Plateau? Or just stuck!

jessicahaase5501 wrote: »

Thank you RoxieDawn. I am new to MFP. I have been using my Fitbit app for tracking food for the past year or so & a friend recently recommended MFP. I have a lot of food allergies (mostly vegetables like corn, soy, potato, tomato, all squash), so I am mostly eating clean, avoiding processed foods, and making things from scratch. I do include condiments like butter, olive oil when cooking, etc. I have been measuring rather than weighing & I am seeing a lot of people on here recommending food scales. That may be something I can adjust. I track each meal as I eat it (otherwise I miss things!).

For calorie burn, I go with what my Fitbit tracks & most days I don't increase calorie intake, though there is some fluctuation from day to day. I am jogging every other day & cross training on the days in between, rest on Sunday. I started jogging in June to try to get the scale moving again & think I am likely gaining some muscle, but after 2.5 months I was hoping to see some change either on scale or with measurements.

I was really hoping to not further drop calories as my mood is definitely impacted & that's not fair to my toddler son. And I generally feel quite good at 1400, but I am really frustrated to be putting in so much work and not see any progress.

You are doing quite well to me. I am going to suggest the food scale. It can be a huge game changer. I predict from your reply that those 1400 calories could easily be in a calorie range for you to be maintaining your weight as opposed to a calorie deficit needed to lose weight.

The next thing, you could have built some muscle too. And this is great thing. Keep in mind that the scale can also also be masked by water retention/gain from many things like 1) two times a month women will retain water during their cycle around ovulation and menses 2) hydration and electrolyte balance 3) carb intake 4) excess sodium in the diet 5) muscle repair. Also if you have undigested food in gut/waste not eliminated (sorry TMI) will also be a factor on the scale. Your workouts can easily cause some water retention and this is normal.

Have you thought about using the scale to trend your weight. There is a cute little website called weightgrapher and it will allow you to use the scale each day to trend your weight. After you do this for a couple weeks and into 28 days it will tell you based on your weight, rather you are loosing fat or not. This allows all those fluctuation I mentioned to be trended so that your weight loss is not muted by all this stuff.. I also use a bluetooth scale, but the weightgrapher uses only daily weight input.

Lastly keep doing those body measurements using a tape. This is a real indicator as well. So use all these things as your arsenal to aid in your weight loss and I predict you will be trending down in no time.

Do not forget to update MFP with each 9-10 pounds you loose. Your calories will change a wee but to keep loosing.. The smaller you get, the less calories (I know that is hard to grip)

edited to add: if you feel like your workouts (I run too) are getting a bit stale or perhaps not doing quite enough to give you small weight loss edge, change those up a bit.. Perhaps intensity, or doing different types of runs, and increasing volume just a little (only 10% per week). I find that I get a little too efficient in my running and need to change it up and some variety of running to not get too adapted per se.

Just know that your calories are about 90% of all this so exercise can help a wee bit with a deficit, but do that for fun and cardio health more over than anything else.

For 6 months and no weight change - its time to improve logging accuracy. Try the food scale and you may be amazed.

You're likely eating more than you think. Solid food has nutritional info that will say something like 1 serving = 1/4 cup (28g) for 120 calories. Measuring cups are not really intended/accurate for solid food. The amount you fit into the cup will vary each time depending on how it settles and how much you pack it in. Easy to go 20-30% over what a serving is really meant to be.

What does this mean? That you need to eat less of the food you've been eating, but also you'll need to find a way to bulk out your meals with lower calorie fillers so you're not hungry/irritable. Its good to use lean protein here, and lower cal veggies that you can eat. (I noticed your food allergy - I'm sure you have a handle on what to include vs what to avoid.)