Auggghhhhhhh!!!!! So frustrated!!!!!

ahoy_m8 · October 2016

Hi, OP. I agree with other commenters about taking a diet break, checking accuracy, et al.

I would also suggest monitoring body weight differently. In a week you gained a pound. How often are you weighing? When is TOM? Did you have a high sodium meal the night before you weighed? For me, body weight is the least accurate part of the equasion simply because of normal healthy water weight fluctuation. Try tracking 10-day minimum or 7-day average instead. The fluctuation will freak you out less.

I personally lose at 1/2lb/wk, so it takes me a couple weeks to know if I'm trending the right way. Ifl I flipped out at each weigh in, the whole process would be a lot more frustrating. A broader perspective really helps in this situation

PAV8888 · October 2016

CALS0CCERBEAR87 wrote: »

VintageFeline wrote: »

25 miles and you're not eating anything to fuel that. Plus all that other stuff!? You're probably retaining water due to the activity AND super stressing your body throwing out your cortisol levels further causing water retention.

Chill out. Get precise with your intake, eat a little more, stop focusing so hard on the number on the scale.

dude i wish...weighing in on my digital every morn literally dictates whether the rest of my day will be all right or downright lousy

Dude, don't you think that this indicates a bit of a problem?
Look into using a trending weight app.
Might help you enjoy more days!

People's weight fluctuates daily.
It doesn't mean that they gain and lose that amount of fat every day.
Weight fluctuations often have NOTHING to do with fat.

RoxieDawn · October 2016

Now that I know that eating back you exercise calories are not part of the equation, I also second the opinions on taking a diet break.

Think of it this way.. what you are doing is not working, so trying something else.. Maybe consider the diet break or start eating more in terms of changing your rate of loss / eat back your exercise calories,

I might scale back on the exercise some, give my body a break from that too, or perhaps change my exercise regime up to something different for a short while..

drockncrisso · October 2016

SusanMFindlay wrote: »

Silly question, perhaps, but do you actually need to lose those last 10 pounds? Or would a "recomp" (maintain weight but reduce fat while gaining muscle) make more sense for you? (Depends on how aggressive your final weight goal is.)

It's hard to say - I'm 5'3" - at my peak 6 years ago, I weighed 117 (doing half marathons and p90x) - my current goal is just 125, I've had two kids and work full time.. So I don't REALLY need to/intend to get back below 125.. But I'm at 128 now. Sooooo close, yet so far. Once I hit 132 is when the scale all but stopped moving.

I think I'll take your advice- I'll get a weight trend app so I can see the bigger picture. I'll take a diet break while I keep training for my next big run and keep doing the weight training. I don't want to lose the health I'm gaining from all this working out.
Then, maybe after a couple weeks of diet break, I can re focus and try some diet adjustments for a couple weeks.
You're right, I gotta stop stressing. A number isn't worth it.. And the few of you who say I need psych help are NOT wrong (I am seeing a therapist- it's hard for me not to obsess about control issues like this- I'm working on it)

DebSozo · October 2016

drockncrisso wrote: »

Week after week on the last 10 lbs! Trying and failing miserably to adjust so I can lose ONE F$&)ing pound!!! This last week of failure = ran 25 miles, did 30 mins of weight training 4 days of the week and ate 1350 cals a day. The result - GAINED A FREAKING POUND. this is MADDENING!! I want to give up!! If I wanted to gain weight, I would sit on my *kitten* and eat scones all day like I actually WANT to do- not spend over an hour a day at the freaking gym and starving myself! Efffffffffff

I got down to the last 10 pounds and plateaued. It was very frustrating because I was eating very little and felt like I was doing all of the right things. I had gotten to the point where you are and would freak out over gaining a pound. When you work so hard to lose a pound and it pops back on it is soooo frustrating. Plus working so hard to lose a pound is grueling. I do get it.

What I ended up doing is recomp. I figured, heck, I'm already plateauing. I'd better do something positive during that time. I decided to deliberately enter maintenance and gradually reverse dieted to try to get to the approproate TDEE I found online.

