plateau help - hypothyroid - I am getting SO frustrated.

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Can anyone help me figure out if I am doing something wrong here? I weigh my food, count and log everything obsessively. I found out a few weeks ago I have hypothyroid and I am waiting to get my prescription, but in the meantime, I feel like I should still be losing SOMETHING- not sticking at EXACTLY the same weight for months. .. even if I am retaining water, it does not make sense that if I lost some weight, my body would continually compensate by adding the perfect amount of excess water to make my weight appear the same? that makes no sense.
but clearly I am doing SOMETHING wrong.
(history- I have lost weight successfully 3x using calorie counting/MFP- for my wedding I went from 136 to 117- after my first child I went from 145 to 125 and after my second child I went from 170 to 125- so I am very familiar with how my body usually handles exercise and dieting for weight loss- having done this successfully 3 times before.. I am SO frustrated that my usual methods are not working AT ALL)
Can hypothyroid REALLY be putting a COMPLETE STOP to my weight loss when I am only eating 1200??
I have read all about how the "starvation mode" is a myth, but I am always eating right around 1200 cals a day - unless MDF adjusts WAY up for exercise, when I do eat back some of the calories - but even then, I never eat back ALL my exercise cals. I mean.. based on simple math of calories in and calories out, I should be losing SOMETHING, but I have weighed the same for over 2 months now. I screen capped my net calories and attached it at the top of this post (if images work on here) - so is there something off? Should I be eating less than 1200?
I have tried the 2/5 fasting method for a two weeks and had no result (eating 500 cals two days a week and 1200-ish the rest of the week)
I have tried sticking like glue to 1200 for a couple weeks- no result
I have tried reduced salt in my diet and drinking distilled water only for a week- to flush salt from my system - no result
I have tried upping my cals to 1800 for 3 days and then dropping back down to 1200- no result.
I am 5'3" 151lbs. I do strength training and I run 3 mile speed drills once a week and long distance run training once a week (8-12 miles)
what else can I try? is there a specific type of foods I should eat? do I need to eat 800 cals??? Should I just eat "maintenance" until I get my hypothyroid meds? and then start again when my hormones start balancing out? because, right now, weight loss and diet are ALL I can think about. Focusing THIS long on something and not seeing a result is frustrating and depressing.
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Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,907 Member
    Well if you have untreated hypothyroid, you need to get on that prescription.

    It's five dollars a month even if you have to pay out of pocket...why haven't you started on the medication? Surely if you are diagnosed, your health team has prescribed.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Log everything, every day, as accurately as possible.

    Also for the record, if you do 5:2, the five non-fasting days are meant to be at maintenance.
  • drockncrisso
    drockncrisso Posts: 49 Member
    A lot of the blank days are days where I have a negative net calories - like may 12, I ran 13.1 miles, burned 3700 for the day, but ate 2200 so I had a 1500 negative net calories according to Fitbit and MFD. So any Sunday (saturday in the case of that race) day would be that type of blank day. There are occasional blank days when I eat the same thing over and over, that I don't log, because I ate that same food the day before and know that it is going to be the same 1200 as the day before. the non-logged days are not over eating days. The only days I went over calorie-wise are logged and you can see how they go above the red line.
    note the two images on may 12- you can see I ate plenty of cals- but my net cals are blank:
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    s0w2hm8d01a2.png

    As for my prescription- it DOES take weeks to get it. I went to the MD weeks ago, got my blood tested, got results and as of today I am still waiting for EXPRESS-SCRIPTs to deliver my prescription- they apparently just shipped it today. They took over a week just to process it. I wish I could have just gone to a pharmacy, but they didn't tell me I could simply pick up my first supply at participating walgreens until the last time I called them frustrated wondering WHY they had not processed it yet.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    A lot of the blank days are days where I have a negative net calories - like may 12, I ran 13.1 miles, burned 3700 for the day, but ate 2200 so I had a 1500 negative net calories according to Fitbit and MFD.

    How did you determine that you burned 3,700 exercise calories? At 151 lbs you'd burn about 1,250 cal running a half marathon (weight x .63 x distance).......I suspect we may have identified the problem.

    Yep, just what I was thinking—maybe the calories out part of the equation is too high.
  • drockncrisso
    drockncrisso Posts: 49 Member
    edited May 2018
    I didn’t say 3700 exercise cals- The 3700 cal burn was for the entire day- according to Fitbit, I assume 1600 would have been if I’d done next to nothing, plus I ran 13 miles with hills- that put me around 1600 - so that’s 3200 total- plus I walked all day afterwards- we were visiting a small town, so I was on my feet all day. .. but even with my Fitbit Saying I burned 3700 total that day, I ate 2200. I didn’t eat 3700. So I should still be under- even if Fitbit was wrong and I only burned 3000 total for the day, 2200 would give me an 800 deficit
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    In my opinion you are making this too hard on yourself. Most weight loss comes from diet. I recommend you stop exercising for a week or two and focus solely on accurately logging your food every day. This includes the days you eat the same things
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    I agree. My recommendation is as a strategy to isolate the data for analysis
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,721 Member
    I agree. My recommendation is as a strategy to isolate the data for analysis

    Perfectly reasonable, as long as back-burnering the exercise doesn't cause other problems. :)
  • emmamcgarity
    emmamcgarity Posts: 1,593 Member
    Once the food logging is more steady it will be easier to determine appropriate calorie burn estimates which imo is likely the culprit. But accurate, consistent and complete data is the best way to figure it out
  • drockncrisso
    drockncrisso Posts: 49 Member
    I don’t understand why my exercise calorie estimates are the “culprit” in my not losing weight, when I’m not eating back all of the exercise cals. If I eat 1200 cals, regardless of burning an extra 200-300 at the gym, why should that impare my weight loss?? Is my eating 1400 cals total really bad, when my Fitbit says I burned an extra 600-700 for the day? I’m assuming the Fitbit is over estimating- so when it says I’ve burned a total of 2000 (as in TOTAL calories- not just exercise) calories for the day, and I eat 1300- even if the Fitbit is wrong and I’m only at 1700 burned, there is still a deficit, right?
    Yes, I eat more on a long run day- if I run 10-13 miles, I’ll eat 1800-2000 cals total for the day. Maybe that means I’m eating Maintance levels of calories that day, but if every other day I’m eating around 1200, I don’t see why a potentially over-estimated exercise calorie count matters at all, unless someone is eating back all of those overestimated cals- which I’m not.