I'm stuck, frustrated and need some help

jheape1978
jheape1978 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Sometimes the amount of information available on the internet can be a terrible thing. I have recently found myself in stuck at a particular weight and I'm not sure where to go from here. I am a 36 year old male (6ft 2 inches tall)) who began my healthy transformation in July. At that time I stopped smoking and began a couch to 5k program to increase my physical activity. About 2/3 through the program I started counting calories and changed my diet to meet the daily allotment of 1500 calories as recommended by MFP. Once I completed the program I kept running 2.3-4 miles at least 4 times per week. There were often days where my net calories were 1200-1300 and I went from 255lbs to my current weight of 222lbs. I have been stuck at this weight since early to mid November and it has been stressing me out severely.


I started researching and became concerned that I may have been cheating my body of too many calories and that my metabolism has come to a crawl. At my height/weight there are calculations that my BMR is 2000 calories and there are many warnings that you should not drop below your BMR when trying to lose weight. Reading those articles immediately stresses me out because what happens if I add 500 calories to my diet? It seems logical to me that I would then begin putting weight back on and that is not what I want to happen. My goal was to get to 200 or 210lbs before starting a more rigid weight training plan. Additional info about my daily plan:

- My diet is pretty clean. Lots of chicken, vegetables, sweet potatoes, egg whites, oatmeal, venison. No fast food. I eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack.
- I have always hated water but recently began drinking at least 10 bottles per day.
- I exercise 3-4 times per week. This includes running 2 miles per session, a 3 day split weight training plan, 2 days with a personal trainer and about 60 minutes per week interval training on the arc trainer.
- There is a nutritionist at the trainer but I lost faith in her on the first visit. She handed me a meal plan for 1100 calories per day. When I questioned it she handed me another with 2700 calories per day.
- I believe I haven't been honest with myself about calorie intake so it may not be as low as I am thinking. For instance, it is hunting season for me and I have a tendency to have a few drinks at the camp on Friday night. I also haven't been eating right when I am at the camp on the weekends. I think that I didn't worry about it much because I was losing weight. Side note: my exercise & fitness have increased so I still feel like I should be losing weight!
- Determining calories burned has been a struggle. Between MFP/Mapmyrun/machines at the gym/internet searches there is no clear definition on what I am actually burning. I have decided that a HRM will be my next purchase but then I read that a lot of them are not accurate unless you know exactly what your VO2 max is.



I think my biggest concern is about my daily caloric intake. I need to make sure that I am at a SAFE level. I'm sure that many of you have been as frustrated as I am so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Happy New Year!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    How do you determine how much you're eating? How do you determine how much you burn? How much of those exercise calories do you eat back? 1500 is extremely low for a man of your size, so you should easily be losing if that's really what you're eating.
  • jheape1978
    jheape1978 Posts: 4 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    How do you determine how much you're eating? How do you determine how much you burn? How much of those exercise calories do you eat back? 1500 is extremely low for a man of your size, so you should easily be losing if that's really what you're eating.

    I have been weighing everything that I eat. **DISCLAIMER- I was doing it religiously but got lazy with it. I have jumped back on the wagon.*** That being said, after a lot of reading I think my weighing technique needs some correction. I have scanned items into MFP. For example, a can of tuna. Meat gets weighed on the scale before it is cooked. I have to guess for my ground venison mixture but I use the 70/30 venison on MFP as a baseline for it. I have used measuring spoons for anything that needed to be a cup/tsp/tbs/etc. but it appears I should be weighing that as well. Is that correct? I try to eat back until I reach a net goal of 1500 calories. Should I not be doing that? Determining the calories burned has been a nightmare. I basically use all of the previously listed methods and go with the lowest one.

    The more I read and the more I think about it my problem may very well be that I took in more calories than I was listing. Partly because of improper weighing, partly because of the Thanksgiving/Christmas. What really baffles me is that I should be losing weight even if I eat 2000 calories a day if I keep up the exercise.

  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    When you are doing all this exercise are you eating back any of calories or are you still eating 1500/daily?

    1500 is very low for a man of your size. I'm 5'11, Female and weigh 164 currently, on 1600/daily and I'm losing (slowly, but losing). I did the same thing 2 years ago and lost 45lbs without ever hitting a plateau.