Do you know what happened? My body shape changed! I can eat more food and have not gained an ounce. I feel strong and walk taller.

So now that my maintenance calories are established I'm going to drop 250 calories off of my maintenance calories to try to lose 1/2 pound a week. I'm hoping with a smaller deficit my body won't battle me as strongly. I had dropped down too low originally. When you are so close to goal it can be a very slow process. Celebrate that you are only 10 pounds away. Even if it takes 10 months, who cares? You will get there!

PAV8888 · October 2016

An interesting article to consider (don't click on any offers): https://www.muscleforlife.com/reverse-diet/
<or look up other info on reverse dieting and diet breaks, particularly stuff written by Lyle McDonald>

An ancillary interesting perspective is that the cautious approach advocated during reverse dieting is not necessary, and people can start approximating their maintenance Calorie numbers by eating a number of Calories equal to their body weight in lbs x 14.

Note that traditionally, average maintenance Calories for average people who move and exercise an average amount of time, in an average fashion, daily, corresponds to a multiplier of between 14 and 16 x weight in lbs... on average.

(And yes Christine, if you're reading this, your 20000 steps a day is well above an average amount of movement!)

So 14 is at the low end of that, and leaves room for further more cautious increases once any initial weight gains due to carb re-feeding and additional waste food in the body stabilize. Also people who extensively engaged in very low calorie diets may experience excess water retention as their body works to repair itself

re: trending weight apps. While I personally like trendweight.com and connect it to my free fitbit.com account (no device necessary) www.weightgrapher.com can superimpose a previously selectable time period (defaults to 28 days) so that users can see a picture of their weight change relative to their cycle.

This is useful to the many women who experience a water weight variation of 3-5lbs, some more, throughout their monthly cycle which makes it extremely hard for them to detect a small weight level change due to successful fat loss.

Note that when setting up weightgrapher I suggest that you tell it that you plan to maintain. This avoids unnecessary advice as to whether you're hitting your goals or not.

arditarose · October 2016

I didn't even read the other responses...but welcome to my life.

DebSozo · October 2016

LittleMiss_Kriss wrote: »

i literally gave up.. =/ i felt like i was killing myself.

LittleMiss, you might be able to figure out what happened and jump back in and change things up. You're still here, so you haven't completely given up! Hang in there.

DebSozo · October 2016

When you get down to the last 10 pounds, it's a whole different ball game.

RobynTheresa · October 2016

Eat more. I aim for NET 1200 calories. I definitely eat to fuel my activity.

Also deload. Do active resting for a week, then do something completely different when you come back.

Cheerios0392 · October 2016

I've been trying to lose my last 10 pounds for over a year. All I do is lose some, put some back on.. lose again, gain again. Best I have done is maintain. I'm STILL trying to lose 10 pounds but sometimes I wonder why I am bothering.

courtneyfabulous · October 2016

Implement refeed days or take a diet break. Also do less cardio. Your metabolism could just be tanked.

Kurzweil · October 2016

Raising my goal weight by 10 lbs and declaring myself officially at goal, shifting into maintenance, was one of the best things I've done. It took me time to emotionally accept it and recognize it wasn't a failure to change my goal, and it isn't permanent if I decide to lose more later, I can. I was putting so much pressure on stress on myself as I got into that last 10-15 lbs that it was really sabotaging me.

I dropped 5 more pounds pretty easily as I shifted into maintenance slowwwwwwly - pounds I was struggling with when I perceived myself in losing mode.

DebSozo · October 2016

It wasn't until I shifted from "active weight loss" into "maintenance" that I finally relaxed also, Kurzweil. The stress and frustration lifted inmediately. It was a real break for me physically and mentally.

CattOfTheGarage · October 2016

That up-down weight pattern is normal. When you're losing fast, it looks like fast weeks and slow weeks. Then as your loss slows, it looks like some weeks you lose and others you stall. Then as your loss slows further, it looks like some weeks you lose and others you gain. But it's just the water fluctuating and has nothing to do with fat loss. You need to let go of the day-to-day scale readings and get at the underlying trend. I strongly recommend using a trend app.

