Starting at same weight or plateauing

raybet50
raybet50 Posts: 1 Member
edited November 18 in Recipes
Staying inside calories range and when I close diary it says it says if I keep going I should be around 172 in 5 weeks. It's been 3 weeks and I've been at 182-184 pretty steady. Any suggestions.

Replies

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,230 Member
    Your diary isn't open but are you weighing you food? Ensuring accuracy? Double checking database entries?
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    Weigh food. It's so easy to be off.
  • VlpW
    VlpW Posts: 53 Member
    The same thing has been happening to me! I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone. I just bought a digital scale (which I love) and am being extremely careful to measure and level things perfectly that I don't weigh. I'm also trying to under report any exercise, steps, etc. a bit. Hopefully these things will help me get past this slump/plateau. Good luck!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    In general:

    1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

    2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

    3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

    4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

    5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

    6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

    7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

    8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

    9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    The message says "If every day were like today, in 5 weeks you will weigh x." It's a generalization because every day is not exactly like today. It just gives you an idea if you're on track, but it's not a guarantee or anything definite like that. It's like when the weather person says, "If it rains this much every day this month our state will become an ocean." LOL. Of course, that's now how it works.
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