More plateau advice
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Reducing the carbs, more veggies and protein packed meals instead. I found empty carbs like bread, rice and pasta to be least helpful and once I decreased the amounts I ate per week the scale moved. Also if you are adding alcohol to your diet then try to only do that in moderation once or twice a week if at all. That also helps. I add carbonated water to my wine which cut the intake substantially. Lots of luck with whatever you try
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Unless you have celiac disease there is no reason to eliminate gluten. Gluten free foods still have as many calories as the foods you would substitute them for. If someone has eliminated gluten and lost weight it is because of a calorie deficit and nothing else.
This!!! I'm allergic to wheat and have thyroid disease so I eat gluten free because I have to, I also can't have buckwheat or wheat grass. My bread is usually denser and higher in calories than the one the rest of my family eats. I only lost weight initially with the change because it helped with inflammation but the 30lbs I gained last year were all while being 100% gluten free.1 -
When you loose a lot of weight your body adjusts & needs less calories to maintain the smaller body...hence, you tend to see no loss is what I have been told.
Just continue on and once your body resets itself to that being the "normal weight range" you will find that you can adjust calories again and loose. The body has to find a new "normal" after that much lost so that you do not loose all the work you have gained thus far.
Continue to try to eat healthy, drink lots of water and keep up the exercise to build muscle.
And take body measurements vs. relying on only the scale.
And be good to yourself! You are doing great!!0 -
And just for notation to the panel here that has been joining in on the conversation:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/33218181#Comment_332181811 -
I am having the same issue...
After my big weight loss I became comfortable in my skin and maintained my weight of 210-217 for 3 years. I have been ready for quite sometime to lose the other 30ish I want to lose however I cannot break my old habits of being consistently inconsistent. My eyeballing is off, I am not tracking like I should, I am not working out as hard and as intense as I need to, my water intake is half of what it should be, I am not getting enough sleep, I eat that late night snack and so on. All these little things add up and squash my efforts...maybe its the little things that you don't think that matter that are effecting you as well.
Good luck!0 -
OP, those who have asked you to open your diary would be looking for common logging errors, not nutrition advice. These would be specific to MFP, not something your nutritionist could help you with.
Regardless, weight loss/gain is calories in/calories out. If you are logging accurately, hitting your calorie goal, and not losing for several months, then your calorie goal is wrong, and you need to eat less.
One more thing I wanted to put out there, not to undermine your nutritionist, but "nutritionist" is a pretty meaningless title - anyone can call themselves that, there is no credentialing or education required.
Anyway, I'm really sorry you're struggling and hope you get the scale moving again soon. Good luck!
I agree about titles. I checked into the education and backMaxematics wrote: »Something you've written stood out to me:
"When I decreased my calories because I wasn't eating enough, I was losing too slowly. When I was told to increase them, the scale stopped moving all together. "
You went into more detail here:
"I never said I wasn't willing to reduce calories...? All I said was that I've tried it did not previously make a difference. Doesn't mean I can't try again, which I did say I would do. To get into more detail, I decreased my calories by 300/day. When I inquired why the scale wasn't really moving, I was told (also by this community on MFP) that I wasn't eating enough. So I put my calories back to 300 increase, which is how they were when I lost all the weight. It makes sense to decrease my calories as I lose more weight. But when I did that, I was losing weight so slowly even though I was also exercising on top of that when I was very much exceeding my deficit (as it has been calculated on here - which people are saying could be the issue, that it's inaccurate). "
To lose half a pound per week, one needs to decrease their normal calorie amount to the tune of 250 calories per day. It sounds like that 300 calorie decrease was doing exactly what it should have been doing, as half a pound per week is a pretty slow rate of loss, especially given your stats. That decrease gave you a slight deficit and when you increased by 300 again, you went back to maintenance, hence the stall for six months. That being said, you should cut daily by ~300 again to lose 0.5 pounds per week, cut by ~600 for a pound per week, cut by ~1200 for 1.5 pounds per week, or cut by ~1500 for 2 pounds per week.
