Help. Be kind though.
Rebel_Stout
Posts: 10 Member
I've been feeling a bit discouraged lately. I work out several times a week (Zumba onMondays and Wednesdays, elliptical (30 minutes) and walking (30 mins) on Saturdays and Sundays). I stay in my calorie goal range, and yet the weight doesn't go down. I am maintaining the same weight. It doesn't go up, it just sits right at 154 for 6 weeks now (I'm 5'2", btw). Any ideas on how to get this moving again? Keep in mind that I do have a thyroid thing that is medically under control and also poly-cystic ovary syndrome and I've had a partial hysterectomy with the left ovary still intact. I do not take hormone replacement. I'm also 37 years old. I little more background: I'm a foster parent and pre-adoptive home. I'm stress level is manageable in my view. PLEASE HELP ME, but don't criticize me. I just don't have time to read mean things and they have no place in my life. So, if you have nothing nice or helpful to say, zip it.
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I can't see your diary, so hard to comment. Are you weighing and measuring all of your food?0
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Can you open your diary
I posted this on a getting started thread ...it's the advice I'd give anyone
a plateau is 6 - 8 weeks when all things are being logged accurately
I would say
1) pushing your workouts will increase water weight as muscles hold onto more water when they go into repair
2) hormones can affect water weight - TOM, ovulation
So look at your logging
- are you truly weighing and logging everything you eat. Are you picking the right choices from the database, scanning barcodes, making your own recipes
- if you can answer yes, brilliant move on
Look at your exercise
How do you estimate calorie burn on workouts? Do you have an HRM? Are you using the machines/MFP database
- if the latter then eat back 50 - 75% of the calories from machines / MFP (they overestimate) - you can adjust your eat-back as you start to understand how much you are losing
Look at your water intake - make sure you're drinking enough
and finally - eat to fuel yourself
1200 is the minimum MFP would give you - at that level you MUST eat back your exercise calories, not just 100 a so, but you shouldn't dip below the 1200 in the long-term
get all these things right, keep logging you still may stall for a few weeks but it will whoosh
anecdotally - over the last 3 weeks my weight has gone up and down the same 1-2lbs so that overall it looks like a straight line. Until yesterday when I dropped 3lbs in one big whoosh
whooshes happen0 -
I've unlocked my diary. I do weigh and measure my food. Admittedly I have a sugar addicition.0
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You're either eating more than you think (are you logging correctly, weighing food, using correct entries?) or your maintenance is lower than you think. Both will mean losing slowly or not at all if you eat to maintenance.0
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Hormones can play havoc with metabolism. My wife takes synthroid daily and was still able to lose 30lbs. But the main thing she did was dance 2 hours a day (ballroom and still does) and reduce her calories. Maybe get an endocrinologist to a more accurate assessment?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Are the home-cooked meals in your log (dinner) recipes you yourself put in the recipe builder or are they entries you found in the database?0
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They are ones I have inputted all the ingredients for.0
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Just to make this easy on yourself. Drop your calorie range 100 calories a day and report back after 1 week. Keep doing everything like you normally would just eat 100 cals less a day.0
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This may sound counter-intuitive, but I found that a break worked wonders when I hit my last plateau. I took two weeks off from scheduled exercise and religious calorie counting. I worked out only if the urge struck and ate what I wanted (in moderation). When I got back on the wagon after two weeks, the plateau broke. Element of surprise, perhaps?0
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It's really tough to lose when you have medical issues. Some people have said they just cannot. I am really lucky that I can, now. That wasn't always the case. Still, I lose slowly. I have to eat less than most and I still have to exercise or wouldn't be able to lose at all.
Try eating as much healthy food as you can. It makes you healthier and keeps you fuller than junk. If you aren't losing now, try dropping the calories 100 per week until you lose something. If it gets to the point where you cannot lose without eating so little that you're getting dizzy, you have to head back to those doctors.
Endocrinologists understand the problems. A good one will help you work through it.
