Is it me or is it my body?
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Jeyradan
Posts: 164 Member
My partner and I are on very low (but totally doable) calorie limits per day. We've been losing weight on those limits: I'm down about 22 lbs and he's down about 33 lbs since the start of the year. I have about 5 lbs to lose to hit my goal, and he has about 10 lbs to go.
However, for the past six weeks or so, we haven't really made any progress. Both of us have seen our weight fluctuate by a few pounds, but remain in the same 3-5 lb range. We thought we'd overcome it a couple of weeks ago, but at our next weigh-in, the weight was back. (We weigh ourselves once per week.) We have adjusted our calorie limits as our weight has decreased over time, so it's not that we're stagnating because of that.
Last week, we had a few days of high-calorie food due to circumstances beyond our control (unplanned travel and limited food availability). This week, we've both felt unusually hungry for at least one or two days, even while eating at our normal low-calorie limits.
Did we blow it by getting our bodies used to higher calorie limits last week, and do we need to accustom them back down to our usual limits?
Are we eating too little and our bodies are trying to send us a message?
Could this just be mental burnout because we know we theoretically could be eating more than we are, even though we shouldn't?
We're so close to our goal weights. Does anyone have any ideas as to why we've plateaued and how we can get back on track? And does anyone have suggestions for tackling the unexplained hunger without blowing our weight-loss goals?
Thank you all.
However, for the past six weeks or so, we haven't really made any progress. Both of us have seen our weight fluctuate by a few pounds, but remain in the same 3-5 lb range. We thought we'd overcome it a couple of weeks ago, but at our next weigh-in, the weight was back. (We weigh ourselves once per week.) We have adjusted our calorie limits as our weight has decreased over time, so it's not that we're stagnating because of that.
Last week, we had a few days of high-calorie food due to circumstances beyond our control (unplanned travel and limited food availability). This week, we've both felt unusually hungry for at least one or two days, even while eating at our normal low-calorie limits.
Did we blow it by getting our bodies used to higher calorie limits last week, and do we need to accustom them back down to our usual limits?
Are we eating too little and our bodies are trying to send us a message?
Could this just be mental burnout because we know we theoretically could be eating more than we are, even though we shouldn't?
We're so close to our goal weights. Does anyone have any ideas as to why we've plateaued and how we can get back on track? And does anyone have suggestions for tackling the unexplained hunger without blowing our weight-loss goals?
Thank you all.
0
Replies
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Have you reevaluated your TDEE and maintenance weight goal lately?
Maybe you should eat at maintenance level where you are for now and give your body a chance to level out and get accustomed to its new weight. You can always shift back down to the lower calories later, but at least you won't lose ground you've gained already if you go on maintenance for a bit.
You might be missing important nutrients. I can jog a plateau by eating some avocado on a salad and have a fatty fish like salmon. You might be low on essential fatty acids? (Just some ideas to think about.)2 -
There is no such thing as 'eating too little so your body is sending you a message' -it's a myth. The thing is since you are so close to your goal weight margin of error is getting really tiny (which is why people think it's more difficult to lose those last few pounds). However 3500ish deficit is about 1 lbs loss no matter what you weigh. It's just harder to create the deficit. At this point if you haven't been weighing everything you eat, might be a good time to start. Being highly precise in calorie counting is crucial when being so close to the goal. That being said...you should only aim to lose about 0.5 lbs/week now (250 kcal deficit per day) to minimize muscle loss. Good luck.16
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standard plateau, low cal to the point were you can reasonably go lower without it being an issue is quite common.
In comes the hero of the day! exercise. Honestly, a few weeks of more cardio, some HIIT maybe and you'll push past it. Another option is trying intermittent fasting.
Also the hunger thing after eating more is normal.8 -
Have you reevaluated your TDEE and maintenance weight goal lately?
Maybe you should eat at maintenance level where you are for now and give your body a chance to level out and get accustomed to its new weight. You can always shift back down to the lower calories later, but at least you won't lose ground you've gained already if you go on maintenance for a bit.
