Only a stone to lose....but plateaued so early!
AdLibbb
Posts: 14 Member
I’m so frustrated but maybe I shouldn’t be so impatient. For many years I have been around 129 pounds. I got on the scales about 4 weeks ago and got a real fright when I saw I had slowly gained and was 145 pounds. To be fair, I know I have just been eating whatever I want, whenever I want over this past year and it’s totally my own fault. I decided to take myself in hand and got this app which has given me a 1200 calorie daily goal. I am sticking to it religiously and by the end of week 2 I had lost 7 pounds. I didn’t look much different though. However now nothing is happening! In fact I have gained a pound. I am being so strict and disciplined and am hungry all the time...my intake is so much less than I am used to. I don’t understand why the weight is not dropping off me. I am definitely in deficit with my calories so I don’t understand why the weight loss has plateaued. I know it’s only another 10 pounds, but I just want them off! Any reassurance and tips gratefully received as I hate dieting and feeling so hungry 😐
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Replies
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It's been two weeks. You lost a lot of water initially and some may have returned. And you don't have much to lose. It's going to take time, so you have to be patient and log everything as accurately as possible.6
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You're being impatient. Weight loss isn't linear. Especially when you're a woman - hormone fluctuations lead to water weight swings up and down, sometimes of several pounds. With less than 20 lbs to lose, you should be expecting an average loss of 0.5-1 lb per week, which can easily hide behind water weight for weeks.
If you set your weekly goal to more than 1 lb per week, bring it down so your calories go up. It's too aggressive to expect to lose that fast with so little to lose. Starving yourself down 20 lbs quickly will most likely lead to muscle loss and rebounding.
Good luck!5 -
Thank you for the replies. I hadn’t thought of adjusting the goal each week and it is set for 2 lbs a week. Having said that, I am impatient (as you can tell!) and rather like the idea of losing quickly.... I also find the diary tool that tells you at the end of each day what you would weigh in 5 weeks time with that diet quite addictive/motivating. It has spurred me to carry on but I did get despondent this week when nothing seemed to be changing
HOWEVER I think you must both be right about the water weight and the loss not being linear because this morning I weighed myself and I have lost 2 pounds overnight 😊 I shall expect that to fluctuate now. However the loss has motivated to me to carry on and just trust that what I am doing will work. Try to have a bit of patience.
I don’t think I would be as motivated if I reduced the goal to slower weight loss. I think I shall persevere now that the scales showed a change this morning. Sorry Kimmy72! 🙈 I am doing exercise too - those home circuit workouts 4 times a week lasting about 20 minutes using an app with the coach setting for cardio and strength so hopefully that will stop me losing too much muscle.
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you need to reset your calorie deficit to 1lb max, and be more patient6
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TavistockToad wrote: »you need to reset your calorie deficit to 1lb max, and be more patient
Why is it so essential? Please can you explain?
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TavistockToad wrote: »you need to reset your calorie deficit to 1lb max, and be more patient
Why is it so essential? Please can you explain?
a appropriate deficit is recommended for lots of reasons:
reduces the risk of losing muscle
reduces the risk of not getting adequate nutrition (and all the health problems related to this)
makes your cut easier to adhere to
you can by all means crash diet, but the chance of you being back here in 3 months having gained it all back is rather high!
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Since you don't have much to lose, your 2 lbs a week allowance will be pretty close to your 1 or even 0.5 lb a week allowance because MFP doesn't give you less than 1200 calories. The reason to switch is to adjust your expectations. You're expecting 2 lbs a week and it may not be possible in your case with your current intake.5
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To lose 1 lbs of weight you need a calorie deficit of 3500kcal per week, or 500 per day.
to lose 2lbs of weight you need a calorie deficit of 7000ikcal per week, or 1000 per day.
Now, you' re not heavy. Lets say your body needs about 1700kcal per day for all it's dairly functions and you don't gain or lose weight. To lose 2lbs per week you could only eat 700kcal per day. To lose 1lbs per week you'd need to eat not more than 1200kcal per day. Eating less than 1200 for a woman is unsafe as you'd not get the necessary nutrition you need. And you'd feel absolutely miseraly. Plus you'd lose a ton of muscles. So even if you lost your stone quickly you'd look completely different, probably very squishy because the muscles are gone. You don't want that. Slow and steady wins the race every time.8 -
Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to reply with all that insight.
So I tested it! I just switched my goal to see what difference it made to my calorie intake and the difference between losing 2 pounds a week and 1 pound a week is only 100 calories! 1300 calories versus 1200. So as you say, 1200 is the limit but to lose 2 pounds a week I would probably need to eat even less than that but the settings don’t allow it. So I have been having unrealistic expectations for sure.