    If your BMR is 2000, I'd be eating 2100. Do that for 4 weeks and see if it helps. The worst that can happen is that you gain a few pounds back and you decrease to 1800 or something reasonable.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Yes, absolutely weigh everything. Cups and spoons often hold more by weight than a package says.
  • lalepepper
    lalepepper Posts: 447 Member
    Weighing food accurately will be a great help. I'm glad you're being honest with yourself about not logging as accurately as you can. That can easily result in you actually eating more towards maintenance. Eating back calories from exercise can also be the culprit. Calorie counts from activities are notoriously overestimated. If you want to eat back some calories, I would limit it to 50% of the listed calories.

    I'm 6' and started at 293. I initially started my deficits at 1,800-2,000 calories per day and reliably lost ~2 lbs/week. MFP can have a tendency to low-ball calories based on your goals especially for us bigger folks - I found that decreasing my goal for lbs lost/week by .5 lb (for example, I was looking to lose 2 lbs/week but set it to 1.5/week) made a difference in how satisfied I was with my intake, but I still lost what I was looking for. Not eating back all of the listed exercise calories likely contributed to this.

    I'm currently at 210 and eating 1,600-1,750 calories to lose. There's no need to eat as low as you have, especially at your build - 2,000 calories seems like a lot, but a quick calculation of the calories you'd need to maintain at a sedentary activity level yields 2250-2450 calories per day...even light activity levels would give you more per day. Eating too low can also make you more likely to eat extra, and those calories often aren't counted. I think you're on the right track - improve your accuracy with logging, and give yourself enough calories to fuel your activities, and you're most likely to succeed.
  • mariaoutlook
    mariaoutlook Posts: 130
    Sorry I can be of any help to you but can you go to your endocrinologist to have some test done?
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Stop playing games and listening to amateurs. Go see the doctor and get him to oversee your weight loss journey. Get a referral to a dietitian who will help you out with nutrition advice.

    In that way, there is no more guessing and no more hunting online. You get information from people who are qualified to give it AND it is just for YOU. How many calories? What kind of foods should I eat and not eat? Can I do any exercise I want? How much salt should I take in?

    All your questions get answered and the info is specific to you, not just, "This is what is generally recommended" from someone who may or may not know what they're talking about.

    When there are people who are qualified to give you answers about you, yourself...go see them!

    That MHO. :)
  • amy8400
    amy8400 Posts: 478 Member
    jheape, first of all...congratulations on losing 33 pounds since July. That's awesome! Second, congratulations on quitting the cigarettes. That's a huge lifestyle change and commitment to your future. Third, don't sweat the plateau. It happens to most of us and isn't the end of your weight loss story if you don't give up.

    I think you've done a good job assessing what could be the issues. Accurate weights and logging are critical. Not overestimating exercise burn is important too. I weigh everything on a scale and log it in grams.

    As a man at 6'2" you should definitely be eating more than 1500 net calories a day. It sounds like you make good quality food choices and are very committed to working out. I'd say on paper you're doing everything right. No wonder you're frustrated. I would be too!

    I think what may be happening is you're overestimating the calorie burn from workouts AND overestimating food intake. You could also be at such a low intake at 1500 (considering your serious workouts) that your body is fighting to hold on to weight. I'm not a nutritionist but discovered for myself that when I hit a plateau, I needed to re-evaluate everything, change my workouts and increase my calories for a week or two (in my case going from 1200 to 1500). Then I went back to 1350 and that's when I started to lose weight. I'm not sure if that's what you could consider a metabolic re-set, but it worked for me.

  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
    you mean 2000 calories a day net or total?

    total yes, net not if you are overestimating calories burned. That's why you'll see a lot of people say they only eat back a percentage of exercise calories, because the estimates are often high and it's so hard to calculate.

    It is highly likely you are correct in that you have just been eating way more than you think. Tighten up your logging at least temporarily and you should have your answer pretty quick.

    It is doubtful you have had metabolic adaptation due to your diet but your BMR WILL be lower than it was in July because you have lost weight.

    Cups/spoons, etc are for liquids and weigh all solids. Things like peanut butter should be weighed. Basically you can just weigh everything for accuracy's sake if you want. I weigh liquids usually just cause it's more convenient.
  • jheape1978
    jheape1978 Posts: 4 Member
    Thanks Amy. Putting down the smokes after 20 years wasn't easy but it taught me that there is nothing I can't do. I think the over estimation of calories burned needs to be worked on too. Are HRM really as accurate as everyone says?
  • irchrismm
    irchrismm Posts: 95 Member
    I agree with Kalikel. I am currently dealing with a dietician, and my meal plans change as my weight loss fluctuates. But hey, I've lost 50 lbs since late October so, I will stick with what they tell me.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Can you open your diary?

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