Really, please help. Calorie counting and going crazy. Not losing fat.
olegirl2000
Posts: 5 Member
I've read the articles.
I've seen the blogs.
And comments.
And message boards.
Calories In Calories Out. I get it.
I'm 5"9, 22% BF, currently weighing in at 154.
I'm strong as heck, a Spartan racer, former crossfitter, cardio 5 x a week (Spinning, Tabata, rower, treadmill 3 miles at a time, HIIT) mixed in with strength training (BodyPump, conditioning @ gym).
Around August of last year, I was still training, eating approx 1800 cals and feeling really good.
At that time, I had stopped doing crossfit, but still doing my regular to my routine, however I started to gain weight. Went from 143 up to 150+ ...
So i hired a nutritionist who got me eating all sorts of grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens, sorghum, organic everything. And I gained more weight.
Fast forward 3 weeks ago, I went cold turkey and decided to go full calorie deficit, eating 1300 calories. Strict, cleaning eating, except for the occasional cheat meal. on a friday OR a Saturday. Never both. And that cheat meal simply included a glass of wine or two.
But it was always a lean protein, veggies or salad, limited carbs.
4 weeks later, nothing budged. My baby belly budge still there, Not breaking 150 pounds and getting very frustrated.
'
Then, I started using MFP to calculate daily cals needed and it brought me up to 1590, which i've started on Tuesday. This seems a little more do-able, and I don't feel like i'm starving my very active body.
I'm afraid i'm never going to budge out of 150lbs. I'm looking to get to a very lean 18% BF at 140lbs.
My workouts are predominantly in the AM, so I'm getting up at 445 to hit my 5:30 spin class and get to work by 7:15. I am trying to sleep and get about 6. I'm curious if my cortisol levels and adrenal levels are hindering this whole process, and if I should skip working out so much and simply focus on sleeping and eating well.
This seems like a good board to post things like this, so I encourage as many comments as possible. Thanks and God bless.
I've seen the blogs.
And comments.
And message boards.
Calories In Calories Out. I get it.
I'm 5"9, 22% BF, currently weighing in at 154.
I'm strong as heck, a Spartan racer, former crossfitter, cardio 5 x a week (Spinning, Tabata, rower, treadmill 3 miles at a time, HIIT) mixed in with strength training (BodyPump, conditioning @ gym).
Around August of last year, I was still training, eating approx 1800 cals and feeling really good.
At that time, I had stopped doing crossfit, but still doing my regular to my routine, however I started to gain weight. Went from 143 up to 150+ ...
So i hired a nutritionist who got me eating all sorts of grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens, sorghum, organic everything. And I gained more weight.
Fast forward 3 weeks ago, I went cold turkey and decided to go full calorie deficit, eating 1300 calories. Strict, cleaning eating, except for the occasional cheat meal. on a friday OR a Saturday. Never both. And that cheat meal simply included a glass of wine or two.
But it was always a lean protein, veggies or salad, limited carbs.
4 weeks later, nothing budged. My baby belly budge still there, Not breaking 150 pounds and getting very frustrated.
'
Then, I started using MFP to calculate daily cals needed and it brought me up to 1590, which i've started on Tuesday. This seems a little more do-able, and I don't feel like i'm starving my very active body.
I'm afraid i'm never going to budge out of 150lbs. I'm looking to get to a very lean 18% BF at 140lbs.
My workouts are predominantly in the AM, so I'm getting up at 445 to hit my 5:30 spin class and get to work by 7:15. I am trying to sleep and get about 6. I'm curious if my cortisol levels and adrenal levels are hindering this whole process, and if I should skip working out so much and simply focus on sleeping and eating well.
This seems like a good board to post things like this, so I encourage as many comments as possible. Thanks and God bless.
2
Replies
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Have you seen a doctor to rule out metabolic or hormonal disorders? You eat very little for someone of your size and activity level.4
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Is it possible that you're looking more to recom versus losing weight?3
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Olegirl2000 you have read my mind. Last August I hit my ultimate weight and my 1/2 century birthday. My eating habits have not changed my 6 day workout routine has not changed (except the weight training routine is mixed regularly). I rarely drink alcohol and if so usually red wine. My food intake is substantially veg and fruit with variations of protein (little to no processed carbs).I seldom eat out as I prefer to cook for company. I enjoy sweets/dark chocolate but on occasion not regularly. I have been following this regime since my high school basketball/volleyball days. Nothing much has changed in my dietary needs or physical needs but for about 4 months my weight has crept up from 150lbs to 163lbs (I am 6'). As the weather is cold where I live, my outdoor cycling days are over until April but this is the only activity I have had to give up. I still spin 3 days a week and weight train the other three days. I do not have any answers but sympathize wholeheartedly with you and hope someone wise can answer our shared dilemma.2
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@leooftheyear RECOM? and @Need2Exerc1se I presume I could... I am convinced it's adrenal fatigue / abnormal cortisol levels. may seek dr council.0
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olegirl2000 wrote: »@leooftheyear RECOM?
sorry Recomp0 -
Are you weighing your solid foods with a digital kitchen scale and measuring liquids with a measuring cup? Are you logging using verified nutrition info, such as that from a label held in hand or that which matches the USDA Nutrient Database?
