7-month plateau - getting desperate
mengqiz86
Posts: 176 Member
MFP reminded me that I've logged 210 days in a row. Which only serves as a painful reminder that I've not lost any weight in those 7 months. I'm 5'6", 130lb - I've been 120lb for years, but gained 10lb last year due to sports Injuries. Want to lose them to get lean for marathon race. Training hard weekly - rigorous run workout 3 days a week (intervals, tempos, long) and cross-train/lift heavy on 3 other days. Lowered caloric intake (significantly - some of you will tell me I'm not eating enough) but haven't lost a single pound, inch, or body fat percentage. Thyroid function is fine. Would love any advice. Food diary's open (I don't really log exercise cals regularly as I don't eat back any of them). Really desperate for some answers!!
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Replies
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If you are not losing weight, you are not in a calorie deficit. Do you weigh all your food on a food scale?5
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You are a healthy weight at 130 for 5"6". 120 may just not be doable anymore You do have muscle from all your workouts. Maybe just live with it. I'm 5' 6" and was way heavier than you when I ran a marathon. You will be fine! Relax and enjoy your strength!11
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I agree you're at a healthy weight already. Try changing your exercising up and do different things, years ago I ran like a hamster on the treadmill and hated it, I actually stopped running and lifted heavier and the weight started going down again. Eat more and change things up
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I had a quick glance at your food diary and the first thing that struck me was the lack of healthy whole foods. Alot of processed food and fattier meats such as pork. You seem to be using your calories for snacks more than filling and healthy meals that will fuel your workouts and cut down on your sugar intake also.
As you have very little weight to lose you would need to focus alot more on your nutrition and not just the exercise part of it.1 -
Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.6 -
I agree you're at a healthy weight already. Try changing your exercising up and do different things, years ago I ran like a hamster on the treadmill and hated it, I actually stopped running and lifted heavier and the weight started going down again. Eat more and change things up
if OP has not lost any weight in 7months how is "eat more" gonna help ??
ITS NOT! if not lost and has been the same weight it means is currently eating at maintanence so needs to EAT LESS to lose weight10 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources2 -
kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources
But then it's the overeating of calories that is the culprit. Not the snacks.4 -
Well I definitely won't tell you to eat more because you're not eating at a calorie deficit. Being in a healthy weight range, the last few pounds will be the hardest to come off, especially without a food scale. Measuring cups are not the same, either. By looking at your diary, I can easily see that you don't weigh all of your food. Some stuff is in grams though; is that stuff weighed or did you just pick the weights at random?
That being said, some days are logged at 700 to 1000 calories. Is that really all you're eating in a day or are you not logging everything? Last Monday you only logged 140 calories. Most of your days are 900 to 1100 calories with the highest number I've seen being a bit over 1400. Why would you aim for such low calories anyway? With the hard training you're doing at the weight you are, you should be extremely hungry at those low calorie amounts. It isn't recommended for women to eat less than 1200 calories, but the good news is that you actually aren't doing that since you're definitely underestimating your food intake. Buy a food scale to see how much you're really eating; it's easy to be off by hundreds of calories.6 -
I'd seriously consider if you need to lose weight. I'm two inches shorter than you and my goal weight is higher than where you currently are. What are your reasons for wanting to be lighter?
Weight loss gets harder as you get nearer to a healthy weight, and for good reason. If you're 3st (42lb) overweight like me, the body fights weight loss, but not that hard. It's a show of resistance but it's not difficult to overcome. But when you are already at or near a healthy weight, your body fights loss with everything it's got. You get hungry, you crave - I suspect you become more likely to underestimate portions and forget snacks, which is imo all part of the body's defence against starvation. If your body is worried about starvation and insecure about food, every meal will look meagre and so you will eat more without realising it.
In your situation, I would just accept that for whatever reason your body wants or needs to be 10lb heavier than it used to be, and since that is still a healthy weight, I would focus in maintaining it and meeting whatever other, non-weight-related fitness goals you have.2 -
kommodevaran wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources
But then it's the overeating of calories that is the culprit. Not the snacks.