We do keep an eye on re-evaluation, and we're both eating on what should be the right calorie limit for our current weights and continued weight-loss goals. I didn't think of giving our bodies a "maintenance break," though. Have you tried that sort of thing? Did it work?You might be missing important nutrients. I can jog a plateau by eating some avocado on a salad and have a fatty fish like salmon. You might be low on essential fatty acids? (Just some ideas to think about.)
This is a good point. We try to eat a diverse diet (lots of pulses, starchy and non-starchy vegetables, eggs, some lean meat, the occasional bit of fish, wholemeal bread), but perhaps we haven't been paying enough attention to fats. We love both salmon and avocado, but haven't had either lately. This is something I can change - thank you!1 -
KorvapuustiPossu wrote: »There is no such thing as 'eating too little so your body is sending you a message' - it's a myth. The thing is since you are so close to your goal weight margin of error is getting really tiny (which is why people think it's more difficult to lose those last few pounds). However 3500ish deficit is about 1 lbs loss no matter what you weigh. It's just harder to create the deficit. At this point if you haven't been weighing everything you eat, might be a good time to start. Being highly precise in calorie counting is crucial when being so close to the goal. That being said...you should only aim to lose about 0.5 lbs/week now (250 kcal deficit per day) to minimize muscle loss. Good luck.
We do weigh everything we eat at home, and do our best to estimate (and overestimate, if necessary) on the rare occasions when we eat elsewhere. I didn't know about dropping the deficit when close to goal weight, though. Is that true even for my partner, who still has 10 lbs to go? And would adding in more exercise be a good choice at this point, since precision is becoming more important?0 -
Mr_Stabbems wrote: »standard plateau, low cal to the point were you can reasonably go lower without it being an issue is quite common.
In comes the hero of the day! exercise. Honestly, a few weeks of more cardio, some HIIT maybe and you'll push past it. Another option is trying intermittent fasting.
Also the hunger thing after eating more is normal.
Thanks for this; it made me feel better! Do you think the hunger-after-eating-more effect will fade away again if we are careful about our goals for the next few days? And do you think we should raise our level of exercise to push through it?
I don't know much about intermittent fasting - what does that entail? (I'll Google it, of course, but a personal perspective would be great.)0 -
Mr_Stabbems wrote: »standard plateau, low cal to the point were you can reasonably go lower without it being an issue is quite common.
In comes the hero of the day! exercise. Honestly, a few weeks of more cardio, some HIIT maybe and you'll push past it. Another option is trying intermittent fasting.
Also the hunger thing after eating more is normal.
Thanks for this; it made me feel better! Do you think the hunger-after-eating-more effect will fade away again if we are careful about our goals for the next few days? And do you think we should raise our level of exercise to push through it?
I don't know much about intermittent fasting - what does that entail? (I'll Google it, of course, but a personal perspective would be great.)
yeah as you get used to going back to the volume and your normal calories it will go away.
When calories are say 1200, and you cant reasonably go any lower a quick 10mi on a pedal bike (im a cycling advocate but this could be anything) would burn say between 2.5-400kcals, add that up over a few weeks and its almost as much as peoples deficit!
With HIIT for example you can ramp up you metabolism if you do it early morning on an empty stomach (its quite hard to do, some people find it hard to go all out on an empty stomach, some don't).
Combining HIIT and longer steady state exercise with something like IF can be very effective (worked wonders for me), IF is essentially fitting your daily macros into a set time period and not eating anything for the remainder.
For example my routine was:
HIIT in the morning,
I used to eat my breakfast for my lunch at work at 1pm,
then I'd eat before I left work around 4ish and cycled 20odd miles home
then id have a big dinner when I got home, stopped eating around 9pm.
Fitting 2000kcals in 8 hours was hard work, especially that big dinner.
