Plateau...please help. Eat back calories, or not ?

a plateau is 6 weeks. Lots of things can cause the scale to jump other than fat gain. Use a food scale, and eat back 50%. Adjust that based on rate of loss over time.

Patience!

I routinely fluctuate 2-3 pounds up and down, even while on an overall losing trend. In the past, I've "gained" 5 pounds from one morning to the next (and I'll guarantee I didn't eat 17,500 calories in the 24 hours in between). Even while losing, you'll see fluctuations from things like eating an unusual amount of sodium or carbs (even while within calorie limits), starting new forms of exercise that trigger muscle repair, time of month (for pre-menopausal women), and more.

Just stick with your healthy routine. The posters above are right about the value of weighing/logging, and that eating back a conservatively-estimated amount of exercise calories is the right thing to do. But you may see the scale stall for a bit (or even increase temporarily) even when everything's on track. Don't worry; it will pass.

Some people find they stay around one weight for a while, then drop a bigger chunk of weight, while others lose in smaller increments on a more regular basis, or it can be a mix of those at different times. It isn't a true plateau unless you're sitting at the same weight for at least 2-3 weeks.

You may want to do some tape measurements (maybe every couple of weeks or once a month) and progress photos (every month or few) - sometimes those show progress when the scale doesn't, or vice-versa.

emdeesea wrote: »

Okay well the first thing I notice from your diary is that it doesn't appear that you're weighing your food. You are using standard entries (one large egg). You need to get yourself a food scale and weigh and measure every thing you eat. I even measure my sugar and cream for my coffee.

And my other piece of advice is to use this web site and plug in your stats because you've got your calorie goal set too low.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Do those two things I just went over and continue, over and over, every day.

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

Panama- My advice is be patient. 2 lbs. or anything you gain on 1400-1900 is water from your workouts, and a plateau is weeks long.

Good luck!

WalkingAlong wrote: »

emdeesea wrote: »

Okay well the first thing I notice from your diary is that it doesn't appear that you're weighing your food. You are using standard entries (one large egg). You need to get yourself a food scale and weigh and measure every thing you eat. I even measure my sugar and cream for my coffee.

And my other piece of advice is to use this web site and plug in your stats because you've got your calorie goal set too low.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Do those two things I just went over and continue, over and over, every day.

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

Panama- My advice is be patient. 2 lbs. or anything you gain on 1400-1900 is water from your workouts, and a plateau is weeks long.

Good luck!

No, no one NEEDS to weigh everything, but here's what it's good for: getting an idea of what the correct serving size looks like. If you don't want to micromanage at first, that's fine, but you do need to know what the serving size looks like, otherwise you'll end up eyeballing and going over your calories.

In the beginning it's not a big deal, with 100 pounds to lose, but the closer you get to goal, the more important those calories are, right? So best to get used to it sooner than later.

When I first came to MFP, I had about 90 pounds to lose. I did not buy a scale, instead I eyeballed my portions and never lost a single pound. It turns out, I had no idea how off I could truly be. I even, at one point, used measuring cups but figured if I could pile it on the cup without it falling off, it was 1 cup. I was at over 750 calorie deficit per day and was somehow miscalculating my intake. I didn't think it was possible. It was. It turns out, even with a LOT of weight to lose, sometimes you still need a scale. It helps you learn about correct portion sizes. I thought that since I was, at the very least, eating less than I WAS eating, I should be losing weight even if I was not perfectly counting my calories. It turns out, I was not eating a maintenance to begin with and when I cut, I cut to maintenance. I guess the point is, don't assume that just because someone has a lot of weight to lose, they don't need help with a scale to lose weight. I did. It's amazing how big a cup of rice becomes to a person who wants it to only count as 1 cup. That was me, anyway.

malibu927 wrote: »

WalkingAlong wrote: »

emdeesea wrote: »

Okay well the first thing I notice from your diary is that it doesn't appear that you're weighing your food. You are using standard entries (one large egg). You need to get yourself a food scale and weigh and measure every thing you eat. I even measure my sugar and cream for my coffee.

And my other piece of advice is to use this web site and plug in your stats because you've got your calorie goal set too low.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Do those two things I just went over and continue, over and over, every day.

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

Panama- My advice is be patient. 2 lbs. or anything you gain on 1400-1900 is water from your workouts, and a plateau is weeks long.

Good luck!

As someone who started with 115 pounds to lose, I would have quit long ago had I not been using a food scale. I'm terrible at estimating portions, so I would have easily overeaten.

