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weight plateau

Trinity1085
Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
So I started seriously working out and eating nutrient dense low carb in October. I started at 176lbs and I'm a 5'7 mother of 3. I now weigh 155 lbs. I've hit a weight plateau though. I've upped my work outs from three days a week to 5 days a week. They consist of 60min HITT training followed by 30 min of weight training or a 60 min class like Les Mills body combat and 30min weight training. I try to keep my carbs below 50g a day. I feel like I've been stuck at 155 for over a month now. Even with the two additional excercise days I've not seen the scale move much. I'm re tracking food to see if maybe I'm eating more than I think. So far I'm averaging a 600 calorie deficit a day from my 1540 calorie + 700 calorie exercise burn. For example I still have 1300 calorie deficit today and I have only dinner to go. I don't eat much at breakfast because I work out in the morning. My breakfast is usually the black tea version of bulletproof coffee minus coconut oil and only 2 tsp of butter. Anyway I'd really like to lose that last 25 lbs. Any advice is much appreciated.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Are you weighing and logging everything you eat? How are you determining you calories burned, and how much, if any, of those do you eat back?
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    Yes everything is getting logged and measured. Using this app to estimate calories burned. I usually eat about 1200- 1300 calories a day. I burn around 700 calories just during my workouts. I also track with my fitbit. Fitness pal recommended 1540 calories before exercise to lose 1 lb per week.
  • shrinkingletters
    shrinkingletters Posts: 1,008 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Yes everything is getting logged and measured. Using this app to estimate calories burned. I usually eat about 1200- 1300 calories a day. I burn around 700 calories just during my workouts. I also track with my fitbit. Fitness pal recommended 1540 calories before exercise to lose 1 lb per week.

    Measured? Or weighed?
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    You said you recently upped your workouts...could be water retention.

    That said, I'd be surprised if you really were burning 700 calories doing what you described. So if you're eating that amount of exercise calories back, that could be wiping out your deficit too.
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    I meant weighed. An example if my most recent work out went as followed. Intense cardio 5 min followed by 14 burpees followed by weighted lunges for 5 min, another 5 min cardio, 15 burpees, side planks for 4 min weighted, 5 min cardio, 16 burpees, running bleachers, etc until I reached 20 burpees and then subtracting a burpees each round till back to 14, then 30 min of lifting.
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    I'm thinking maybe I need to reverse my eating. Heavy breakfast small to null dinner.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    I'm thinking maybe I need to reverse my eating. Heavy breakfast small to null dinner.

    I think maybe try eating half of your exercise calories back. MFP exercise burns are way off imo.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    I'm thinking maybe I need to reverse my eating. Heavy breakfast small to null dinner.

    Won't have any effect.

    I don't see that you've specifically answered yet, though it's been asked a couple times. Do you eat back your exercise calories?

    If you want to open your diary, people could take a look and see maybe if there's some obvious errors in logging too. That's a very common issue.
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    I also noticed some days I'm down to 148 and the next day the scale will read 157. On average I'm 155. I've tried different scales but the weight fluctuation is bananas
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    I don't eat back my calories. And my food was being tracked in a personal notebook using the app as a reference for calories. I used to have issues with food as in not eating enough so I wasn't comfortable with sharing that with the world. But decided to track back on here because I don't want to make errors. I wish I had a wider electronic history for you. Can you tell me how to open my diary?
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    Ok I think it's public now
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Ok I think it's public now

    OK so just a quick peek at today's logging...you said you weighed everything you eat. But:

    "Butter, 2 tsp" ..not weighed
    "Homemade (Family Circle) - Chicken Meatloaf, 1.5 slice" ..not weighed, and unless you made this exact recipe yourself, you have no idea if the calorie counts are accurate
    "Olivia's - Organic Baby Arugula, 2 cups"...not weighed, but probably immaterial. Also - no dressing?
    "Sodexo Workplace - Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes", 7.5 oz" Weighed, but a "Sodexo" entry along with a "Homemade" recipe in the same meal - surely one (if not both) of these don't reflect the ACTUAL item you ate.

  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    IMO, it doesn't count as HIIT if you can sustain it for 60 minutes.
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    The meatloaf and the cauliflower mash were home made. Those were the closest description I could find. I don't do dressing. Too much sugar. The meatloaf was made from 98% lean ground chicken 2 lbs divided by 5 people equally, 2 eggs , 4 oz of flax seed meal, 1 graded zucchini and 1 carrot, and no sugar added 8oz tomatoes sauce, plus salt pepper, the mash wade from 3 lbs of cauliflower split between 5 people, 1 oz butter, salt and pepper
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    The meatloaf and the cauliflower mash were home made. Those were the closest description I could find. I don't do dressing. Too much sugar. The meatloaf was made from 98% lean ground chicken 2 lbs divided by 5 people equally, 2 eggs , 4 oz of flax seed meal, 1 graded zucchini and 1 carrot, and no sugar added 8oz tomatoes sauce, plus salt pepper, the mash wade from 3 lbs of cauliflower split between 5 people, 1 oz butter, salt and pepper

    I would definitely recommend getting to know MFP's recipe feature. You don't know what the other person used for their meatloaf. It could be off by 10 calories or 110 calories per serving. It can make a big difference throughout the day.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    The meatloaf and the cauliflower mash were home made. Those were the closest description I could find.