Felt pretty natural to me, so I was essentially fasted from 9pm to 1pm the next day, that's 16hours (most of which I was sleeping)1 -
Mr_Stabbems wrote: »When calories are say 1200, and you cant reasonably go any lower a quick 10mi on a pedal bike (im a cycling advocate but this could be anything) would burn say between 2.5-400kcals, add that up over a few weeks and its almost as much as peoples deficit!
With HIIT for example you can ramp up you metabolism if you do it early morning on an empty stomach (its quite hard to do, some people find it hard to go all out on an empty stomach, some don't).
Combining HIIT and longer steady state exercise with something like IF can be very effective (worked wonders for me), IF is essentially fitting your daily macros into a set time period and not eating anything for the remainder.
For example my routine was:
HIIT in the morning,
I used to eat my breakfast for my lunch at work at 1pm,
then I'd eat before I left work around 4ish and cycled 20odd miles home
then id have a big dinner when I got home, stopped eating around 9pm.
Fitting 2000kcals in 8 hours was hard work, especially that big dinner.
Felt pretty natural to me, so I was essentially fasted from 9pm to 1pm the next day, that's 16hours (most of which I was sleeping)
This is great information. Thank you so much! Both of us are already on pretty minimal calories (one reason I was worried they might be too low), so we can't reasonably drop them. Although we don't have bikes, more's the pity, I'll look into what we can do to ramp up exercise. We do five minutes of full-intensity cardio (via Sworkit) every morning, but maybe we should be increasing that. (We also do aikido three times a week and walk for a minimum of several hours on weekends, but those are both fairly low-impact activities.)
We typically eat breakfast around 7:00 AM (before we leave for work - unfortunately, desk jobs with sedentary commutes), lunch between noon and one, and dinner around 6:30 PM. We could certainly fast for the other twelve hours (except on aikido nights, when we usually have some form of protein supplement afterward). Would that qualify for intermittent fasting? And are you allowed to drink (e.g., tea or low-calorie juice) while fasting?0 -
Have you reevaluated your TDEE and maintenance weight goal lately?
Maybe you should eat at maintenance level where you are for now and give your body a chance to level out and get accustomed to its new weight. You can always shift back down to the lower calories later, but at least you won't lose ground you've gained already if you go on maintenance for a bit.
We do keep an eye on re-evaluation, and we're both eating on what should be the right calorie limit for our current weights and continued weight-loss goals. I didn't think of giving our bodies a "maintenance break," though. Have you tried that sort of thing? Did it work?
Yes. It did work for me--I don't know how it works for others. My body recalibrated and got used to the lower body weight and then later when i cut calories it started losing again normally. My body fights me to gain weight though so I have to work hard to maintain.3 -
Yes. It did work for me--I don't know how it works for others. My body recalibrated and got used to the lower body weight and then later when i cut calories it started losing again normally. My body fights me to gain weight though so I have to work hard to maintain.
Thank you for the advice! Perhaps we'll try maintaining weight for a while... although we seem to be doing basically that anyway, even on our low-calorie limits. I'll check to see what our maintenance limits should be. (There seem to be so many tools for this; do you have any recommendations for which ones are more accurate or reliable than others?)
How long did you stay in maintenance mode before cutting calories again? We have a goal date for our goal weights (mid-August), but of course, it's more important to do things right than to meet that date...0 -
Do you even lift?0
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KorvapuustiPossu wrote: »There is no such thing as 'eating too little so your body is sending you a message' - it's a myth. The thing is since you are so close to your goal weight margin of error is getting really tiny (which is why people think it's more difficult to lose those last few pounds). However 3500ish deficit is about 1 lbs loss no matter what you weigh. It's just harder to create the deficit. At this point if you haven't been weighing everything you eat, might be a good time to start. Being highly precise in calorie counting is crucial when being so close to the goal. That being said...you should only aim to lose about 0.5 lbs/week now (250 kcal deficit per day) to minimize muscle loss. Good luck.
