Help me through the dreaded plateu!

bad_dog_ny · June 2017

Okay, so I've lost a little over 70 lbs and have about 70 to go. This is the first week that I have stalled on my weight loss. I had been averaging three to four pounds per week, which I know is high.

A little background: male; 51 years old; a variety of health problems that come with being obese. I have been keeping track of my calorie intake very strictly. I have also adjusted my calories downward using the profile section of mfp. I lost the first 20 lbs on my own, and then started food journaling again. Initially MFP suggested 1840 calories per day. That was assuming a low activity rate, and I add in "earned" exercise calories. 90% of days I do not eat any exercise calories back. Most other days I eat only a few.

I go to the gym almost every single day. I do strength training every other day, and some cardio everyday. While mfp does not count calories from strength training, my cardio routines are usually between 700 and 900 calories burned. I have also adjusted my base calories down using MFP, and I am now at a base of 1600 calories a day.

So I have a few questions. Am I exercising too much? I very rarely take a day off. However, there are days when I go in and I do NOT do a heavy cardio or strength training. I will get on the treadmill at a moderate speed that does not really pump my heart rate too much and just walk for 45 minutes to burn some calories. For example, yesterday I did my leg routine and shoulders for strength, and I was going to take it easy on cardio but I just felt like doing some HIIT on the treadmill. So I got on the treadmill and once I got up to my walking speed and incline I did intervals of jogging and walking. Legs are a touch sore today, but rather than blow off the gym completely I will go in and just walk on the treadmill at a moderate pace that only gets my heart rate up to about 120. An easy to maintain casual stroll that's still burns about 700 calories. I probably won't eat any of those back, or less than 100 of them just to top off a snack or something.

On my diet I eat almost anything I want, but because I am counting calories I do make better choices. Occasionally though, you just want those potato chips. That's ok as long as they're in my calorie budget and I've eaten enough protein. So I don't really deprive myself of anything, but I still measure and count it all very strictly.

Now, as I have said, I have adjusted my calorie intake down to reflect my lower weight. Despite being very strict on my logging, and rarely eating back any of my exercise calories, my weight loss stalled this week. It could just be a little water retention, or a little muscle growth as I did change up my strength and HIIT routines, or both. Maybe those changes are not a coincidence. Honestly, my legs have been sore a few times over the last week from the new HIIT routines. Not injury sore, just normal DOMS from hard work. That's why today (as I did a couple of other days this past week) I'm only going to walk at a moderate pace mostly for calorie burn not for cardio. I understand that you shouldn't do strength training everyday, but I always thought cardio everyday was considered healthy. I would call my moderate walk light cardio, it gets my heart rate up a little but not really crazy, and it's not at a pace that is it all stressful to maintain. It's just a light moderately fast walk at a moderate incline, what we were designed to do. But it's a moderate level of activity because otherwise my lifestyle is pretty much sedentary.

So, I'm at this plateau. Should I just keep doing what I'm doing or change things up again? I don't think my metabolism would kick down from the number of calories I'm eating. 1600 day should not ever send you into starvation mode even if you are exercising quite a bit. It's a reasonable number of calories. If my base ever drops below 1200, I will start eating back more of my exercise calories. Yesterday I did eat back about 600 of my 800 exercise calories. It almost felt like a party, LOL.

Any suggestions? Maybe just give it another week and see if the Dam breaks? Any suggestions or motivation is welcome. I'm not going to change much right now, except maybe try not to eat as much late at night. I can't help it, I save some calories for a late snack. I have always heard that is bad, should I cut it out? It really seems to help me, I seem to get hungrier later in the day so rather than fight my natural inclinations I just offset time and keep my total per day below the set threshold. It has worked really well so far, and I don't see how this one habit would cause a plateau. Like I said, maybe the stall is just some water retention and some muscle growth from the new exercise routine.

katricianutting586 · June 2017

Everything takes time. You can do this! Studies say you shouldn't eat 4 hours before going to bed. Pineapple and celery are super foods to eat because they are mostly water and eat body fat. I do the elliptical which Is what I feel as the death of me but has helped me out. I dont really know what else. Maybe talk to a personal trainer at your gym and see if they have recommendations for you to try! Keep going strong!

malibu927 · June 2017

A week without losing is not a plateau. Weight loss is not linear. But you do need to eat more for your health. Start eating enough of your exercise calories back to get you to 1500 net calories. If you're still losing quicker than expected, eat them up to your goal.

katricianutting586 wrote: »

Studies say you shouldn't eat 4 hours before going to bed.