How active are you outside of your exercise pursuits?5 -
@jemhh I could weigh my solids & measure my liquids, yes. But to be honest, my intake is based on single items like eggs, rice cakes, cups of broccoli, other veggies, single bananas. I have the 21 Day Fix portion containers that have helped me as well, especially when measuring fruit.
My liquid intake includes water, no other juices or soda (except for that red wine, of course, which will happen tomorrow).0 -
olegirl2000 wrote: »@jemhh I could weigh my solids & measure my liquids, yes. But to be honest, my intake is based on single items like eggs, rice cakes, cups of broccoli, other veggies, single bananas. I have the 21 Day Fix portion containers that have helped me as well, especially when measuring fruit.
My liquid intake includes water, no other juices or soda (except for that red wine, of course, which will happen tomorrow).
You could or you do?
Your 21 Day Fix containers aren't helping you lose weight so far. Weigh your solids, don't put them in cups.
What is your activity level like outside of exercise?10 -
olegirl2000 wrote: »Then, I started using MFP to calculate daily cals needed and it brought me up to 1590, which i've started on Tuesday. This seems a little more do-able, and I don't feel like i'm starving my very active body.
I'm afraid i'm never going to budge out of 150lbs. I'm looking to get to a very lean 18% BF at 140lbs.
My workouts are predominantly in the AM, so I'm getting up at 445 to hit my 5:30 spin class and get to work by 7:15. I am trying to sleep and get about 6. I'm curious if my cortisol levels and adrenal levels are hindering this whole process, and if I should skip working out so much and simply focus on sleeping and eating well.
This seems like a good board to post things like this, so I encourage as many comments as possible. Thanks and God bless.
I think the answer may be in your own post. You've only been logging and counting calories since Tuesday. It's going to take time. What you eat isn't as important as the calories you consume. I'd stick with as much lean protein as you can not because of some low carb diet crap.. but because it satiates you more, takes longer to digest, and will help you maintain muscle and lean out. Aim for about .8g/lb of your target weight in protein, the rest of your calories can be split between fat and carbs however you like.8 -
Solids in cups: are not accurate. That is likely the cause of your lack of weight loss.olegirl2000 wrote: »@jemhh I could weigh my solids & measure my liquids, yes. But to be honest, my intake is based on single items like eggs, rice cakes, cups of broccoli, other veggies, single bananas. I have the 21 Day Fix portion containers that have helped me as well, especially when measuring fruit.
My liquid intake includes water, no other juices or soda (except for that red wine, of course, which will happen tomorrow).
5 -
Oh heck yes. You need to sleep more. 1590 still sounds low to me, but eat back a portion of those exercise calories.2
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »Solids in cups: are not accurate. That is likely the cause of your lack of weight loss.
One of the reasons, I would also have to agree. Log everything, stay within your calorie goal, weigh solids and use the measuring cups for liquids (or weigh them too if you're scale will do it.. mine will). You will lose weight unless you have some underlying medical problem or have calculated your calorie goals incorrectly. You should also be logging the red wine and keeping within your goals.
3 -
@nowine4me sleep? what's that? LOL. and i thought 1590 seemed low too, since I was so active and getting toned at 1800 cals last year. but that's with very aggressive goals I set using MFP app.
@Spliner1969, i will have to look more closely at my measurements.
when i think of things like grilled or steamed chicken, i consider it to be something like a palm sized portion.
i do log the red wine, as i know that's a huge calorie hog. i could drink in 1 setting more than half of my daily calorie requirement in wine. which only means, i just don't eat as much food that day. just kidding.
i do see where you are coming from, though.
just to clarify, i was logging my 1300/day calories in my fitbit app before switching to MFP.
and still having no success. any weight loss may have just been water weight.
thank you everyone.0 -
Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.10
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quiksylver296 wrote: »Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.
Agreed 1000%. It made a huge difference for me.5 -
Yeah you're not really "counting calories" if you're estimating portions. I think you'll notice a difference if you get that tight. You can always revert to estimation again if you prefer, weighing for a while can work like a refresher.4
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MelanieCN77 wrote: »Yeah you're not really "counting calories" if you're estimating portions. I think you'll notice a difference if you get that tight. You can always revert to estimation again if you prefer, weighing for a while can work like a refresher.
