Stuck in a Rut

arbaughbethany
arbaughbethany Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm having difficulty loosing weight and keeping up energy. I've been working out for almost a year now, 5-6 days a week, and have lost 52lbs. I am currently running 3 miles in 38 minutes then I walk till I hit 50 minutes of cardio, do 15 minutes of core strengthening everyday and then do strength training on the body part of the day. I'm 5'2", 21 years old, female, and 232lbs. Eat 1300-1600 calories. Yet there has no change weight wise and I feel like I lack energy. Any advice to help me out?

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    How are you measuring your calorie intake? How are you measuring your exercise calories and how much, if any, of them do you eat back?
  • arbaughbethany
    arbaughbethany Posts: 3 Member
    I track how much I burn through my Fitbit based on my heart rate and I make sure to only eat when I'm hungry. So if I'm at 1300, my decided calorie intake on myfitnesspal, I will sometimes eat up to 1600 but not often.
  • DebLaBounty
    DebLaBounty Posts: 1,169 Member
    Well, all that exercise and not much food = fatigue. My advice: go to your doctor. Maybe you'll get some pointers. Sounds like you need a check-up.
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    What about 3 days of lifting (full body) and 3 days of cardio?

    Are you using a food scale? Eating only to hunger is a double edged sword as that's how we got here.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    arbaughbethany wrote: »
    I track how much I burn through my Fitbit based on my heart rate and I make sure to only eat when I'm hungry. So if I'm at 1300, my decided calorie intake on myfitnesspal, I will sometimes eat up to 1600 but not often.

    The Fitbit could be an issue, as the HR feature is best used with steady state cardio and is less accurate for lifting. But how do you actually measure your food intake? Food scale? Measuring cups? Eyeballing portions? If you aren't losing, you're likely eating more than you think.
  • DamieBird
    DamieBird Posts: 651 Member
    52 pounds in a year is awesome!! How long have you been not seeing a loss? Are you getting plenty of sleep/rest? If you've been at this for so long, you may just need a break for a week. Your body needs time to recover, although it doesn't *seem* like you're doing too much - if you're feeling excess fatigue, it may be.

    At your current weight, you should absolutely be losing on 1300-1600, so I echo what other have posted regarding accurate intake. You're probably consuming more than you realize.
  • arbaughbethany
    arbaughbethany Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you everyone!! I'll have to be careful about my intake, as I don't have a proper way of measuring them. I appreciate all the advice
  • rmgnow
    rmgnow Posts: 375 Member
    First of all congrats on losing over 50 lbs that's great.
    I usually use the Exercise selection in the MFP app and stay on the conservative side.
    I personally think you should probably be at 2000 Cal's with all the workouts that you do.
  • tiffaninghs
    tiffaninghs Posts: 200 Member
    i speak from experience.. its time to get weights incorporated.. start lifting heavy and you'' see the change.. i swear by it!!! cardio only does so much
  • bodybuildchic32
    bodybuildchic32 Posts: 9 Member
    Cardio requires higher carb ratio (unless you are functioning on a keto diet..)to maintain energy...which is fine...leaner look. Also make sure diet wise you are getting enough iron..women easily lack and vegetarians must be vigilant...and see that you dont deplete electrolites without putting back with cardio...don't go low sodium, etc. Trip to the dr can reassure you from usual blood work. Boredome/depression can zap you too...mental check...stress? Let working out be natural as you can/not forced. Changes keep it fresh! Try Hiit sprint/jog/walk type stuff the 3 miles, etc.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    arbaughbethany wrote: »
    Thank you everyone!! I'll have to be careful about my intake, as I don't have a proper way of measuring them. I appreciate all the advice

    But you can't be careful about your intake when you don't have a proper way of monitoring it. Get a food scale and log accurately. You will lose weight if your intake averages to 1600 real calories.
  • cryngen
    cryngen Posts: 9 Member
    I was having sorta the same problem. I lost 15 pounds and would work out twice a day. I would power walk in the morning for an hour then zumba/kickboxing everyday. I was so tired and in a bad always from being so fatigued. I went to a nutritionist and she gave me a high protein diet , I has trouble with this since it uped my calorie intake but 200-400 calories. But after a week itnwas down a pound and it kept going.
    My point is, maybe you need some protein .
  • EJBarner
    EJBarner Posts: 68 Member
    First of all, congratulations on your weight loss! 52lbs is a major achievement and you should be proud of yourself.

    Secondly, I'm going to echo a few other people have said here and emphasize the importance of accurately logging your food rather than estimating what you're consuming. A food scale shouldn't run you much more than $15, and a set of measuring cups and teaspoons would be an inexpensive and fantastic addition to your kitchen. I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a piece of chicken and thought ' that can't be more than 120 grams' -- only to measure it and realize it's almost 190! That kind of difference between perceived calories and real calories can really set you back and undermine the hard work you've been doing at the gym.

    I'll admit that I'm not always the best with precise measurements for vegetables (something I personally need to improve on), but things like pasta and cheese and beans and bread etc really do need to be weighed to give you a real idea of what you're eating. It may seem like an unnecessary expense or fuss, but getting a concrete idea of what you're actually eating is probably the best thing you can do for your weight loss journey right now.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    edited July 2017
    I'm not sure how long it has been since you have lost weight? If its been a week or two, you may just need a little patience. But it would never hurt to improve your accuracy.

    Ways to improve your logging accuracy:

    Food scale, use it for all solids. Even for single serve items like pieces of bread, fruit.

    Don't forget to account for cooking oils, condiments, beverages.

    If you tend to taste food while cooking, or have a bite of this, taste of that: try to change those habits.

    Avoid eating out. While there is nothing wrong with eating out, when you eat food prepared by someone else you have no way of knowing what goes into it. Even at restaurants that publish their nutritional data, you would not know if the chef is heavy handed with cooking oils, portions.

    Avoid eating food prepared by other people. Same reasoning as eating out. You simply do not know...

    In situations where you do not have control, avoid heavy sauces or food cooked in oil. Keep your portions small especially on higher calorie items. Ask questions at restaurants or when eating w/ friends/family about how food is prepared.

    For food logging, enter your own recipes using the Recipe Builder. Instead of logging from recipes in the database. You really can't know how the ingredients, portions, or calories in your Homemade Chili compare to My Homemade Chili.

    Double check the database entries. As the database is user generated, and people make mistakes, there can be errors. Compare the stats to what you know to be true from a resource like the USDA website.

    Realize that nutriton labels can be wrong. This is one area that a food scale is useful. The bread for my sandwich says 1 serving = 2 slices, 52 grams, 110 calories. The 110 calories is accurate for 52 grams but when I weigh 2 slices: it tends to be 57-60 grams.

    When logging make sure your food matches the entry. If you weigh your chicken breast raw, then use a raw chicken breast entry. Cooking changes the weight of an item as moisture cooks out. But unless you add oils or other ingredients, then cooking alone would not change the calories.

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