Weight Plateau Help - Increase Calories?
jodycreed
Posts: 8 Member
I currently weigh 440 lbs. I have been stuck at this weight for 2 weeks now. I am currently eating approx. 1200-1500 calories a day. When I started my weight loss journey I was losing about 2lbs a week. Not anymore. I am eating very clean: Lean meats and veggies and drinking 3-4 liters of water a day. Do I really need to increase my calories to lose more weight? It just seems counter intuitive to eat more. I figure the greater the deficit the better.
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Replies
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You don't have to eat or drink anything special, or starve yourself, but you do have to be patient and eat at a consistent calorie deficit. If you do that, you lose weight. Ignore weight fluctuations. Weigh all your food.3
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All of my food is weighed.1
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You won't lose more by eating more. Plateaus are normal and due to water retention.
1200-1500 seems very low for someone your size though.16 -
You're right, it is counterintuitive. Are you eating back your estimated exercise calories?
If so you may be overestimating the calories burned. If no, you may be retaining water. At your size, there is no possible way that a 1200-1500 calorie level daily would not force your body to turn to fat stores for energy. Trust the tried and true method of logging EVERYTHING you eat accurately and you will lose fat.3 -
2 weeks of no loss is not a plateau. Have patience.8
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I buy my meals from a local meal prep company. Only lean meats and veggies, and everything is logged into myfitnesspal. I really am logging everything. I just figure with what I am eating I should see more movement.1
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I buy my meals from a local meal prep company. Only lean meats and veggies, and everything is logged into myfitnesspal. I really am logging everything. I just figure with what I am eating I should see more movement.
Some weeks you will see a drop, some weeks stay the same and some weeks you will even see a gain. But if you compare month to month, looking longer term than 1-2 weeks: the trend will be downward from eating at a deficit.
The temporary stall is tied to weight. Could be due to hormones, sodium, stress, lack of sleep, doing more physical activity than normal and so forth. But water weight is temporary.4 -
I'd be pretty skeptical of the meal prep company. If you're 440 and eating 1200-1500 cals I would expect to see movement weekly. Idk tho, I know the heavier you are the more water you can hold too so maybe stick it out another couple weeks and see?1
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You're male and only eating 1200 calories?
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It's definitely not the meal prep company.0
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RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »You're male and only eating 1200 calories?
That is correct.0 -
Are you in a position yet where you are able to start increasing your daily activity in the house? And/or engage in joint friendly movement/exercise?0
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I had assumed female based on the 1200-1500 and name Jody. (Which can be male or female.)
Are you under a doctor's constant supervision for the very low calorie diet? The recommended safe MINIMUM for a male is 1500/day.2 -
I buy my meals from a local meal prep company. Only lean meats and veggies, and everything is logged into myfitnesspal. I really am logging everything. I just figure with what I am eating I should see more movement.
Are you logging here or someplace else? I see non-complete or no food logged days in your diary. If you aren't weighing everything you are eating you really should start doing so.
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If you are not being super active or burning anything more than just sitting I would definitely add that in and feel free to eat back what you burn. If you weigh 440 i wouldn't think your body should be in starvation mode, because there is plenty there to burn off and use. I also see people on weightloss shows who are at 1200 calories for months and they lose every month. So, i would say add in activity and lots of water.0
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StaciMarie1974 wrote: »I had assumed female based on the 1200-1500 and name Jody. (Which can be male or female.)
Are you under a doctor's constant supervision for the very low calorie diet? The recommended safe MINIMUM for a male is 1500/day.
I am a dude! (thanks mom)
No a doctor is not monitoring my calorie intake.0 -
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If you are 440 pounds and really only eating 1200 calories a day you would be losing weight. You are eating more than you think.4
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RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »You're male and only eating 1200 calories?
That is correct.
That is not sustainable. You will struggle to give your body what it needs and it will use your muscle as fuel making it harder to continue to lose weight.
The amount of fat you're eating is very low.4 -
http://eatmore2weighless.com/weight-loss-calculator/ Here you can Calculate what your burn and how many calories a day you should be eating to lose weight in a healthy way.
TDEE is Total Daily Energy Expediture - how many calories you use every day doing your normal routine with exercise
BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of Calories you need to just lay in bed and breathe.
I think you will find you are way under. You can eat more and healthier and lose weight.3 -
Interesting.0
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Excellent. Then BOTH eat more and move more.
You can safely tolerate a caloric deficit of 25%, possibly even slightly larger that 25% for short periods of time while you still have enough excess fat available to lose.
The more you move the higher your TDEE, the larger the 25% deficit becomes, while at the same time the more you can eat!
Win, Win, Win!
*as to the rest of it, based on your stats, your BMR, (what a hospital would feed you intravenously to make sure you would not "waste away" on them while being cared for in their facility while in a coma).... is just about 3,000 Cal.
Assuming that you are several standard deviations below the average and that you have been doing this for long enough to show some adaptation... let's knock 30% off! <-- this is an extreme number meant to take this analysis to the extreme. Most people are NOT several standard deviations away from the mean... by definition!
So, even if we call your BMR 2000 Cal (and note that a person showing a 30% adaptation would feel cold quite often when not moving (especially cold hands and feet and average core temp would be down), might often fall asleep after exertion, and would generally not be super energetic).... If you're only eating 1200 and assuming you're not in a coma, that is still such a sufficiently large deficit that you would be seeing almost continuous (daily) results not even requiring a trending weight app to observe.
