Need help/advice my calorie intake and possible plateau. Really frustrated.
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mauson00
Posts: 2 Member
Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here in the forums of MFP. I didn't really know where else to go or who to ask so I figured this would be a good place to post. This is going to be really long... I'm sorry 
Female HT: 5'2 SW: 185 CW:169 GW:145 Started: 05/03/2015
I'm just going to start off by giving a in depth description of how I've been dieting and exercising before I talk about my plateau.
I started dieting using MFP and working out 3 times week which includes 4 exercises using free weights for my arms, some core exercises, and doing cardio on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity for a potato like me for 30 mins. This all started about 1 month ago. I tried to keep my calories at 1000 tops, but I'll be honest, I've been really eating between 800-900 calories a day. I'd fib the rest of my calories on MFP to keep a projection weight by adding in multiple servings of broccoli usually since I eat that every night. I know this is dangerous and I probably shouldn't have, but I wasn't hungry nor starving myself. When I Was hungry, it was usually around lunch time or dinner time, so it wasn't really a problem.
I am super meticulous about counting calories, weighing all my food, measuring out everything for the 2-3 recipes I've made and entered into MFP. I even adjust the amount of food every time I made a new batch of food because the weights of the ingredients are never the same each time. I then weight the whole batch of food so I can make portions of them and just weight my servings every time.
For what I eat, you can either look at my profile or keep reading this paragraph. All I eat every day is pretty much a sandwich which has <2 oz of pastrami or turkey, 1 piece of low sodium provolone, 2 pieces of Publix Low Calorie Bread or Pepperidge Farm Very Thin Wheat bread, with 1.25 TBSP mayo for lunch, then 5.5-6.5 OZ of baked salmon that has <0.5 TBSP of melted butter spread on it with a can of blackened seasoning that I put on it with 85 grams of steamed broccoli seasoned with 1/8 of a cube of Knorr seasoning, 0.5 tsp of garlic powder, and 0.25 tsp of black pepper. This is my typical meal every day. I will have the occasional 2 tacos for dinner which I meticulously calories count everything in it from seasoning, to the grams of cheese put on it, and a summer squash dish which I also meticulously count calories for. If you don't believe my counting calories for recipes and meals every day, check my profile. You'll even see how I stack the calories for broccoli just to hit 1000 calories a day. I also drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, and drink a diet Coke a day at most during the week days. I don't eat breakfast because I'm not hungry in the mornings and because I like sleeping a bit more before work (medical assistant/unofficial nurse). If I ever eat something where in I can't count the calories accurately, I always over estimate and choose the higher calories item on the MFP list, after doing research on Google for calories for what ever item I'm searching for.
I do not binge, nor have I ever had the urge to do so. If anything, sometimes I don't even finish my meals because I'm not hungry, thus I dip into the 800's for calorie intake for the day. I did notice that my body feels tired and sore in the mornings after I work out, but I figured that was normal.
Just recently though, I hit a plateau. It started last Saturday when I ate out for the first time in a long time. My mother and I went to a ramen shop, and after looking at calories for the best and the worst for a bowl, I figured I'd be fine. 1 bowl alone at worst would be 1,150 calories or something, while on average it looked like 800 would be average at worst. For lunch and dinner, I didn't even finish the whole bowl, eating possibly 2/3 or 3/4 of it at most of the noodles and broth. I also had 4 balls of takoyaki which was rated at 70 calories per piece at most. The whole meal sat in my stomach like a rock and I physically felt terrible. Then the next day, I decided, you know what? I'm going to try to eat 1000 calories a day to really keep up with my calorie intake on MFP, and I was always afraid of that "starvation mode" or your metabolism dropping so much. I've tried to keep close to 1000 every day till last night when I realized I haven't dropped any weight what so every. Today is my aunt's birthday, so I figured dropping back to between 800-900 for yesterday would be fine since I wouldn't be able to 100% accurately calculate my calories for today since lunch will pretty much just be 4 Filipino fried meat egg rolls, a piece of cake, and broccoli with a kale, strawberry, and banana milkshake for dinner to make up for my crappy quality lunch. I'm not feeling good about today's cheat day since my weight loss has stalled... but I'm going to do it anyways. I also rarely do cheat days. I consider cheat days days when I eat in my calorie limit, but eat things that are more unhealthy than what I usually eat and sometimes can't 100% accurately count calories for.
