I really need your help. Please.
Acal01
Posts: 66 Member
OK. I used to weigh 250 pounds, and it took me a bit more than a year and a half to get to 185. I did dieting and watch every single thing I ate until May 2016. From May on, I just left dieting and decided to eat normally, managing not to gain the lost weight. Two weeks ago I decided to stick to a run-walk routine and watch my eating again, for I have not lost or gained a pound ever since. The problem is that I exercise 5 days a week, I watch my eating, my sugar intakes, I drink plenty of water (in fact, I quit sodas and juices two years ago, so water and tea is all I drink everyday)...and I haven't lost a single ounce. It's kinda impossible for me to believe that I've been stock in 185 lbs for the last 5 months. What am I doing wrong? I never skip breakfast (in fact BF is my biggest meal of the day), my lunches are moderate, and my dinners are small and light, and usually before 8pm. And I'm only 29 years old, so my metabolism is supposed to respond a bit quicker. What's there left to do? I still want to lose 25 pounds and it seems impossible for me to get there. Any advice you guys can give me, will be much appreciated. I'm really sad.
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Replies
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How many calories are you eating? How tall are you? Do you use a food scale to weigh everything you eat, and log it all religiously?
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There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings1
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The chart pretty much sums it up, but if you haven't lost weight in 5 months, then you probably haven't been eating at a deficit, and if you weren't tracking for 4.5 months of that time, it's impossible to know.6
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185 - 25 = 160 I don't know how tall you are but that is pretty low. I am almost 6' 2" and when I got to 173 people started asking if I was well.1
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Words like 'moderate', 'small', 'light' mean nothing. You know this, or should if you've done this before. Are you weighing and watching your calories and eating in a deficit? Also, what is your height? I'm 6'2" tall and weighed in at 180.2 this morning. I'm well within the normal BMI range. I could lose more weight if I wanted but don't have to. I'd honestly rather gain muscle.
Is it your physical image you're trying to improve or your BMI on a chart? If it's your physical image, then focus on the exercise and fitness and stop worrying about the scale numbers. They'll fall in line as you get more fit. I've been in recomp mode for five to six months now trying to build muscle and fitness slowly without bulking. I've managed to lose something like 7 lbs in that time without trying just by working out and pushing myself and eating at maintenance or slightly below.
Sounds to me like you've done an outstanding job maintaining your weight without logging, bravo. Maybe you should just look into more fitness activities? Mix it up, push yourself harder, not necessarily longer.3 -
Obviously don't know but from reading your post it doesn't really sound like you know how much you are eating. You have to keep yourself in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Much easier at a heavier weight than lower like you are. The only real way to know what you are taking in calorie wise is to weigh everything with a food scale and log it. Do that and keep your calories where you know you are in a deficit overall and you will lose.3
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First things first. Are you logging and tracking your calories? If not, start there.
A calorie deficit is all you need to lose weight. Cutting out sugar probably dropped lots of calories out of your diet, but as long as you're meeting your calorie goals, it's not necessary to cut out any types of food.
So, just plug your stats into MFP and eat the number of calories it tells you to.1 -
Check measurements too. When I started working out, I didn't see a scale loss for a couple of months, but my measurements certainly changed. If the run/walking thing is new, you may be seeing the same thing.1
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If you've been the same weight for 5 months, you have been eating at maintenance. You will need to eat at a calorie deficit again to lose weight. Since you don't have as much weight to lose now, your body needs less calories to maintain, and you will not have as much room for error in your logging that you did when you were heavier.
Since your post seems to imply that you have not been logging much, I second the suggestion to purchase a food scale and meticulously log your calories for a while to see if it makes any difference.3 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »How many calories are you eating? How tall are you? Do you use a food scale to weigh everything you eat, and log it all religiously?
I guess I will lower the calorie intake. I've been eating between 1,700 to 1,800 calories a day. What number should I lower it to? I'm 5'9.0 -
CasperNaegle wrote: »Obviously don't know but from reading your post it doesn't really sound like you know how much you are eating. You have to keep yourself in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Much easier at a heavier weight than lower like you are. The only real way to know what you are taking in calorie wise is to weigh everything with a food scale and log it. Do that and keep your calories where you know you are in a deficit overall and you will lose.
