9 week plateau and I'm needing some new ideas!

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3JinItaly
3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am now on week 10 of a plateau. I started back in October, lost 20lbs. pretty quickly, and then it literally all stopped. I have not gained weight, and the scale has moved a few tenths of a pound or so, but not much. I have tried literally every combination of calories, activites, macros...you name it. At this point I have officially run out of ideas and I need some fresh eyes!!

I am 34, 5'4" and 151lbs. I live in Italy, so I walk everywhere and on a slow day, take at least 12,000 steps. I have a fitbit too. I am also doing the 30 day shred 6 days a week and heavy weight lifting with the Jamie Eason's livefit trainer 4 days a week. So, I'm active. With my fitbit synced, its been giving me an additional 1250ish calories a day to eat back, which seems nuts! Right now I have my activity level set at sedentary and my goal at 1.5lbs a week. I've also had it set at "active" before and lightly active. I've tried it all! What am I missing here? I eat clean, almost always stay under my calorie goal, and pretty much never, ever eat back all the calories the fitbit is giving me. I stay around 1700-1800 usually.

Any ideas??
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Replies

  • tryanother
    tryanother Posts: 36 Member
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    This happened to me... I stopped eating back any calories from exercise (I don't even log it anymore). With the over estimation on exercise calories and under estimation on food, I was maintaining without realising it. I don't use a fitbit though. This 'not losing' gave me such a hard time, but I try to learn more every day.
  • shroodle88
    shroodle88 Posts: 123 Member
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    Hi, we're roughly the same height & age and I only weigh a few kg less than you. MFP is set to 1200 calories for a loss of 0.5kg per week. I hardly eat any exercise back (and don't do much either), but keep losing. What I'm saying is, check your calorie settings - 1800 sounds perhaps a bit comfortable?
  • dramaqueen45
    dramaqueen45 Posts: 1,009 Member
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    When my loss slowed down quite a bit I bought a good food scale and started weighing everything in grams. That has helped quite a bit (although sometimes I don't weigh if I'm at a restaurant or something). Have you recently started the 30 day shred? Doing intense exercise can make you retain water at first (although 9 weeks is a long time to do that). If neither of these seem to be an issue you might want to talk to your doctor to see if there are problems with your thyroid and/or insulin levels.
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    I have a food scale and weigh everything religiously!! There are no surprises there. As far as 1800, that's me eating back maybe half of my calories. My net calories are almost always in the negative. So should I just ignore all of my fitbit/exercise calories? I'm honestly not sure that I can do that much physical activity with only eating 1200 calories. That seems a bit too severe. I am on day 20 of the 30 day shred, and although the scale hasn't moved, I can definitely tell I have more muscle definition. Also with the heavy weight lifting...the muscles are poppin! They're just hiding under a stubborn bit of fat! :wink:
  • blktngldhrt
    blktngldhrt Posts: 1,053 Member
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    Are you eating back the fitbit calories? Personally, I would only eat back a portion of the calories burned from 30 day and lifting. If the walking you do is your norm..that counts towards your TDEE and should not be eaten.
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    If I'm doing TDEE -20%, that puts me at 1709 cal a day. Even if I don't put in my exercise calories, I'm still getting around 7-800 back from fitbit. There are some people that are adamant that you need to eat back your calories, because that's how MFP was designed, but then others say not to. What's a girl to do??!!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Can you open your diary?
  • MrCoolGrim
    MrCoolGrim Posts: 351 Member
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    Eat less move more! You are probably or have found your caloric maintenance level. But I agree with Lifting4Lis, open your diary so a more accurate assesement can be done. cheers
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    I did.
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    Some of the food is in Italian though so beware!! :smiley:
  • MrCoolGrim
    MrCoolGrim Posts: 351 Member
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    3JinItaly wrote: »
    Some of the food is in Italian though so beware!! :smiley:

    A beautiful thing isn't it , Italian food! Is that Venice in your profile pic?
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    Yes!! I live a bit further south but it's the perfect city for a day trip!
  • annavalente
    annavalente Posts: 119 Member
    edited March 2015
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    First of all well done on the weight loss so far!

    A few things ive noticed after looking at your diary...spoons and cups are not accurate ways to measure foods..your banana probably has more calories in it!

    I think if u maybe tighten things up in regards to your logging it would help.

    Also, when was the last time your readjusted your goals through mfp? :-)
  • 3JinItaly
    3JinItaly Posts: 27 Member
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    My goal is currently set at 1lb a week and on sedentary. I have no idea if I should set it on sedentary when I'm not, but I read several posts that said to, so I thought I'd try it. Should I change that?
  • annavalente
    annavalente Posts: 119 Member
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    According to mfp you need to reassess your daily calorie goal for every 10lbs u lose ...maybe relog things with your current weight and see if anything changes?
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
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    If I was in your situation, I'd probably try 1500 calories per day for a few weeks regardless of activity and see what happens.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    I only looked at 3 days and you were over on all of them. I would imagine you're eating at maintenance.
  • haydiz70
    haydiz70 Posts: 56 Member
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    After losing 20 pounds, I'm struggling to find the right balance too. I'm about the same weight and height, a little shorter. I noticed changing up the exercise, having rest days, and sometimes eating a little more once in a while helps. The weight is coming off, just more slowly. I don't weigh food but I tend to purposely overestimate the calories by about 10-15% to be on the safe side. I also have a fitbit but I don't log it or count it as exercise. Just keep being active and eating healthy. Being healthy is more important than a number on a scale anyway, though I sure would like to see a smaller number on mine. :)
  • emily9423
    emily9423 Posts: 42 Member
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    Try measuring your body in inches or whatever measurements you like. I know for me I thought I had hit a plateau when in reality I was gaining muscle while losing inches around my body. The scale isn't always the best tool to measure your hard work! Keep going; you'll get the results you are looking for!
  • Fitmom122
    Fitmom122 Posts: 1 Member
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    I_Will_End_You wrote: »
    If I was in your situation, I'd probably try 1500 calories per day for a few weeks regardless of activity and see what happens.

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