I wasn't even losing .5/week when I decreased. It was even slower than that, some weeks nothing at all. That's why I went to my doctor and got blood work done and why I went back to my nutritionist (who said I wasn't eating enough). I agree with everything you're saying, science-wise. But when I decreased to 1200 that's when all of this started, when the weight loss tapered off and eventually halted all together. After months of that, I upped my calories back up again. Wish I had recorded the exact date I changed them to 1200, but I can pinpoint the exact month I stopped losing and it was within that calorie period. Upping to 300 more made no change whatsoever. But I'm willing to try going back down again.0 -
OP, those who have asked you to open your diary would be looking for common logging errors, not nutrition advice. These would be specific to MFP, not something your nutritionist could help you with.
Regardless, weight loss/gain is calories in/calories out. If you are logging accurately, hitting your calorie goal, and not losing for several months, then your calorie goal is wrong, and you need to eat less.
One more thing I wanted to put out there, not to undermine your nutritionist, but "nutritionist" is a pretty meaningless title - anyone can call themselves that, there is no credentialing or education required.
Anyway, I'm really sorry you're struggling and hope you get the scale moving again soon. Good luck!
Lol, I agree about the title. She is a registered dietician and I looked into her background and education before going to her. But her word is not the be all, end all - of course. That's why I'm here. Just wanted to advise why I made some of the choices I did in case anyone was confused why I would change my calories.
Guess I will attempt to decrease calories again! It's what most people are suggesting.0 -
I just want to reiterate what others are saying- if you are truly eating at a deficit, you will lose weight.
Increasing calories to lose more weight is never the answer (it will only slow down your rate of loss).
In the end, you have to be honest with yourself and how you're doing things- it's not us you have to impress, it's not us you have to prove anything to.
Re-evaluate that "not too extreme" weekly meal (you might be surprised at how many calories take-out food can contain compared to a home-cooked version), pick apart how you are weighing and calculating calories, make sure nothing is slipping through the cracks. Since no one else can see your diary, you're going to have to do that for yourself. It is very easy to wipe out a deficit with a slip-up day.
I hope I'm not coming off as brash- I'm just trying to be straightforward since it seems like there are some missing pieces to the overall situation and it's hard to give very specific advice without diary information (which I respect your decision to keep it private- mine is private also- just know this is just about the only advice anyone can give without that info at hand).2 -
I'm sure I will get some negative feedback for this but I appreciate the source and this may help...
https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/truth-about-metabolic-damage
https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/blog/fat-loss/metabolic-damage/
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I reiterate what I said above - you must be using inaccurate entries. You say you eat things like brown rice - if you don't weigh it dry, you could be eating 100 extra calories of rice easily, for example.
Do you always use the appropriate raw/cooked entries?0 -
Not possible that decreasing calories made you gain... nope. Was probably a fluke due to water retention.
Without looking at your diary, my guess is that you're using inaccurate entries, using too many packaged foods (known for inaccurate labeling), or overestimating your exercise calorie burns,
Look ... if you step on the scale one day and it reads nnn.0 and you normally eat, say 1600 calories, but that day you eat 1300 calories and the next morning your scale reads nnn.4 ... you are .4 pounds heavier that day and it doesn't matter if it's water retention or not, you ate less and weighed more. Then, that day, you give yourself a solace tread and end up eating 1700 calories and the next morning your scale reades nn1 ... you are now up 1 pound from 2 days ago ... and you say "wtf?", and that day you eat carefully only eat 1480 calories but the scale doesn't go down the next day either, in fact it goes up .2 and you are totally out-of-your-mind-confused and decide to have a that take-out meal and so your calories that day the the highest of the week, a whole 1880 and you totally expect another weight gain on the next morning weigh-in but sheeze ... you weight yourself and you lost 1.8 pounds overnight! ... and you are now less than you were on that day you ate only 1300 .... Yep, you can eat less and gain weight, even if it is water weight ... it is there, on the scale at the bottom of your feet. Don't belitte it even if you know better.
ps ... darned word finishing speller on here totally ruined some of my words ... but you get the idea anyway, certain of that.0 -
I was in your shoes not too long ago except I lost and regained the same 3-4 lbs for 7-8 months. I did everything right, worked out more, ate less but nothing. Not even inches.