We do weigh everything we eat at home, and do our best to estimate (and overestimate, if necessary) on the rare occasions when we eat elsewhere. I didn't know about dropping the deficit when close to goal weight, though. Is that true even for my partner, who still has 10 lbs to go? And would adding in more exercise be a good choice at this point, since precision is becoming more important?
Yes, it is advisable for people with under 15-20 lbs to lose to drop it to 0.5 lbs a week/ or at least no more than 1 lbs...any faster loss will result in a loss of muscle mass as well and lead to not such a good look once reaching the goal weight. Muscle is sth that is hard to build and losing it is a big issue. Saying you are hungry is a good indicator that your goal is probably too aggressive. Set your loss to 0.5 lbs...it will give you more calories to work with and you'll be less likely to go crazy with hunger and decide to eat everything in sight. More food also means more energy for exercise...so it's a win-win. Slow and steady is better...no need to torture yourself being so close to the goal. You are already healthy weight or close ( I assume) so just focus maybe on being a bit more active and/or implement more strength training
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Mr_Stabbems wrote: »When calories are say 1200, and you cant reasonably go any lower a quick 10mi on a pedal bike (im a cycling advocate but this could be anything) would burn say between 2.5-400kcals, add that up over a few weeks and its almost as much as peoples deficit!
With HIIT for example you can ramp up you metabolism if you do it early morning on an empty stomach (its quite hard to do, some people find it hard to go all out on an empty stomach, some don't).
Combining HIIT and longer steady state exercise with something like IF can be very effective (worked wonders for me), IF is essentially fitting your daily macros into a set time period and not eating anything for the remainder.
For example my routine was:
HIIT in the morning,
I used to eat my breakfast for my lunch at work at 1pm,
then I'd eat before I left work around 4ish and cycled 20odd miles home
then id have a big dinner when I got home, stopped eating around 9pm.
Fitting 2000kcals in 8 hours was hard work, especially that big dinner.
Felt pretty natural to me, so I was essentially fasted from 9pm to 1pm the next day, that's 16hours (most of which I was sleeping)
This is great information. Thank you so much! Both of us are already on pretty minimal calories (one reason I was worried they might be too low), so we can't reasonably drop them. Although we don't have bikes, more's the pity, I'll look into what we can do to ramp up exercise. We do five minutes of full-intensity cardio (via Sworkit) every morning, but maybe we should be increasing that. (We also do aikido three times a week and walk for a minimum of several hours on weekends, but those are both fairly low-impact activities.)
We typically eat breakfast around 7:00 AM (before we leave for work - unfortunately, desk jobs with sedentary commutes), lunch between noon and one, and dinner around 6:30 PM. We could certainly fast for the other twelve hours (except on aikido nights, when we usually have some form of protein supplement afterward). Would that qualify for intermittent fasting? And are you allowed to drink (e.g., tea or low-calorie juice) while fasting?
5minute probably wont do much, when I cant get out on the bike I do a 5min warm up on the treadmill as soon as I wake up, 30s sprint (all out) 30-60s rest, and repeat 5-10 times, then warm down for 5 min. If you do that 10 times that's 5mintues of sprinting and 20minutes jogging/walking.
I wear a HR monitor and log the data after, you basically want valleys in your graph, high peaks and then dropping as you rest then back up again. It's awfully hard work. My last sprint yesterday had me aching all over, abs, shoulders everything. Its a full flat out sprint, any less is unacceptable.
On the bikes I sprint up hills and then roll down for my rest, when I get to the top or the 30s is up if im not almost throwing up then I didn't do it properly and is discount it and go again.
http://www.leangains.com have a read, that'll tell you all about IF, its the routine I followed but there are others available.
As others have said, lift weights. I assumed you were already doing this1 -
Don't over-complicate things. You can do HIIT or IF if you want to. You do need to make sure you're eating enough fat for health, but if you're eating a balanced diet you're probably fine. At the end of the day, you just need to be in a calorie deficit.
Are you eating back exercise calories? Maybe you're overestimating those. You could decrease the percentage you eat back.
