I need help with weight loss.

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LeslieVG93
LeslieVG93 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay so I use to be 205-210, and I have lost a lot of weight and am proud to say I made it all the way to 150. My goal is 135. Problem? I hit a plateau. I tried everything, and I mean everything. Change in diet, counting calories, change in exercise. And still I could not break it. Now I've been working this whole month, with full time hours when I'm just part time and I gained five pounds,and that really depresses me to be at 155 again. Though if I'm being honest, I only tend to eat once a day at night, but try to maintain my calories. Fast-food has been a nightly thing. I really need help cause I don't wanna go over 155! I wanna go back down and BREAK 150 :[ I have a treadmill, insanity, and Jillian Micheal's dvds. Any stories? advice? Diet plans that helped you? Any one! I just wanna be happy when I look at myself in a mirror.

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  • SusanKing1981
    SusanKing1981 Posts: 257 Member
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    How tall are you? How long have you been at a plateau? If you've been eating junk food every night for the past month then I guess the 5lbs gain could be a lot of water weight.
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited March 2015
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    First, congratulations on your loss!

    Your calorie consumption has been consistent for how long? You might be experiencing adaptive thermogenesis where your body gets used to eating at a low amount of calories.

    This can happen if you've been eating at a deficit for a very long time. The strategy to defeat this is to slowly raise your consumption level to maintenance and eat at that for a little while, then drop your calories back down again until you start losing. It's important to track your calories carefully during all of this.

    You'll see another gain, but don't worry, it's not really a fat gain. It will whoosh out.
  • kandell
    kandell Posts: 473 Member
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    What kind of changes in diet have you been doing? Maybe try a vegan diet for a couple weeks, see if that changes anything. I've seen a lot of women in great shape that have a vegan or vegetarian diet. It may not be something you'd care sustain, but it could help as a kick-start.
  • fijiguy
    fijiguy Posts: 2 Member
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    have you ever tried a carb free or low carb diet?
  • LeslieVG93
    LeslieVG93 Posts: 5 Member
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    faeriesue1 wrote: »
    How tall are you? How long have you been at a plateau? If you've been eating junk food every night for the past month then I guess the 5lbs gain could be a lot of water weight.
    I'm 5'2, I've been in this plateau for a couple of months :[
    I'm hoping its water weight too. because two to three days ago I was 153, and the day before 152. I just seem to be gaining really fast.
  • LeslieVG93
    LeslieVG93 Posts: 5 Member
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    mamapeach910 wrote: »
    First, congratulations on your loss!

    Your calorie consumption has been consistent for how long? You might be experiencing adaptive thermogenesis where your body gets used to eating at a low amount of calories.

    This can happen if you've been eating at a deficit for a very long time. The strategy to defeat this is to slowly raise your consumption level to maintenance and eat at that for a little while, then drop your calories back down again until you start losing. It's important to track your calories carefully during all of this.

    You'll see another gain, but don't worry, it's not really a fat gain. It will whoosh out.

    I've been pretty consistent with it to the point that I subtract them while I'm out and if I can't get on the site, but I changed it cause I got so fustrated so I switched from 1lb a week to 2lbs a week. so 1,200 calories, and that worked for awhile but I started gaining again so now I make it 1,230 :/ if I ever go over it only happens once a week. :[
  • Shawnee73
    Shawnee73 Posts: 7 Member
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    It's quite possible that your body is in starvation mode since you only eat once a day and then eat all your calories at once. You've been teaching your body to hold on to that food for energy since it won't be fed again for another 24 hours. Not to mention it's fast food so you're likely not getting the nutrients that your body needs. I would stop the fast food all together and eat 5 times a day. You'll feel a lot better and will see a loss once your body realizes it's not going to be starving.
  • LeslieVG93
    LeslieVG93 Posts: 5 Member
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    kandell wrote: »
    What kind of changes in diet have you been doing? Maybe try a vegan diet for a couple weeks, see if that changes anything. I've seen a lot of women in great shape that have a vegan or vegetarian diet. It may not be something you'd care sustain, but it could help as a kick-start.

    my changes have been mostly, raw almonds, almond milk, greek yogurt, special k bars, and when it comes to dinner, small portions and no seconds.

    I have contemplated a vegan/vegetarian diet, it's just that grocery bill XD and then I would have to think about my husband too. Dude loves burgers, haha.


  • LeslieVG93
    LeslieVG93 Posts: 5 Member
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    fijiguy wrote: »
    have you ever tried a carb free or low carb diet?

    No, I haven't :0 does it work? :]

  • cosmo_momo
    cosmo_momo Posts: 173 Member
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    I wouldn't recommend a carb free/low carb diet. Ultimately it's up to you, but unless that's something you're going to want to do for the rest of your life, it's not a great idea. I eat loads of carbs and I'm losing. I started at 155 and I've lost 10lbs over the last 2 months eating 1,500cals a day. Have you been weighing your food with a food scale? That has made the biggest difference for me. I use this website to accurately log generic foods like fruit and veg and other things that don't have packaging: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods

    Also what works for me is eating multiple times a day. If I get too hungry I can't think properly and I'll grab whatever is easiest and eat way too much of it. My diary is open and sometimes it looks like I've had a huge lunch or whatever, but in reality I've spaced it out over the day as snacks. Like this morning I had oatmeal, an orange, and an apple, but I cut the apple up and took it to class with me so when I started getting hungry I would have something to hold me over until I got home.

