Have hit a plateau, it seems
eeyore004
Posts: 10 Member
I've spent the last three months logging EVERYTHING- every taste, every snack, every meal, weighing it all. Very few exceptions- Christmas (during which I ate very sensibly but was unable to track) and dinner out last weekend. Over the last 20 days my weight has remained the same and this is so discouraging. I don't have a long way to go, but I just can't seem to boost my body into gear.
According to most online calculators, for my weight and activity level I should be eating about 1900 Calories a day to maintain weight, and about 1400/day to lose one pound per week. I've been eating 1200/day from the beginning (plus earned Calories, usually 200 or fewer per day) and going nowhere. I eat healthy, balanced meals and do all my cooking from scratch, but my exercise opportunities are limited as I am a stay-at-home mother who is currently potty training a toddler.
I don't know that anyone's going to have the magic bullet for me, and I'm not going to give up because keeping careful track of my diet makes me feel healthier overall and helps me balance my days better. But could just use a little "hang in there" and maybe an internet hug, I guess.
According to most online calculators, for my weight and activity level I should be eating about 1900 Calories a day to maintain weight, and about 1400/day to lose one pound per week. I've been eating 1200/day from the beginning (plus earned Calories, usually 200 or fewer per day) and going nowhere. I eat healthy, balanced meals and do all my cooking from scratch, but my exercise opportunities are limited as I am a stay-at-home mother who is currently potty training a toddler.
I don't know that anyone's going to have the magic bullet for me, and I'm not going to give up because keeping careful track of my diet makes me feel healthier overall and helps me balance my days better. But could just use a little "hang in there" and maybe an internet hug, I guess.
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If you open your diary you may get some helpful advice.0
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I just went through the same thing but ascertained that it was due to water retention and probably internal inflammation. I successfully got my body eliminating stored water again by remembering to take my capsules of turmeric and ginger spices (both natural anti-inflammatories that I keep on hand for nagging bursitis, neck and back problems, but often forget to take), reducing salt to almost no added sodium, and adding fiber. Since my calorie goal is so restrictive its easier for me to get extra fiber in sugar free orange flavored metamucil, 2 rounded tablespoons is a mere 45 calories. Anyway, after a 3 day adjustment to the fiber and spices, I suddenly dropped 6 lbs over about 7 days. 6 lbs since new years day. I had been stuck for about 2 weeks prior to that in the same period as you.0
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By no progress, do you mean you haven't budged a pound, or that it's not at the rate you expect? There's a huge difference between the two.
You say that you log everything, but without looking at your diary, are you weighing with a food scale or measuring cups? Cups are inaccurate in the grand scheme of things. If you aren't weighing, pick yourself up a cheap food scale. Chances are you are still eating more than you think.
If you are weighing, are you sure you are picking accurate entries in the database?0 -
Just stay the course, as long as you are at a deficit the scale will move. There are tons of exercises you can do at home. Just keeping up with a toddler is a calorie burner. Spend an hour doing exactly what they do, it is exhausting!
Add in a daily walk for a little more movement. There are tons of strength exercises you can do with your own body weight.
When I feel stuck or get impatient I get a little kickstart decreasing my carb intake for a while. It is probably water but sometimes you just need to see the scale move!0 -
Same for me. I feel your pain! x0
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This may sound crazy but actually eat more. If you've been eating 1200, try 1500. I got to a point where I was eating 2000 a day and I stopped losing weight, literally wouldn't lose any more. I bumped my calories up to 2400 and started losing weight again. Don't be afraid to eat more and try different things. Fasting ended up being the thing that got me where I wanted to be. I carb cycled and had great results with that, then I went vegan for a week then vegetarian for like 5 months. Then I started fasting, I would go 19 hours no food, obviously tons of water, then I would have 2200-2500 calories in a few hours. It worked for me, Im not sure why. Im just backing up what I said, dont be afraid to eat more and try different things
good luck!! 0 -
aceman8206 wrote: »This may sound crazy but actually eat more. If you've been eating 1200, try 1500. I got to a point where I was eating 2000 a day and I stopped losing weight, literally wouldn't lose any more. I bumped my calories up to 2400 and started losing weight again. Don't be afraid to eat more and try different things. Fasting ended up being the thing that got me where I wanted to be. I carb cycled and had great results with that, then I went vegan for a week then vegetarian for like 5 months. Then I started fasting, I would go 19 hours no food, obviously tons of water, then I would have 2200-2500 calories in a few hours. It worked for me, Im not sure why. Im just backing up what I said, dont be afraid to eat more and try different things good luck!!
This is not good advice when we don't know the OPs logging habits. To say to eat more, when she possibly is not weighing her food, could completely derail weight loss. Weight loss occurs from a calorie deficit, so to say that eating more would help, completely goes against the proven science.
