering Paleo or Clean Diet so that I don't have to do that.
Unfortunately just eating Paleo and not counting calories probably isn't the greatest idea either. Just because Paleo as a diet is perceived healthy, it doesn't mean you can't build up a ginormous calorie overload on it. At the end of the day, calories are calories, and just because nuts/meat are in Paleo, it doesn't mean they are calorie free. Eating 2000 calories of steak is still going to leave you with 2000 calories to burn, even if they are from steak rather than sweets.....0 -
happieharpie wrote: »happieharpie wrote: »Several MONTHS ago, I asked the same question as OP is asking now, and truthfully, I received several relatively low nonhelpful answers, many of which were very negative about what was perceived as being my mistakes.
I continued to stick with what I was doing, and have recently learned a few things that I'll throw out that have helped me re-start.
FIRST- I stopped losing after a significant and very painful personal loss. I'm quite sure that disrupted the balance of my previous year's "losing" streak.
SECOND- I realized recently that my body prefers eggs over meat as its protein source of choice.
THIRD- I realized that my body doesn't need a lot of sodium, and doesn't work as well if it has too much.
So now, after several months, I'm returning to my earlier loss pattern.
I'm still logging and basing my eating on Paleo principles and intermittent fasting and tweaking with whatever I learn about things that have worked for other losers like me.
1) You likely ate more food in this period - people bring you comfort food, you don't really care about your intake, you may do stupid things (two years ago I spent the summer getting drunk after my sister fell into a coma, had I not "canceled" this out by basically not eating on and after my drinking days I would have gained a lot of weight).
2) This has nothing to do with weight loss other than a) eggs have much less protien than does meat, and b) eggs are likely lower in calorie as you might be eating less compared to how much you'd eat in meat.
3) This has nothing to do with fat loss, at most it will affect scale weight via water retention.
so basically, calories.
Ana, I'm THRILLED that the equation approach has worked exactly as you wanted it too. After having lost (and regained) several times during my life, I decided to do some extra planning this time, and it has worked fine FOR ME.
For example, salt has been implicated in increasing a tendency towards severe cravings, a problem of mine, and my personal loss caused none of the issues, NONE, that you suffered. As to eating eggs, ere is also research going on out there that yes, differing sources of protein CAN impact on weight loss.
As I have experimented with some tweaks in my originally successful eating/exercising regime, I have now observed that even having logged and exercised as I had previously in my current weight loss, FOR ME some things DO seem to have an effect on weight loss. Even within scrupulous record keeping.
There are many, MANY people here with a central goal. People ARE different. Weight loss is not an LOL issue for me. I find it very encouraging to read success stories and suggestions for achieving success, but having failed so many times myself, I would never dismiss or put down another poster's question or comment, unless it was dangerous or potentially self-defeating. I have no objection to being disagreed with, but since I know that some weight loss absolutes are not really absolute, I do object to being addressed as though I were a plump teenager embarking for the first time on fighting the fat wars. Once again, I TOTALLY accept what you say you use to solve YOUR problem.
Except, she wasn't really going into what worked for her. Whether doing what you did is a psychological thing that works for you, she simply pointed out some facts. And a lot of times, people will clarify or correct things in case lurkers happen to be reading this that might not know better.
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happieharpie wrote: »happieharpie wrote: »Several MONTHS ago, I asked the same question as OP is asking now, and truthfully, I received several relatively low nonhelpful answers, many of which were very negative about what was perceived as being my mistakes.
I continued to stick with what I was doing, and have recently learned a few things that I'll throw out that have helped me re-start.
FIRST- I stopped losing after a significant and very painful personal loss. I'm quite sure that disrupted the balance of my previous year's "losing" streak.
SECOND- I realized recently that my body prefers eggs over meat as its protein source of choice.
THIRD- I realized that my body doesn't need a lot of sodium, and doesn't work as well if it has too much.
So now, after several months, I'm returning to my earlier loss pattern.
I'm still logging and basing my eating on Paleo principles and intermittent fasting and tweaking with whatever I learn about things that have worked for other losers like me.