    Also I have myself set at .5lbs/week because you and I don't really have THAT much weight to lose. I'm losing more like 1.16lbs per week though.
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
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    It's likely water weight from changing your diet up to all the fast food. That said, if you keep that up, you may have problems just because it can be really tough to get an accurate calorie count on it, and if you're having it every day, that's a lot of potentially consuming more than you think. And as you're a lot smaller than you used to be, your deficit is going to be smaller too. Meaning inaccuracies could eat a bigger percentage of, or even all of, your deficit.

    You sound like you have a lot of stressful stuff happening. If you're not already working out, and you don't LOVE to workout, you might want to start by tackling your food. Otherwise, you're working full time suddenly, you're eating takeout every night, trying to stick to this low calorie goal, and trying to force yourself to schedule treadmill time. Sort out the food situation. Then try to find something fitness-wise that fits in and that you enjoy. (Or if you do benefit a lot mentally from exercise, start by prioritizing that. Don't worry about max calorie burn or whatever, do what will benefit you in all the ways.)

    That's just me. I'd aim to bring back a little balance and peace, reduce that stress. Stress is bad for sleep, bad for hunger, bad for health, bad all around. Step back and start smoothing things out, instead of stretching yourself more and more thin. It'll be way better in the long run.
  • hearthwood
    hearthwood Posts: 794 Member
    edited March 2015
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    The closer you get to goal the harder it is to lose those last few pounds. It takes like what seems forever. I am at goal now and I hit huge plateaus at around 150. Up two down two. I learned to be happy with 1/4 pound loss and the estatic with a 1/2 pound loss in a week. Finally I hit 140, and I am staying here, and to make certain I do stay here, I continue to log in everyday.

    It's all in the math. If you've only got 10 to 15 pounds to lose its going to be very difficult to cut out 3500 calories out of your weekly consumption to lose a pound a week. What I did was start hiking more, and I burned a lot of it off last summer. So you can try burning more, otherwise just stick with your alloted MFP calorie intake and one day you'll get there.

  • lilithx88
    lilithx88 Posts: 3
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    LeslieVG93 wrote: »
    I only tend to eat once a day at night, but try to maintain my calories. Fast-food has been a nightly thing

    These are my hardest hurdles. By habit I have always ate one large meal a day, usually at night after starving myself all day. This has to be one of the worst things you can do. Giving up fast food was extremely difficult, so was baking.

    I also plateaued at 150lb. I was convinced by a few friends to try keto, after how well it worked for them. I bought the sticks, kept my carbs at 5%, and 72% fat read, and read and read. I felt great, but I just wasn't moving on the scale, or in inches.

    After throwing my body out of keto with a daily 1200cal goal, with no food after 6pm, the weight started coming off again.

    That was my experience, I know I read other ways to pull yourself out of a plateau... just don't get discouraged. Good luck! :)
  • zamphir66
    zamphir66 Posts: 582 Member
    edited March 2015
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    Shawnee73 wrote: »
    It's quite possible that your body is in starvation mode since you only eat once a day and then eat all your calories at once. You've been teaching your body to hold on to that food for energy since it won't be fed again for another 24 hours. Not to mention it's fast food so you're likely not getting the nutrients that your body needs. I would stop the fast food all together and eat 5 times a day. You'll feel a lot better and will see a loss once your body realizes it's not going to be starving.

    I'm sure I won't be the first to say this, but there's no such thing as starvation mode in the sense that you are describing it.

    If a person is not gaining or losing weight, then they are eating at maintenance. It is impossible to stop losing weight b/c you're not eating enough or eating all at once. Because physics.

  • lemonlionheart
    lemonlionheart Posts: 580 Member
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    kandell wrote: »
    What kind of changes in diet have you been doing? Maybe try a vegan diet for a couple weeks, see if that changes anything. I've seen a lot of women in great shape that have a vegan or vegetarian diet. It may not be something you'd care sustain, but it could help as a kick-start.


    And I've seen vegans and vegetarians who are overweight or obese. Type of food has nothing to do with it; if you are not losing weight you are eating too many calories.
  • rabtib
    rabtib Posts: 10
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    cut out the fast food, not only is it full of carbs and calories but sodium, tons of sodium and that will cause your body to retain even more water and gain weight. I try to stay around 1200 calories a day but I have a cheat day once a week to splurge and keep my body and metabolism from getting used to anything so that I don't stop losing, so far it is working! I hope this helps.
  • SusanKing1981
    SusanKing1981 Posts: 257 Member
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    LeslieVG93 wrote: »
    faeriesue1 wrote: »
    How tall are you? How long have you been at a plateau? If you've been eating junk food every night for the past month then I guess the 5lbs gain could be a lot of water weight.
    I'm 5'2, I've been in this plateau for a couple of months :[
    I'm hoping its water weight too. because two to three days ago I was 153, and the day before 152. I just seem to be gaining really fast.
    I weigh daily too, only do it if you're happy to see the scale go up as well as down. Honestly, the food you eat the night before has a huge effect on the number on the scales, I've eaten a lot of food for my evening meal that was within my calorie allowance and when I weighed myself the next morning I was up 1.5lbs (no bowel movement). I've eaten very salty food (gammon) and the same thing happened. I've had a day where I've eaten way over my calories but the food wasn't heavy (cream and sugar) and the next day I had lost.
    You've lost 55lbs, that's a massive achievement and your weight loss has slowed. Don't fret, just keep at it.

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