I will work harder on the calorie deficit. Thank you so much.0 -
I'm 5'9, 177 pounds, 41 year old female and I'm losing on 1930 calories a day. Buy and use a food scale, if you aren't measuring portions. You are eating more calories than you think.4
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Spliner1969 wrote: »Words like 'moderate', 'small', 'light' mean nothing. You know this, or should if you've done this before. Are you weighing and watching your calories and eating in a deficit? Also, what is your height? I'm 6'2" tall and weighed in at 180.2 this morning. I'm well within the normal BMI range. I could lose more weight if I wanted but don't have to. I'd honestly rather gain muscle.
Is it your physical image you're trying to improve or your BMI on a chart? If it's your physical image, then focus on the exercise and fitness and stop worrying about the scale numbers. They'll fall in line as you get more fit. I've been in recomp mode for five to six months now trying to build muscle and fitness slowly without bulking. I've managed to lose something like 7 lbs in that time without trying just by working out and pushing myself and eating at maintenance or slightly below.
Sounds to me like you've done an outstanding job maintaining your weight without logging, bravo. Maybe you should just look into more fitness activities? Mix it up, push yourself harder, not necessarily longer.
You've been very helpful. I'm 5'9", so 160 sounds like a good number to me. I will start working on my deficit, but I'm not sure how much I'd have to lower my numbers to.1 -
By "watch your eating" do you mean you are counting calories or do you just mean you are intentionally selecting certain foods and avoiding other foods?2
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185 - 25 = 160 I don't know how tall you are but that is pretty low. I am almost 6' 2" and when I got to 173 people started asking if I was well.
160 is in the "ideal" range for most men. All bodies are different, but if you have hit that wall in the ideal weigh range, and have a good body fat %, your physique will not let you lose more weight without losing muscle. Whether you have actually reached that point, I don't know.
Of course, it is worth noting that the formula that MFP uses for energy expenditure and calorie intake is not suitable for everyone. I believe one formula is more accurate than another for athletes and for overweight/average people. Maybe your body has changed how it expends or saves energy, and a new TDEE formula is in order. You could look into that and set your own goals based on your physique.0 -
185 - 25 = 160 I don't know how tall you are but that is pretty low. I am almost 6' 2" and when I got to 173 people started asking if I was well.
160 is in the "ideal" range for most men. All bodies are different, but if you have hit that wall in the ideal weigh range, and have a good body fat %, your physique will not let you lose more weight without losing muscle. Whether you have actually reached that point, I don't know.
Of course, it is worth noting that the formula that MFP uses for energy expenditure and calorie intake is not suitable for everyone. I believe one formula is more accurate than another for athletes and for overweight/average people. Maybe your body has changed how it expends or saves energy, and a new TDEE formula is in order. You could look into that and set your own goals based on your physique.
Yeah just to put a counterpoint to that I am very small framed (wrists are like 6'' diameter) and probably lower muscle than average. As a result of that I'd say I would be very lean but still healthy all the way down to something like 145 pounds at 6' tall. People baulk at that but I've been 154 before and although I was starting to get lean I wasn't "see my abs" lean.
I actually have a picture of me at 160 pounds at 6' tall. Can tell I'm at a healthy weight, not even all that lean yet still have lovehandles and no sign of abs at all:
I'd say 155 is probably my ideal healthy weight, if I go below that I'm probably pushing for extra leanness but would still be healthy. How much muscle you have relative to bodyfat is much more important than your weight which can be pretty heavily skewed by things like frame size.
Also have a picture of me at 188 pounds (close to OPs current weight) and as you can see 188 pounds for me was actually quite overweight, I was something like 28% bodyfat.
So OP if your 185 looks more like my 160 then getting down to 160 might be a stretch for you. If your 185 looks more like my 188 then it'll be a totally reasonable goal.
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Aaron_K123 wrote: »185 - 25 = 160 I don't know how tall you are but that is pretty low. I am almost 6' 2" and when I got to 173 people started asking if I was well.
160 is in the "ideal" range for most men. All bodies are different, but if you have hit that wall in the ideal weigh range, and have a good body fat %, your physique will not let you lose more weight without losing muscle. Whether you have actually reached that point, I don't know.
Of course, it is worth noting that the formula that MFP uses for energy expenditure and calorie intake is not suitable for everyone. I believe one formula is more accurate than another for athletes and for overweight/average people. Maybe your body has changed how it expends or saves energy, and a new TDEE formula is in order. You could look into that and set your own goals based on your physique.
