Weight loss slowing down disheartening

mrsmiley32 · May 2015

I know, I know! It happens, just been stuck at 220-225 for the last 3 weeks and by all means I've been eating more without upping the exercise. I went from losing 3.5lbs to .5lbs a week and supposedly only eating an average of about 500cals a day more. I'm still losing size, actually rather fast just not weight. Trust me I know if I re-calibrate my diet back to the precision it was 3 weeks ago and add back in my resistance training/soccer I would go back to it. I use the word diet because I have decided living on less than 100grams of carbs with the occasional cookie/burrito isn't as fun as being able to choose the burrito 5 days a week. Luckily even choosing the burrito I seem to just maintain weight, the lifestyle changes (more walking, smaller portions, choosing smarter foods (aka: an orance is more delicious imho than a snickers, and really I need only 1 to satisfy my cravings)) seems to have stuck. So I'm def. not off bad.

I figure I traded soccer for mountain hiking once a week (a more family friendly activity) but honestly I think my body has become far more efficient at walking since the other 30lbs have been lost. Carrying less weight, having less weight to maintain, and better walking style (with more endurance) I just think I need to up my game. Maybe it's time to start jogging the 3miles to/from work but I fear that breaking the lifestyle change and turning the exercise into more "temporary". Maybe I should just be happy that I'm losing size not weight, this is likely, and I know this is very typical.

For those who have the big lump of times that were "no change" what did you do to power through it (I know this is post #124512581925y1328951, 'y' here being an appropriate number, regarding this)? I guess more so don't feel as though you need to respond, I just needed somewhere else than facebook to point out that not seeing the scale move is mildly depressing.

juggernaut1974 · May 2015

Well as a general rule of thumb, losing 3.5 lbs per week isn't particularly healthy or sustainable, so it's not a surprise that you slowed down off that.

Also, you say the scale "isn't moving" but you said elsewhere it's just slowed down to 1/2 lb per week. 1/2 lb per week is still 'moving'!

Last thought...look at your weight loss over the long term. On average - how many lbs per week have you lost? That will give you a better picture of the success (or not) of your plan, rather than just comparing the outliers.

LuckyMe2017 · May 2015

Don't be discouraged! 1-2 pounds a week will add up and you will be glad you stayed the course.

999tigger · May 2015

I went back to basics and checked i was at a consistent deficit. I kept up with my exercise and then remained patient.

devil_in_a_blue_dress · May 2015

How much more do you have to lose? 3.5 pounds per week is too much per week no matter what. If you have 25 or less pounds to lose, .5 is totally reasonable.

mrsmiley32 · May 2015

I still have about 48lbs to lose, lost about 27lbs so far (though actually my initial scale was off 10lbs I found out later so technically I've lost 37lbs so far). I'm 5'10-11 @ 223 this morning.

Ninkyou · May 2015

mrsmiley32 wrote: »

I went from losing 3.5lbs to .5lbs a week and supposedly only eating an average of about 500cals a day more.

You're eating more calories daily, it's no wonder your weight loss has slowed. 500 calories a day is a large increase.

brianam204 · May 2015

You say yourself that you're still losing size, so you're obviously still doing something right. And, if losing is the goal, I'm pretty big on the idea that the number on the scale doesn't matter anywhere near as much as the size of clothes that you can fit into. Since I started my own diet/exercise regime 5 weeks ago, I've lost 8 pounds (185->177), but my proportions have changed and that's the important part.

When I started, I set my goal at 30lbs to lose. After about 3 weeks of losing 2lbs each, I was noticing the physical change and I stopped caring about reaching 155; I set my diet to lose 1/2 lb per week now and work on simply looking better and am not even terribly concerned about whether I even lose that weight.

I'm not writing to poo-poo your goal. But I've seen pictures of guys who are 200-220lbs at 5'11" and some of them look pretty damn good. So maybe consider this: slow your progress to .5-1 lb/week, get your macros to something like 35% protein/40% carbs/25% fat and you'll find that losing body fat is pretty easy and you don't have to worry much about the number on the scale.

As I say that, what macro ratio are you going with, BTW?

vmsolko · May 2015

I've felt what you're feeling.
I am similar to you. I'm 5'10" and started at 215 lbs. I lost almost 10 lbs in the first month. All those positive changes I made to both my diet and exercise really had a huge impact. The first 20 lbs came off quickly. Then the next 10 lbs took twice as long, and since then, the next 5 took nearly 5 months! I've stayed consistent (although I did take a week off when we went on vacation in Mexico - still exercised, just didn't calorie count and drank), I've just realized there are going to be periods where the weight loss slows dramatically or doesn't change for a while.

For me, I looked back at my charts to see what my weight loss looked like over the last year or so. I was amazed to see three distinct times when my weight loss plateaued completely, followed by a 1-3 lb increase, and then dipped back down and continued that way. So clearly it was a pattern for me. That made me feel a lot better, physically seeing that it had happened before and I still kept losing weight after it.

Also, the fact that you switched up your exercise routine could actually be part of the reason for the slowed scale too. I broke my hand in March and had to stop doing my weight/HIIT combo videos so I started running. The scale actually went UP a few pounds! But within 3 weeks, the weight that had been stubborn for months started to come off with ease again. I think my body needed that switch up. You might start seeing more results now that you changed some of your exercise routine.

Are you measuring yourself? Seeing the change in the measuring tape numbers can be motivating too. Or check out photos that people have posted of themselves at the same weight - one before working out or doing weights and one after. It's amazing. Muscle weighs more than fat - you could be the same weight but look vastly different just because of what exercise is doing to tighten your body and help you lose pants sizes. And in the end you want to look and feel better, right? Personally I think it's really rewarding to be able to try on a smaller size in jeans and feel them slip on than just seeing a number on the scale.

Weight loss slowing down disheartening

Replies

Categories