The ONLY thing that has helped me was Intermittent Fasting. I eat all my meals within an 8 hour window and fast for 16 hours. Some people think it's hard to go without food for 16 hours, but if you have dinner at 7 and wake up at 6, that's already 11 hours. I eat between 11-7 or 12-8 and losing about 6 lbs a month. There are several variations of IF, so look into this and see what may work for you.2 -
Not possible that decreasing calories made you gain... nope. Was probably a fluke due to water retention.
Without looking at your diary, my guess is that you're using inaccurate entries, using too many packaged foods (known for inaccurate labeling), or overestimating your exercise calorie burns,
Look ... if you step on the scale one day and it reads nnn.0 and you normally eat, say 1600 calories, but that day you eat 1300 calories and the next morning your scale reads nnn.4 ... you are .4 pounds heavier that day and it doesn't matter if it's water retention or not, you ate less and weighed more. Then, that day, you give yourself a solace tread and end up eating 1700 calories and the next morning your scale reades nn1 ... you are now up 1 pound from 2 days ago ... and you say "wtf?", and that day you eat carefully only eat 1480 calories but the scale doesn't go down the next day either, in fact it goes up .2 and you are totally out-of-your-mind-confused and decide to have a that take-out meal and so your calories that day the the highest of the week, a whole 1880 and you totally expect another weight gain on the next morning weigh-in but sheeze ... you weight yourself and you lost 1.8 pounds overnight! ... and you are now less than you were on that day you ate only 1300 .... Yep, you can eat less and gain weight, even if it is water weight ... it is there, on the scale at the bottom of your feet. Don't belitte it even if you know better.
ps ... darned word finishing speller on here totally ruined some of my words ... but you get the idea anyway, certain of that.
Ok I should have said 'fat'. You can't just get on a scale one day and freak out because you gained weight... weight loss isn't linear. But you won't gain 'real' weight by eating less, it's ridiculous.4 -
Not possible that decreasing calories made you gain... nope. Was probably a fluke due to water retention.
Without looking at your diary, my guess is that you're using inaccurate entries, using too many packaged foods (known for inaccurate labeling), or overestimating your exercise calorie burns,
Look ... if you step on the scale one day and it reads nnn.0 and you normally eat, say 1600 calories, but that day you eat 1300 calories and the next morning your scale reads nnn.4 ... you are .4 pounds heavier that day and it doesn't matter if it's water retention or not, you ate less and weighed more. Then, that day, you give yourself a solace tread and end up eating 1700 calories and the next morning your scale reades nn1 ... you are now up 1 pound from 2 days ago ... and you say "wtf?", and that day you eat carefully only eat 1480 calories but the scale doesn't go down the next day either, in fact it goes up .2 and you are totally out-of-your-mind-confused and decide to have a that take-out meal and so your calories that day the the highest of the week, a whole 1880 and you totally expect another weight gain on the next morning weigh-in but sheeze ... you weight yourself and you lost 1.8 pounds overnight! ... and you are now less than you were on that day you ate only 1300 .... Yep, you can eat less and gain weight, even if it is water weight ... it is there, on the scale at the bottom of your feet. Don't belitte it even if you know better.
ps ... darned word finishing speller on here totally ruined some of my words ... but you get the idea anyway, certain of that.
Uh, what? The body does not work with immediate input/output. If I eat at a 1750 calorie deficit today and expect to see an exact 0.5 pound loss on the scale tomorrow, I'm in for a rude awakening. That's the point @Francl27 is trying to make. Weight fluctuates and we have to give ourselves time, a few weeks, before we can say "eating less calories made me gain weight!"2 -
I am taking one last stab and moving on after this..
I made a suggestion to see if you might want to work with someone one on one off the thread, no answer.
