Not losing weight and frustrated!

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Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    I have heard about apple cider vinegar and cucumbers when you are on a plateau.

    For what?

    That's a very personal question.

    SNORT!
  • sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    The issue may be where did the water weight displacement change to. I believe that it went in the muscles for muscle repair. That is why they say to measure yourself by the waist and thighs. When working out, muscles need water as a medium for nutrient transper to repair. So water weight left the fat stores and then when doing intense workouts , water weight was absorbrd into the muscles to repair damaged fibers. That is what I meant by muscle mass. There are companies that sell stuff like hydroxy cut that forces water from the muscles, but I don't like doing things unnatural.

    Ahhh..gotcha :)
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    Measure your waist and thighs while your in a plateau. You may have gained muscle mass. It weighs more than fat. If you lost dress and pants sizes, your losing body fat.

    Op, you will not gain muscle while eating at a deficit. I do agree to take measurements , as you could be losing inches and sometimes water weight can mask that

    I guess you may be right, I am getting stronger so that accounts for something. I went from 20 pushups a day to 60 and 0 knee bends to 50 every three days. I suggest to stay away from knee bends unless you like to be extreemly sore. Havnt lost a pound in two weeks, but lost 2 inches on my belly and lost most of my initial water weight. Explain how increasing strength may have nothing to do with muscle mass please.

    Strength gains are not the same as mass gains

    Strength gains are due to your body becoming more efficient at using your existing muscle mass.

    Mass gains require a caloric surplus and proper exercise regimen.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    Measure your waist and thighs while your in a plateau. You may have gained muscle mass. It weighs more than fat. If you lost dress and pants sizes, your losing body fat.

    Op, you will not gain muscle while eating at a deficit. I do agree to take measurements , as you could be losing inches and sometimes water weight can mask that

    I guess you may be right, I am getting stronger so that accounts for something. I went from 20 pushups a day to 60 and 0 knee bends to 50 every three days. I suggest to stay away from knee bends unless you like to be extreemly sore. Havnt lost a pound in two weeks, but lost 2 inches on my belly and lost most of my initial water weight. Explain how increasing strength may have nothing to do with muscle mass please.

    Strength gains are not the same as mass gains

    Strength gains are due to your body becoming more efficient at using your existing muscle mass.

    Mass gains require a caloric surplus and proper exercise regimen.

    ... Unless you're newish to resistance training and experience newb gains... There's been some research in this space but I would love to see more
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    #5 doing activity in any sort is awesome and extreamly good for your ticker but Overtraining has been shown to affect blood levels of important neurotransmitters such as glutamine, dopamine and 5-HTP, which can lead to feelings of depression and chronic fatigue. The stress caused by intense, excessive exercise can negatively affect the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, possibly causing conditions such as hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is known to cause depression, weight gain, and digestive disfunction along with a variety of other symptoms. As we know, high stress in general can cause symptoms of hypothyroidism, and the stress caused by excessive, intense exercise is no exception.
    If that is the case then reduce the cardio first not the strength training, as you stated in #5. All the above seems more related to over doing the cardio. That is why I can't agree with your #5. As far as 2-4, I think that is more about playing mind games with yourself than any body improvement.
  • emhunter
    emhunter Posts: 1,212 Member
    @AlmaCopeman can you please explain your reasoning for numbers 2 through 5?
    Reasons for 2 through 5
    #2 is for weight loss simple as that calories in vs out
    #3 is tricking your body into thinking that you will be getting more food on the lower cal days when food is not given body will compensate for those extra calories by "eating" fat
    #4 eating more meals in your day/ or eating every 3-4 hours is building your metabolism ie: fast metabolism = weight loss
    #5 doing activity in any sort is awesome and extreamly good for your ticker but Overtraining has been shown to affect blood levels of important neurotransmitters such as glutamine, dopamine and 5-HTP, which can lead to feelings of depression and chronic fatigue. The stress caused by intense, excessive exercise can negatively affect the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, possibly causing conditions such as hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is known to cause depression, weight gain, and digestive disfunction along with a variety of other symptoms. As we know, high stress in general can cause symptoms of hypothyroidism, and the stress caused by excessive, intense exercise is no exception.

