My weight is not budging
Rumata2093
Posts: 6 Member
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??
Thoughts??
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Replies
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Exercise is irrelevant. Tighten up your food logging and you need to be on point to lose so little weight. It is also going to come off very slowly. Set MFP to lose .5 lb a week. But most importantly weigh every. single. thing. that crosses your lips.12
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Have you introduced a new training regimen? Do you weigh your food?7
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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.9 -
Teabythesea_ wrote: »Have you introduced a new training regimen? Do you weigh your food?
Pretty similar stuff in terms of training. Can’t run anymore because of my knees and Achilles, but doing more HIIT and swimming.
Weighing: not everything. If I’m making liquid egg whites I’ll weigh them; yogurt too. But how do you weigh a salad or a soup? I mean you can, but the composition of the ingredients will affect the amount of calories more than weight.
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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.
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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.16
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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)5 -
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?
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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...2 -
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.7 -
Rumata2093 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...
Eating out is always a best guess scenario no matter what. Most people it seems just search the food database for something that's close as possible then pick an entry that's on the higher side just to be safe.
It also depends on how often you eat out. Being off by a few hundred cals for 2 or 3 meals per week likely isn't going to have a noticeable impact in the grand scheme of things if the rest of your logging is accurate. I guess the more often you eat out the more wiggle room you should incorporate into the calorie guesses.5 -
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.5 -
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've been here since January 2015. I lost 100 pounds in the first 2.5 years and have been in maintenance after that. I still weigh everything I can weigh, and accept that some things are always going to be estimates. Weighing becomes very easy and quick once you're used to it.
2) There are a lot of myths about things that "slow down" or "speed up" metabolism. Most of them are just that--myths. What is true is that a smaller body needs fewer calories than a larger body. When you get to your goal weight, you will never be able to eat the same number of calories you used to eat unless you have increased your activity level enough to need them. That's what maintenance is: figuring out how to consistently balance your calories in and calories out. What often happens, though, is that people lose weight and then just stop dieting. Of course they're going to gain the weight back if that happens. They're typically going right back to the same habits that caused the weight gain in the first place.8 -
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.1 -
My plan once I get to my goal weight is to try “reverse dieting” where you slowly, over a long period of time, increase your calorie intake while maintaining your current weight.
I’ve heard this allows your metabolism to “speed up.” I know women who are eating around 2,000 calories while maintaining their goal weight.
Will this work for me? I’m not sure, every body is different, but I’m curious enough to try
Good luck!7 -
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.2
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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.- There are two ways out of that. First, as you incorporate weighing out portions into your normal meal planning/preparation, it takes literally seconds. I'm in maintenance, and most of the time I do it just out of habit. Also, the more you weigh out portions, the better you get at eyeballing what's on your plate. I mostly concentrate on weighing calorie dense stuff I eat at home now, and measure or eyeball the rest. Until my weight starts to creep up, then I get more detailed for a couple of months.
- While people who lose weight aggressively over a long period of time do generally seem to experience a lower BMR, I don't believe it's expected to be permanent. If your body can adapt one way, it can adapt the other way too. Increasing activity level and adequately fueling that activity can be just as transformative. And most "Biggest Loser" type dieters gain the weight back because they can't stick to such an aggressive plan and just go back to living like they used to. So don't do that
7 - There are two ways out of that. First, as you incorporate weighing out portions into your normal meal planning/preparation, it takes literally seconds. I'm in maintenance, and most of the time I do it just out of habit. Also, the more you weigh out portions, the better you get at eyeballing what's on your plate. I mostly concentrate on weighing calorie dense stuff I eat at home now, and measure or eyeball the rest. Until my weight starts to creep up, then I get more detailed for a couple of months.
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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.4 -
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?
Since I have only a few pounds that I'm working on like you are, yes I'm mindful of the 15 calories worth of milk I put in my coffee. Because it's 15 calories x 3 cups a day x 7 days a week x 30 days a month etc.5 -
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.3 -
diannethegeek wrote: »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.0 -
Just wanted to chime in about logging stuff - I use the recipes functionality of this site religiously. I almost never order take-away nor do I eat out (not for dietary reasons, just because I'm broke as hell =] ), so I home cook basically all of my meals. I input the ingredients and their weight in the recipe log as I'm cooking (I try to use the USDA entries, as applicable, as they seem to be the most accurate), and then once I'm done, I measure the weight of the whole thing, then measure the weight of what looks like a good portion for me, then calculate how many of those portions would fit in the whole thing, and put that number in as my "number of servings." (A note about this: you'll have to know the weight of the container that's holding it, so you can subtract out that bit!) Since most of my recipes end up making 5-6 servings, it's way way way easier to just log that recipe in one go, instead of trying to guess the weight of each individual ingredient in the dish in front of me at the time that I eat it.
The initial recipe inputting is a pain(!!!!), but it gets easier with repetition and generally it ends up being a once-a-week thing instead of an every day thing, so it works out! Plus, if you end up rotating through recipes, it's easy to add them in the future. And, of course, you can be more confident that your logging is accurate.