Yeah just to put a counterpoint to that I am very small framed (wrists are like 6'' diameter) and probably lower muscle than average. As a result of that I'd say I would be very lean but still healthy all the way down to something like 145 pounds at 6' tall. People baulk at that but I've been 154 before and although I was starting to get lean I wasn't "see my abs" lean.
I actually have a picture of me at 160 pounds at 6' tall. Can tell I'm at a healthy weight, not even all that lean yet still have lovehandles and no sign of abs at all:
I'd say 155 is probably my ideal healthy weight, if I go below that I'm probably pushing for extra leanness but would still be healthy. How much muscle you have relative to bodyfat is much more important than your weight which can be pretty heavily skewed by things like frame size.
Also have a picture of me at 188 pounds (close to OPs current weight) and as you can see 188 pounds for me was actually quite overweight, I was something like 28% bodyfat.
So OP if your 185 looks more like my 160 then getting down to 160 might be a stretch for you. If your 185 looks more like my 188 then it'll be a totally reasonable goal.
It's amazing what 28 pounds did .. good job and that's for posting that
To OP ..you have did a great job .. and just by staying focused and caring a bought your body tells me you will get where you want to get
Good luck0 -
Is the exercise new, or a significant increase over what you were doing before? Changing or increasing your exercise patterns causes temporary water retention, so it's normal to see a slight bump or plateau on the scale when you start/change your exercise.
It's also common that exercise makes people more hungry, so they unintentionally eat more to compensate when they add exercise.2 -
guilloskull wrote: »You've been very helpful. I'm 5'9", so 160 sounds like a good number to me. I will start working on my deficit, but I'm not sure how much I'd have to lower my numbers to.
160 would be a 23.6 BMI on the old calculators, so that's in the normal range and should be fine. My personal goal was to be in the mid-range of a normal BMI, then build muscle until I hit about 80% of the normal BMI scale for my height. That way I stay normal but will have enough muscle to not look skinny/fat.
As far as how much to lower your calories, I wouldn't go below 1600, and would probably stick around 1750 if you're exercising say 30 minutes a day 5 days a week at a moderate pace. Check out IIFYM.com and use their calculator. Be honest with the settings and see what it puts you at. Try not to go above -20% deficit, it'll also help you set your macros for fat loss. I've been using it for over a year and simply plug its macros into MFP's premium version. I've been very happy with the results. I'm not saying MFP's calculations are bad, I just don't think MFP gives you enough protein to build/retain muscle. That's my opinion only.
As far as the rest, do spend $20-$25 on a decent food scale on Amazon and weigh your food, be diligent about logging everything, and don't use cheat days/meals if you can keep from it. Simply eat whatever you want within your assigned macros and calorie goals and exercise as much as you can stand. I allowed MFP to add exercise calories back in for me, so I set iifym's calculator at 0 days a week exercising for 0 minutes. That way if I didn't exercise a specific day I knew exactly how much I could eat. If it was a day I exercised I got extra calories and could eat more. It can/will suck on rest days because you can't eat as much but it worked for me well like that. Others enter their exercise times/days into calculators like iifym's and let it set you a daily calorie and macro goal so you don't have days that you eat less, but you also won't have days that you eat more because if you do it that way you have to turn off MFP adding in exercise calories.
The next thing is to track your exercise calories accurately. You can do that manually or with a device. I use a HR strap (Polar H7) paired with my iPhone, then I use an app called Endomondo that syncs with MFP. For me it's been very accurate over the last 1.5 years. I can easily eat back 80% or more of my exercise calories that Endomondo reports and still stay in my goals. You can also use Fitbit/Garmin/whatever tracker you want or just try to do your best estimation and eat back less of those calories to err on the side of caution.
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This is actually my 185. Just took the picture, and makes me frustrated just by looking at it. I think I can even go lower than 160. I'm only 5'9".
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You need to change up your workout. You should be losing weight like crazy I'm 5'10 and 193lbs I eat 2000kcal and have been losing weight nonstop.1
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red99ryder wrote: »Aaron_K123 wrote: »185 - 25 = 160 I don't know how tall you are but that is pretty low. I am almost 6' 2" and when I got to 173 people started asking if I was well.
160 is in the "ideal" range for most men. All bodies are different, but if you have hit that wall in the ideal weigh range, and have a good body fat %, your physique will not let you lose more weight without losing muscle. Whether you have actually reached that point, I don't know.