I also wanted to know how many times or at what weight increment were the calorie GOALS were adjusted in MFP? If any?
Apart from these question, in light of the last post made, how long was this increase in 300 calories done? And was it around or after or before a calorie adjustment GOAL was done? I am looking for something to clue me in further as to what may be happening apart from every single thing that was mentioned already tried and failed.
Because if a person stalls for 4 -5 months, they some how have slowly crept back up in their maintenance calories which is easy to do. I am not concerned with the exercise calories at all at this point in the deficit equation.
I'm trying to keep up and ended up answering your next post first. Wasn't ignoring you. Yes, I would be willing to work with someone on here if it sounded like they really wanted to help me and had the knowledge to do so.
I answered the calorie goals question in the other reply.
The increase to 300 was done BECAUSE of the weight stall. I was told I may have cut my calories too much the previous time and that my body might be going into starvation mode (and I was hungry more than usual so that makes sense). When I decreased the 300 calories, the weight was coming off very, very slowly and then tapered off and stopped all together. So the weight loss stopped after 300 decrease and continued with the 300 increase. As to how many weeks or months after that decrease the weight loss stopped, I am not entirely sure. But as I noted before, nothing changed in terms of what I was eating, how much I was exercising, etc.0 -
So just to clarify, OP, since your thread in 2015 and when you stopped losing weight 5-6 months ago, how much weight have you lost?0
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midwesterner85 wrote: »I understand your frustration - I've had some long plateaus as well and was never able to get useful advice from other MFP users, nor from doctors. A true plateau is similar to what you described... there are fluctuations, but despite eating at a deficit, you are not losing weight. Likewise, eating at a surplus will not cause you to gain weight.
My suggestion is to first find out for certain that you are in a true plateau and that you are not eating at maintenance inadvertently (as many previous comments suggest). To determine this, increase calorie intake significantly for the next 3-4 weeks. Don't change anything else (especially workouts / CO). If possible, increase by 2K calories per day. If you're eating at maintenance today (i.e. your BMR is miscalculated to be higher than it really is), then you should start gaining weight quickly. If you are in a true plateau, on the other hand, your weight will not significantly change. You will notice greater day-to-day fluctuations, but it will fluctuate up and down around the same number. Once you have either confirmed you are in a true plateau or found that your BMR is miscalculated, then you can take the next step.
During my longest plateau (5 months), I did the above for 6 weeks and started by increasing calories on average about 3K per day - ended up about 500 over as I gradually decreased the surplus (due to unrelated reasons, I became more satisfied with less food). Weight didn't change, except daily fluctuations became larger. There was even a point where my weight increased 9 lbs. within less than 4 hours. But since I was hovering around the same weight, I could confidently say that I was in a true plateau (because a sharp CI increase did not lead to sustained weight gain, just as a deficit was not resulting in a sustained weight loss).
Thank you for this insight. My calories are currently at 1500 and I usually don't even eat that, so I highly doubt I could manage increasing by 2000 per day. I just literally can't eat that much (nor can I afford to money-wise, haha)! :P Wish there was an easier way to determine this.0 -
carnivalnights wrote: »midwesterner85 wrote: »I understand your frustration - I've had some long plateaus as well and was never able to get useful advice from other MFP users, nor from doctors. A true plateau is similar to what you described... there are fluctuations, but despite eating at a deficit, you are not losing weight. Likewise, eating at a surplus will not cause you to gain weight.
My suggestion is to first find out for certain that you are in a true plateau and that you are not eating at maintenance inadvertently (as many previous comments suggest). To determine this, increase calorie intake significantly for the next 3-4 weeks. Don't change anything else (especially workouts / CO). If possible, increase by 2K calories per day. If you're eating at maintenance today (i.e. your BMR is miscalculated to be higher than it really is), then you should start gaining weight quickly. If you are in a true plateau, on the other hand, your weight will not significantly change. You will notice greater day-to-day fluctuations, but it will fluctuate up and down around the same number. Once you have either confirmed you are in a true plateau or found that your BMR is miscalculated, then you can take the next step.
