I feel like I'm my diet is making me plateau

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jklauck
jklauck Posts: 8 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I weigh 161 and I'm 5'4



Some websites tell me I need 1800 calories a day to lose a pound a week and some tell me I need 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I eat 1400 calories a day.

I workout 4 times a week with weigh lifting. I try to keep my protein around 70-100 grams, carbs 100-130 grams, fat (very healthy fats) 47-60 grams a day.

I'm also a vegetarian with occasional seafood consumption. Help? These last 20lbs are hard to lose. And I fluctuate in the low 160s a lot.
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Replies

  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,210 Member
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    Search the forum for "flow chart". :+1:
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
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    Cherimoose wrote: »
    Search the forum for "flow chart". :+1:

    Done:)

    x96bwun8bt2h.jpg

  • NikkiMichelleS
    NikkiMichelleS Posts: 897 Member
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    I'm very similar in stats to you.
    5'4", 154 lbs currently (started around 180)
    Been at this for the past 5-6 months "seriously" and lost the 26 pounds (used MFP before but wasn't very focused).

    I also eat roughly 1300-1700 calories, it really depends on my exercise for the day. I tend to eat back part of my exercise calories.
    Every few weeks I may have a stall, but it only last several days or up to a week; then I tighten up my logging, increase water, watch my sodium, and I have a loss.
    The best advice I've read for stalls: re-check your logging & weighing of all foods. If you're not losing, you are not eating less than you're burning.
    So either eat less (weigh your foods & log diligently); or increase your burn to make-up for the overage calories.
    You definitely can do this!
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
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    Have either if you recalculated your calories?
    As you lose weight you need fewer calories. MFP asks you if you would like to recalculate, but doesn't automatically do so.
    If you were 180, ate the calories assigned and lost down to 160 then stalled. It could be as simple as needing to re-enter your goal and weight so the calorie deficit is suitable for a person at 160.
    Your previous calorie goal could well be maintenance for someone weighing 160.

    Tight logging and diligent weighing should always be followed.

    Lessening salt and carbs will give you a water drop on the scale, not an actual fat drop.

    Cheers, h.
  • TasnimEz
    TasnimEz Posts: 280 Member
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    Struggling to lose my last kilos too..
    I discovered that I actually eat MORE now than I did in the very beginning, so it's not really a mystery why my weight loss has slowed down to about 1 kg per month. Turns out I wasn't logging accurately. Some days not at all.
  • jklauck
    jklauck Posts: 8 Member
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    Thank you so much, everyone!
  • AliceA2013
    AliceA2013 Posts: 65 Member
    edited February 2016
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    Your body is probably in starvation mode and keeping everything it can. Fool your metabolism by taking a break for a week or two on a maintenance diet, then try again. Google "periodic diet breaks" for the latest research on how this helps.
  • bendyourkneekatie
    bendyourkneekatie Posts: 696 Member
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    Oh god
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
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    AliceA2013 wrote: »
    Your body is probably in starvation mode and keeping everything it can. Fool your metabolism by taking a break for a week or two on a maintenance diet, then try again. Google "periodic diet breaks" for the latest research on how this helps.

    Please ignore this advice. h
  • eldamiano
    eldamiano Posts: 2,667 Member
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    No such thing as a plateau. You are just eating at a maintenance level...
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    jklauck wrote: »
    I weigh 161 and I'm 5'4



    Some websites tell me I need 1800 calories a day to lose a pound a week and some tell me I need 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I eat 1400 calories a day.

    I workout 4 times a week with weigh lifting. I try to keep my protein around 70-100 grams, carbs 100-130 grams, fat (very healthy fats) 47-60 grams a day.

    I'm also a vegetarian with occasional seafood consumption. Help? These last 20lbs are hard to lose. And I fluctuate in the low 160s a lot.

    How are you monitoring your food intake?

    Food scale (not cups and spoons)
    Accurate selection from calorie databases with cross-checking
    No use of other's homemade / recipe entries on MFP

    How are you monitoring your energy burn from workouts - are you eating them back?

    I think you probably have logging issues

  • erinraden
    erinraden Posts: 12 Member
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    CoffeeNCardio wrote: »
    Cherimoose wrote: »
    Search the forum for "flow chart". :+1:

    Done:)

    x96bwun8bt2h.jpg

    Love this, thank you
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    AliceA2013 wrote: »
    Your body is probably in starvation mode and keeping everything it can. Fool your metabolism by taking a break for a week or two on a maintenance diet, then try again. Google "periodic diet breaks" for the latest research on how this helps.

    LOL!
  • jklauck
    jklauck Posts: 8 Member
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    rabbitjb wrote: »
    jklauck wrote: »
    I weigh 161 and I'm 5'4



    Some websites tell me I need 1800 calories a day to lose a pound a week and some tell me I need 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I eat 1400 calories a day.