To lose half a pound it sets me at 1550 calories a day. I think what I’m going to do is aim for 1300 but allow myself to creep above up to 1550 if I’m really struggling. Just my milky coffee in the morning with a teaspoon of sugar is 100 calories so after two of those, I am already lamenting the fact that I have taken a huge chunk out of my calories for the day. It’s going to be good to have the extra wriggle room and know I’ll still be losing weight. 😊23 -
Yay! You might also find you're not as hungry. Which makes the process more manageable.3
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Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind but I need a bit more support and reassurance. So after waking up to 2 lbs weight loss, I woke up the following day to having put back 1 lb. I didn’t panic. I figured it must just be water weight and my body adjusting....just thought I should keep doing what I’m doing. Trust in the process. But today I have woken up and have put back another pound! I have generally upped my calories to around 1300 from 1200 and now the weight seems to be going back on. I am just being so careful and disciplined logging everything, snacking on cucumber whilst my husband has chocolate. It isn’t fair 😐 What’s going on?1
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Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind but I need a bit more support and reassurance. So after waking up to 2 lbs weight loss, I woke up the following day to having put back 1 lb. I didn’t panic. I figured it must just be water weight and my body adjusting....just thought I should keep doing what I’m doing. Trust in the process. But today I have woken up and have put back another pound! I have generally upped my calories to around 1300 from 1200 and now the weight seems to be going back on. I am just being so careful and disciplined logging everything, snacking on cucumber whilst my husband has chocolate. It isn’t fair 😐 What’s going on?
you aren't being patient enough, that's whats going on.10 -
For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.3
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But I thought, according to this app, I should be losing a pound a week so why the two month wait? It is so disheartening. I just know when I compare my recent eating and intake with the volume and stuff I have been eating over the past year that my body should be dropping the weight with the contrast. Can you give me a guide as to how patient I need to be. I am sorry if I am being a pain and annoying....I guess I’m just living this every day with the hope and disappointment and the extra weight is really bothering me.amusedmonkey wrote: »For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.
Incidentally, should it take just as much patience to put the weight back on?!
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But I thought, according to this app, I should be losing a pound a week so why the two month wait? It is so disheartening. I just know when I compare my recent eating and intake with the volume and stuff I have been eating over the past year that my body should be dropping the weight with the contrast. Can you give me a guide as to how patient I need to be. I am sorry if I am being a pain and annoying....I guess I’m just living this every day with the hope and disappointment and the extra weight is really bothering me.amusedmonkey wrote: »For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.
Incidentally, should it take just as much patience to put the weight back on?!
You need at least 6 weeks data to get a trend, if you weigh a few times a week.2 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.
Incidentally, should it take just as much patience to put the weight back on?!
Yes! While most people notice a substantial weight gain all in one traumatic moment, they have actually been slowly gaining for months and years. They just weren't desperately paying attention every day.
Ask anyone on here trying to gain weight, and they'll tell you it requires just as much patience. It can take years to gain appreciable muscle.
Women have to deal with water weight fluctuations throughout the month of sometimes several lbs. It can easily mask 0.5lb - 1 lb gains and losses. That's why we tell women to be patient for at least 6 weeks at a time.4 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.
Incidentally, should it take just as much patience to put the weight back on?!
Yes! While most people notice a substantial weight gain all in one traumatic moment, they have actually been slowly gaining for months and years. They just weren't desperately paying attention every day.
Ask anyone on here trying to gain weight, and they'll tell you it requires just as much patience. It can take years to gain appreciable muscle.
Women have to deal with water weight fluctuations throughout the month of sometimes several lbs. It can easily mask 0.5lb - 1 lb gains and losses. That's why we tell women to be patient for at least 6 weeks at a time.
and there is a massive difference between gaining 'weight' and gaining actual fat.0 -
Also keep in mind that scales may not be extremely accurate or precise. If your scale only displays to the nearest whole pound, a difference of as little as 0.1 lbs may display as 1. For example, difference between 134.4 (displays as 134) and 134.5 (displays as 135). And the scale might not be completely repeatable (the same true weight may display a different number at different times, depending on how you stood on it, or if the scale was moved slightly, or some other variation.
So try not to overreact to small day to day changes in the number on the scale. Over time, as you lose more weight, those small variations in scale measurement become less significant to the overall trend.1 -
I’m really similar to you. Was happily living my life consistently around 117Ib then I changed jobs, got out of routine and next thing you know eating junk every day. Bam - I’m 137 Ibs!