During my longest plateau (5 months), I did the above for 6 weeks and started by increasing calories on average about 3K per day - ended up about 500 over as I gradually decreased the surplus (due to unrelated reasons, I became more satisfied with less food). Weight didn't change, except daily fluctuations became larger. There was even a point where my weight increased 9 lbs. within less than 4 hours. But since I was hovering around the same weight, I could confidently say that I was in a true plateau (because a sharp CI increase did not lead to sustained weight gain, just as a deficit was not resulting in a sustained weight loss).
Thank you for this insight. My calories are currently at 1500 and I usually don't even eat that, so I highly doubt I could manage increasing by 2000 per day. I just literally can't eat that much (nor can I afford to money-wise, haha)! :P Wish there was an easier way to determine this.
I'm not advocating you even think about eating 2000 calories, but I just want to say you'd be surprised. I'm 5'3" and 108 pounds; I have to eat 2000+ to even maintain my weight. That being said, there is really something quite odd if you're eating less than 1500 calories every day and not losing, especially with exercise.
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Maxematics wrote: »Not possible that decreasing calories made you gain... nope. Was probably a fluke due to water retention.
Without looking at your diary, my guess is that you're using inaccurate entries, using too many packaged foods (known for inaccurate labeling), or overestimating your exercise calorie burns,
Look ... if you step on the scale one day and it reads nnn.0 and you normally eat, say 1600 calories, but that day you eat 1300 calories and the next morning your scale reads nnn.4 ... you are .4 pounds heavier that day and it doesn't matter if it's water retention or not, you ate less and weighed more. Then, that day, you give yourself a solace tread and end up eating 1700 calories and the next morning your scale reades nn1 ... you are now up 1 pound from 2 days ago ... and you say "wtf?", and that day you eat carefully only eat 1480 calories but the scale doesn't go down the next day either, in fact it goes up .2 and you are totally out-of-your-mind-confused and decide to have a that take-out meal and so your calories that day the the highest of the week, a whole 1880 and you totally expect another weight gain on the next morning weigh-in but sheeze ... you weight yourself and you lost 1.8 pounds overnight! ... and you are now less than you were on that day you ate only 1300 .... Yep, you can eat less and gain weight, even if it is water weight ... it is there, on the scale at the bottom of your feet. Don't belitte it even if you know better.
ps ... darned word finishing speller on here totally ruined some of my words ... but you get the idea anyway, certain of that.
Uh, what? The body does not work with immediate input/output. If I eat at a 1750 calorie deficit today and expect to see an exact 0.5 pound loss on the scale tomorrow, I'm in for a rude awakening. That's the point @Francl27 is trying to make. Weight fluctuates and we have to give ourselves time, a few weeks, before we can say "eating less calories made me gain weight!"
Yes, I know ... I was having a little humor attach there.
@carnivalnights .... I think you are the original poster ... here is something that you might consider. Hopefully you like working with numbers and spreadsheets, and that you have accruate food and weight logs in MFP.
It worked for me to do this mental exercise when I was in a plataue for much of 2015.
I made a spreadsheet from the MFP diary report for a period of 6 months ... you can do more or less, but 6 months seemed like a good number to me. On this spreadsheet, I put in a column for each of the numbers: weight, calories consumed. IF you want, you can also add in the macro grams if you feel so inclined. Also, if you are used to eating back exercise calories, it might be good to have a couple of columns for that stuff ... I don't.
When all you 180 days worth of information is in that spread sheet, do a sum total the calories column. Divide that number by the number of days and you will have the average consumed calories per day for that time period.
Now ... take you end weight and subtract that from your start weight to see what the total difference is. Is lost pound counts for 3500 calories. You can use that info to see the average calories per day you were over or under the average consumed calories.
The point is, .... when I did this, I found out I was eating only 27 calories a day less than I needed to have to maintain my weight .... that is why I was not losing.
ps ... again, sorry for miswords and typo's ... I should learn to preview before I post.1
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