Of course, it is worth noting that the formula that MFP uses for energy expenditure and calorie intake is not suitable for everyone. I believe one formula is more accurate than another for athletes and for overweight/average people. Maybe your body has changed how it expends or saves energy, and a new TDEE formula is in order. You could look into that and set your own goals based on your physique.
Yeah just to put a counterpoint to that I am very small framed (wrists are like 6'' diameter) and probably lower muscle than average. As a result of that I'd say I would be very lean but still healthy all the way down to something like 145 pounds at 6' tall. People baulk at that but I've been 154 before and although I was starting to get lean I wasn't "see my abs" lean.
I actually have a picture of me at 160 pounds at 6' tall. Can tell I'm at a healthy weight, not even all that lean yet still have lovehandles and no sign of abs at all:
I'd say 155 is probably my ideal healthy weight, if I go below that I'm probably pushing for extra leanness but would still be healthy. How much muscle you have relative to bodyfat is much more important than your weight which can be pretty heavily skewed by things like frame size.
Also have a picture of me at 188 pounds (close to OPs current weight) and as you can see 188 pounds for me was actually quite overweight, I was something like 28% bodyfat.
So OP if your 185 looks more like my 160 then getting down to 160 might be a stretch for you. If your 185 looks more like my 188 then it'll be a totally reasonable goal.
It's amazing what 28 pounds did .. good job and that's for posting that
To OP ..you have did a great job .. and just by staying focused and caring a bought your body tells me you will get where you want to get
Good luck
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guilloskull wrote: »This is actually my 185. Just took the picture, and makes me frustrated just by looking at it. I think I can even go lower than 160. I'm only 5'9".
What is your goal physique? Do you want to be lean and muscled, or are you going for the ultra-skinny waif/"twink" look? What is your current workout routine (if any)?
From the photo you posted, it's hard to imagine you losing 25-30 more pounds.1 -
Honestly looks like you just need to tone up more than anything, which may not show a huge decrease on the scale but will appearance-wise. Don't worry too much about the scale, in my opinion.2
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What is your goal physique? Do you want to be lean and muscled, or are you going for the ultra-skinny waif/"twink" look? What is your current workout routine (if any)?guilloskull wrote: »This is actually my 185. Just took the picture, and makes me frustrated just by looking at it. I think I can even go lower than 160. I'm only 5'9".
From the photo you posted, it's hard to imagine you losing 25-30 more pounds.
Seconded. Losing 20 lbs from what you show WILL include (considerable) muscle loss. Regardless of what you think about yourself, you are similar to Aaron's 160 NOT Aaron's 188.
If your goal is to look more "ripped" concentrate on doing some progressive resistance work (think weights, think strength work neither of which you mentioned). As long as you do that while avoiding weight gain your body composition will improve.
Also at your height and weight and given the base amount of movement you describe, it is highly doubtful that you are not eating in the 2500+ calorie range. If I were you and I truly believed I was eating 1700, I would diligently work at getting my logging to a state of impeccable perfection in preparation to taking my results to an endocrinologist to investigate me
Read the thread about light people getting lighter; I think someone linked to it above.
I would also consider using a trending weight app.
Take care!1 -
Alyssa_Is_LosingIt wrote: »If you've been the same weight for 5 months, you have been eating at maintenance. You will need to eat at a calorie deficit again to lose weight. Since you don't have as much weight to lose now, your body needs less calories to maintain, and you will not have as much room for error in your logging that you did when you were heavier.
Since your post seems to imply that you have not been logging much, I second the suggestion to purchase a food scale and meticulously log your calories for a while to see if it makes any difference.
I would say the same thing ^
OP the silver lining is that you maintained for 5 months. You kept off your weight, which is a success, haven't given up, and are seeking helpful ideas to try.
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guilloskull wrote: »
This is actually my 185. Just took the picture, and makes me frustrated just by looking at it. I think I can even go lower than 160. I'm only 5'9".
Really you are at a good place to start building muscles and have a lot going for you. Don't get frustrated. It takes time and patience but you aren't very far off. It may go slower than you hope, but hang in there
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Agree with above, picture looks like a slim or slender (politically correct terms?) guy. More weight loss may move into waif or famished looks. Maybe try the tips above for muscle toning etc. Good luck and congrats on a great job!0
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