My weight is not budging

Rumata2093
Rumata2093 Posts: 6 Member
edited December 20 in Health and Weight Loss
I’m a 41yo male. Exercise 5-6 times a week—hard workouts that send my pulse over 180-185/minute, eg. HIIT training or swimming about a mile. Cannot lose the 10lbs that I want to lose though—the weight is just not budging. What’s weird is that I lost 50lbs in 7-8 months during 2016 and it was fairly straightforward: counted calories, exercised a lot and the weight was coming off consistently every week... since then I’ve regained about 15-17lbs because I haven’t been as disciplined with exercise & food (a bunch of injuries have been a distraction). Since January though I’ve gone back to being my disciplined self, but this time the weight is just stuck. I am definitely getting stronger and my endurance is going up—I am arguably in the best shape of my life, so no complaints. But the scale needle is just stuck between 178-182lbs (I’m 5’11.5”).

Thoughts??
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Replies

  • Rumata2093
    Rumata2093 Posts: 6 Member
    Danp wrote: »
    You get what you focus on.

    You're entire post (so I'm assuming your focus) is on working out and exercise. Working out results in improved strength and fitness which you're seeing but not necessarily fat/weight loss. Pay closer attention to your calorie in take and you should start seeing the results you're looking for eventually.

    Yes and know. I AM very focused on losing the extra weight. What I’m struggling with is how easy it was for me to lose 50lbs 3 years ago and how hard it is to lose 10 (or even 5!!!) now.

  • Rumata2093
    Rumata2093 Posts: 6 Member
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Weighing a salad : put bowl on scale, hit "tare". put each ingredient in, note weight, tare after each weight. Input each ingredient with it's corresponding weight into MFP. It will then add it up for you.

    So how strict/disciplined are you with log calories? Say, you’re having black coffee with non-dairy creamer—will you log like 10-20 calories for creamer?
  • Rumata2093
    Rumata2093 Posts: 6 Member
    Danp wrote: »
    A salad is easy, just weight each of the ingredients as you put them in the salad bowl.

    Soup would be the same if it was a single serve but if not it's not too much harder.
    You'd still weigh each of the ingredients as you're preparing the soup. This will tell you how many calories are in the whole lot. You then weigh the entire pot, divide that into X number of servings.

    For example (using made up numbers)
    Soup ingredients come to 1600cal
    Soup weighs 1200g
    4 servings = 300g (each) = 400cal (each)

    Yeah, that would work. What about eating out? Unless you completely give up on eating out...
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    edited March 2019
    1) I'm still in the reduction phase of managing my weight. I now refer (or at least try to remember to refer) to what I'm doing as weight "management" rather than weight "loss" as I understand that there really isn't a finish line after which I can just stop but rather something that I will (and should) pay attention to for the rest of my life.

    That said I'm a big proponent of 'minimum viable product' when it comes to managing my weight. By this I mean I only want to do the bare minimum required to get the results I want. If I can get away with stuff like not logging/counting condiments or eyeballing veggies or whatnot and still get the results I'm looking for then that's what I'm going to do and if/when this 'close enough is good enough' approach stops working I'll increase the diligence enough to start getting results again.

    I don't know yet how I'll approach maintenance and probably won't even worry about it until I get there. Part of me thinks I'll just keep logging with some level of effort since it's become a normal part of my day to day now. Another part of me thinks perhaps when I get there that required level of attention might drop to the point where daily logging might not be required but I'll keep an eye on my weight and have MFP logging as a tool in my back pocket should I find myself putting on a kg or two. But who knows what the future holds.

    2) Can't speak intelligently on this topic. I can say for certain that 'starvation mode' isn't a thing however I've heard that metabolic adaptation can occur and can't imagine what unforeseen consequences extreme rapid weight loss (I mean the BL shows are RIDICULOUS not just rapid) might have on the human body.
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I've been in maintenance for a little over a year and I still weigh food from time to time. I monitor my body weight very closely and like any woman would like to be 10 pounds lighter, lol. Joking aside I still log what I eat every day but I am a bit more relaxed than I was when losing. Once you have done this for a while you'll find you get in to a routine and it becomes easier. As for eating out? To be honest it's way less often than it was when I was overweight. I make homemade soups and log them into the recipe builder to take for work lunches then I know exactly what I'm eating. You would be shocked at the fat content of commercially made soups. Lettuce will never make you fat but avocado, cheese and hard boiled eggs can so it depends on what you are putting in the salad and the obvious thing is salad dressing. That can really jack up the calories. Obviously all those things are healthy to eat but you have to count all the calories to stay within your daily limit. Also it took me 2 years to lose my 85 pounds (I'm down over 100 from my highest weight). The second year I only lost 20. The closer you get to goal the longer it takes to lose a pound. Be patient and keep going. You're doing fine.
  • lin_be
    lin_be Posts: 393 Member
    I think you’re killing yourself at the gym a bit. It seems like a lot of exercise. You mentioned injuries being an issue too which lends me to believe you’re over exercising. I find that when I over exercise I get really hungry and it’s so hard to stay in a calorie deficit. It’s a vicious cycle.

    If you enjoy the workouts than by all means go for it, but just know that weight loss doesn’t have to look like 5-6 hard days exercising. The body needs rest.
  • zeejane03
    zeejane03 Posts: 993 Member
    Rumata2093 wrote: »
    Ok, so it sounds like the consensus here is that I am consuming more calories than I think because I don’t weight everything. Which is VERY helpful. Thank you all who’ve replied.

    I have two follow up questions:

    1) How realistic is it for most people to stay so incredibly disciplined and focused for a long period of time? I have my share of control issues, but as disciplined and controlling as I am, I just can’t see myself weighing everything for years, especially when I’m at work or eating out. How do you make it work in the long run? Life usually gets in the way 😁

    2) Anybody here freaked out by all the research coming out about how restricting calories intake can permanently slow your metabolism down? Sort of the “Biggest Loser” effect—in the end, most people revert back to their starting weight. This is what’s really freaking me out: I lost 50lbs too fast 3 years ago, and now I’m paying for it bc my body is just fighting back.

    1. I'm 6 years onto maintenance, it's just habit at this point and not that big of a deal. Also, remember your maintenance calorie intake will be higher than where you're at now.

    2. I haven't had any significant rebounds from my weight loss. Maintenance has been pretty straightforward for me.
  • endermako
    endermako Posts: 785 Member
    Rumata2093 wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    Weighing a salad : put bowl on scale, hit "tare". put each ingredient in, note weight, tare after each weight. Input each ingredient with it's corresponding weight into MFP. It will then add it up for you.

    So how strict/disciplined are you with log calories? Say, you’re having black coffee with non-dairy creamer—will you log like 10-20 calories for creamer?

    I put the coffee on the food scale, weigh how much creamer I add, and log that amount. Since I use a lot of creamer it's closer to 80-100 calories/cup for me.

    yup same here. 10-20 calories is like nothing in creamer for me. i'm usually at 70-100 as well.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    On the logging: you'll get better at eyeing/feeling out portion sizes over time from the weighing and logging. Some things can be estimated without harming your diet, such as leafy greens. But other salad ingredients are incredibly calorie dense, such as oil and cheese, and add up fast. A restaurant salad will often have way more calories than a reasonable portion of steak because of the add-ons (and a lot harder to guestimate). Eating out often will make it more difficult - most items will be more calorie dense than what you would make at home while being mindful of calorie content, and you won't be able to track those items with any accuracy - most particularly, trying to eye/taste how much oil/butter/cheese went into something will be way, way off to possibly hundreds of calories.
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