Maybe I hit a plateau because I was really eating too little calories a day, went into starvation mode, and now I'm paying for it now that I'm trying to eat 1000 calories a day instead of the usual 800-900? Or am I doing something else wrong? I know it's only been 5 days, but I'm used to loosing at least 1 lb by now, and about 2-3 lbs a week. It's driving me nuts and I don't know what to do. Aren't I too early in my diet and working out to plateau? And if I did enter starvation mode and that's why I'm not loosing weight now, how long will it be that I eat 1000 calories a day for my body and metabolism to get used to it and start loosing weight again?
Female HT: 5'2 SW: 185 CW:169 GW:145 Started: 05/03/2015
I'm just going to start off by giving a in depth description of how I've been dieting and exercising before I talk about my plateau.
I started dieting using MFP and working out 3 times week which includes 4 exercises using free weights for my arms, some core exercises, and doing cardio on a stationary bike at a moderate intensity for a potato like me for 30 mins. This all started about 1 month ago. I tried to keep my calories at 1000 tops, but I'll be honest, I've been really eating between 800-900 calories a day. I'd fib the rest of my calories on MFP to keep a projection weight by adding in multiple servings of broccoli usually since I eat that every night. I know this is dangerous and I probably shouldn't have, but I wasn't hungry nor starving myself. When I Was hungry, it was usually around lunch time or dinner time, so it wasn't really a problem.
I am super meticulous about counting calories, weighing all my food, measuring out everything for the 2-3 recipes I've made and entered into MFP. I even adjust the amount of food every time I made a new batch of food because the weights of the ingredients are never the same each time. I then weight the whole batch of food so I can make portions of them and just weight my servings every time.
For what I eat, you can either look at my profile or keep reading this paragraph. All I eat every day is pretty much a sandwich which has <2 oz of pastrami or turkey, 1 piece of low sodium provolone, 2 pieces of Publix Low Calorie Bread or Pepperidge Farm Very Thin Wheat bread, with 1.25 TBSP mayo for lunch, then 5.5-6.5 OZ of baked salmon that has <0.5 TBSP of melted butter spread on it with a can of blackened seasoning that I put on it with 85 grams of steamed broccoli seasoned with 1/8 of a cube of Knorr seasoning, 0.5 tsp of garlic powder, and 0.25 tsp of black pepper. This is my typical meal every day. I will have the occasional 2 tacos for dinner which I meticulously calories count everything in it from seasoning, to the grams of cheese put on it, and a summer squash dish which I also meticulously count calories for. If you don't believe my counting calories for recipes and meals every day, check my profile. You'll even see how I stack the calories for broccoli just to hit 1000 calories a day. I also drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, and drink a diet Coke a day at most during the week days. I don't eat breakfast because I'm not hungry in the mornings and because I like sleeping a bit more before work (medical assistant/unofficial nurse). If I ever eat something where in I can't count the calories accurately, I always over estimate and choose the higher calories item on the MFP list, after doing research on Google for calories for what ever item I'm searching for.
I do not binge, nor have I ever had the urge to do so. If anything, sometimes I don't even finish my meals because I'm not hungry, thus I dip into the 800's for calorie intake for the day. I did notice that my body feels tired and sore in the mornings after I work out, but I figured that was normal.
Just recently though, I hit a plateau. It started last Saturday when I ate out for the first time in a long time. My mother and I went to a ramen shop, and after looking at calories for the best and the worst for a bowl, I figured I'd be fine. 1 bowl alone at worst would be 1,150 calories or something, while on average it looked like 800 would be average at worst. For lunch and dinner, I didn't even finish the whole bowl, eating possibly 2/3 or 3/4 of it at most of the noodles and broth. I also had 4 balls of takoyaki which was rated at 70 calories per piece at most. The whole meal sat in my stomach like a rock and I physically felt terrible. Then the next day, I decided, you know what? I'm going to try to eat 1000 calories a day to really keep up with my calorie intake on MFP, and I was always afraid of that "starvation mode" or your metabolism dropping so much. I've tried to keep close to 1000 every day till last night when I realized I haven't dropped any weight what so every. Today is my aunt's birthday, so I figured dropping back to between 800-900 for yesterday would be fine since I wouldn't be able to 100% accurately calculate my calories for today since lunch will pretty much just be 4 Filipino fried meat egg rolls, a piece of cake, and broccoli with a kale, strawberry, and banana milkshake for dinner to make up for my crappy quality lunch. I'm not feeling good about today's cheat day since my weight loss has stalled... but I'm going to do it anyways. I also rarely do cheat days. I consider cheat days days when I eat in my calorie limit, but eat things that are more unhealthy than what I usually eat and sometimes can't 100% accurately count calories for.