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vespiquenn wrote: »By no progress, do you mean you haven't budged a pound, or that it's not at the rate you expect? There's a huge difference between the two.
You say that you log everything, but without looking at your diary, are you weighing with a food scale or measuring cups? Cups are inaccurate in the grand scheme of things. If you aren't weighing, pick yourself up a cheap food scale. Chances are you are still eating more than you think.
If you are weighing, are you sure you are picking accurate entries in the database?
Thanks for the reply! By "no progress" I mean, I'm at exactly the same weight I was 20 days ago to the tenth of a pound. Whenever possible I am weighing my food. I do a lot of home cooking and when I do that, there is some room for error, but not to the extent that it would be stalling my weight loss entirely.
For example, when I make a large batch of soup, I weigh each ingredient separately whenever possible. Then I'll see how many cups it makes and use that as my number of servings since my kitchen scale couldn't weigh the entire end product, and cooking can cause weight changes in the end result.
Otherwise, when I'm just cooking a recipe, I'll weigh individual components whenever possible, and if I'm able weigh the end product, making the number of ounces the number of servings. Then I weigh my portions to calculate nutrition information.
I just feel like I'm trying so darn hard at this without seeing the scale change. But I am seeing other changes- I can both see and feel changes in my body and physical appearance (like limb thickness, for example) so something good must be happening? But I want NUMBERS. I'm a very cerebral logic-and-numbers sort and I want the affirmation from the scale that I'm doing what I'm supposed to.
I do look for the most accurate information in the database I can find- entries that are confirmed by other users, based on weight with reasonable measurements, etc.
Bearing all of that in mind it's really hard for me to imagine how I could possibly be eating the equivalent of 1900 Calories per day when I'm aiming for 1200 and usually hitting it pretty well (although I occasionally give myself a 50 Calorie allowance over).0 -
Ladiebug710 wrote: »Just stay the course, as long as you are at a deficit the scale will move. There are tons of exercises you can do at home. Just keeping up with a toddler is a calorie burner. Spend an hour doing exactly what they do, it is exhausting!
Add in a daily walk for a little more movement. There are tons of strength exercises you can do with your own body weight.
When I feel stuck or get impatient I get a little kickstart decreasing my carb intake for a while. It is probably water but sometimes you just need to see the scale move!
This is a good point, I really don't focus on strength training at all. My usual exercise is a two-mile walk (when my oldest is in preschool, I pop the younger one into the wagon and pull him outdoors for a good loop). Occasionally I'll walk at a brisker pace on the treadmill during naptime, or sometimes do the ten-minute walk/run interval workout suggested on the MFP blog last month. But I truly hate running so I try to avoid it. So I'm not crazily aerobic at this stage of my life, but definitely not sedentary, either!0 -
Internet hug coming toward you. Stick with it...the scale will eventually start moving again.0
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vespiquenn wrote: »By no progress, do you mean you haven't budged a pound, or that it's not at the rate you expect? There's a huge difference between the two.
You say that you log everything, but without looking at your diary, are you weighing with a food scale or measuring cups? Cups are inaccurate in the grand scheme of things. If you aren't weighing, pick yourself up a cheap food scale. Chances are you are still eating more than you think.
If you are weighing, are you sure you are picking accurate entries in the database?
Thanks for the reply! By "no progress" I mean, I'm at exactly the same weight I was 20 days ago to the tenth of a pound. Whenever possible I am weighing my food. I do a lot of home cooking and when I do that, there is some room for error, but not to the extent that it would be stalling my weight loss entirely.
How often do you weigh yourself? It is normal to fluctuate up and down from day to day. I simply can't believe that you've weighed exactly the same every day for 20 days to the tenth of a pound. If you are referring only to 2 weigh ins--today and the one 20 days ago, you could have weighed yourself on a "low" day then, fluctuated up and down, lost a few pounds, then fluctuated up today when you weighed again. Consider weighing daily if a few times per week to see your fluctuations, and track the trends and averaged on an app like Happy Scale.0 -
How often do you weigh yourself? It is normal to fluctuate up and down from day to day. I simply can't believe that you've weighed exactly the same every day for 20 days to the tenth of a pound. If you are referring only to 2 weigh ins--today and the one 20 days ago, you could have weighed yourself on a "low" day then, fluctuated up and down, lost a few pounds, then fluctuated up today when you weighed again. Consider weighing daily if a few times per week to see your fluctuations, and track the trends and averaged on an app like Happy Scale.