JoeCWV · October 2016

Stop exercising for two or three days while continuing your calorie deficit. It will come off. You are exercising a lot which means your body is in a constant state of repair which means you are likely retaining water. Taking a few days off from the gym will allow your body to repair itself and release the retained water.

If this does not work, then you are not eating at a deficit.

jemhh · October 2016

OP, read this article and consider how it applies to you:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/

Particularly this part

I’ve often noted that the people who seem to have the biggest issues with the whole lots of cardio/big caloric deficit tend to be a little bit ‘tightly wound’ (to put it politely). A bit less politely they are stress cases.

You can almost ‘hear’ the stress in their typing. Every post has lots of exclamation points and there is this undercurrent of “I MUST LOSE FAT NOW!!!!!!” in their posts. When fat loss stalls for a day, they freak out and want to cut calories or go add another hour of cardio. You can almost ‘see’ the tension in them as they sit hammering at the keyboard looking for solutions.

And this is an issue because these types of folks already over-secrete cortisol. As a true oddity, there is the issue of amenorrhea (loss of menstrual cycle). Typically it’s been thought to be related to body fat levels or caloric intake and this is a general cause. But there is often a type of amenorrhea seen in women without any of the normal predisposing factors. In this case, it’s all due to mental stress.

Basically, there is a subset of folks who are already high-level stress cases. They tend to be drawn to harder is better in the first place, tend to be resistant to change (like my client from my early 20’s) and their already high level of cortisol production is simply amplified by the combination of too much activity and too few calories. And suggestions to raise calories and/or reduce activity are invariably met by resistance (again, like my client from ages ago). What they really need is to just chill the hell out.

But invariably the approach that they are intuitively drawn to is the wrong one for them: moderate deficits and moderate activity always work better in those folks. It’s getting them to do it that’s the hard part.

ninerbuff · October 2016

drockncrisso wrote: »

I don't eat back exercise calories. I eat 1350 solid. I count EVERYTHING, obsessively. If my 2 year old feeds me 4 goldfish crackers, I log it. I burn nearly 100 cals a mile when I run -
Sunday - ran 10 miles =1000 exercise
Monday - Jillian Michaels 30 day shred (level 3)
Tuesday - ran 6 miles and did JM level 3
Wednesday rested
Thursday - ran 6 miles and did JM level 3
Friday - ran 3 miles and did JM level 3
Saturday - resting so I can run 12 miles tomorrow.
I've lost 29 lbs before hitting this insane slow down. It was a steady 1lb a week before... Now it's 1lb a month for the past 4 mos and it's making me feel crazy. I want to give up the dieting side and just eat to maintain. I'm sick of working this hard to "earn" a number on the scale.
I feel so frustrated when I am with people - and they're eating food, and I'm eating like a rabbit. If I work out like I do, I wonder if I should just give up the restricted calories for a while and just eat back my exercise cals. I'd LOVE to eat 2000 on a day I run 10+ miles.

Undereating has caught up with you. Your body is now reacting by leveling off metabolic rate, also known as homeostasis. It will utilize the calories afforded to it by lowering metabolic rate at rest, which is where you burn the most body fat.
When this happens with clients, especially after a few months of solid calorie deficit, I have then eat maintenance calories (including exercise calories) for a week or so. And guess what? Weight loss restarts.
Also, don't under eat. Realize that if you're not getting in enough calories, you may be compromising losing more lean tissue which lowers your resting metabolic rate even more.

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

mengqiz86 · October 2016

Regarding running calories... I started at 130lb/5'6" and per my heart rate monitor I burn only 75kcal/mile running. 100/mile may be an overestimate?

That said, I was living your life. wanted to lose 5lb and for 7 months, nothing. Over the 6 weeks I stopped weighing my food and myself, and focused on mindful eating. I never let my "diet" go, but I stopped sweating every oz of food. I dropped an inch on my waist/thighs. I didn't bother weighing myself, but I feel good about the new approach it's not driving me crazy and I find it sustainable. At this point you are probably better off finding a sustainable approach to food that you don't mind sticking to - for life.

Auggghhhhhhh!!!!! So frustrated!!!!!

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