Struggling to lose 5 pounds for a month
azhoops101
Posts: 6 Member
Hey everyone,
I am 5'7", 148-150 pounds, 29 years old.
I got married 6 months ago and weighed 144 and I have been struggling to lose the weight I gained since then. The extra ~5 pounds has been a nightmare and felt in my clothes. In the past month, I have been eating healthy and working out like I did pre-wedding (with a little less excercise but enough where I should be losing at least a pound per week), and nothing. I have been weighing myself every other day to get some average, sometimes everyday in the morning, after doing my business and I don't understand how I am still averaging 148-150 after a month (and 2 months or so of this weight). The only loss has been .02% loss in body weight and even that went from 30% 6 months ago to 32+%
It's getting actually upset now and I am not even sure what to do. The next step is to basically go below my 1200 calorie intake per day to 1000 and workout even more.
Any insight, tips, or motivation would be great. I am really trying to get to as close to 144 as possible in 2 weeks for a friend's wedding and not even sure if my body will allow it.
I am 5'7", 148-150 pounds, 29 years old.
I got married 6 months ago and weighed 144 and I have been struggling to lose the weight I gained since then. The extra ~5 pounds has been a nightmare and felt in my clothes. In the past month, I have been eating healthy and working out like I did pre-wedding (with a little less excercise but enough where I should be losing at least a pound per week), and nothing. I have been weighing myself every other day to get some average, sometimes everyday in the morning, after doing my business and I don't understand how I am still averaging 148-150 after a month (and 2 months or so of this weight). The only loss has been .02% loss in body weight and even that went from 30% 6 months ago to 32+%
It's getting actually upset now and I am not even sure what to do. The next step is to basically go below my 1200 calorie intake per day to 1000 and workout even more.
Any insight, tips, or motivation would be great. I am really trying to get to as close to 144 as possible in 2 weeks for a friend's wedding and not even sure if my body will allow it.
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Replies
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Well, you are in a healthy weight, so you can't be overly aggressive with this. On top of that, if you are eating very low calories and exercising a lot, you are going to add additional stress on your body which can increase cortisol which can increase water retention. What you are much better off doing is setting a moderate weight loss goal (probably around 1600 calories), eating adequate protein (~120g per day) and following a good workout of both cardio and resistance training.
Now in the short term, to cut a few lbs, I'd go low carb or even keto. So eating 20 to 120g of carbs, eat adequate sodium 3000 to 5000mg, and a moderate deficit (~1500 calories). This will help you deplete glycogen and release water (thence the increase in sodium for electrolyte balance). Often people can lose 5 or so lbs by doing that.6 -
Do you log your food intake here on MFP? If so, how do you do it?
Your body allows you to lose weight, but you need to be in a consistent calorie deficit, and you need to log correctly to be sure you're in a calorie deficit, unless you're patient enough to wait until your bathroom scale tells you that you have been.1 -
I'd suggest being much more careful with calorie counting (consumed and burned), or seeing a doctor. At your size you would be losing weight on so few calories per day unless you have a medical condition that affects weight.
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Undereating and over exercising leads to elevated cortisol and weight gain...or a plateau. I would either up the calories to match the level of activity you do, or decrease exercise to walking or gentle yoga. This is how the body works. Like a seesaw. If you feed it well but allow a smaller deficit you will start losing weight. Also check out the post about refeeds and diet breaks: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks#latest1
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Undereating never leads to fat gain.6
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Undereating never leads to fat gain.
Yes you're right but only when you're not exercising as well. It does to a certain extent because it happened to me, to my aunty and my sister. Infact I've seen it happen a lot. When it's combined with vigorous exercise your body will hold onto every single pound of fat. On the other hand if you undereat with no exercise or very little exercise you will lose weight. It's about having a calorie deficit and a hormonal imbalance. I've met so many of my friends who hardly eat yet they slowly gain weight (high cortisol etc). This isn't a lie or some made up stuff. When you abuse your body it slowly shut down the reproductive organs, thyroid and adrenal glands to preserve the small amount of food that it is receiving. This happens slowly though, not overnight and it's not the typical starvation mode that people talk about. I hope i made sense...14 -
No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.7
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That happened to me..Only I found out I was expecting and didn't even know.3
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How are you measuring your CI? Are you weighing all of your food? How are you measuring calories burned? Can you open your diary?0
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suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Undereating never leads to fat gain.
Yes you're right but only when you're not exercising as well. It does to a certain extent because it happened to me, to my aunty and my sister. Infact I've seen it happen a lot. When it's combined with vigorous exercise your body will hold onto every single pound of fat. On the other hand if you undereat with no exercise or very little exercise you will lose weight. It's about having a calorie deficit and a hormonal imbalance. I've met so many of my friends who hardly eat yet they slowly gain weight (high cortisol etc). This isn't a lie or some made up stuff. When you abuse your body it slowly shut down the reproductive organs, thyroid and adrenal glands to preserve the small amount of food that it is receiving. This happens slowly though, not overnight and it's not the typical starvation mode that people talk about. I hope i made sense...