I hope you can lose. Good luck!0 -
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Are you sure? Because I just searched for one of the recipes in your log and it's in the database. Unless you are purposely naming your recipes with terms like "home" and "homemade" and then sharing them with the DB, when people use recipes with those types of titles it usually is because they are using generic recipes from the database. so if that's the case, then that means you are likely eating more than you think. You also seem to eat out a lot. So probably eating more htan you think there as well. And you have some weird measurements. 1.5 pats of butter? 1.33 scoops? 1.25? How are you coming up with these fraction/decimal serving sizes?sheilastout21 wrote: »They are ones I have inputted all the ingredients for.
At this point have you considered calculating your estimated maintenance caloric needs from an outside website like health-calc.com or exrx.net and then eating at maintenance for a month to see if you maintain? If you do then subtract 20% from that to lose around 4-5lbs a month. If you gain while eating that after a whole month then try subtracting 25% instead or something.0 -
I think you've got a bundle of great suggestions. The troubleshooting technique I was taught is to pick one, experiment with some change in the coming week, and then re-evaluate if there was any change. If that didn't work, try something else. It's the small changes that count in the long run. Troubleshooting also takes the emotion/guilt out of it. You are doing a lot of things right.0
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remove all added sugar... and stop eating white bread...-2
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I cant say about these factors, but you need to know how each one stands.
- Thyroid= ask Dr
- poly-cystic ovary syndrome= Inst there a support grp on MFP for that? Also Dr
- partial hysterectomy with the left ovary still intact. = No idea if this would affect weight loss.
- Stress I think can have an impact, but am not sure its a fallback reason?
Which then leaves you with the 2 most common areas highlighted above by other posters rabbit, ana et al.
Eating more than you think.
Burning less than you think.
Your maintenance calories are c1730, your target calories are 1200 and no weight is being lost. That means 530 calories are unaccounted for and thats without even considering exercise. Looking at your diary I just think its eating more than you realise.
How to get it moving? Everyones already indicated, but id check out each one of those factors with the Dr. Then have a recheck on your logging. You dont have much fruit and veg/ lean proteins. Do you get hungry? Id be looking at reducing because my hunch is you arent at 1200, but higher. I would also increase my exercise and burn more plus not eat that back unless I was hungry and even then a max of 50%. It takes a lot of exercise to burn 3500 calories.
Dont panic, just be methodical, experiment and find the cause. Good luck.0 -
To be honest, I think it's eating more than you think. I went back 6 weeks, and there's definitely questionable entries. I agree you eat out alot, but heck, so do I, so I'm not one to judge. But with eating out you have to be aware that the margin of error is going to be larger when you eat out, plus the extra sodium that goes with it. BUT, having said that, your dinner entries still seem really off to me. Some of your snacks too (like oil popped popcorn, with a 'pat' of butter).
Examples of what I find questionable:
Fazolis - Original Submarino, 0.67 Sandwich ... how do eat .67 of a sandwich?
Baked Potato - From Nutritiondata.Com, 100 grams .. how was the potato baked? Was it 100g before baking or after baking?
Campbell's - One-Dish Beef Stroganoff, 0.25 receipe ... was this YOUR recipe? Did you measure/weigh out all of the ingredients for it? And you only ate a quarter of it?
Home - Baked Stuffed Boneless Pork Chop, 1 each ... how much did the pork chop weigh? What was it stuffed with?
I would really buckle down on the accuracy of your logging. Don't use size entries or generic entries (unless they're confirmed or they're the only option). Look for entries without the * and enter them with the weights in grams.
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I had PCOS and had a terrible time losing weight when it was at its worst (it has since resolved). Also, a good friend of mine is on synthroid and has PCOS and I know she has had a really hard time losing weight... I really can't add anything helpful, except just to say, these could, unfortunately, be contributing factors...
I know for myself, when I was losing, when I got to a plateau, I used to try switching up my workouts - ie. instead of a spin class I'd run, or do a kettlebell class - for some reason it worked. Also, I busted through my last 10 pounds by focusing on veggies - I made sure at least half of my plate was vegetables at every meal. Both of these things took the stress out of logging and helped me focus on something else. Just what worked for me...it's not for everyone. Good luck.0 -
When was your last of the rails feast? Our metabolism is brutal when it down throttles. If you have not done so in a while it might be time for a blowout. Just get back on track the very next day.0
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I started going through your diary and though you said you weigh things, I was still seeing mostly measurements (and wonder if you are going more with measurements in your recipes versus weighing them out), as well as slices (for example) of things like bacon or solitary items like wings (i.e 4 wings versus the weight of the wings) or 1/8 pie instead of the actual grams.