I don't think the point was not to weigh things, but weighing an egg is just silly. Eggs are sorted by automated sorters and are not so calorie dense that the small variations will cause any issues. Weighing meat, peanut butter, cheese, and the like makes sense, as does weight cereal as the actual serving size is a lot smaller than most people would expect, and even smaller often than the measuring cup amount given. Weighing food is good. Weighing things that a very consistent in size already, makes no sense.

considering that eggs typically weigh under 100 calories, I was SHOCKED to find that one of the eggs I weighed was over 10 calories more than advertised. While that might not be a lot in calories, thats a fairly significant percentage more (I'm terrible at math, but I think it's 15% more than stated). If every food were 15% higher in calories than stated, that could be enough to prevent someone from losing, especially if they are also underreporting calories.

WalkingAlong wrote: »

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

And

emdeesea wrote: »

No, no one NEEDS to weigh everything, but here's what it's good for: getting an idea of what the correct serving size looks like. If you don't want to micromanage at first, that's fine, but you do need to know what the serving size looks like, otherwise you'll end up eyeballing and going over your calories.

In the beginning it's not a big deal, with 100 pounds to lose, but the closer you get to goal, the more important those calories are, right? So best to get used to it sooner than later.

The "to weigh or not to weigh" argument can sometimes take on a life of its own.

From looking at her diary, OP (Panama) seems to be weighing almost nothing, and possibly literally nothing. (She lists a count for blueberries & spring rolls, and "1 cup" for oatmeal.)

This may become a limiting factor eventually, even if not now. Furthermore, IME, people think weighing food is going to be time-consuming and fiddly, but it actually turns out to be way less work than measuring, once you figure out how to do it efficiently. Personally, I'd encourage OP to weigh food because it's more accurate and easier.

OTOH, and IMO, eggs may not be the best indicator of whether someone is weighing food. And not weighing your eggs is not going to torpedo your whole weight-loss effort. I weigh pretty much all my non-liquid food, but not eggs, which I eat regularly. Lost weight anyway.

malibu927 wrote: »

WalkingAlong wrote: »

emdeesea wrote: »

Okay well the first thing I notice from your diary is that it doesn't appear that you're weighing your food. You are using standard entries (one large egg). You need to get yourself a food scale and weigh and measure every thing you eat. I even measure my sugar and cream for my coffee.

And my other piece of advice is to use this web site and plug in your stats because you've got your calorie goal set too low.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Do those two things I just went over and continue, over and over, every day.

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

Panama- My advice is be patient. 2 lbs. or anything you gain on 1400-1900 is water from your workouts, and a plateau is weeks long.

Good luck!

As someone who started with 115 pounds to lose, I would have quit long ago had I not been using a food scale. I'm terrible at estimating portions, so I would have easily overeaten.

I suck at estimating portions too. I see myself using a food scale in perpetuity.

rileysowner wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

WalkingAlong wrote: »

emdeesea wrote: »

Okay well the first thing I notice from your diary is that it doesn't appear that you're weighing your food. You are using standard entries (one large egg). You need to get yourself a food scale and weigh and measure every thing you eat. I even measure my sugar and cream for my coffee.

And my other piece of advice is to use this web site and plug in your stats because you've got your calorie goal set too low.

http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Do those two things I just went over and continue, over and over, every day.

No one needs to weigh and measure everything they eat. Especially not someone with 100 lbs. to lose. And not eggs. Advice like that is what makes people quit. Virtually no one has the patience for that sort of micromanaging and it's not necessary.

Panama- My advice is be patient. 2 lbs. or anything you gain on 1400-1900 is water from your workouts, and a plateau is weeks long.

Good luck!

As someone who started with 115 pounds to lose, I would have quit long ago had I not been using a food scale. I'm terrible at estimating portions, so I would have easily overeaten.

I don't think the point was not to weigh things, but weighing an egg is just silly. Eggs are sorted by automated sorters and are not so calorie dense that the small variations will cause any issues. Weighing meat, peanut butter, cheese, and the like makes sense, as does weight cereal as the actual serving size is a lot smaller than most people would expect, and even smaller often than the measuring cup amount given. Weighing food is good. Weighing things that a very consistent in size already, makes no sense.

This exactly. I don't know what having a lot or a little to lose has to do with it; I have lost my first 20 out of 85 and I always weigh the important stuff. I have never weighed an egg, or lettuce or broccoli, for example, and I doubt I ever will.

I weigh eggs all the time. I guess I just like to be as accurate as possible lol