Week 4...0lbs lost...plateau or too few calories?

HMonsterX
HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
edited September 27 in Motivation and Support
Well, after losing 4lb, 5lb, 4lb...this week, its 0lb.

Can i plateau this soon?

I think it could be im just not eating enough calories. Im trying to stick to the 1200 minimum, 1300 tops, but i just think maybe with the exercise im doing that its just not enough.

I wish i knew how much more i should eat if i do more exercise. Is it something like if you work off 500 calories, you should eat 250 more?

Ive got an appointment with a dietician on monday, but i never realised how demotivating a 0lb can be... :(

Replies

  • papastu
    papastu Posts: 737 Member
    wishing you all the best with the dietician, ask about exercise cals plz :smile:

    I dont eat mine at all as it doesnt make sense to me, I may aswell not exercise in my head, if you get me


    Stu
  • ChitownFoodie
    ChitownFoodie Posts: 1,562 Member
    Your calories are low. Try eating more or you can try zig zagging your calories. Zig zagging works well when trying to break a plateau
  • Shweedog
    Shweedog Posts: 883 Member
    You are supposed to eat all of them. However, your at AT LEAST supposed to eat back enough to make your NET calories equal 1200.
  • keeks419
    keeks419 Posts: 9
    Don't focus on the pounds, focus on the inches! I've been burning around 500 calories a day and my calorie intake has been under 1200 - my trainer told me to add a 200 calorie snack to my day like an apple with peanut butter.

    13 pounds is nothing to scoff at, BTW.
  • ukhennin
    ukhennin Posts: 221 Member
    Yeah, looking at your diary, you're not eating enough.
  • Shweedog
    Shweedog Posts: 883 Member
    wishing you all the best with the dietician, ask about exercise cals plz :smile:

    I dont eat mine at all as it doesnt make sense to me, I may aswell not exercise in my head, if you get me


    Stu

    False info. Please refer to the message boards for newbies. Under general diet and weight loss help.
  • What is Zig Zagging?
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    You have OVER 1000 calories left to eat EVERY DAY!!! EAT MORE!!! Seriously, try it out for a month and see what it does. What do you have to lose? Pounds?


    EAT MORE!!!!
  • Holton
    Holton Posts: 1,018
    I would strongly suggest you start zig zagging your calorie intake as your body has probably become accustomed to expect the 1200-1300 range. It goes against common sense, but when I plateaued and increased by calorie intake by 200-300 calories a day, I started losing again. So rotate between 1200 and 1600 calories, bouncing up and down for a while. Also if you tend to do the same exercise routine, try mixing that up as well. Glad you have a dietitian in the loop. Good luck to you!
  • slick_fox
    slick_fox Posts: 85 Member
    Have you kept your sodium in chec?. You should be only having 1500mg and you will see the difference. For myself I do NOT count the calories that I lose when excerising because I want to stay in the habit of eating 1200 calories per day. I have lost 8.6 pounds in less than 4 weeks.

    Good luck and keep it up!
  • syates83
    syates83 Posts: 87
    I checked out your diary and you are for sure not eating enough...try and fill up on things to fuel your energy and METABOLISM. Your biggest meal should be 30 minutes after you wake up if possible...big lunch....light dinner and moderate snacking. Make sure to get in your water too, it makes a difference.

    I haven't had a 13 pound weight loss success just yet but I have consistintely lost around 1 pound a week so far if not more.

    Keep at it...your exercise is awesome but with the weight you want to lose remember this is a marathon, not a sprint!

    Friend me and we can keep eachother in check!
  • Jodysee77
    Jodysee77 Posts: 1
    I know when I lost my first 30 pounds i plateau'd when I added toning. I was told when you excercise it's not that your plateauing it's that the body is building muscle weight and that you may even see a increase a pound or so because of it. Don't get discouraged! Hope everything works out!!!!
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    wishing you all the best with the dietician, ask about exercise cals plz :smile:

    I dont eat mine at all as it doesnt make sense to me, I may aswell not exercise in my head, if you get me


    Stu

    False info. Please refer to the message boards for newbies. Under general diet and weight loss help.

    Correct. Original poster of this quote. You're right...you don't HAVE to exercise to lose weight with this plan. Exercising just allows us to eat more and enjoy our life. We CAN eat and lose weight while following this plan. Exercising also helps us tone up and adds other beneficial "side effects" to our losing weight journey. If you're following the plan this site sets out for you...you SHOULD eat your exercise calories. I have lost over 50 pounds doing so.
  • jamie78
    jamie78 Posts: 514 Member
    Men should eat at least 1500 a day... SO I would say you are eating too few.. and remember if you dont get enough calories your body will start losing lean muscle instead of fat. Also try upping your protein a bit you are really not getting enough for a man either.
  • Tobi1013
    Tobi1013 Posts: 732 Member
    I just had a quick look at your diary and most days you are netting somewhere around 600-700 calories (with a couple days ending with negative net calories) and that is far too few, in my opinion. There is a TON of debate on this site about exercise calories and whether or not they should be eaten and I don't want to get into that, but I will say that you need to eat more.

    Have a look through the General Diet and Weight Loss forum and read through the sticky posts. There is a good deal of good information there posted by folks who have been doing this for quite some time and have the education and experience to back up their words (as well as all of the research referenced in the posts).
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    Have you kept your sodium in chec?. You should be only having 1500mg and you will see the difference. For myself I do NOT count the calories that I lose when excerising because I want to stay in the habit of eating 1200 calories per day. I have lost 8.6 pounds in less than 4 weeks.