    Thank you for these pointers. Very helpful!
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited October 2015
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    ...Explain how increasing strength may have nothing to do with muscle mass please.
    Neuromuscular adaptation. When you place a new stress on your muscles, the muscles and nervous system adapt to it by becoming more efficient. You eventually reach a limit where you won't become any stronger without increasing muscle mass, but a newbie can make good gains for a while before reaching that point.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    @AlmaCopeman can you please explain your reasoning for numbers 2 through 5?
    Reasons for 2 through 5
    #2 is for weight loss simple as that calories in vs out
    #3 is tricking your body into thinking that you will be getting more food on the lower cal days when food is not given body will compensate for those extra calories by "eating" fat
    #4 eating more meals in your day/ or eating every 3-4 hours is building your metabolism ie: fast metabolism = weight loss
    #5 doing activity in any sort is awesome and extreamly good for your ticker but Overtraining has been shown to affect blood levels of important neurotransmitters such as glutamine, dopamine and 5-HTP, which can lead to feelings of depression and chronic fatigue. The stress caused by intense, excessive exercise can negatively affect the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, possibly causing conditions such as hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is known to cause depression, weight gain, and digestive disfunction along with a variety of other symptoms. As we know, high stress in general can cause symptoms of hypothyroidism, and the stress caused by excessive, intense exercise is no exception.

    #2 yes weight loss is calories in vs out. And dropping to 1200 for 2 weeks may help you hit a big deficit. It may also help deplete glycogen and lessen the amount of food in your GI track. The latter will be replished once you reduce your deficit.
    #3 while calorie cycling can be effective to maintaining a deficit, if you are losing at 1200 then adding calories wont help you lose. Again you need to address the obvious first which is logging accuracy and consistency.
    #4 This is completely false. Increasing meals will not increase your metabolism or increase weight loss one single bit. If your metabolism isnt breaking down food, then its running your bodily functions. In fact, you would have to go 72 hours with no calories to have any adjustment in your metabolism. Exercise can improve metabolism and so can increasing muscle mass. Eating foods high in protein can increase thermal effect of food (tef) but not your metabolism. Eating 1 meal or 6 meals (if calories are equal) then weight loss will be the same. Finding a method for the individual is what is key.
    #5 please show us a study that would confirm that.
  • marcus_mohandas
    marcus_mohandas Posts: 5 Member
    In my oppinion, you may have hit a plateau for the opposite reason that everybody is telling you. You may not be eating enough. People Think to keep loosing fat you have to diet harder and eat less and work out more.

    You said you went down to 1200 calories. This is crash dieting, and its unsustainable. Let's assume you've been eating even 1500, if you're burning calories through cardio, you're not eating enough. All you're doing is cutting your metabolism down.

    Try different diets, and if you've been dieting for more than 6 months straight, take a month off dieting to boost your metabolism again. Focus at eating maintanence calories for a while. If you haven't been working out for long, a diet I can reccomend is the intermittent fasting diet. I've lost 14kg's in about 3.5 months on this diet. All you have to do is fast between 8pm and 12pm the next day, then you eat a fruit snack around 12, a big lunch (about 1000 calories) at 2 - 3, another fruit snack around 5 - 6, and a small dinner (500 calories) at 8.

    It's not for everyone, but trust me, if you can do it (it's actually really easy when you use your snacks strategically), it will do you wonders.
    look up a channel on YouTube called kinobody, and watch his videos on aggressive fat loss
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    In my oppinion, you may have hit a plateau for the opposite reason that everybody is telling you. You may not be eating enough. People Think to keep loosing fat you have to diet harder and eat less and work out more.

    You said you went down to 1200 calories. This is crash dieting, and its unsustainable. Let's assume you've been eating even 1500, if you're burning calories through cardio, you're not eating enough. All you're doing is cutting your metabolism down.

