Those last 5 pounds

hsiino · March 2018

Hey all- I’ve been tracking what I eat for about a year now- recently switched from another app to MFP bc I was worried I wasn’t eating enough calories. I’ve plateaued since the holidays and keep gaining and losing the same few pounds.
Almost all of my workouts/runs are early morning before work. Then I eat breakfast and pack lunch. I feel like I’m in a rut and wonder if maybe I’m not eating my calories properly. Breakfast is usually the smallest calorie meal of the day. Would it make any difference if I switched that up? What’s your typical calorie breakdown for meals?
Thanks so much!

RecognitionT · March 2018

Small breakfast, small to medium-sized lunch, save the majority of my calories for night.

The worst feeling in the world is it being 6 PM and out of calories for the day, even though you're only going to sleep 6-8 hours from then.

glassyo · March 2018

Meal timing doesn't have much to do with weight loss. Have you recalculated your calories since you've lost weight? How precise is your food logging? Are you weighing your food and logging by the gram or using general weights/sizes/measuring cups and spoons? How are you calculating your exercise calorie burn?

I spent a year gaining and losing the same pound even when I was in a 3500 calorie a week deficit. It turned out my replacement fitbit over estimated my exercise calories (and I did A LOT of purposeful exercise so that added up).

And to actually answer the question, I don't eat meals in the traditional sense. I have a bit of turkey jerky early afternoon, some shredded chicken or a tuna pouch late afternoon, some pistachios while doing a walking dvd later that night, and then the rest of my calories (a whole hodge podge of different foods) in the hour and a half before bed. Those calories usually run into the 2000s.

Ooooooh, also, everyone says those last few pounds are hard to get off which is why food logging should be extra precise.

malibu927 · March 2018

Meal breakdown is a personal preference. Some do best eating more early, others later.

That said, you didn't stop losing because you weren't eating enough. With five pounds to lose you don't have room for error, so your logging has to be as tight as possible.

hsiino · March 2018

Thanks everyone! I greatly appreciate you taking your time to answer me:)

LivingtheLeanDream · March 2018

You're eating at maintenance calories basically. To lose those last pounds it takes being really vigilent at logging calories, for me it took cutting out an extra snack that had snuck into my diet. That saved me around 250 cals a day and got the scale moving again.

My meal calories at maintenance look like this:
Small breakfast: 250 cals
Mid morning snack: 200 cals
Lunch 500
Dinner 600-700
evening snack 150-250

Maxxitt · March 2018

While "meal timing" doesn't seem to matter much, switching up a pattern that isn't getting you where you want to go is helpful. It may be that your non-exercise activity has slowed down a bit (mine has, thank you cold weather and icy sidewalks) and bumping that up will help.

steveko89 · March 2018

As others said, your margin for error is razor thin with only a few pounds to lose. Somewhat of the same point personally (6'1" male, 172lbs, ~12-13% bodyfat by most methods, trying to get leaner on a slow cut/recomp) and any time I stall it's either because I've let my calories creep up or gotten lazy with my logging (and calories have krept up that way).

JennJ323 · March 2018

Breakfast: 100-300
Lunch: 300-500
Dinner: 500-700
Snacks: 100-300

I aim for 1200 a day (usually add an extra 200 for exercise)

hsiino · March 2018

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

You're eating at maintenance calories basically. To lose those last pounds it takes being really vigilent at logging calories, for me it took cutting out an extra snack that had snuck into my diet. That saved me around 250 cals a day and got the scale moving again.

My meal calories at maintenance look like this:
Small breakfast: 250 cals
Mid morning snack: 200 cals
Lunch 500
Dinner 600-700
evening snack 150-250

This was exactly what I was looking for- thank you!

hsiino · March 2018

JennJ323 wrote: »

Breakfast: 100-300
Lunch: 300-500
Dinner: 500-700
Snacks: 100-300

I aim for 1200 a day (usually add an extra 200 for exercise)

Thank you so much! Hoping making a few minor adjustments will be all I need! My biggest problem is snacking and seeing how few calories I should be eating for snacks really helped it hit home! Thanks again!

hsiino · March 2018

Maxxitt wrote: »

While "meal timing" doesn't seem to matter much, switching up a pattern that isn't getting you where you want to go is helpful. It may be that your non-exercise activity has slowed down a bit (mine has, thank you cold weather and icy sidewalks) and bumping that up will help.

I usually run 4-5 days a week with runs ranging from 5 miles to 12 miles. My down days I should not be eating as many calories as the days I’m active, I get that:) I will definitely keep closer tabs on tracking and try switching up a few activities- thank you:)

fb47 · March 2018

Have you done a diet break? On my last cutting phase, I was stuck at 158-160 lbs, I was already lean at that point. But as a challenge, I wanted to be at 155 lbs. So I went on a diet break (stayed for 2 weeks near maintenance) and lost those 5 lbs with ease.... I was probably holding on to too much water or something.

bodylicious01 · March 2018

I'm on the same boat. Im 9 months pp, and I have jist a few more lbs to go for my goal weight but I can't seem to shake those off. I work out, ear healthy drink alot of water and they are still there lol.. I thinj I need to do more cardio

nowine4me · March 2018

When I need to cut a few pounds, I skip breakfast. Call it IF if you wish, but it saves me about 250 cals per day. Once I’m back in range, I add breakfast back in.

Those last 5 pounds

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