I really suggest weighing everything out.
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To the OP, the last plateau I had, I just switched something up. It's almost like it confused my metabolism into 'working' again. I am fastidious about logging and I completely understand how you get some of your fractions, lol so it may not be your logging. I found certain foods/exercises I really enjoyed and stuck with them but I would plateau so I would just change something drastically for one day. I've managed to lose 104 lbs as of today and the trend has been downwards the whole time. I measure and log the same way you do. If you'd like to friend me, my diary is open to friends (I don't make mine public), so feel free.0
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I suffer from PCOS as well, the group on here is a great place to start if you're looking for more specific info.
My doctor recommended I try the healthpoint 2.0 program, which I did at the beginning of the year and it worked wonders. I had been stuck on a plateau for a while and it got me through that barrier quite easily. Something else that was recommended is a low GI diet, so swapping high GI foods for a low GI versions where you can.0 -
Richardlaing1 wrote: »When was your last of the rails feast? Our metabolism is brutal when it down throttles. If you have not done so in a while it might be time for a blowout. Just get back on track the very next day.
What is rails feast?0 -
Hey. I don't know about the medical stuff, but how I lost my 65 pounds {240 in August 2013 to 175 in June of 2014} was with stir-fry veggies, mixed veggies, green beans, etc, etc. Even if you didn't lose another pound, you would feel so much better if you never ate McDonald's again. I've also gave up milk, but do eat a lot of Greek yogurt. And as far as MFP calorie burn estimates, I do 120% of the exercise I log. That is doing 6 minutes of exercise and logging 5. Now that I'm on maintenance, I have found that to work better for me. When I was losing I always was a good deal below my goals. I can't do that now without losing when I don't want to.
About this time last year I was having trouble getting below 200 pounds. I just rolled with it a couple of three weeks, and in the New Year I started losing again. Remember you have the rest of your life. To me learning to cook and eat healthy was more important than the numbers on the scale. You do the one, the other will follow.
Good luck to you,
Larro0 -
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I will assume you are logging and measuring your food correctly, so hopefully that's not the problem. Some things I am thinking might help after going through my own plateau:
1- If you are not starving, reduce 100 calories for a couple of weeks and let's see how it goes.
2- However.....I don't think reducing calories is always the option...I got off my plateau by increasing calories. But that only works if you are working out at your hardest, and maybe you metabolism increases and your body just doesn't react well to your usual daily calories.
Again, only do that if you think your body needs more, but don't use it as an excuse to just go crazy.
3- Change your workouts. Switch to a different machine, start running, increase the intensity, etc. Anything that will make your body go "what is happening?!??!!?"
Hope this helps!0 -
Your entries don't look accurate at all. Get a food scale and start weighing everything, in grams, whenever possible.0
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larrodarro wrote: »Hey. I don't know about the medical stuff, but how I lost my 65 pounds {240 in August 2013 to 175 in June of 2014} was with stir-fry veggies, mixed veggies, green beans, etc, etc. Even if you didn't lose another pound, you would feel so much better if you never ate McDonald's again. I've also gave up milk, but do eat a lot of Greek yogurt. And as far as MFP calorie burn estimates, I do 120% of the exercise I log. That is doing 6 minutes of exercise and logging 5. Now that I'm on maintenance, I have found that to work better for me. When I was losing I always was a good deal below my goals. I can't do that now without losing when I don't want to.
About this time last year I was having trouble getting below 200 pounds. I just rolled with it a couple of three weeks, and in the New Year I started losing again. Remember you have the rest of your life. To me learning to cook and eat healthy was more important than the numbers on the scale. You do the one, the other will follow.
Good luck to you,
Larro
This! Just wanted to say, "great post Larro" and congratulations on your loss and maintenance.
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I think they meant "off the rails" feast. Like a huge pig out.sheilastout21 wrote: »Richardlaing1 wrote: »When was your last of the rails feast? Our metabolism is brutal when it down throttles. If you have not done so in a while it might be time for a blowout. Just get back on track the very next day.
What is rails feast?
Many people report that when they plateau for a while, they pig out for a day or two and then can start losing again.
But maybe they meant something else.
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