That's actually a really good idea. I became a bit obsessive with weigh-ins in high school so I don't keep a scale in my home. I try to weigh in at the same time each week when we bring the kids to visit family after church on Sundays. Because of holiday busy-ness and traveling I did only have the two data points for the last 20 days. I'll try again this week and try to be optimistic!0 -
Do some googling about the "fat woosh" - I found over time I tend to really hover around a certain weight and about once per month, I will lose 3-4 lbs in 3-4 days. Then hover, hover, hover... woosh. It's a very common female thing. The body holds on to water unnecessarily. You sound like you're doing awesome. Give it another month you will see results I Promise.0
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Are you using a food scale?0
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vespiquenn wrote: »By no progress, do you mean you haven't budged a pound, or that it's not at the rate you expect? There's a huge difference between the two.
You say that you log everything, but without looking at your diary, are you weighing with a food scale or measuring cups? Cups are inaccurate in the grand scheme of things. If you aren't weighing, pick yourself up a cheap food scale. Chances are you are still eating more than you think.
If you are weighing, are you sure you are picking accurate entries in the database?
Thanks for the reply! By "no progress" I mean, I'm at exactly the same weight I was 20 days ago to the tenth of a pound. Whenever possible I am weighing my food. I do a lot of home cooking and when I do that, there is some room for error, but not to the extent that it would be stalling my weight loss entirely.
For example, when I make a large batch of soup, I weigh each ingredient separately whenever possible. Then I'll see how many cups it makes and use that as my number of servings since my kitchen scale couldn't weigh the entire end product, and cooking can cause weight changes in the end result.
Otherwise, when I'm just cooking a recipe, I'll weigh individual components whenever possible, and if I'm able weigh the end product, making the number of ounces the number of servings. Then I weigh my portions to calculate nutrition information.
I just feel like I'm trying so darn hard at this without seeing the scale change. But I am seeing other changes- I can both see and feel changes in my body and physical appearance (like limb thickness, for example) so something good must be happening? But I want NUMBERS. I'm a very cerebral logic-and-numbers sort and I want the affirmation from the scale that I'm doing what I'm supposed to.
I do look for the most accurate information in the database I can find- entries that are confirmed by other users, based on weight with reasonable measurements, etc.
Bearing all of that in mind it's really hard for me to imagine how I could possibly be eating the equivalent of 1900 Calories per day when I'm aiming for 1200 and usually hitting it pretty well (although I occasionally give myself a 50 Calorie allowance over).
Do you use a tape measure? If you weigh all your food, and are completely sure you are in a deficit, then there is a possibility that water weight is masking your progress. The only reason I mention it is because you claim to see a visible difference. In the end, you need to remember that the scale is not the determining factor here, especially if you're noticing other changes.
Also, if you exercise, how are you calculating the burn? If you're using the MFP database, they grossly overestimate burns, which can attribute to overeating.
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How often do you weigh yourself? It is normal to fluctuate up and down from day to day. I simply can't believe that you've weighed exactly the same every day for 20 days to the tenth of a pound. If you are referring only to 2 weigh ins--today and the one 20 days ago, you could have weighed yourself on a "low" day then, fluctuated up and down, lost a few pounds, then fluctuated up today when you weighed again. Consider weighing daily if a few times per week to see your fluctuations, and track the trends and averaged on an app like Happy Scale.
That's actually a really good idea. I became a bit obsessive with weigh-ins in high school so I don't keep a scale in my home. I try to weigh in at the same time each week when we bring the kids to visit family after church on Sundays. Because of holiday busy-ness and traveling I did only have the two data points for the last 20 days. I'll try again this week and try to be optimistic!
It may be at the same time in each instance, but were you wearing the exact same clothing? Were you eating the exact same foods that day and in the days leading up to them? Were you getting enough water?
It's entirely possible your weight loss is being masked by both water weight and the clothing you're wearing.
Even if you were naked for both instances, water weight could still be hiding a true loss. As mentioned, you could have initially weighed at a low point, then lost some fat over the next couple weeks, then fluctuated back up due to sodium intake, more carbs than usual or a whole bunch of other things.
Doing measurements would absolutely be worth doing, as well as taking pictures of yourself. I prefer to do a picture in a sports bra & shorts, but you can wear whatever you're comfortable with, though I would encourage you to wear the same items each time.
As long as you can see yourself shrinking in some way, the scale weight can bugger off
~Lyssa0 -
How often do you weigh yourself? It is normal to fluctuate up and down from day to day. I simply can't believe that you've weighed exactly the same every day for 20 days to the tenth of a pound. If you are referring only to 2 weigh ins--today and the one 20 days ago, you could have weighed yourself on a "low" day then, fluctuated up and down, lost a few pounds, then fluctuated up today when you weighed again. Consider weighing daily if a few times per week to see your fluctuations, and track the trends and averaged on an app like Happy Scale.
That's actually a really good idea. I became a bit obsessive with weigh-ins in high school so I don't keep a scale in my home. I try to weigh in at the same time each week when we bring the kids to visit family after church on Sundays. Because of holiday busy-ness and traveling I did only have the two data points for the last 20 days. I'll try again this week and try to be optimistic!