Took myself in hand. I’m short so 1200 calories is a good goal for me to lose on. First few weeks I was religious about weighing and measuring and I lost nothing! It’s so frustrating.
But that’s always how it goes for me, so I kept at it despite the frustrating number on the scales and now, 8 weeks later I’m 126Ib :-) just 10 more to go and I’ll be a happy bunny!
My experience is that it can take weeks for your body to catch up with your calories. I’m tracking my weight every day on happy scale so I can better understand how I lose weight. What I see is that for me, I lose in chunks - and even seem to put on a Ib before I lose a big chunk.
Keep at it, you’ll be proud of yourself when you see the scale shift, it just might take a few weeks to register :-)3 -
Hi everyone, I’m really grateful for all the further responses. I don’t think all my notifications are coming through though so sorry for the delayed reply!
The person who wrote about my story being similar to them...that was good to read. I am just getting so frustrated. I seem to have been stuck for 2-3 weeks and I just want to see a new number appear on the scales! What is this “happy scale” you mention? I know what you mean about putting a pound on before you lose...I went back up to 9 stone 12!
Can I ask everyone, does it matter WHEN you eat? Does this affect weight loss. often eat late because my husband comes home late and I like us to eat together. Then I weigh myself first thing. I am thinking that I have only ever seen the 9 stone 10 when I have been out social dancing the night before (so perspired a lot of water) or when I didn’t eat after 7pm.
Also the person who mentioned the increments on the scale....that is a good point and maybe I should change to kilos!
I have to say that having around 1300 to 1400 calories as opposed to my original 1200 to eat every day is making me less starving hungry. However because it seems to have stopped me seeing results I am tempted to go back down to my strict 1200!
I do a lot of steps every day because I walk the dog but I am worried I shouldn’t be taking that into account as calories added back? It isn’t exercise as such, just long walks which I have done for years.
Sorry guys to go on....I am just feeling totally demotivated 😐0 -
Hi everyone, I’m really grateful for all the further responses. I don’t think all my notifications are coming through though so sorry for the delayed reply!
The person who wrote about my story being similar to them...that was good to read. I am just getting so frustrated. I seem to have been stuck for 2-3 weeks and I just want to see a new number appear on the scales! What is this “happy scale” you mention? I know what you mean about putting a pound on before you lose...I went back up to 9 stone 12!
Can I ask everyone, does it matter WHEN you eat? Does this affect weight loss. often eat late because my husband comes home late and I like us to eat together. Then I weigh myself first thing. I am thinking that I have only ever seen the 9 stone 10 when I have been out social dancing the night before (so perspired a lot of water) or when I didn’t eat after 7pm.
Also the person who mentioned the increments on the scale....that is a good point and maybe I should change to kilos!
I have to say that having around 1300 to 1400 calories as opposed to my original 1200 to eat every day is making me less starving hungry. However because it seems to have stopped me seeing results I am tempted to go back down to my strict 1200!
I do a lot of steps every day because I walk the dog but I am worried I shouldn’t be taking that into account as calories added back? It isn’t exercise as such, just long walks which I have done for years.
Sorry guys to go on....I am just feeling totally demotivated 😐
You forget- you quickly dropped 7 lbs the first 2 weeks. Now yes, most of that was water weight and that has since been leveling out. But if in the meantime you have been losing 1 lb/fat a week, it's going to take a while for that to show up on the scale because the initial water weight drop and subsequent fluctuations sort of moved the goal post... does that make sense? If I did the math correctly, you are still down 8 lbs total for a 3 week period, which is an average of over 2 lbs/week. As you add more data points (weeks) to that, you should see that number draw closer to the 1 lb/week, unless you have underestimated your activity level or aren't eating back exercise calories. Day-to-day scale readings are meaningless (though there's nothing wrong with weighing daily if you understand how fluctuations work). It's only the trend over time (more time than you've been at this) that matters.
And no, it doesn't matter when you eat, although if you eat a big meal at night, you may have more volume in your intestinal tract in the morning.5 -
But I thought, according to this app, I should be losing a pound a week so why the two month wait? It is so disheartening. I just know when I compare my recent eating and intake with the volume and stuff I have been eating over the past year that my body should be dropping the weight with the contrast. Can you give me a guide as to how patient I need to be. I am sorry if I am being a pain and annoying....I guess I’m just living this every day with the hope and disappointment and the extra weight is really bothering me.amusedmonkey wrote: »For someone who has so little to lose, it may take up to two months to start noticing trends. The readings are often too noisy with natural fluctuations that any loss or gain may get drowned out by these fluctuations. Be patient.
