Plateaued after 2 weeks in...

2»

Replies

  • christinamarie221
    christinamarie221 Posts: 1
    Take your body measurements as well. Muscle is heavier then fat so the scale could be missing part of the story. Try on your favorite outfit and look for changes it how it fits (do this no more then once a week).

    Also account for how you feel. It can be difficult to get past the scale frustration, but once you do you can look for other changes. Easier to be physical, more energy, less bloating, etc.

    It is tempting, but do not allow the scale to define your health journey.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    stelper wrote: »
    There are a couple of things that could be happening here. There is a possibility that you are not accurately measuring the calories that are going into your body, but I highly doubt that considering you have already lost some weight. Or your body's insulin levels are too low.

    I suggest having a cheat day (100-200 calories above maintenance). When our bodies go on long periods of deficits, your insulin levels drop, consequently lowering our overall metabolism, and what we think is the calories that our bodies naturally burn throughout the day (TDEE) is actually significantly lower. Having a small cheat day will bring your insulin levels back to normal, so your body will be running at 100% energy again. When your insulin levels are at 100% that means that your TDEE and BMR are back to where they were when you first started. This is the same technique that body builders do to get lower body fat percentages.

    Let me know if you have anymore questions!

    She's been eating at 1,300 calories for a grand total of 5 weeks. This is not a "long period" of deficit, nor is it a high deficit. Saying that insulin levels drop and lower your metabolism is a way oversimplification that I will let someone else tear apart. There's no way that she substantially lowered her BMR in 5 weeks to the point where she would be no longer in a deficit. There's just no way.

    Body builders use cut and bulk cycles. A single cheat day of 100-200 calories over will do basically nothing. Bulk phases involve eating over maintenance on a high protein diet with a heavy lifting regimen. She's trying to cut right now.

    "Having a small cheat day will bring your insulin levels back to normal, so your body will be running at 100% energy again." No no no no no. Overfeeding only ups metabolism between 3-10 percent for no more than 24 hrs. Aka not enough to burn the excess calories burned in the overfeed. Science: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3456075 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11126336

    Low insulin levels = high blood sugar levels = prediabetes/diabetes/kidney failure = see a doctor if you have reason to believe that you have low insulin levels.
  • MireyGal76
    MireyGal76 Posts: 7,334 Member
    according to http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/daily-caloric-expenditure-calculator.aspx, when I entered your weight, age and height, the estimate is that your maintenance cals are around 1860 cals per day.

    At 1300 cals, (accurately measured), you would expect to see a loss of about a pound a week.

    CPDChart_zpsf7cfad36.jpg

    If you look at the table above, you'll see that any attempted weight loss more aggressive than 1lb/week this would require you consume below 1200 cals a day, which is not adviseable. As such, expect to take a little bit longer to lose the weight - and maybe focus harder on building muscle and strength... which will help raise the amount of calories you expend on a given day.

    Keep in mind that you also have impacts of menstrual cycle, food choices, and biological activity. Be sure to log your food accurately too - because you'll find that it's easy to be over by a few hundred calories simply by snacking here and there.

    This is a process that will take time, but is totally doable!

  • AmberDawn1222
    AmberDawn1222 Posts: 13 Member
    Thank you everyone! I did have a cheat 'snack' last week and then readjusted everything and lost 3.6 this week!

Categories