Can someone look at my diary? 4 week Plateau :(

napilibay
napilibay Posts: 121 Member
edited November 15 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I'm 5'5, 157 female. I had been losing when I started my boxing class in December and eating about 1400 calories the days I worked out (5 days) . I burn on average 500 calories per work out based on my heart rate monitor. But I'm now on a 4 week Plateau so I assume it's my diet or my body too used to the workouts? Can someone take a look at my diary and offer any advice? Thanks

Replies

  • zheeduh
    zheeduh Posts: 25 Member
    edited February 2017
    Are you counting everything? Especially stuff like: mayo, ranch, oil (from cooking), alcohol... etc. can add up to a lot of missed calories.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    What is your workout/boxing frequency? How many times per week do you burn that 500 calories per?

    Your food choices over the few days look reasonable. There's no glaring clues about sloppy measuring. You appear to be using a scale.

    How does your Report for weight look? Is it basically a horizontal sawtooth pattern, or does it have pronounced hills and valleys such that one recent day happens to be the same as a day 4 weeks ago?
  • shoofly435
    shoofly435 Posts: 74 Member
    I know your diary is probably "open" but I don't see a way to see it?
  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
    You're eating more than you think you are. A lot of measurements in "cups" "slices" that kind of thing. It's not very accurate.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    mom22dogs wrote: »
    I see a lot of "1 apple" or "1 cup of this" or 1/2 cup of that". Do you actually weigh these things? That could account for 2-300 extra calories a day.

    This is an excellent point.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    Are you absolutely sure about that 500 calorie burn? How long is the workout and what does it involve? A lot of people seem to find heart rate monitors inaccurate unless they are set up absolutely correctly.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Also, you're not far off a healthy weight, if you're only weighing once a week you might be missing new lows. No harm in tightening up your logging though in the meantime.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    It's your food logging.

    Measuring by tbsp, cups and packaging servings is not accurate. You can be eating 300 calories more a day than you think. Take your bananas as example. Mine vary in calories by 50 each time, you log 44 calories every time. And the nut butter is even worse. How many nuts do you eat because 28g is only around 3 brazil nuts?

    Either buy a food scale or knock 50 calories a day off each week until you start losing.
  • TARGET65K
    TARGET65K Posts: 150 Member
    Hi napilibay I took a quick look at your Diary and wonder how can you fill in Tuesdays details before 6 am local time.
  • TARGET65K
    TARGET65K Posts: 150 Member
    OK thanks
  • Lolalikeslolagets
    Lolalikeslolagets Posts: 142 Member
    TARGET65K wrote: »
    OK thanks

    More people than you think are here from many parts of the world...
  • napilibay
    napilibay Posts: 121 Member
    TARGET65K wrote: »
    Hi napilibay I took a quick look at your Diary and wonder how can you fill in Tuesdays details before 6 am local time.

    Thank you, some days I pre track the night before so I know exactly what I'm eating that day.
  • napilibay
    napilibay Posts: 121 Member
    It's your food logging.

    Measuring by tbsp, cups and packaging servings is not accurate. You can be eating 300 calories more a day than you think. Take your bananas as example. Mine vary in calories by 50 each time, you log 44 calories every time. And the nut butter is even worse. How many nuts do you eat because 28g is only around 3 brazil nuts?

    Either buy a food scale or knock 50 calories a day off each week until you start losing.

    Thanks, as for nuts, I weigh those each time to the gram. As for cups and tbsp, I'll try to weigh those... Thanks
  • napilibay
    napilibay Posts: 121 Member
    Are you absolutely sure about that 500 calorie burn? How long is the workout and what does it involve? A lot of people seem to find heart rate monitors inaccurate unless they are set up absolutely correctly.

    I use a polar heart rate monitor with chest strap. Workouts are 60 min each and my burn ranges from 500-600.
  • napilibay
    napilibay Posts: 121 Member
    What is your workout/boxing frequency? How many times per week do you burn that 500 calories per?

    Your food choices over the few days look reasonable. There's no glaring clues about sloppy measuring. You appear to be using a scale.

    How does your Report for weight look? Is it basically a horizontal sawtooth pattern, or does it have pronounced hills and valleys such that one recent day happens to be the same as a day 4 weeks ago?

    4x week I burn around 500-550 for 60 minutes. There's a 75 minute class where I can burn over 700. I've been weighing daily lately and it fluctuates a half pound to a pound daily. Thanks
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Looking at your logs:

    You're not eating 100% of your exercise calories, so even if the calorie burn is inflated you're covering that.

    Improve accuracy in your logging and give it more time. Food scale for everything solid. Estimating and cups can lead to +50 cals here, +75 there and that can add up to eating at maintenance. I suspect though that in the next 1, 2 weeks you'll see a drop. That its just some temporary water weight giving you issues.

    Be sure to keep your weighins in the same format. Meaning same time of day, some level of clothing, etc. Never compare a 2pm weighin one week to a 7am weighin the next week for example. And make sure your scale has fresh batteries if its been a while since you've changed them.
  • With really intense workouts you are most likely changing in physical size rather than seeing the scale drop. How about measuring, and taking pictures to see if things aren't really "changing"... You can still weigh every day of course.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    I can't see your diary but 99% of the plateau issues I've seen are due to logging problems. Definitely work on getting your logging accurate. Food scale for ALL solids. Measuring cups/spoons for all liquids. Use the recipe builder, use accurate entries, be careful with the exercise calories, log every single thing that passes your lips. Good luck! Sounds like with a little tweaking of your logging you'll be doing great!
  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
    TARGET65K wrote: »
    Hi napilibay I took a quick look at your Diary and wonder how can you fill in Tuesdays details before 6 am local time.

    I fill in a whole WEEK in advance. Pre-logging helps me keep on track. "No, I'm going to have what I planned, I already logged it. No, I'm not going through the drive-thru today, I will go home and eat that pre-logged meal."
  • napilibay
    napilibay Posts: 121 Member
    With really intense workouts you are most likely changing in physical size rather than seeing the scale drop. How about measuring, and taking pictures to see if things aren't really "changing"... You can still weigh every day of course.

    Hi yes you're right I've lost a lot of inches but I need to get rid of weight too :)
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    emilk2016 wrote: »
    TARGET65K wrote: »
    OK thanks

    More people than you think are here from many parts of the world...

    Correct, it's 10am Tuesday morning here in Australia. It's still Monday in most parts of the world.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Your diary is closed.

    If your period is due soon, you might just be retaining water.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    If you're fitting into smaller clothes/losing inches: then you are losing fat. Sounds like an increase in water weight is masking the results on the scale. Drink plenty of water to offset high sodium, and be patient. If the water weight is from TOM/hormones or muscle fatigue it will pass soon.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,944 Member
    Have you adjusted your heartrate meter for your specific maximum heartrate? If not your measurements are likely very off. I do work out a lot, but honestly, there's no way I could burn 500-700kcal in a one-hour workout, and you are not really heavy. Say your maximum heartrate is higher than what your watch uses as standard then your calorie measurements will be higher as your heartrate is higher than expected. Makes sense?

    Also, if you're not doing steady state cardio (run at same speed for example) then your measurements are likely too high as well. Imagine you lift up a heavy weight 5 times. Your heartrate shoots up. You finish your exercise and rest for a moment but your heartrate is still high and needs a while to decrease. Thus while you burn no extra calories your heartrate meter still measures those.
This discussion has been closed.