Incidentally, should it take just as much patience to put the weight back on?!
Don't be disheartened - sometimes when the scales don't move the tape measure (or your clothes)
do1 -
Someone posted this link elsewhere on the forums, I thought it was so good I'd share again.
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
This can explain why you wake up weighing more or less one day or the next, even if the trend is downward.2 -
I'm maintaining, but still weigh myself every morning. The past three days my weight has been creeping up while I'm still eating my normal maintenance calories. Oh yes! I just returned from a longer car drive (increased water weight), started working out again (increased water weight) and have not had bowel movement in two days. It all influences weight, but not bodyfat.3
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ExistingFish wrote: »Someone posted this link elsewhere on the forums, I thought it was so good I'd share again.
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
This can explain why you wake up weighing more or less one day or the next, even if the trend is downward.
This is fascinating! What an amazing article! I understand 😊 Thank you😘😘
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Motivated Martha - your comment made me go back and double check my loss and time periods. Basically when I got the initial shock, I was at the vets! 😂 I weighed my dog and then thought I may as well get on the scales. That’s when I saw the weight gain. I was fully clothed though. I then did my own casual diet but I didn’t buy scales for the home till 1 July. So all I know for certain is that between 1 July and today 22 July I have gone from 10 stone to 9 stone 10 (the lowest weight). From what everyone is saying, that is pretty much on track. I must be honest, I do FEEL slimmer and think my clothes are fitting me better again. I feel like I look better. As you have quite rightly said, the scales and the clothes may give different answers.
I think I will be happy to lose another 4 pounds next month and then another 4 pounds the next. I will be delighted with that....and from what I now understand, that should be achievable.
I am soooooo grateful to everyone who has responded for their reassurance. I know that compared to many people on here, my journey is easy and really no big deal. However I have always had a tendency to put on weight and I have always had to watch myself. I am not a naturally slim person and I have been angry at myself for allowing this creep to happen. I am thankful to you all for not judging my impatience over this as for me, it has been quite a shock and upsetting to think it will take so long to get the weight back off. You have all been so great and understanding with your explanations and insights xx
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Guys I am just so gutted 😢😢😢I have put on 3 pounds! The last few days I have been having my big meal late in the day around 9/9:30pm due to new working hours. But I am still tracking my calories.
Also I guess I am less active because three days a week I am now at a desk job so not walking the dog (don’t worry he goes to my friends the days I work and is with her dogs all day and gets his exercise)! However with it being a real heatwave here for the last month it hasn’t been possible to do our usual daily long walks anyway as dogs can’t cope with the heat.
However the fact is that I am still eating circa 1300-1400 calories a day. How on earth can weight gain be happening? It just is not fair. It’s funny because I felt inside that the long plateau was not good....but I relied on your reassurance and trusted it. And now look what has happened. I don’t understand it as I have been so good! Do I just have a natural fighting weight? Help, advice, encouragement seriously needed please!!!! Thank you 😘0 -
Guys I am just so gutted 😢😢😢I have put on 3 pounds! The last few days I have been having my big meal late in the day around 9/9:30pm due to new working hours. But I am still tracking my calories.
Also I guess I am less active because three days a week I am now at a desk job so not walking the dog (don’t worry he goes to my friends the days I work and is with her dogs all day and gets his exercise)! However with it being a real heatwave here for the last month it hasn’t been possible to do our usual daily long walks anyway as dogs can’t cope with the heat.
However the fact is that I am still eating circa 1300-1400 calories a day. How on earth can weight gain be happening? It just is not fair. It’s funny because I felt inside that the long plateau was not good....but I relied on your reassurance and trusted it. And now look what has happened. I don’t understand it as I have been so good! Do I just have a natural fighting weight? Help, advice, encouragement seriously needed please!!!! Thank you 😘
Weight loss isn't linear, it's fine.1 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
Weight loss isn't linear, it's fine.
By “fine” do you mean “meaningless”? Do you mean I haven’t actually gained weight? That I haven’t undone my hard work? I am beginning to feel like the only way for me to get back slim is to starve myself like when I was on 1200 calories 😔0 -
TavistockToad wrote: »
Weight loss isn't linear, it's fine.
By “fine” do you mean “meaningless”? Do you mean I haven’t actually gained weight? That I haven’t undone my hard work? I am beginning to feel like the only way for me to get back slim is to starve myself like when I was on 1200 calories 😔
No, you have gained weight, you just probably haven't gained fat, so it's no big deal. Just keep on with your deficit and the scales will drop eventually.
Did starving yourself work last time?1
This discussion has been closed.
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