Losing and Gaining the Same Couple of Pounds. Help!

merryberry99
merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some advice, fitness experts :)

For the past few months, I just keep losing and gaining the same couple of pounds. I'm growing extremely frustrated and am hoping you can help me break on through (to the other side). Because December and January were a little all over the place, I really got serious this month with both diet and exercise. However, even with my new dedication, I'm still stuck. Let me give you some details:

I'm 5'8 and currently 159 lbs. I would love to reach 140lbs, but right now, I just want to move beyond 158 (the lowest I've been since I started a year ago).

My calorie goal is set at 1350 and, when I workout, I typically stay under that goal. Sometimes I do dip into my exercise calories, eating 1/2, but recently I haven't been eating many of them. When I research TDEE, thinking maybe I need to eat more, I always get different numbers, so I've yet to up my calorie goal.

I exercise at least 5 days a week. I jog, walk, do Tae Bo, do some basic weightlifting...I try to change things up as often as I can. I burn anywhere from 300-600 calories when I workout.

I work at a library in the evenings and I'm a grad student, so I'm somewhat sedentary in that regards; however, I have a Fitbit and try to move around as much as possible (in addition to daily exercise). I have met my 10,000 stepgoal every day this month.

I drink 1/2 my body weight in ounces (water). I've opened up my diary if anyone would like to look.

I could really use your help...if you can do so without making me feel so terrible that I rush off to eat my weight in cake :)

Replies

  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    I took a look at your food and exercise diary. How are you calculating your calorie burns? Your food entries are in cups, slices, pieces, etc. so the most probable situation here is that you are consuming more calories than you think and are burning less calories than you think and it's causing you to cancel out your deficit for the week. If you're not losing weight now, eating more would not make you lose weight. You shouldn't feel bad as this is a common problem many people have. You will see at least two "Help, not losing weight!" or "I've plateaued!" topics on the front page of this forum every day.
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    I use a heart rate monitor to calculate my calories burned & I try to weigh and measure my food whenever possible or go by the basic serving sizes (1 slice = so many calories, etc.) Could the totals still be incorrect?
  • TheChesireCat
    TheChesireCat Posts: 21 Member
    I found that there was a 20 cal difference in different brands of egg....
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    I think you are trying to maintain too steep of a deficit. Eating 1350 a day, with 0 to half of your exercise calories eaten back is pretty aggressive
  • msmaireodonoghue
    msmaireodonoghue Posts: 13 Member
    Is the scanning reliable?
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    This is why I'm so very confused. One of the reasons I stopped eating my exercise calories was because a mfp friend recommended I do that in hopes of helping me finally lose weight. If I eat them all, will I lose or just gain? I try to weigh my food and use a HRM to be as accurate as possible, but I know there's always room for error. I also know I don't eat perfectly every day, but I am trying to make changes as much as possible without killing my spirit. LOL!
  • tess453
    tess453 Posts: 121 Member
    In the same situation! In October I hit the 1 stone mark but since then lost all motivation and am just maintaining. I have really good weeks and lose and then have a few bad days and seem to put it back on.

    I have a HRM and also weigh food when I'm at home. Perhaps I'm not being consistent enough?

    wondering whether I should mix it up and try something new. Vary my exercise to get a higher burn or adjust my diet?
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    te96194976p3.jpg

    Sorry I'm late. OP, if you were consistently losing on your current calorie alottment, up until the past two months, chances are you have come to the point of maintenance. "But how can my maintenance be 1300 calories?" It's not. What this means is that likely you have been eating more than you think you are the whole time, and just now have gotten to the point where you're at maintenance, but it's really closer to 2000 that you're eating.

    Like @synacious said, no reason to feel bad. You've just got to make some adjustments. i hope this infographic and video help:)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.be
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited February 2016
    To clarify, in case it wasn't blunt enough earlier in the thread: You absolutely will NOT lose weight by eating more calories than the number of calories you are eating now and not losing weight. That's not how it works. The effect people attribute to eating more calories is an illusion that they themselves create by subconsciously getting way better at logging because of their fear of increasing their intake. Nothing more.

