Body refuses to loose last 5 pounds??
mariesofi4108
Posts: 31 Member
So I'm 18 and 5'6, and managed to drop 25 pounds to my goal of 130 over 4 months of running cross country and eating between 1200-1400 calories. Now, my body fat percent is 26% and I'd like to drop it to 23% but I haven't been able to and it's so frustrating! I average 1,100-1,600 a day, and my calorie goal to maintain with running is 1400. I run an average of 4-5 miles 5 days a week and am currently training for a half marathon. Any advice on how to skip the weight loss plateau?
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Replies
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Don't eat below 1200. It's not healthy, especially for someone of your age. height and activity level.
How are you measuring your food (food scale, cups/spoons, eyeballing portions)?
How are you measuring your bf%?
According to BMI, you are already at a healthy weight. I would not lose more. Instead, look into bod recomp which is eating at your maintenance and starting a heavy lifting program to decrease body fat and get slimmer without going into underweight territory.
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Eat more. You're body doesn't loose weight, but lose weight!2
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Hi, congratulations on getting down to your goal weight! I don't have any specific advice to you other than I think your calculations are off about maintaining. I'm just over your height (but double your age) and those numbers looked a little low.
I threw your stats into the Scooby calculator, scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ and according to it, your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is about 1400. In that situation, you would need only that amount to maintain with absolutely no movement during the day (as if you were in a coma.) You generally don't want to go below this number if you are at all active, and you definitely don't want to go below 1200 in order to get all the nutrition you need, especially as a young adult. And that is 1200 NET...so you would eat 1200 + estimated calories burned during your workouts as an absolute minimum.
I don't run long distances (i'm a 5k person myself), but all three of my siblings have gone through full marathon training in the last few years. My two brothers eat ridiculous amounts of food anyway so I'll ignore them. My sister is 32, 5'-1", 105-110lbs, and when she's in training mode she's eating more than 2000cals/day. She needs the energy for the long runs. She doesn't care about her weight during that time, just her performance and keeping herself healthy for the big day. But, she's also doing Yoga, pilates, or strength exercises on her off days, so its not just the running that is burning off all that energy.
If you're training for a specific run, I'd say eat at maintenance until you've completed your training. Use the Scooby calculator above or enter your stats into MFP here and set it to maintenance. Then, you can reevaluate when you're done. You might find that you look & feel much better at the end of training without doing anything special. Or, you can start a lifting program with cutting/feeding cycles to reduce body fat by increasing lean body mass. Or, if you plan on keeping up your running and still aren't at the point you want to be, you can reduce your calorie consumption then, but you really don't have much to lose. So you're really only looking at reducing your intake by ~250cal to lose 1/2lb a week or so.
Also, keep in mind a couple things.
1) BF% can vary quite a bit depending on how you are measuring it. Even the best measuring techniques have a tolerance of +/-5% or so.
2) Your weight will vary even at maintenance. Many find it helpful not to just keep one number in mind (say 125lbs) but keep a range to stay within (122-128) so they don't feel discouraged on the days that you just weigh more for perfectly natural reasons.
Good luck!1 -
Your maintenance is NOT 1400 calories. I'm 5'4" as well and don't do any running, when I weigh 130 my TDEE is 1800.
You're not seeing the body composition results you want because your calories are too low, you do a lot of cardio, and I'm guessing no weight training. Raise your calories, add in resistance training, eat .8g of protein per pound of body weight.2 -
Something is way, way off here. You are a great deal younger than me, I'm shorter than you, and I lose weight eating what you say you eat to maintain while running at a lower volume than you do.
You are probably not assessing your calorie intake correctly at all.
Additionally, I don't think you need to lose weight. Your body composition can be changed through body recomposition, has has been mentioned by other posters.2 -
Thank you for the responses! I'm thinking that adding strength training would be beneficial but I'm not sure where to begin. My daily diet is as listed: breakfast, granola bar (200 calories); lunch, kombucha, 5 oz canned tuna, a fruit, and salad (feta, strawberries, and poppyseed dressing); dinner, tofu and broccoli or a salad and 8 shrimp. Even with running and eating like this, I've only lost 0.3 lbs in 3 weeks ). Sometimes I'll eat 1800 calories on weekends ( bread is my weakness...). I go to a nutritionist and she recommended running and eating 1400-1600 calories plus many running. She also said that my body is at a healthy weight and that it's hard to loose the last bit of weight. I gained almost a pound over the holidays averaging 1700 calories and running and that's why I'm afraid to eat more, I'll still experimenting with what is "maintenance" for me.0
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