Some people need to cut off eating so they can sleep, but for the most part meal timing is irrelevant to weight loss. I usually eat dinner 3-4 hours before bed and still have dessert in that time frame.

bad_dog_ny · June 2017

Like I said, it's just one week so maybe I'm overreacting. And my base calories right now, as I said, are at 1600. I have generally been eating between 1500 and 1700 a day. That is why I occasionally I do dip into a few of my exercise calories. If my base ever drops below a certain amount I will probably eat back more of my exercise calories. I have heard that you should never consume less than 1200 calories per day. But it is difficult to put in so much time and effort and not see any result. I spend one to two hours a day on the gym visit, once you count the short drive there and the time in the locker room, etc. And when I say I logged, I have a very accurate food scale. If I grab a handful of strawberries, cut them up and throw them in my cereal bowl, and add the exact number of grams to my log. So while I have strawberries in my recent Foods to select, I go in and I adjust the serving. So if what I grabbed happens to be 142 grams, I go in and change the serving to 1.42 of a 100g serving. The scale allows me to zero out between each ingredient, so I just keep my dry erase board going and write down each meal as I prepare it to the gram. And yes, the scale is really accurate, I tested it with calibration weights I borrowed. A 10 gram weight weighed 10 grams, a hundred gram weight weighs 100, and the kilogram weighed exactly a kilogram. I was actually quite impressed that it was so accurate, lol. I also go in and adjust my recipes in a similar way. When you're making a stir fry you don't necessarily add the exact same amount of each ingredient. So as I cut up my vegetables I keep a list going of how many grams of each went into the bowl. Then I just open up the recipe and adjust the amounts. If I decided not to use an ingredient or I was out, I don't delete it from the recipe but I make serving size .01... it won't allow zero, but one one hundredth of a serving is functionally zero. Something else I do, I have a recipe for cubed grilled chicken. I trim and weigh the chicken breast as it goes in, Grill it up in the pan with a very little bit of oil and appropriate spices, and then weigh it again when it's done and cooled just a little bit. I divide I into equal servings and put it into cheap Ziplock bags as individual servings and throw them in the freezer. I set the recipe for grilled cubed chicken to whatever the input and the result was, then I can just grab a bag of chicken out of the freezer stick it in a bowl and microwave it and throw it on top of the salad or in whatever recipe and log it quickly. Whatever my current grilled cubed chicken recipe has as the nutrition content for one serving matches whatever is coming out of the freezer at that time. Convenient fast lean protein. This is just to give an idea of how accurately and diligently I log everything that passes through my lips. It is also part of the effort, and part of the time invested in this journey.

malibu927 · June 2017

1200 is the minimum calories for females; for men it's 1500.

And yes, you're overreacting. Take a look at this thread that explains everything. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear

bad_dog_ny · June 2017

Thanks for the link. And I do know all this. I think people who have battled weight are often very cognizant of basic nutrition and exercise rules as well. Sometimes we don't follow them, but we have studied them. LOL.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · June 2017

katricianutting586 wrote: »

Everything takes time. You can do this! Studies say you shouldn't eat 4 hours before going to bed. Pineapple and celery are super foods to eat because they are mostly water and eat body fat. I do the elliptical which Is what I feel as the death of me but has helped me out. I dont really know what else. Maybe talk to a personal trainer at your gym and see if they have recommendations for you to try! Keep going strong!

pineapple and celery do NOT eat body fat. you burn/lose body fat in a deficit. there are no foods that burn fat. old myth

bad_dog_ny · June 2017

I know there are no Miracle foods that burn body fat. Although I did read once that raw celery when eaten properly actually does burn more calories than it provides. You have to chew so much that it is a net zero to negative result. But we are talking like if you chewed an entire head of celery, you might end up with a -10 calorie count, LOL. Pineapple, however, is very high in sugar and does not burn fat. It is delicious, and may satisfy other cravings and prevent you from eating something worse.

CharlieBeansmomTracey · June 2017

bad_dog_ny wrote: »

I know there are no Miracle foods that burn body fat. Although I did read once that raw celery when eaten properly actually does burn more calories than it provides. You have to chew so much that it is a net zero to negative result. But we are talking like if you chewed an entire head of celery, you might end up with a -10 calorie count, LOL. Pineapple, however, is very high in sugar and does not burn fat. It is delicious, and may satisfy other cravings and prevent you from eating something worse.

Im glad you know that I was just clearing up what the other person was stating. it does have an enzyme that helps break down food though and it can be a great meat tenderizer.

Help me through the dreaded plateu!

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