Time to investigate what exactly is in the meals you're getting and whether their "as shipped" size matches their "advertised" size.
<note that a sedentary person with your stats, one who moves around no more than 35 to 45 minutes a day and takes not many more than 3500 steps in total during the day is expected to burn about 3600 calories. Increasing your activity to as much as 60 to 75 minutes a day (6000-7500 steps a day) bumps your TDEE up to ~4150 Calories. Note that a walking activity where you take ~100 steps a minute counts as moderate exercise.>
So I would strongly suggest that you
a) start eating more than 2000 Cal a day each and every day. it is ridiculous that you're trying to lose at 1200: you need to lose weight not become a martyr and you're learning nothing about how you will need to eat moving forward... or are you planning to maybe eat 1200 Cal for the rest of your life? 2700 Cal a day is a 25% cut off your expected TDEE and certainly the point you SHOULD be aiming for pending having accurate data that you're a(n unhappily) special snowflake.
b) start using a trending weight app if your weight loss is not fast enough to show to the naked eye.
c) make sure that there is no egregious underestimation of your calories in. Weigh some things. Make sure you know what goes in them. Double check the MFP entries that you use. Log carefully and fully: make it a rule that you have to log things before you even bite into them and avoid leaving yourself so hungry that you can't take the time to do so.
*** sodium or new exercise activities can temporarily make you retain water and increase your weight/mask the loss of weight. if either of the two applies to your situation... just wait things out.6 -
xchocolategirl wrote: »Interesting.
Are you saying that eat more to weigh less is interesting? I agree with you that it is! Or are you saying that the OP's case is interesting? @xchocolategirl I am curious to find out what you find interesting!
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@PAV8888- I find it interesting that you now find my post interesting!! The concept of eating more to lose weight does definitely sound interesting. It did seem like the Op was undereating for his height and weight, so you're rationale does sound legitimate. I also find his case interesting so yes a double wammy of interest hit my way, and I couldn't find enough words to describe how fascinating I thought it wasxchocolategirl wrote: »Interesting.
Are you saying that eat more to weigh less is interesting? I agree with you that it is! Or are you saying that the OP's case is interesting? @xchocolategirl I am curious to find out what you find interesting! 2 -
Can't put it any better than @PAV8888. If your goal is better health and sustainable weight loss (as opposed to dropping weight really fast, hurting your body possibly permanently, destroying your metabolism, and gaining it back, then starting over again), listen to the advice. Loss will be slower than starving yourself (the deficit you're describing is starving yourself), but it'll be much easier to maintain because you'll have more energy, a higher metabolism, and better habits that you can carry with you through maintenance. I've tried it both ways, though never nearly as drastic as your deficit. I gained the weight back every time I tried the huge deficit, and only in the last two years have I succeeded at keeping weight off and having the highest metabolism I've had since junior high. Not to mention, I actually came out of it with some muscle this time. It's a hard mentality "eat more to lose weight", but it's true, and it goes beyond the number on the scale.3
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If you are so anxious to increase something, increase exercise. Increasing calories won't make you lose weight.1
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At 440 I would make sure you're at the perfect amount of calories to lose weight at a slow and steady rate. This is for many reasons including health, but also so you don't end up with excessively saggy skin or the higher chances to gain it all back if too aggressive.
When you plug in your stats with a 2lb loss per week goal, what number does mfp give you? Stick to that, and try to move more. I love a good long walk.
As far as the 2 week stall, it could just be that next week you'll have a bigger drop. Be patient. Remember it's a marathon, not a sprint.0 -
Be patient.0
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It is very very rare for me to say anyone should eat more.
That said @ 440 even if you body fat percentage is 60% that would give you an estimated lean mass of 176 pounds. At .8 grams of protein per pound of lean mass you should target at least 140 g of protein a day to preserve muscle mass. Bumping that 1 g of protein per pound of lean mass wouldn't be a bad idea either to help with satiety; 176 g a day.
Does this meal company provide a macro breakdown of what they send you?
Don't know that you need to eat more, but weight loss isn't linear.
What really has me scratching my head is how little you have been losing (2 pounds a week) at that intake and weight.
You should have about a 14,000 calorie a week deficit using sedentary TDEE, or IOW 4 pounds a week.
So, yes, the meals your are receiving seem suspect.3 -
I'm in your diary. Are you using a food scale for non-packaged items? Are you eyeballing the sauces for the Primal meals, or are those pre-measured?
Jif Crunchy Peanut Butter - Peanut Butter, 1 Tbsp (32g)
Kraft - Sharp Shredded Cheese, 0.25 cup
Nathan's - Beef Hot Dog, 1 Hot Dog (no bun or condiments?)
Jason's Deli - Salmon Salad, 1 Salad (no dressing?)
Greenwise Publix - Organic Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds, 8 gram
Sara Lee - Cinnamon Raisin Toast, 2 slices (no butter?)
Veggie Egg White Omlet, 1 serving (no brand, no weight, no idea)
In the past 2 weeks there were 3 days with zero logging and even more days 1/2 logged (breakfast and lunch, no dinner, only 500 or so calories logged). Tighten up your logging and I have a feeling you're eating more thant 1,200 calories per day. Additionally, 2 weeks is not a plateau, although it is a good reason to tighten up on your logging.
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