Stuck in a rut

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Hi Everybody,

I am a long time reader but a first time poster. I8 months ago I was 22.5 stone and would get out of breath climbing stairs. I now hover between 17-18 stone and in the past 12 months have completed many 5k, 10k runs, 2 sprint triathlons and multiple Obstacle Course Races (including Spartan Race, Dirty Dozen, Pain and Suffering and Tough Mudder). Now the issue for me is I still hold a good 3-4 stone of weight thats holding me back from bigger dreams but I don't seem to be loosing the weight. Carrying this extra weight means I struggle to acheive much under 35 minutes for a 5k and 1h15m for a 10k.

Following injury I have gone back up to 18st4lbs and have been trying to eat 1600 calories a day as MFP advises (18st4lbs, 33, 5'11 and office worker). But the problems are two fold:

1. The weight seems mostly static
2. I feel tired and lethargic and it impacts my excercise negatively.

Last week I clocked up 116km (mixture of bike, running and walking and 11.5 hours of excercise), including 2 bootcamps and 1 obstacle course. Thats across 5 days with two total rest days in the week. This is probobly a lighter week, I will often do more miles.

Can anyone offer any advice? Have I set my calories too low/high?

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Are you logging what you eat accurately, including using a food scale? How much of your exercise calories do you eat back, and how do you determine your burns?
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    We need stats to give you input. Height? Age?
    Are you getting enough sleep?
    You might feel better eating more fresh or frozen vegetables: lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, asparagus, green beans, peas.
  • athenasurrenders
    athenasurrenders Posts: 278 Member
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    Sorry if I missed it, but how long have you been stuck at that weight for?
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    6-8 months. Maybe I go half a stone either way.
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    RodaRose wrote: »
    We need stats to give you input. Height? Age?
    Are you getting enough sleep?
    You might feel better eating more fresh or frozen vegetables: lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, asparagus, green beans, peas.

    33 and 5'11.
  • markiend
    markiend Posts: 461 Member
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    Do you have a goal weight in mind ?
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    Are you logging what you eat accurately, including using a food scale? How much of your exercise calories do you eat back, and how do you determine your burns?

    Mostly 100% accurately. Most of the time I try to eat little of my exercise calories back. Always try to keep it below 50% if I do.
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    markiend wrote: »
    Do you have a goal weight in mind ?

    14st ish would be ideal, but time will tell.
  • bmele0
    bmele0 Posts: 282 Member
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    Following this thread! Something very similar has been going on with me. I highly suspect the 0.5 loss setting in MFP is actually my maintain now, but when I go to set it to 1 lb or 1.5 lb loss, I feel weak, tired, and can't perform as well. I feel ravenous if I don't eat half or more of my exercise calories back. I had 2 months of no movement, bounced around the same 2-3 lbs. I've since cut back on exercise and re-focused on my diet when I hurt my hip and lost 1 lb in the last month. I also weigh my food. I still have like 35-40 lbs to lose.... :disappointed:
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    bmele0 wrote: »
    Following this thread! Something very similar has been going on with me. I highly suspect the 0.5 loss setting in MFP is actually my maintain now, but when I go to set it to 1 lb or 1.5 lb loss, I feel weak, tired, and can't perform as well. I feel ravenous if I don't eat half or more of my exercise calories back. I had 2 months of no movement, bounced around the same 2-3 lbs. I've since cut back on exercise and re-focused on my diet when I hurt my hip and lost 1 lb in the last month. I also weigh my food. I still have like 35-40 lbs to lose.... :disappointed:

    I feel your pain. Some days I burn around 1500-2000 calories through exercise and I rarely eat much of it back at all.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    How are you logging though?

    Do you weigh everything on a digital scale - everything

    do you log with care

    How are you logging your exercise

    I will warrant you are consuming more calories than you think because in 6 months you have maintained / increased

    it's a logging issue - focus on that
  • bmele0
    bmele0 Posts: 282 Member
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    Well, I've lost 111 lbs and I've done this over a span of 2 years. I've done it by trying to log accurately, weigh my food, and I wear an HRM to calculate a closer calorie burn than say what MFP tells me. I used to eat only half or less of it back. But when I started performing more intense exercise, I would feel super hungry, tired/weak, so I ate most of them back and settled on just knowing I would lose slower. That's partly why I cut back on the exercise (partially due to my hip pain), but so that I could just re-focus on my logging and diet. I did see the 1 lb loss, haha it's something. If I go too low, I feel so low energy/ weak. At one point, when I was like in the low to mid 200's, I could do 1200 cals, but I don't feel like I could do it now without feeling awful.
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    Yes, weigh and log everything (much to the mrs annoyance).

    Also track fitness with Garmin/HRM and try not to replace the calories.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    tlongarms wrote: »
    Yes, weigh and log everything (much to the mrs annoyance).

    Also track fitness with Garmin/HRM and try not to replace the calories.

    either you've had errors creep in that you keep repeating .. easily done

    or you have a medical issue

    I would strongly suggest it's the former and that you should read the link I posted
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    tlongarms wrote: »
    Yes, weigh and log everything (much to the mrs annoyance).

    Also track fitness with Garmin/HRM and try not to replace the calories.

    either you've had errors creep in that you keep repeating .. easily done

    or you have a medical issue

    I would strongly suggest it's the former and that you should read the link I posted

    Will take a read later, I agree its unlikely to be a medical issue.

  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited June 2015
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    oops wrong thread
  • tlongarms
    tlongarms Posts: 9 Member
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    I guess one thing I want to know is can I safely eat some exercise calories back or should I just leave them alone.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    tlongarms wrote: »
    I guess one thing I want to know is can I safely eat some exercise calories back or should I just leave them alone.

    Well you're not losing weight with what you are logging at present so why would you increase your calorie intake?