    ETA: Changes in a diet are also to blame for the aforementioned illusion. Some people, when confronted with failure to lose weight, will change the TYPE of food they eat, and in doing so unknowingly reduce their caloric intake (because typically the change is to less calorie dense "healthier" foods). It still comes down to the calories though. Not to say anything against eating more fruits and veggies, that's a good idea (for nutritional reasons) no matter your weight loss situation.
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    I was not consistently losing. In fact, it's been a very slow journey. I've lost about 17lbs over the past year. In the fall I hit my lowest weight on the journey (156 or 157 which led me to a total loss of 20 lbs), but I also quickly got overwhelmed with school work and my fitness/diet fell to the wayside. At that point, I was happy just to not blow up. Fortunately, I didn't...just gained about 4lbs. Again, January I started working towards a better lifestyle, but February is when I really got rolling and dedicated.

    I understand that several people believe I'm eating more than I think and burning less than I think, which I will accept. So how to I combat that? I use a HRM and measure/weigh my food. What else can I do to be more accurate? How do I fix this problem? I certainly don't feel like I'm eating a lot, but I do feel like I'm getting decent workouts.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited February 2016
    merryberry99 wrote: »
    I was not consistently losing. In fact, it's been a very slow journey. I've lost about 17lbs over the past year. In the fall I hit my lowest weight on the journey (156 or 157 which led me to a total loss of 20 lbs), but I also quickly got overwhelmed with school work and my fitness/diet fell to the wayside. At that point, I was happy just to not blow up. Fortunately, I didn't...just gained about 4lbs. Again, January I started working towards a better lifestyle, but February is when I really got rolling and dedicated.

    I understand that several people believe I'm eating more than I think and burning less than I think, which I will accept. So how to I combat that? I use a HRM and measure/weigh my food. What else can I do to be more accurate? How do I fix this problem? I certainly don't feel like I'm eating a lot, but I do feel like I'm getting decent workouts.

    Most of the time, like to the tune of 99% of the time, that is the problem people have where they are counting calories but not losing weight. In fact, statistically, even people who are actually trained professionals overestimate burns and underestimate intake, chronically. So don't feel bad. The beauty of this is that it's an easy problem to be solved.

    Let's start with burns. You say you are using a HRM, what kind?
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    I recently purchased a Polar Ft4 that uses a chest strap. That's what I've been using for the last couple of months. Previously I had a Pilar Ft 7, but it started being unreliable so I replaced it.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    merryberry99 wrote: »
    I recently purchased a Polar Ft4 that uses a chest strap. That's what I've been using for the last couple of months. Previously I had a Pilar Ft 7, but it started being unreliable so I replaced it.

    Okay, and does that particular device have the capability to link with MFP?
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    I would recommend, just to be safe, eating back about 50% of your calorie burns from polar (the exercise adjustment, whether you enter it manually or it syncs with MFP) to start. ALL HRM devices have a margin of error, and in most cases people find it's overestimating burns, not the other way round. But you do need to eat some of them, otherwise you are trying to work your body harder while simultaneously not eating enough to support the extra work you're requiring it to do. That's not healthy for someone doing strenuous exercise multiple times per week. If you were just walking between work and the local deli, that might be different, but purposeful exercise requires purposeful nutrition.

    Next thing to look at would be your logging. There are a number of steps you can take to increase accuracy, which are laid out in the infographic I shared above. Weigh everything. Even that tiny dot of butter you used to cook your morning eggs in. Every single item that touches your lips must be counted, accurately, and I hope the video showed you just how inaccurate relying on measuring cups and spoons can be. You should also peruse these very helpful posts that may open your eyes to the little things we all once missed that can really screw up your measurements, especially incorrect MFP options to select.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

    You have not, it seems to me, been logging accurately and consistently for more than a few weeks. It happens, but it's not going to give you accurate data until you do. Doing this, in addition to eating 50% of what the polar gives you, for at LEAST 4-6 weeks will get you the information you need to tweak your numbers until you are consistently losing weight over time.

    No matter what you have been told or read or heard on the grape vine, eating fewer calories than you burn will ALWAYS WITHOUT FAIL result in weight loss. It's an immutable law of thermodynamics that applies to all of us. The intricacies are a little difficult to navigate at first, and adjustments will need to be made for you as an individual, but if you can guarantee you are eating less than you burn, you are guaranteed to lose weight (excepting some extremely rare medical conditions that you almost certainly don't have, because RARE)
  • fastfoodietofitcutie
    fastfoodietofitcutie Posts: 523 Member
    Try eating as clean as you can for a week, same calories and see if that makes a difference.

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