No it won't otherwise anorexics wouldn't be dying.
My close friend was an excersise obsessed anorexic....she never held on to fat. ..in fact she dieted down to 4.5 stone and was given the last rites. Edit. She's doing ok now but has been left with so many health issues including heart and bowel damage that her life could be massively shortened.
Im very sorry to hear about your friend. I think this article better explains what I meant.
http://revivestronger.com/2015/12/22/why-youre-gaining-weight-on/3 -
QUEENLOVEBUG wrote: »That happened to me..Only I found out I was expecting and didn't even know.
I thought of that too but nope. also I figure I would gain even more weight if that were the case.
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Now in the short term, to cut a few lbs, I'd go low carb or even keto. So eating 20 to 120g of carbs, eat adequate sodium 3000 to 5000mg, and a moderate deficit (~1500 calories). This will help you deplete glycogen and release water (thence the increase in sodium for electrolyte balance). Often people can lose 5 or so lbs by doing that.
What does 20-120 gram of carbs look like? would love an example of this diet.0 -
suzannesimmons3 wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Undereating never leads to fat gain.
Yes you're right but only when you're not exercising as well. It does to a certain extent because it happened to me, to my aunty and my sister. Infact I've seen it happen a lot. When it's combined with vigorous exercise your body will hold onto every single pound of fat. On the other hand if you undereat with no exercise or very little exercise you will lose weight. It's about having a calorie deficit and a hormonal imbalance. I've met so many of my friends who hardly eat yet they slowly gain weight (high cortisol etc). This isn't a lie or some made up stuff. When you abuse your body it slowly shut down the reproductive organs, thyroid and adrenal glands to preserve the small amount of food that it is receiving. This happens slowly though, not overnight and it's not the typical starvation mode that people talk about. I hope i made sense...
No it won't otherwise anorexics wouldn't be dying.
My close friend was an excersise obsessed anorexic....she never held on to fat. ..in fact she dieted down to 4.5 stone and was given the last rites. Edit. She's doing ok now but has been left with so many health issues including heart and bowel damage that her life could be massively shortened.
Im very sorry to hear about your friend. I think this article better explains what I meant.
http://revivestronger.com/2015/12/22/why-youre-gaining-weight-on/
What that is explaining is adaptive thermogenesis. It does not mean you can maintain or gain fat while in a calorie deficit.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673773/2 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.3 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.5 -
azhoops101 wrote: »QUEENLOVEBUG wrote: »That happened to me..Only I found out I was expecting and didn't even know.
I thought of that too but nope. also I figure I would gain even more weight if that were the case.
With only 5 lbs to lose, losing 1 lb per week isn't possible (per your first post). Also, if you were eating 1200 calories per day or less consistently you'd lose weight, so the numbers are off somewhere.2 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.
I'm not arguing against energy balance but it IS possible to gain weight on 1000 calories or less. I've done it myself! It's also about high cortisol too. Look you probably haven't been through this but I have so we will agree to disagree.4 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.
I'm not arguing against energy balance but it IS possible to gain weight on 1000 calories or less. I've done it myself! It's also about high cortisol too. Look you probably haven't been through this but I have so we will agree to disagree.
I'm not debating # of calories. I'm talking calorie deficit vs maintenance vs surplus. I'm talking about how the human body works.5 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.
I'm not arguing against energy balance but it IS possible to gain weight on 1000 calories or less. I've done it myself! It's also about high cortisol too. Look you probably haven't been through this but I have so we will agree to disagree.
I'm not debating # of calories. I'm talking calorie deficit vs maintenance vs surplus. I'm talking about how the human body works.
Yes it's when metabolism adapts to burning so few calories, there's high cortisol, the thyroid isn't working well and hormonal imbalance ensues. I'm also talking about the complex human organism. So in terms of Cico you're burning less calories than your consuming.1 -
azhoops101 wrote: »
Now in the short term, to cut a few lbs, I'd go low carb or even keto. So eating 20 to 120g of carbs, eat adequate sodium 3000 to 5000mg, and a moderate deficit (~1500 calories). This will help you deplete glycogen and release water (thence the increase in sodium for electrolyte balance). Often people can lose 5 or so lbs by doing that.
What does 20-120 gram of carbs look like? would love an example of this diet.
You would concentrate on full fat dairy, meats, oily fish, nuts (almonds), low gi fruits (berries) and non starchy greens.1 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.
I'm not arguing against energy balance but it IS possible to gain weight on 1000 calories or less. I've done it myself! It's also about high cortisol too. Look you probably haven't been through this but I have so we will agree to disagree.