1) You likely ate more food in this period - people bring you comfort food, you don't really care about your intake, you may do stupid things (two years ago I spent the summer getting drunk after my sister fell into a coma, had I not "canceled" this out by basically not eating on and after my drinking days I would have gained a lot of weight).
2) This has nothing to do with weight loss other than a) eggs have much less protien than does meat, and b) eggs are likely lower in calorie as you might be eating less compared to how much you'd eat in meat.
3) This has nothing to do with fat loss, at most it will affect scale weight via water retention.
so basically, calories.
Ana, I'm THRILLED that the equation approach has worked exactly as you wanted it too. After having lost (and regained) several times during my life, I decided to do some extra planning this time, and it has worked fine FOR ME.
For example, salt has been implicated in increasing a tendency towards severe cravings, a problem of mine, and my personal loss caused none of the issues, NONE, that you suffered. As to eating eggs, ere is also research going on out there that yes, differing sources of protein CAN impact on weight loss.
As I have experimented with some tweaks in my originally successful eating/exercising regime, I have now observed that even having logged and exercised as I had previously in my current weight loss, FOR ME some things DO seem to have an effect on weight loss. Even within scrupulous record keeping.
There are many, MANY people here with a central goal. People ARE different. Weight loss is not an LOL issue for me. I find it very encouraging to read success stories and suggestions for achieving success, but having failed so many times myself, I would never dismiss or put down another poster's question or comment, unless it was dangerous or potentially self-defeating. I have no objection to being disagreed with, but since I know that some weight loss absolutes are not really absolute, I do object to being addressed as though I were a plump teenager embarking for the first time on fighting the fat wars. Once again, I TOTALLY accept what you say you use to solve YOUR problem.
AGREED!
I have to say this whole post has reminded me so much of becoming a new mother when non-mothers would bark their opinions at me about god know's what that they had no clue about. Each human being is different. Each body is different. Each person experiences things differently. AND I'm a 35 year old mother with a very successful career and 3 university degrees and I certainly do not appreciate being condescended to especially when if anyone actually read what I posited they would see that I have already MANY TIMES gone crazy with the tracking and all it did was lead to loss gain loss gain loss gain. This time, I stopped tracking and lost 18lbs in 6 weeks without even trying. Then I got stuck. I researched online and have not found any articles that describe my experience and so I made the HUGE mistake to post on here hoping another WOMAN with similar stats may have experienced a similar experience and share how they resolved it. RATHER, I was bombarded with people who have the audacity to try and tell me what my experience is, question my resolve and authenticity, etc.
To those opinionated disrespectful people - GET A LIFE! You obviously don't have one as you troll around here trying to tell people how to live their lives and condescend to them so you can feel better about your pathetic self.
To the helpers - Thank you! AND I have learned my lesson. NEVER POST HERE FOR ANY HELP as the BAD VIBES outweigh the GOOD and so I will only seek out advice from the friends I've made here.
Sincerely,
A HIGHLY INTELLIGENT SUCCESSFUL WOMAN WITH THREE DEGREES, A SUCCESSFUL CAREER AND AN AMAZING DAUGHTER LIVING A DISGUSTINGLY LAVISH LIFE IN THE CITY WITH WORLDWIDE FRIENDS AND DISTURBINGLY SPOILED PROSPECTS IN LIFE. IN FACT, THE ONLY THING THAT I NEED TO CHANGE IS TO DROP 15-20 POUNDS. BIG DEAL! AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE TO GET A WHOLE LIFE OR PERSONALITY TRANSPLANT!-10 -
:laugh:0 -
Crazy lady went super bonkers in a hurry.0 -
What kind of degrees? Sociology, Art, & Music?0
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wow.
/backs out of forums again0 -
There is so much hypocritical in this thread I wouldn't even know where to begin.
Signed,
A girl who has lost 58 pounds by counting calories, but didn't go to college. With kids. And a old, sort of ugly house and two dogs. And really, I'm only moderately intelligent. So obviously inferior.0
This discussion has been closed.
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