OP is looking for advice not for you to pick on other peoples comments! What I said makes sense no need to nit pick1 -
Perhaps, use a food scale? I really love sugary snacks, but I find that the packaging isn't always honest. E.g., sometimes I'd get a bun that would say "1 bun (200 g) = 250 calories", when the bun was actually 300 when I put it on the scale.1
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You've been maintaining your weight for 7 months. So at least you know how to maintain
If you want to lose those last 10lbs, you simply need to tighten your logging - you are eating more than you think (happens to most of us at some point).
oh and one more thing, you are at a good weight for your height imo - I'm a little smaller and happy maintaining at 130lbs Plus I look as slim as my friends who are around 18lbs lighter than me at the same height. Muscle really does account for a lot 9 -
May I ask what is your body fat percentage?0
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kommodevaran wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources
But then it's the overeating of calories that is the culprit. Not the snacks.
OP is looking for advice not for you to pick on other peoples comments! What I said makes sense no need to nit pick
Feeding the OP fatlogic is terrible advice. "Eat more" is never the answer to scales not moving9 -
kommodevaran wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources
But then it's the overeating of calories that is the culprit. Not the snacks.
OP is looking for advice not for you to pick on other peoples comments! What I said makes sense no need to nit pick
Feeding the OP fatlogic is terrible advice. "Eat more" is never the answer to scales not moving
I was not the poster that said eat more thankyou very much1 -
kommodevaran wrote: »kommodevaran wrote: »Lack of "healthy" food would make her hungry, not make it impossible to lose weight. BUT - hunger can make it harder to stick to calorie goal. AND nutrition is important for health. SO not to be ignored.
Fatty meat is good, pork is good. Sugar is helpful to fuel workouts. Meal timing is important as the final icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
Lack of "healthy" food would not make it impossible to lose weight if you werent substituting it with unhealthy snacks as she is alot of days
Sugar is helpful in moderation and from the right sources
But then it's the overeating of calories that is the culprit. Not the snacks.
This. OP, your logging is very inconsistent with many innaccurate entries. You need to be more accurate since you have so so little to lose. By guessing and not logging, you're most likely eating more calories than you think. With a small deficit, it wouldn't take much to wipe out the deficit and be in maintenance. Get a food scale if you don't have one and start weighing everything. Log everything. Don't skip logging days and meals. Consistency and accuracy is the key.3 -
Thanks guys, appreciate the honest feedback! I made one giant batch of pulled pork last week, hence all the pork shoulders lol!
I do log everything at least 6 days a week and don't have cheat days. I understand I may underestimate food weight.. But I'm thinking even if - worst case scenario - I underestimate by 300-500cal, I'm still ingesting about 1,500 on most days. At my weight and activity level, my estimated daily burn rate is about 1,700-1,800 per calculators. That should still result in at least something, right? Anyway, will work on being diligent!4 -
There are a bunch of logging inconsistencies...where are your cooking oils? Wine needs a liquid measure, not a solid measure (like grams). How do you even gauge 0.2 of a hot dog? Are you using a food scale? Because it doesn't look like it (you have cherries measured in grams, and strawberries measured by the berry, both in the same meal).3
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Try this calculator, it was created by a MFP user. sailrabbit.com/bmr/
It may help you understand what your calorie goal should be to get the result you are looking for. Also you NEED to be 100% dedicated to your logging if you are going to understand what you are doing/doing wrong.1 -
There are a bunch of logging inconsistencies...where are your cooking oils? Wine needs a liquid measure, not a solid measure (like grams). How do you even gauge 0.2 of a hot dog? Are you using a food scale? Because it doesn't look like it (you have cherries measured in grams, and strawberries measured by the berry, both in the same meal).
^^^This! Your logging is all over the map. I would guess sufficiently enough to wipe out your deficit. Tighten it up, you will see results (barring any medical conditions).5 -
Feeding the OP fatlogic is terrible advice. "Eat more" is never the answer to scales not moving
It's not "fatlogic" to point out that if the OP is really only consuming 700-900 calories per day, they may have significantly slowed their metabolism and need to work on fixing that before they start worrying about weight loss. Are you seriously advising the OP to reduce their caloric intake further?
