Stuck at 100 lbs lost!!!

gdipilato383 wrote: »

I decided to change my life around about a year ago. I cut out fast food, alcohol, and junk food and started counting calories. I am 23 years old 6'2 and was 340 lbs. I could hardly walk up 2 flights of stairs and just always felt tired. The first 70 pounds came off pretty easy I have to admit. Only took about 6 months and that's with alot of cheating. The next 30 lbs has taken about 5 months and now I am stuck. I have lost 1 percent in body fat in the last month but the scale just floats around 240. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and do weight resistance for 20 minutes and cardio for 40. I also go on 1 hour or more bike rides 2 times a week. My diet is eggs, chicken, pork, steak, light yogurt, bananas, kashi cereal, clif bars, subway, apples, and some snacks here and there. I also have a protien drink after tge gym.Right now I am on a 2000 calorie diet. I walk about 10000 steps per day due to my job. I can now do 100 flights of stairs on stair climber and my strength is increasing but the scale is the same. More importantly I still have a lot of fat on my stomach and pubic area and thighs. Any advise on some improvements that could be made?

Congrats on the change! That's an awesome loss! The above chart is absolutely true.

gdipilato383 wrote: »

I decided to change my life around about a year ago. I cut out fast food, alcohol, and junk food and started counting calories. I am 23 years old 6'2 and was 340 lbs. I could hardly walk up 2 flights of stairs and just always felt tired. The first 70 pounds came off pretty easy I have to admit. Only took about 6 months and that's with alot of cheating. The next 30 lbs has taken about 5 months and now I am stuck. I have lost 1 percent in body fat in the last month but the scale just floats around 240. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and do weight resistance for 20 minutes and cardio for 40. I also go on 1 hour or more bike rides 2 times a week. My diet is eggs, chicken, pork, steak, light yogurt, bananas, kashi cereal, clif bars, subway, apples, and some snacks here and there. I also have a protien drink after tge gym.Right now I am on a 2000 calorie diet. I walk about 10000 steps per day due to my job. I can now do 100 flights of stairs on stair climber and my strength is increasing but the scale is the same. More importantly I still have a lot of fat on my stomach and pubic area and thighs. Any advise on some improvements that could be made?

The closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it becomes to create large calorie deficits because there is less of body mass. Simply put, your BMR requirments go down...there are fewer energy needs with less body mass. Smaller deficit means longer time to drop the weight. Worse, you also have less room for error so portion control becomes even more important.

You have some muscular adaptation to exercise.

Your body has also slowed down a bit as a defense to your continuing deficits.

At the same time you are probably eating more than you think. Depends on the sub and sauces, of course, but a footlong sub starts with 400 to 500 Cal worth of bread. Hard to fit in a 2000 Cal day. Not as hard to do in a 3000 Cal day

Which is fine because really you should be able to lose, and quite rapidly, while eating more than 2500 Cal a day based on your activity and stats. In actual fact, a 20% deficit for you still has you eating more than 2800 Cal a day.

So first of all, plug yourself into a trending weight program because if you are relying on scale weight you can't really gauge your progress unless you are losing at more than a lb a week.

Then consider your logging and how accurate it is. And contemplate the posted chart.

At your size, age, and based on the activity level you describe your TDEE should be above 3500 Cal a day.

Eating at 2500 should lead to a good 5-8bs drop of trending weight on a monthly basis.

If you are losing even a bit while eating more than 2500 Cal a day, I would suggest you power through by dropping a few Cal, and increasing strength training/intensity of cardio.

If you truly need to drop to below 2250 Cal to lose, I would be very tempted to contemplate a period of reverse dieting before returning to deficit eating after a significant maintenance break.

great job on your loss! I will tell you from experience that as you get closer to goal, the deficit you were in when you were heavier will change. Since you are lighter, you do not burn the same amount of calories you did when you were heavier. Eventually, if you ate at exactly the same deficit you are going to get to a point where the scale will stop moving. Some people call this a plateau but I call it maintenance. If the scale is not moving, whatever net calories you have for the day is what it takes to maintain that weight. If you are eating 2000 calories a day and exercise as much as you say, the scale should still be moving. Tighten up your logging and be sure you are eating as little or as much as you think you are. Next, I would eat 1700-1800 calories a day and give that 2 weeks. If the scale doesn't move, you either have to eat less or move more.

From a favorite blog of mine...........

"Just like pretty much everyone else who swears they’re “eating the right amount of calories” and “working out to burn the right amount of calories” but yet somehow STILL aren’t losing any weight for some crazy reason.

That “crazy reason” is just the simple absence of your required caloric deficit caused in these cases by an underestimated calorie intake, an overestimated activity level, or just some kind of miscalculation or mistake somewhere that has lead you to believe you’re “doing everything right” when in reality you are not.

How do I know this? How can I be so sure?

Because if you WERE doing everything right and you WERE in a deficit, you’d currently be losing weight."

You're doing great, small tweaks and the scale will start moving again. You and I have lost the same amount of weight so we're in the same boat, brother.

Wow, congratulations on the awesome job you have done so far! Not just the weight loss, but the total lifestyle change. What an inspiration you are! It could be that (like me) the abdominal/thigh area is the last to lose the fat. I found that my weight loss has slowed significantly lately BUT I am still changing shape and losing inches (well, ok, technically quarter-inches and half-inches). So take some measurements periodically and they may give you a little encouragement. Other than that, I believe it's time for me to cut 100 or 200 calories off my allowance (sigh) and see if that helps. I also have been double-checking my logging to make sure I haven't gotten lax in my portions or accuracy. Good luck, don't give up, and well done!

malibu927 wrote: »

I had to chuckle at the chart but it made me realize I'm sort of stuck at that point where you should see a doctor. I can't afford to go to one right now, but IME doctors haven't been helpful AT ALL. I ask pointedly for help and once I was dismissed, and another doctor wouldn't give me specific guidance. It's frustrating too, if you have an endocrine-related condition like PCOS. But the doctors were barely helpful with that, too. In the future it might be best to head to an endocrinologist but I'm kind of skeptical. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack another person's thread! I commented because I'm experiencing a similar issue.