7 -
Oh, and also - My plan is to log religiously until I hit my weight goal, and then comfortably estimate to maintain. One of the benefits of logging things so meticulously now is I feel I've gotten better at estimating calorie content for things (though it's not a perfect art, of course!), including my favorite recipes, and what a typical day of meals & reasonable portion sizes ought to look like. If I notice my weight is beginning to creep back up, I'll tighten up on it again - but no, I don't plan to be so strict for the duration of my life. Control is nice, obsession is exhausting. =]6
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Do Atkins 40 and unprocess your diet. If done correctly you will lose those last few pounds overnight!29
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TiffanyKittylover wrote: »Do Atkins 40 and unprocess your diet. If done correctly you will lose those last few pounds overnight!
If OP went low carb then yes he'd most likely lose a few pounds of water weight initially. I'm assuming he wants to lose actual fat though.16 -
Even dietitians have a hard time calculating exact calories so at most you are going to get a rough estimate. But then you need to mix it up a little bit because your body appears to be in homeostasis. You can try fasting which has worked for many who reached a stall. Not real long fasting but like 24 hour or 36 hour periodically. Another option is to consider high carb low fat or low carb high fat but your body needs to adjust to the diet so there might be no immediate results.26
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azzeazsaleh5429 wrote: »Even dietitians have a hard time calculating exact calories so at most you are going to get a rough estimate. But then you need to mix it up a little bit because your body appears to be in homeostasis. You can try fasting which has worked for many who reached a stall. Not real long fasting but like 24 hour or 36 hour periodically. Another option is to consider high carb low fat or low carb high fat but your body needs to adjust to the diet so there might be no immediate results.
All of these things are personal preferences that are completely unnecessary for losing weight. There is no need to "mix up" your diet or exercise routine unless you are bored with it. Fasting of any kind is not necessary for weight loss, but may be done for religious reasons or personal eating habits. Macros are important for health and satiety but are not directly relevant for weight loss.14 -
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.0
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2) I can say for certain that 'starvation mode' isn't a thing
Hi Danp, let me just start by saying I agree with with everything you posted, except this. I'm not trying to be annoying or rude, I just feel like this statement really needs clarification.
I can tell you that "starvation mode" is absolutely real. However, you're right to think that "starvation mode" is blamed for lack of weight loss too often. Your metabolism will only go into the starvation state when you've been eating nothing, or next to nothing, for days on end. Most of the time, if someone isn't losing weight it is because they're just not accurately measuring your calorie intake/output.
The normal phases of metabolism are the fed state and the fasted state. The fed state lasts for roughly 3 hours after you've eaten, when the body is metabolizing and storing the energy you have just consumed.
The fasted state begins at the end of the fed state, when your body has used or stored all of the energy you gained from eating. At this point, it begins releasing that stored energy so your body can use it to keep going until you next meal.
Your body normally enters the starvation state 2-3 days after your last meal. At this point, the body starts hanging on to its energy stores (not burning as much fat to make the remaining fat stores last longer) and instead begins to destroy muscle tissue, etc. to produce energy and keep the body alive. This is why people can survive for weeks or months with very little or no food, but become extremely weak in the process. If the body did not compensate in this way, it would burn through all of its stored energy and die much sooner.22 -
agentagile wrote: »2) I can say for certain that 'starvation mode' isn't a thing
Hi Danp, let me just start by saying I agree with with everything you posted, except this. I'm not trying to be annoying or rude, I just feel like this statement really needs clarification.
I can tell you that "starvation mode" is absolutely real. However, you're right to think that "starvation mode" is blamed for lack of weight loss too often. Your metabolism will only go into the starvation state when you've been eating nothing, or next to nothing, for days on end. Most of the time, if someone isn't losing weight it is because they're just not accurately measuring your calorie intake/output.
The normal phases of metabolism are the fed state and the fasted state. The fed state lasts for roughly 3 hours after you've eaten, when the body is metabolizing and storing the energy you have just consumed.
The fasted state begins at the end of the fed state, when your body has used or stored all of the energy you gained from eating. At this point, it begins releasing that stored energy so your body can use it to keep going until you next meal.
Your body normally enters the starvation state 2-3 days after your last meal. At this point, the body starts hanging on to its energy stores (not burning as much fat to make the remaining fat stores last longer) and instead begins to destroy muscle tissue, etc. to produce energy and keep the body alive. This is why people can survive for weeks or months with very little or no food, but become extremely weak in the process. If the body did not compensate in this way, it would burn through all of its stored energy and die much sooner.
When people refer to "starvation mode" in a weight loss context, it's safe to assume they aren't talking about the physical impacts of actual starvation (that is, going for days without food). They're talking about the myth that if you eat slightly less than you need, your body will refuse to burn energy.
Starvation is real. "Starvation mode" isn't. I hope that distinction makes sense.10
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