Need help with 2 year plateau

Serafimangel · February 2017

Hello everyone!

I have been lurking on mfp for 4-5 years (I think) and I have a problem, I struggle a lot to lose weight, and for the past 2 years, nothing at all has fallen off. I have shaken up my workouts, and I am getting worried as I have dropped to an average of about 1350 a day, I know that for a female who is 5ft9 and about 155-160lbs this is unhealthy, but it feel like nothing else is working and I'm getting scared I'm going to wreck my metabolism on such a low number. Before I was on 1700 average, then 1550 and still nothing has dropped. I'm at the end of my tether and don't know what else to do.

I weigh everything, we only go out to eat once a month so I'm not vastly under/overestimating calories (I do all the cooking) and I have a polar watch hrm for workouts. I just don't know what else to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

kommodevaran · February 2017

Are you logging everything too, and using correct entries? Are you eating back exercise calories?

Anyway, you can relax about "wrecking your metabolism". That's what happens to Biggest Loser type dieters, who undereat and overtrain and lose a lot of weight in a too short time. Not to ordinary dieters, and certainly not to dieters who don't lose weight.

Serafimangel · February 2017

I am logging food, I use the polar app more for exercises as its automatic and I can check between the two easily ( I usually put the polar info into mfp a couple of times a week). I don't eat back exercise calories.

kommodevaran · February 2017

Are you weighing and logging everything? Sauces, oils, drinks, licks, tastes and bites? Are you using entres that have the same values as the foods you are eating?

Serafimangel · February 2017

Yep, I use spray oil, non stick pans and weigh and log butter when I use that. I only drink green tea or ginger tea or peppermint (etc) if I have a cappuccino I log it (once a week max) and helpfully the place I get my groceries has all their nutritional info online so I can get it there if I've chucked the packet out. I weight everything. If I'm splitting food with my bf then I have half or if it's pasta I weigh mine and do it in a different pot.

Serafimangel · February 2017

The weighing food thing I've been doing for 5+ years, and it worked for the first three, that's why I'm so baffled it just stopped working two years ago. I haven't put on any weight, logically dropping my daily average should be working?

kommodevaran · February 2017

If you are maintaining weight (which it seems you are), you just have to drop your intake from what you are eating now. A daily deficit of 500 calories will lead to an average weekly loss of about a pound.

StealthHealth · February 2017

26YO female, 5'9" weight 160lb = healthy "normal" BMI.

On that basis you need to understand that:

Progress will be glacial
You need to be honest and realistic as to your current status - do you really need to lose weight? (I understand that this decision is a personal choice)

My advice would be, stop focusing on scale weight and instead focus and a fitness related goal - Run faster or further, swim faster, lift more, whatever floats your boat. You may well find that as you focus on performance, your body will change accordingly - Form following function in action.

Serafimangel · February 2017

Thanks for your replies

My boyfriend loves my body and everyone thinks it is fine, I used to be anorexic so this mindset has stuck with me to an extent, I have tried changing my workouts (more weights and Pilates to be stronger and more flexible) along with cardio and have tried to recondition my body. I just can't help wanting to shift a few extra pounds because being 5ft9 I feel bigger than all the girls in my work anyway and it just wears me down feeling taller and heavier.

tomteboda · February 2017

I'm not going to say you couldn't lose a few pounds and be healthy.

But

I am going to say this, as someone who shares a disordered eating past, that your story has lots of red flags about eating disorder re-emergence.

I know exactly where you're coming from. I'm 5'9" and 160 lbs. When I look at my body, I'm mostly OK with it, but I can see... Things. That I could become obsessed about, that are tempting to let myself drive me crazy about.

I refuse to listen to that voice, the one that says "if only you lost another 10, 15, 20 lbs" . That's the voice that made me so miserable at 19, that led me into a lot of bad decisions. That's the voice that made me doubt my self worth and submerge what was important to me.

You are eating very little food, and you know it. If you are being 100% honest with yourself about logging, it's time to visit your doctor.

And regardless of the outcome of that, it might be time to reconnect with the support that helped you fight anorexia before. Or find a new psychiatrist or counselor or nutritionist, someone who will always advocate to you with truth, someone who is not listening to that voice that seduces people like you and I. Because I think maybe that voice is insidiously whispering at you again.

I wish you the best!

Need help with 2 year plateau

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