Only two data points does not make a trend or anything conclusive ESPECIALLY because you are weighing mid-day, not first thing in the morning. My weight changes 3-5 lbs during the day. You need to get some valid data points before drawing any conclusions.0 -
You can way the same on January 31 as you did on January 1 and have lost 5lbs during the month.
All it takes is weighing in a glycogen depleted state on January 1, and weighing on January 31 after having a nice Chinese take out dinner the night before.
Forget different clothes. Forget food or water before weighing. Forget TOM bloat.
We have no issue to look at here.
Trending weight applications such as Libra for Android, happy scale for Android, trendweight.com and weightgrapher.com are REALLY REALLY good ideas.
Water weight changes an order of magnitude faster than the underlying weight level changes.
Your scale reports results that are skewed by water weight.
Trending weight apps help you make sense of all this. Please use them.0 -
When you have a long enough plateau even the trending weigh catches the real weight in around 15-20 days and you start falling behind in the forecasts of the application. Trending charts are great but they don't address the question.0
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20 days? Guess what, it's your cycle. You gained weight from it and it masks weight loss.0
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Thanks for the reply! By "no progress" I mean, I'm at exactly the same weight
I just feel like I'm trying so darn hard at this without seeing the scale change. But I am seeing other changes- I can both see and feel changes in my body and physical appearance (like limb thickness, for example) so something good must be happening? But I want NUMBERS).
The scale is always the last to show the hard work you are putting in!
Keep doing what you are doing and the scale will go down. Trust me! Haha I have a lot of experience. You just have to have patience and belief. I only lose on the scale every 4 weeks.
I get frustrated too when it takes forever for the scale to move. What keeps me going and knowing that I'm making good progress & losing fat is seeing how I fit into my clothes. The scale hadn't moved for 3 & 1/2 weeks but I knew things were working for me as I started to see definition in my arms again!! Then I had a big woosh and lost a 2.2 lbs
Keep up the good work!0 -
clockworksailing wrote: »When you have a long enough plateau even the trending weigh catches the real weight in around 15-20 days and you start falling behind in the forecasts of the application. Trending charts are great but they don't address the question.
The OP does not fall in the case that you are presenting which COULD represent a plateau.
The OP had a total of TWO scale data points that were 20 days apart and identical. The OP does not have any in-between data points.0 -
I didn't know that there were only two data points. That's a big mistake in my book. I'd suggest at least 5 data points for 20 days so you could at least get a clue of what's going on. What the OP is trying to do is called "dead reckoning". I'd suggest frequent weigh-ins.0
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You say you see and feel changes in your body,, that is way more important than the scales,, remember MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT.. if you looked at a body builder on paper,, just height and weight, he Or she would be far over weight, the scales do not ALWAYS tell the whole story.0
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lynnstrick01 wrote: »You say you see and feel changes in your body,, that is way more important than the scales,, remember MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT.. if you looked at a body builder on paper,, just height and weight, he Or she would be far over weight, the scales do not ALWAYS tell the whole story.
This is irrelevant because OP is not putting on muscle in a deficit. So that stall in weight is not muscle building.
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I don't know why so many people in here are opposed to the belief that while you are losing fat you are also gaining muscle which is heavier "by volume" (which is kind of the whole point) and therefore can cause a stall in loss of lbs. this is not something I just came up with off the top of my head, it has been told to me by medical professionals. Bottom line, if you FEEL better, If your clothing is fitting looser, If you have lost in INCHES, then something good is happening to your body, don't let the scales get you down they are only 1 part of the equation0
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AceofIvies wrote: »Do some googling about the "fat woosh" - I found over time I tend to really hover around a certain weight and about once per month, I will lose 3-4 lbs in 3-4 days. Then hover, hover, hover... woosh. It's a very common female thing. The body holds on to water unnecessarily. You sound like you're doing awesome. Give it another month you will see results I Promise.
This happens to me. I am up and down the same 2 pounds. Then stall. Then 4 down in a week. Then stall. Up. Whoosh. Averaging about 3.5/month with all the variations.0 -
lynnstrick01 wrote: »I don't know why so many people in here are opposed to the belief that while you are losing fat you are also gaining muscle which is heavier "by volume"
Because if you are eating in a calorie deficit, you generally don't gain muscle. This appears to be accepted wisdom. If you are eating at maintenance then body recomp is possible (lose fat, gain muscle).
*stands back to be corrected!*
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Repeating @vespiquenn: The OP is not a bodybuilder and she's not doing strength training.0
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Bottom line, if you FEEL better, If your clothing is fitting looser, If you have lost in INCHES, then something good is happening to your body, don't let the scales get you down they are only 1 part of the equation0
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