    Well there you go then...your calorie counts are not accurate.

    For things that are homemade, you can use the recipe builder to enter all the ingredients and get an accurate calorie count.
  • Trinity1085
    Trinity1085 Posts: 9 Member
    Ok whatever you want to call the workout I described call it what you want. I came here for advice and really all I am getting is you must be lying. There is no way you can be doing what you're saying and not losing weight. It took guts to put myself out there. I was really excited that there was a community of encouragement and support. I am so proud of all the weight I've lost so far. Remind me to never post on here again. Had I posted at the beginning of my weight loss after your alls posts I would have probably thrown in the towel. Luckily the way I feel about myself now is not the way I felt about myself then.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Ok whatever you want to call the workout I described call it what you want. I came here for advice and really all I am getting is you must be lying. There is no way you can be doing what you're saying and not losing weight. It took guts to put myself out there. I was really excited that there was a community of encouragement and support. I am so proud of all the weight I've lost so far. Remind me to never post on here again. Had I posted at the beginning of my weight loss after your alls posts I would have probably thrown in the towel. Luckily the way I feel about myself now is not the way I felt about myself then.

    Really? Because I see a lot of good advice and information in this thread. Not one person has called you a liar. What many people have suggested is that there are some common pitfalls in the system that cause us to inadvertently underestimate food and overestimate exercise burns. Now that you're aware of them, you can work to avoid them.

    Or keep doing what you're doing and ignore the advice here. That's an option you have, but I don't think it will be a very satisfying one.
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Ok whatever you want to call the workout I described call it what you want. I came here for advice and really all I am getting is you must be lying. There is no way you can be doing what you're saying and not losing weight. It took guts to put myself out there. I was really excited that there was a community of encouragement and support. I am so proud of all the weight I've lost so far. Remind me to never post on here again. Had I posted at the beginning of my weight loss after your alls posts I would have probably thrown in the towel. Luckily the way I feel about myself now is not the way I felt about myself then.

    Take it how you want, but what we're saying is true. Once you accept this and take the suggestions given, you will lose weight.

    You're on a calorie counting website. You can't "guess" or use random entries of food, because that's not counting YOUR calories.

    Try this: Take your meatloaf recipe, but it in the builder, and see how many calories it was. Then compare that to the random entry you chose. They will likely be very different.
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  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Ok whatever you want to call the workout I described call it what you want. I came here for advice and really all I am getting is you must be lying. There is no way you can be doing what you're saying and not losing weight. It took guts to put myself out there. I was really excited that there was a community of encouragement and support. I am so proud of all the weight I've lost so far. Remind me to never post on here again. Had I posted at the beginning of my weight loss after your alls posts I would have probably thrown in the towel. Luckily the way I feel about myself now is not the way I felt about myself then.

    Take a step back. You are being overly sensitive and defensive. people are giving you good advice.

    You are stuck so that means one of three things really.

    You are consuming more than you think, burning less or you need to be patient.

    Have a look at this thread and then consider what people are telling you. Its not people are calling you a liar, its the fact that your resilts or stall speaks for itself and if you are interested in sorting it out then you need to identify where the problem is.
  • hrtchoco
    hrtchoco Posts: 156 Member
    Anyway......yes use the recipe builder! You can enter all your food by the weight before you start cooking then divide them up(or eat the whole thing)!
    Here is my omelet: although some looks like they are in volume, but I did use a food scale to weight them in grams and chose the ones that match:
    ovtzr0fh18fj.jpg
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Trinity1085 wrote: »
    Using this app to estimate calories burned. I usually eat about 1200- 1300 calories a day. I burn around 700 calories just during my workouts. I also track with my fitbit. Fitness pal recommended 1540 calories before exercise to lose 1 lb per week.

    Others have already addressed the fact that you need to tighten up your logging. Logging is simple, but it ain't easy. Logging works.

    Here's how to handle the "calories out" side of the equation. Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

    Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. No need to log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • LisaTcan
    LisaTcan Posts: 410 Member
    Just wanted to say that I thought using the recipe builder would be a pain but it is amazing and so easy! If it's online you just copy and paste the URL. Each time I make a new recipe I use it and then I eat that meal at least twice that week.
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