So much this. And as a reminder, here's why using a scale is important.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfcB7GbLmIM 5 -
In addition to the video above, I offer this one. It shows how we should even weigh our prepackaged items and why:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnnpUYmr0OM 1 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.
This.2 -
olegirl2000 wrote: »@nowine4me sleep? what's that? LOL. and i thought 1590 seemed low too, since I was so active and getting toned at 1800 cals last year. but that's with very aggressive goals I set using MFP app.
@Spliner1969, i will have to look more closely at my measurements.
when i think of things like grilled or steamed chicken, i consider it to be something like a palm sized portion.
i do log the red wine, as i know that's a huge calorie hog. i could drink in 1 setting more than half of my daily calorie requirement in wine. which only means, i just don't eat as much food that day. just kidding.
i do see where you are coming from, though.
just to clarify, i was logging my 1300/day calories in my fitbit app before switching to MFP.
and still having no success. any weight loss may have just been water weight.
thank you everyone.
When I started here, I would have sworn on a Bible I was eating 1500 cals a day and not losing weight.
I got a $15 food scale off Amazon and started weighing my portions.
I was really eating more like 1800 cals a day.
I started REALLY eating 1500-1600 cals and lost the weight.
You are not looking to lose alot of weight, so you should be expecting slow progress, which could also be masked by water weight fluctuations from week to week. Patience is required and this can be frustrating!
So start using a food scale for as much as possible, even packaged items. Weigh yourself as often as you want, but don't expect to see a real difference on the scale until after a month. Hang in there and good luck :drinker:7 -
I would highly recommend you weigh everything!! It is absolutely amazing how much you can be off, even pulling a bagel out of pre-packaged and using the single serving. Weigh it and compare to the grams in the serving size.4
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Spliner1969 wrote: »quiksylver296 wrote: »Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.
Agreed 1000%. It made a huge difference for me.
Same here0 -
at 154 you are right in the middle of normal weight range for your height - so any deficits you see will be small in nature
I ran your stats though a TDEE calculator and got maintenance calories of 2300 for your activity level - https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=female&age=38&lbs=154&in=69&act=1.55&bf=22&f=1
you may want to focus on body recomp rather than losing weight0 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Buy a food scale, use it religiously. Reevaluate after 8 weeks.
Another vote for this.
You don't have much weight to lose, so you will be running a pretty small deficit to lose weight. When your deficit is that small, you need to be as accurate as possible. A digital food scale can help you do that.0 -
olegirl2000 wrote: »@nowine4me sleep? what's that? LOL. and i thought 1590 seemed low too, since I was so active and getting toned at 1800 cals last year. but that's with very aggressive goals I set using MFP app.
@Spliner1969, i will have to look more closely at my measurements.
when i think of things like grilled or steamed chicken, i consider it to be something like a palm sized portion.
i do log the red wine, as i know that's a huge calorie hog. i could drink in 1 setting more than half of my daily calorie requirement in wine. which only means, i just don't eat as much food that day. just kidding.
i do see where you are coming from, though.
just to clarify, i was logging my 1300/day calories in my fitbit app before switching to MFP.
and still having no success. any weight loss may have just been water weight.
thank you everyone.
You only want to lose @ 11 pounds, yes? With this little to lose, "very aggressive goals" may do you more harm than good once you get a food scale and start accurately logging your intake.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/
...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.
They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.
And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).
When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, let’s cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage... Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.1 -
@kshama2001 this was awesome insight. Everyone has offered wonderful wisdom. This wracks my brain.
It's exactly what I'm dealing with: Too much training and too little food and too little sleep. I need to boost the cortisol levels in a healthy way.
If my maintenance calories according to @deannalfisher is 2300, how in heaven's name can my an 800 cal deficit (at 1500) be any good ?
If I go down to an accurate 1700 or even 1800, would that be sufficient with properly weighing using a scale, of course?
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Have your doctor check your hormone levels. If that's not it look into a ketogenic diet, read the Obesity Code and rethink the whole CICO idea.
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OP, I'm a relatively lean person as well. I am also athletic in the sense that I train for power lifting. Weight loss is SLOW AF. Even slower than people who don't train and have those "last 5 lbs". Get a food scale, yes. But also be prepared to look in the mirror and have patience. Sometimes I'll notice I'm in a deficit not by what the scale is doing, but by how the skin looks around my arm pit (gets a little fleshy), or that my hip bones are sticking out more, or I get a little more vascular, lose .25 inch here or there...but the scale will barely be doing a thing.6
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Sleep.0
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This. Recently, I logged a St Viateur bagel. In the database, a sesame seed bagel was listed as 60 or so grams, but when I weighed the bagel, it was closer to 80g... big difference.CasperNaegle wrote: »I would highly recommend you weigh everything!! It is absolutely amazing how much you can be off, even pulling a bagel out of pre-packaged and using the single serving. Weigh it and compare to the grams in the serving size.
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