    Try different diets, and if you've been dieting for more than 6 months straight, take a month off dieting to boost your metabolism again. Focus at eating maintanence calories for a while. If you haven't been working out for long, a diet I can reccomend is the intermittent fasting diet. I've lost 14kg's in about 3.5 months on this diet. All you have to do is fast between 8pm and 12pm the next day, then you eat a fruit snack around 12, a big lunch (about 1000 calories) at 2 - 3, another fruit snack around 5 - 6, and a small dinner (500 calories) at 8.

    It's not for everyone, but trust me, if you can do it (it's actually really easy when you use your snacks strategically), it will do you wonders.
    look up a channel on YouTube called kinobody, and watch his videos on aggressive fat loss

    Taking bets, OP is going to jump all over this one. I am all for maintenance breaks, I took one but it wasn't because I stalled or plateaued, and I didn't lose weight at a different rate after than I was before. 1200 calories net is not crash dieting. And is sustainable for shorter females like myself.
  • sinbad714
    sinbad714 Posts: 28 Member
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    sinbadfxdl wrote: »
    Measure your waist and thighs while your in a plateau. You may have gained muscle mass. It weighs more than fat. If you lost dress and pants sizes, your losing body fat.

    Op, you will not gain muscle while eating at a deficit. I do agree to take measurements , as you could be losing inches and sometimes water weight can mask that

    I guess you may be right, I am getting stronger so that accounts for something. I went from 20 pushups a day to 60 and 0 knee bends to 50 every three days. I suggest to stay away from knee bends unless you like to be extreemly sore. Havnt lost a pound in two weeks, but lost 2 inches on my belly and lost most of my initial water weight. Explain how increasing strength may have nothing to do with muscle mass please.

    Strength gains are not the same as mass gains

    Strength gains are due to your body becoming more efficient at using your existing muscle mass.

    Mass gains require a caloric surplus and proper exercise regimen.


    Ok then. muscles are comprised of 22% proteins and the rest is H2O. Think of it as a balloon. When exhausting your muscles
    Then you re-hydrate the muscles will swell. There is a relation directly or indirectly.


  • sinbad714
    sinbad714 Posts: 28 Member
    There are body builders that suggest that increasing protein intake 40% ,lowering fat to 20% and carbs to 40% will allow muscle gain with a calorie deficit.
  • marcus_mohandas
    marcus_mohandas Posts: 5 Member
    Taking bets, OP is going to jump all over this one. I am all for maintenance breaks, I took one but it wasn't because I stalled or plateaued, and I didn't lose weight at a different rate after than I was before. 1200 calories net is not crash dieting. And is sustainable for shorter females like myself.

    That's true, I forgot to mention that those numbers are for the average male, if you're a female it can be lowered by about 300 :) and yes, breaks are good! Mentally and phyisically, you can get burnt out after dieting for too long, so it's a good idea to take one after you've been dieting for a while

  • elphie754
    elphie754 Posts: 7,574 Member
    In my oppinion, you may have hit a plateau for the opposite reason that everybody is telling you. You may not be eating enough. People Think to keep loosing fat you have to diet harder and eat less and work out more.

    You said you went down to 1200 calories. This is crash dieting, and its unsustainable. Let's assume you've been eating even 1500, if you're burning calories through cardio, you're not eating enough. All you're doing is cutting your metabolism down.

    Try different diets, and if you've been dieting for more than 6 months straight, take a month off dieting to boost your metabolism again. Focus at eating maintanence calories for a while. If you haven't been working out for long, a diet I can reccomend is the intermittent fasting diet. I've lost 14kg's in about 3.5 months on this diet. All you have to do is fast between 8pm and 12pm the next day, then you eat a fruit snack around 12, a big lunch (about 1000 calories) at 2 - 3, another fruit snack around 5 - 6, and a small dinner (500 calories) at 8.