    I workout 4 times a week with weigh lifting. I try to keep my protein around 70-100 grams, carbs 100-130 grams, fat (very healthy fats) 47-60 grams a day.

    I'm also a vegetarian with occasional seafood consumption. Help? These last 20lbs are hard to lose. And I fluctuate in the low 160s a lot.

    How are you monitoring your food intake?

    Food scale (not cups and spoons)
    Accurate selection from calorie databases with cross-checking
    No use of other's homemade / recipe entries on MFP

    How are you monitoring your energy burn from workouts - are you eating them back?

    I think you probably have logging issues


    I think I might be having logging issues. I don't use a good scale and kind of eye everything out. I'm pretty new to MFP. I never knew of a such thing as eating your calories back. So I don't do that. I also don't really know how much I burn during a workout.

  • jklauck
    jklauck Posts: 8 Member
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    AliceA2013 wrote: »
    Your body is probably in starvation mode and keeping everything it can. Fool your metabolism by taking a break for a week or two on a maintenance diet, then try again. Google "periodic diet breaks" for the latest research on how this helps.

    I'm definitely never starving lol. I eat when I'm hungry which is every 2-3 hrs. I have a strenuous job that requires a lot of energy so starvation mode dieting wouldn't last me one day! I also have periodic diet breaks. It's called cheat meals once a week! Other than that, I'm not sure if that's really what would help me.. Thank you though.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    jklauck wrote: »
    I weigh 161 and I'm 5'4

    Some websites tell me I need 1800 calories a day to lose a pound a week and some tell me I need 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I eat 1400 calories a day.

    I workout 4 times a week with weigh lifting. I try to keep my protein around 70-100 grams, carbs 100-130 grams, fat (very healthy fats) 47-60 grams a day.

    I'm also a vegetarian with occasional seafood consumption. Help? These last 20lbs are hard to lose. And I fluctuate in the low 160s a lot.

    The difference in the calculations is that sites like MFP do not include exercise - you are supposed to log that separately and eat those exercise calories back. (As the burns are considered to be inflated, only eat 50% of them back.)

    Websites that give you more calories are factoring in exercise already.

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Accuracy and consistency are the two magic pills to weight loss. Log your food, accurately and honestly, while eating at a deficit and you will lose weight. 1400-1600 should be a good range for you - possibly a little higher if your activity level is high.
  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
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    jklauck wrote: »
    I'm definitely never starving lol. I eat when I'm hungry which is every 2-3 hrs. I have a strenuous job that requires a lot of energy so starvation mode dieting wouldn't last me one day! I also have periodic diet breaks. It's called cheat meals once a week! Other than that, I'm not sure if that's really what would help me.. Thank you though.
    Do you log these "cheat meals"? How big are they? You could be undoing some of the work from the rest of the week by eating a ton for your cheat meal. I used to have cheat meals (or even days) and found out I was nearly wiping out my deficit for the week!
  • jklauck
    jklauck Posts: 8 Member
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    YalithKBK wrote: »
    jklauck wrote: »
    I'm definitely never starving lol. I eat when I'm hungry which is every 2-3 hrs. I have a strenuous job that requires a lot of energy so starvation mode dieting wouldn't last me one day! I also have periodic diet breaks. It's called cheat meals once a week! Other than that, I'm not sure if that's really what would help me.. Thank you though.
    Do you log these "cheat meals"? How big are they? You could be undoing some of the work from the rest of the week by eating a ton for your cheat meal. I used to have cheat meals (or even days) and found out I was nearly wiping out my deficit for the week!

    I do log them ! It's usually once a week, occasionally twice a week if a special occasion comes up. I even log alcohol when I consume it.


    kshama2001 wrote: »
    jklauck wrote: »
    I weigh 161 and I'm 5'4

    Some websites tell me I need 1800 calories a day to lose a pound a week and some tell me I need 1200 calories a day to lose weight. I eat 1400 calories a day.

    I workout 4 times a week with weigh lifting. I try to keep my protein around 70-100 grams, carbs 100-130 grams, fat (very healthy fats) 47-60 grams a day.

    I'm also a vegetarian with occasional seafood consumption. Help? These last 20lbs are hard to lose. And I fluctuate in the low 160s a lot.

    The difference in the calculations is that sites like MFP do not include exercise - you are supposed to log that separately and eat those exercise calories back. (As the burns are considered to be inflated, only eat 50% of them back.)

    Websites that give you more calories are factoring in exercise already.

    Thank you, I had no idea ! That makes sense. Yeah I never eat them back. The only fitness that's logged in here is my steps I walk for the day and when I run. When I log weight lifting it seemed to not log how much I burned. I'm not sure why it does that. Then again I've only had MFP for a week now.

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