Maybe I hit a plateau because I was really eating too little calories a day, went into starvation mode, and now I'm paying for it now that I'm trying to eat 1000 calories a day instead of the usual 800-900? Or am I doing something else wrong? I know it's only been 5 days, but I'm used to loosing at least 1 lb by now, and about 2-3 lbs a week. It's driving me nuts and I don't know what to do. Aren't I too early in my diet and working out to plateau? And if I did enter starvation mode and that's why I'm not loosing weight now, how long will it be that I eat 1000 calories a day for my body and metabolism to get used to it and start loosing weight again?
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Replies
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5 days is not a plateau. 5 weeks would be a plateau. Weight loss isn't linear, you won't lose weight every week, and you haven't even waited a week lol. You've gotta be more patient!
1000 calories a day isn't good (though it's better than 800), you want to net at least 1200. Stick to what MFP has recommended you. And 'starvation mode' will not have stopped you losing weight. A lot of the weight you've lost already will be water weight, which happens at the beginning of a diet. 2lbs a week should be the maximum rate of loss to aim for, and you're not always going to get that.0 -
Also, in general, unless you are tiny, elderly, and bedridden, you probably need more calories to get sufficient nutrition, quite apart from weight loss.0
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A plateau is a minimum of four weeks with no change. There may be a bit of a water weight increase from you raising your calories (and you'll need to go up to at LEAST 1200 to ensure you're getting the nutrients your body needs), but eating too low will not cause you to go into "starvation mode".0
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You should definitely eat more. As for the explanation of your weight loss, short term weight loss has more to do with the physical movement of food from the time it enters your body at the mouth until it makes its way out the back. It typically takes a couple of days for that to happen. When you increase the rate at which you stuff food into your mouth, your weight will increase because you have more food in the queue. If something causes the food to leave more slowly out the back, your weight will increase because you have more food in the queue. Over time (weeks), the short term fluctuations balance out and you can see the effect of fat loss.0
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Admission: I only read part of your post. The points I picked out:
You are concerned about lack of weight since Saturday? And you ate a high sodium meal this weekend. 1.) You are not going to lose weight every day or even every week. Our bodies are not perfect machines. Sometimes it takes days or more for things to process. 2.) High sodium can lead to water retention. Its temporary. Other common causes of water weight are TOM/hormones, stress, lack of sleep, and starting a new workout routine. (Muscles use water in the repair process.)
Beyond that: eat more. You are petite in height so may need to stick to the low end of 1200-1500 calories. But you should not have to stay at 800-900 in order to lose weight. You've lost a huge amount in 1 month. You are NOT on a plateau. You just have unrealistic, and maybe even unhealthy, expectations. Losing so fast has a downside. For one thing, part of what you're losing is not fat - but is muscle. You want to keep that, and a slower rate of loss helps maintain muscle mass. Second what you're doing is not realistic for long term, unless you're in the land of eating disorders and that's not the place to be.
Fit more nutrition into your day. Have some avocado, cool with olive oil, use full fat versions of food occasionally, drink some milk, eat slightly larger portions, have a protein shake, eat some nuts. Just a few ideas.0 -
As everyone else said above, you're not in a plateau at 5 days. You need to stop obsessing over the scale and give it some time since weight loss isn't linear. I, for example, only lose weight according to my scale one week a month. That means 3 weeks out of every month my weight stays constant or even goes up! Water retention, TOM, and increased exercise are some of the reasons why this naturally occurs. The thing is - if you know that you're eating under your calorie limit every day you shouldn't be worried. That said, please make sure you get at least 1,200 calories a day to keep your body healthy and functioning properly. Also, starvation mode doesn't exist - it's just a scare tactic. If it were a real condition it would be impossible for people to starve to death, right? Best of luck to you!0
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You're not in starvation mode, eating 1,000 per day you will lose weight. That ramon stuff is full of salt, you are retaining water. Eat cleaner and drink more water and the numbers will catch up to ya! Good luck!!0
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Thank you so much to everyone who has given me advice here! I guess I was paranoid/impatient > < Forgive me > <
I never realized the importance of sodium intake before until now. I will most definitely keep tabs on it, I never really gave it 2 glances in the past.
I will also increase my calorie intake to 1000-1100 and also eat more protein. I was worried about potentially loosing muscle mass instead of fat, and I'm probably loosing muscle now as as someone pointed out My muscles, more particularly my thighs feel like they are always kind of burning 
So I will also be increasing my protien intake to help deal with the damage done and prevent it from comtinuing to happen and possible build muscle instead.
Thank you all again for setting me straight! I really appreciate it
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