    Good luck and keep it up!

    It is typical to lose so much when first starting out. But...you will not maintain this loss if you are only eating 1200 calories and burning 300 (therefore technically only eating 900!!). Good luck to you though.
  • ranewell
    ranewell Posts: 621 Member
    Good luck! I was at a 6 week plateau, dealing with a knee injury so exercise has been a slow increase for me ( I can now walk a mile and a half...some days I have to stop and stretch that leg, but a BIG difference from where I was!) I had what I had thought was a "bad week," I was maximum 1300 calories, but I averaged about 1000-1150. One week I ate extra calories a few days, and I lost 4 lbs that week...since then I have increased to about 1500, with a couple of 1200 days thrown in a week and I'm back on track. I am sure you will be, too, but you're right that those plateaus are motivation breakers!!
  • jamie78
    jamie78 Posts: 514 Member
    I know when I lost my first 30 pounds i plateau'd when I added toning. I was told when you excercise it's not that your plateauing it's that the body is building muscle weight and that you may even see a increase a pound or so because of it. Don't get discouraged! Hope everything works out!!!!
    It can take weeks or months to build 1 pound of muscle. I am not saying its not muscle weight but I am saying more often not then it is.
  • young1726
    young1726 Posts: 347 Member
    I wish i knew how much more i should eat if i do more exercise. Is it something like if you work off 500 calories, you should eat 250 more?

    Eat what this site tells you to eat. You will lose weight. Try to get that final number of calories as close to ZERO as you can...even if it means you are -5...

    Trust me!!!
  • Shweedog
    Shweedog Posts: 883 Member
    Men should eat at least 1500 a day... SO I would say you are eating too few.. and remember if you dont get enough calories your body will start losing lean muscle instead of fat. Also try upping your protein a bit you are really not getting enough for a man either.

    I didn't check to see if male or female. Correct- men should eat 1500 NET.
  • LuluGirl140
    LuluGirl140 Posts: 364 Member
    Hey there!

    I just browsed at your diary and either you're not logging everything, or you're not eating enough. I know for women you're supposed to eat at least 1200 NET calories/day, for men it's about 1700 (i think). You simply cannot skip meals because that only slows your metabolism, what you want is to kick start it. I know, eat more, lose weight. Doesn't make sense. I still struggle with it. But, I can tell you I have seen some major changes in my body since I started eating more frequently. I do not net my 1200 all the time, but I try and get as close to it as I can. First, try and eat every few hours. Again, I know, doesn't make sense. Have your breakfast, then a few hours later eat a piece of fruit, oatmeal, granola bar, something! Then a few hours later it'll be lunch time. Keep this going all day. Also, drink water!!! I didn't notice any water logged for you, so you have to make sure you get it in there. Again, it's hard, especially if you're not used to doing it. But force yourself to drink it. Trust me, after a while you'll prefer it. You need to drink at least 8 cups of water/day. That's 4 water bottles. What I do is I try and drink at least 3 of those at work. I have one in the morning, one with my lunch, and one in the afternoon. That way I can drink my last water bottle during my workout. If you don't like plain water add crystal light or something like that to it.

    What helped me was researching this stuff online. The more I read, the more sense everything made. I can tell you I'm losing more weight and inches now that I'm eating all the time vs. before. I used to skip breakfast, and sometimes skip dinner too. But the key is eating. Again, I'm still struggling with eating all my exercise calories back, but it's a something I have to work on daily. Plus look at the folks on here who have been successful, and ask them what they've done. Whatever they're doing is working for them so it wouldn't hurt to try it yourself.

    Good luck, hang in there!!!
  • Tobi1013
    Tobi1013 Posts: 732 Member
    I wish i knew how much more i should eat if i do more exercise. Is it something like if you work off 500 calories, you should eat 250 more?

    Eat what this site tells you to eat. You will lose weight. Try to get that final number of calories as close to ZERO as you can...even if it means you are -5...

    Trust me!!!

    Could not agree more!!!!
  • fittraier
    fittraier Posts: 138
    I am a trainer..and I say eat more! you need to eat your calories you expend, and if you don't want to eat all (because the counter isn't exact in how many you actually burn) eat 1/2 of them you burn.:smile:
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    First of all thank you all for the replies. 24 replies in that short space of time?! Amazing! :)

    Ok, so let me clarify a few things here.

    My main problem is calorie intake vs fat intake. Because pretty much everything i like has some fat in it, if i increase my calories, ill be increasing my fat intake too. What i really want is a pill that contains 300 calories and 0 fat! I really am struggling now to think of how i can add that 3-400 calories into my daily food, without adding more fat.

    Any dinner food i look into for more calories ends up having almost double the fat content of my current things. Ive just noticed pasta is relatively high in calories, but low in fat, so ill start having more of that. But then, i normally have mince with that, and even the lean mince is stupidly high in fat.

    Another point, calories v fat. Which is the more important number to keep low? How much fat should i be taking in? I know the body needs some fat, but whats the level i should be aiming at? Is it simply the lower the better?

    As for water, does that literally have to be actual, neat, water? Do things like sugarfree soda, fruit juice, cordial, tea, coffee, etc count? I take it coffee doesnt as its a diuretic...
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    Bump! :)
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