    It's not for everyone, but trust me, if you can do it (it's actually really easy when you use your snacks strategically), it will do you wonders.
    look up a channel on YouTube called kinobody, and watch his videos on aggressive fat loss

    Just no. The solution to not losing weight is never eat more.
  • marcus_mohandas
    marcus_mohandas Posts: 5 Member
    elphie754 wrote: »
    Just no. The solution to not losing weight is never eat more.

    It is when you're putting your body into starvation mode and it starts lowering your metabolism because you aren't eating enough. If a man is eating 1200 calories a day and burning 400, his body will try and hang onto the fat in order for him to live longer (it thinks he is starving)

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    sinbad714 wrote: »
    There are body builders that suggest that increasing protein intake 40% ,lowering fat to 20% and carbs to 40% will allow muscle gain with a calorie deficit.
    Just because bodybuilders suggest it, doesnt mean its true.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    elphie754 wrote: »
    Just no. The solution to not losing weight is never eat more.

    It is when you're putting your body into starvation mode and it starts lowering your metabolism because you aren't eating enough. If a man is eating 1200 calories a day and burning 400, his body will try and hang onto the fat in order for him to live longer (it thinks he is starving)

    No one who regularly eats will go into starvation mode. You are more eluding to adaptive thermogenesis and its not that extreme.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    elphie754 wrote: »
    Just no. The solution to not losing weight is never eat more.

    It is when you're putting your body into starvation mode and it starts lowering your metabolism because you aren't eating enough. If a man is eating 1200 calories a day and burning 400, his body will try and hang onto the fat in order for him to live longer (it thinks he is starving)

    @marcus_mohandas what you're saying has been proven to be a myth

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Here's an interesting article about "starvation mode "

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
  • threadmad
    threadmad Posts: 190 Member
    Why Undereating Won’t Actually Help You Lose Weight ‹ Hello Healthy https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/why-undereating-wont-actually-help-you-lose-weight/
  • sinbad714
    sinbad714 Posts: 28 Member
    psulemon wrote: »
    sinbad714 wrote: »
    There are body builders that suggest that increasing protein intake 40% ,lowering fat to 20% and carbs to 40% will allow muscle gain with a calorie deficit.
    Just because bodybuilders suggest it, doesnt mean its true.

    Worth a try. I'm doing it and let you know how it turns out.
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  • marissafit06
    marissafit06 Posts: 1,996 Member
    I would work on improving your measuring, as mentioned above, before you reduce your caloric intake below 1600. I'm 5'11" 151 aiming for 145 and I am losing on 1800. The weight loss is very slow, but it's definitely possible if you measure accurately.
  • fancyqltrmom
    fancyqltrmom Posts: 19 Member
    Have you been drinking enough water? Your body may be running a bit low on fluids and so will hold on to the extra weight. The water will flush your system and help to lose those last few pounds. good luck!
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    So much derp, so little science. :cry:
  • RobynLB83
    RobynLB83 Posts: 626 Member
    edited October 2015
    tschenk99 wrote: »
    I've been tracking my meal on mfp for 60 days and am yet to lose 1lb. I've tried eating as low as 1200 calories but was too hungry. My trainer says I should eat between 1600 - 1800. I work out, a lot. Weights and cardio. I'm 5'8 153lbs trying to get to 145. I've been on a plateau for almost a year. Please help!

    This could be me exactly! Same height weight. Same goal. I also work out a lot. A few hours per day. I haven't lost anything in 3 weeks of logging. This week I've tried cutting my calories another 100-200 per day and staying at my goal for calories regardless of whether or not I am showing like 2,000 burned from exercise. I also switched my macros to 40/40/20 to try to keep my protein up and retain my muscle. Oh yeah, and less eyeballing potions. Good luck!

  • MarcyKirkton
    MarcyKirkton Posts: 507 Member
    When I started, I wasn't losing. I really did cut just 200 off, and voila.......the weight started dropping fast. Who cares why. I just had found my groove. I've stuck to that, and met my weight loss goal now for 7 weeks straight.

    Just find your groove.
This discussion has been closed.