Weighing once a week means you only have 6 data points to work with (you said you've fluctuated for 6 weeks). You may have missed lower days within that time period. As you get closer to goal weight, you should be losing in smaller increments. Having a 5 pound fluctuation range isn't a big deal. Keep in mind that weight fluctuates. You should have a goal range, rather than weight. So maybe your goal weight is 180 and your range is 180-185. Yes, you want to get to 180, but it will may slow going getting there through the last 5 pounds.
Set your goal to lose .5 lb/wk. Log accurately (not just weighing your food, but making sure your choose accurate entries). Or, you could set it for 1 lb/wk to leave a larger margin of error. But, if you're accurately logging, you should be at .5 lb. You don't want to be at too large a deficit. I'm hoping you didn't do a crazy-low diet. That's not good for retaining your muscle mass.
Keep going. Keep a reasonable deficit. Eat a balanced diet for health. That's it.
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This might be of interest - it argues that it's common to go through periods in which weight loss stops, only to resume again if yo stick it out. greatist.com/live/best-way-to-lose-weight-for-good3
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This might be of interest - it argues that it's common to go through periods in which weight loss stops, only to resume again if yo stick it out. greatist.com/live/best-way-to-lose-weight-for-good
I do believe in the set point theory. I lose, stall, lose, stall as my body sets lower.2 -
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KorvapuustiPossu wrote: »Yes, it is advisable for people with under 15-20 lbs to lose to drop it to 0.5 lbs a week/ or at least no more than 1 lbs...any faster loss will result in a loss of muscle mass as well and lead to not such a good look once reaching the goal weight. Muscle is sth that is hard to build and losing it is a big issue. Saying you are hungry is a good indicator that your goal is probably too aggressive. Set your loss to 0.5 lbs...it will give you more calories to work with and you'll be less likely to go crazy with hunger and decide to eat everything in sight. More food also means more energy for exercise...so it's a win-win. Slow and steady is better...no need to torture yourself being so close to the goal. You are already healthy weight or close ( I assume) so just focus maybe on being a bit more active and/or implement more strength training
Thanks! We're working on building muscle (through bodyweight training and aikido), so losing it would definitely be a bad decision. Perhaps we'll try scaling back the "loss" to 1 lb/week and making up for it with additional exercise. It's just so hard to find the time!0 -
Mr_Stabbems wrote: »5minute probably wont do much, when I cant get out on the bike I do a 5min warm up on the treadmill as soon as I wake up, 30s sprint (all out) 30-60s rest, and repeat 5-10 times, then warm down for 5 min. If you do that 10 times that's 5mintues of sprinting and 20minutes jogging/walking.
I wear a HR monitor and log the data after, you basically want valleys in your graph, high peaks and then dropping as you rest then back up again. It's awfully hard work. My last sprint yesterday had me aching all over, abs, shoulders everything. Its a full flat out sprint, any less is unacceptable.
On the bikes I sprint up hills and then roll down for my rest, when I get to the top or the 30s is up if im not almost throwing up then I didn't do it properly and is discount it and go again.
http://www.leangains.com have a read, that'll tell you all about IF, its the routine I followed but there are others available.
As others have said, lift weights. I assumed you were already doing this
Thanks - I'll try to shake up our schedule so that there's room for extra exercise. (It might be difficult to convince my partner, who is not a fan!) Unfortunately, we can't lift weights because we don't have equipment and can't afford to buy any or join a gym. What we can do is add in more bodyweight exercise as well as interval training, so that we're supplementing muscle-building as well as cardio. Hopefully that will help!0 -
i've heard good things about You Are Your Own Gym and Convict Conditioning, you could probably check them out of your library to see if they are plans you think would work for you for bodyweight training. if you follow a specific progressive program you might see better results.
also try YouTube, my personal fave is Fitness Blender, all free workout videos of different lengths and types (cardio, HIIT, bodyweight, strength training, etc), but there are tons of exercise channels out there!1
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