Before worrying about that, though, make sure that the calories reported are actually complete and accurate.
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Lol!! Ok - in my defense, that was 0.25 of a hot dog, basically a quarter a hotdog that I stole from my husband's plate. See - I do try to log the smallest things!! But in all seriousness, I get your point.There are a bunch of logging inconsistencies...where are your cooking oils? Wine needs a liquid measure, not a solid measure (like grams). How do you even gauge 0.2 of a hot dog? Are you using a food scale? Because it doesn't look like it (you have cherries measured in grams, and strawberries measured by the berry, both in the same meal).
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I love this community by the way!!!! Feeling the support. You guys are awesome. I think I need to start bringing lunch to work.. Too many snacks in the break room! My mantra this year has been "say no to free calories" but somehow I just can't resist those cupcakes! Then I try to compensate by not eating a real meal. Guilty as charged!1
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Whenever I hear this first question I ask is: "So you've been 100% accurate the whole time?" Usual answer is no. When digging further, there ends up being many inaccuracies on a weekly basis. So is it really a plateau? NOPE. Any inconsistencies would make it more of inadequate effort.
Admitting to those will help you get back on track if you're being honest with yourself.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I love this community by the way!!!! Feeling the support. You guys are awesome. I think I need to start bringing lunch to work.. Too many snacks in the break room! My mantra this year has been "say no to free calories" but somehow I just can't resist those cupcakes! Then I try to compensate by not eating a real meal. Guilty as charged!
Definitely start bringing in your own lunch. There is no way to really tell how much you're eating in a pre-packaged meal or if you buy something at a Chipotle for example. For a few weeks, I was buying the pre-packaged salads at Trader Joe's. Prior to that, I was bringing in my own lunch (weighed every single thing) and losing weight. After the Trader Joe's? My weight loss stalled. It's true that it could've been caused by a number of things but when I went back to bringing in my own lunch, the weight loss started again.
My work has the freebie snacks so I feel you. It's hard to resist but what helps me is to bring my own pre-weighed snacks.
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If you are underestimating 300-500 cals/day and your daily TDEE is 1700-1800: it is VERY easy to wipe out what you think is a deficit.
Lets split the difference and assume 400/day error. Which would be EASY to do as 25 cals here, 50 cals there add up quickly. So with TDEE 1750 (again, going in the middle) if you think you're eating 1350: 1350 + 400 = 1750 and thus maintenance. No mention of training going poorly due to energy problems, stalled weight loss, and inconsistent logging: consistency and accuracy are the way to turn things around. But be careful not to aim too low as then your weight loss could derail your marathon.
Assuming 1750 TDEE a reasonable goal would be a 250/day deficit considering you are training. 1500/day can be done with lots of lean protein, careful monitoring of fat intake (we do need fat but too much will eat away your calorie allotment) and bulking out meals with veggies and complex carbs.
So on your to do list if you want to lose those pounds:
1. Use a food scale as often as possible, in combination with accurate entries. Such as using raw weight for raw nutritional data. Food changes weight as moisture cooks out of it.
2. Try to accurately measure your cardio burn and eat additional to fuel your workouts, staying at a 250/day deficit.
3. Have patience. Results may not be quick to show on a scale.
4. Strength train. By listing it last I do not mean to downgrade the importance of strength training.Thanks guys, appreciate the honest feedback! I made one giant batch of pulled pork last week, hence all the pork shoulders lol!
I do log everything at least 6 days a week and don't have cheat days. I understand I may underestimate food weight.. But I'm thinking even if - worst case scenario - I underestimate by 300-500cal, I'm still ingesting about 1,500 on most days. At my weight and activity level, my estimated daily burn rate is about 1,700-1,800 per calculators. That should still result in at least something, right? Anyway, will work on being diligent!
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You mentioned "six days a week" and "most days." If I'm not consistently losing, I tighten up my logging. Definitely go with the food scale and work toward 7 days a week and every day. You'd be surprised how easy it is to undo your hard work in a day.1
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