I'm not debating # of calories. I'm talking calorie deficit vs maintenance vs surplus. I'm talking about how the human body works.
Yes it's when metabolism adapts to burning so few calories, there's high cortisol, the thyroid isn't working well and hormonal imbalance ensues. I'm also talking about the complex human organism. So in terms of Cico you're burning less calories than your consuming.
So, no holding on to fat or gaining fat when eating a calorie deficit. Not sure why you keep quoting me if you agree with me.1 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Need2Exerc1se wrote: »No, it makes no sense. You must have a calorie surplus to gain fat. A body only holds on to fat if there is not a calorie deficit.
You're saying it's all about energy balance yet the human body is a very, very complicated system. Calories in vs calories out is an oversimplification of the human body. Your metabolism adapts. Humans are not calculators. Calories in and calories out also means that the calories coming in are now higher than calories out. What we were maintaining on before has now come lower to the deficit number, especially in people closer to their weight. OP is not far off from her goal weight. It's much harder for leaner people to lose weight. Especially when you're cortisol is all elevated. You store everything as fat! Reverse dieting really helps as well as resistance training.
It is still all about energy balance. If I eat at a calorie deficit I will NOT store anything as fat.
I'm not arguing against energy balance but it IS possible to gain weight on 1000 calories or less. I've done it myself! It's also about high cortisol too. Look you probably haven't been through this but I have so we will agree to disagree.
I'm not debating # of calories. I'm talking calorie deficit vs maintenance vs surplus. I'm talking about how the human body works.
I think there is a bit of misunderstanding. There isn't denying that a deficit is needed to have weight loss, maintenance to maintain weight and surplus to gain. It's the effects of low calories, excessive exercise and leanness that has an effect on maintenance calories.
One of the biggest issues I see on MFP is the linear style thinking and unfortunately, in leaner people, things are far from linear. Even Menno Henselmans discusses it in some of his refeed discussions. For example, he maintains calories at 3k, but in order for him to lose 1 lb per week, he has to eat 1800 calories. Doesn't make sense does it? It's one reason some of his research is around adaptative thermogensis.2 -
Well hang in there. Stay accountable, tighten up where maybe you're losing some of your calorie count, and keep doing what you're doing. Sometimes weight loss shows up all at once, like this nothing ... nothing ... nothing ... a teeny-tiny bit ... WHOOSH 3.5 pounds gone!2
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azhoops101 wrote: »Hey everyone,
I am 5'7", 148-150 pounds, 29 years old.
I got married 6 months ago and weighed 144 and I have been struggling to lose the weight I gained since then. The extra ~5 pounds has been a nightmare and felt in my clothes. In the past month, I have been eating healthy and working out like I did pre-wedding (with a little less excercise but enough where I should be losing at least a pound per week), and nothing. I have been weighing myself every other day to get some average, sometimes everyday in the morning, after doing my business and I don't understand how I am still averaging 148-150 after a month (and 2 months or so of this weight). The only loss has been .02% loss in body weight and even that went from 30% 6 months ago to 32+%
It's getting actually upset now and I am not even sure what to do. The next step is to basically go below my 1200 calorie intake per day to 1000 and workout even more.
Any insight, tips, or motivation would be great. I am really trying to get to as close to 144 as possible in 2 weeks for a friend's wedding and not even sure if my body will allow it.
5 lbs is within the range of normal body weight fluctuations. You should be expecting to lose @ half a lb per week, and that small loss can very easily hide behind water weight and other random swings in your scale weight. You just need to keep doing the right thing and hope to see more consistent lower numbers i a couple of months.
If you aren't using a food scale, get one and start using it to log accurately and consistently. I also agree with an earlier post that mentioned the stress plus the life change could be causing you to hold onto some water weight.
What I really wanted to touch on was you saying the extra 5 lbs has "been a nightmare". You are a healthy weight, you are eating healthy and exercising, and you just got married. This is NOT something to stress out about. Your weight will fluctuate 5 lbs or more many times over the course of your life, often for no apparent reason. You will not look any different to anyone else in 2 weeks whether you are 148 lbs or 144 lbs. Take a deep breath. I'd suggest staying off the scale for a couple of months while you tighten up your measuring and logging. :drinker:6 -
In two weeks you might lose one or two pounds. At this point I would ignore the scale, relax and buy a new outfit for your friend's wedding that you're comfortable and confident in. Enjoy the party!0
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Hey stat twin! I'm 29, 5'7" and currently 150lbs. Hoping to get down to around 130lbs.
The key is simply tracking and keeping a good deficit. I stick around 1200-1400 calories every day and have been losing at a good pace since I buckled down on my tracking. Definitely use a digital food scale for everything but liquids.
I also practice IF to help me stick to my deficit. I generally skip breakfast, have a small lunch and a large dinner. The big filling dinner keeps me from feeling deprived.0 -
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