Tough journey and struggling with the remaining weight
6raham
Posts: 147 Member
Hi all, so a bit of background, started my weight loss journey Jan 18 with the target of being 147lbs by my wedding in September, hit that goal through the use of mfp and during that journey improved my knowledge of nutrition, exercise and how to incorporate being active in my day to day.
A honeymoon, celebrations and relaxation led to me putting a stone back on but managed to get it back off on the lead up to christmas. Then life happened and we had Christmas, birthdays and more celebrations which led to me creeping back up half a stone. Now I know what I need to do to loose weight, calorie deficit equals weight loss.
To aid this I have incorporated resistance workouts 3 times a week, cardio the other days but as I have progressed my typical routine would involve the following:
Mon: HIIT am, 5/6k walk at lunch
Tue: Resistance am, 5/6k walk at lunch, resistance pm
Wednesday: HIIT am, walk, Football pm
Thursday: Resistance am, cycle am, walk, cycle, resistance pm
Friday: HIIT am, cycle am, walk, cycle pm
Saturday: Resistance am, football, resistance pm
Sunday: Tabata, football
I was getting to the point where I have been trying every way possible to get exercise in, my calories did up on Thursdays and Fridays to allow for the extra exercise over a typical day and I was burning between 1000 - 1400 a day in exercise but i was getting to a point where I felt my body needed food or energy and I would end up on a food binge! This happened the past weekend and my willpower of a year in deficit is low so one evening turned into two which turned into three... I was 4lbs away from goal but I havent dared step back on the scale after the weekend.
So this week I have decided to slow down a bit, not go too made on the exercise and find a balance in the amount of calories I eat to feel I have enough on a lower amount of exercise. I do weigh my food, I track everything and feel I know exactly what I am putting into my body, I use my apple watch to track exercise which has been consistent throughout.
Has anyone had any similar issues when so close to goal, I am desperate to get to 147lbs or slightly under so that I can then recomp (although I have started to do this in building muscle) and add calories slowly to find maintenance when I get to target. Hopefully I can find a way to stop sabataging myself through binges and find the optimum calories I can eat to stay satisfied, supply the energy i need to continue becoming stronger and fitter and reshape my body to not look skinny fat.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
A honeymoon, celebrations and relaxation led to me putting a stone back on but managed to get it back off on the lead up to christmas. Then life happened and we had Christmas, birthdays and more celebrations which led to me creeping back up half a stone. Now I know what I need to do to loose weight, calorie deficit equals weight loss.
To aid this I have incorporated resistance workouts 3 times a week, cardio the other days but as I have progressed my typical routine would involve the following:
Mon: HIIT am, 5/6k walk at lunch
Tue: Resistance am, 5/6k walk at lunch, resistance pm
Wednesday: HIIT am, walk, Football pm
Thursday: Resistance am, cycle am, walk, cycle, resistance pm
Friday: HIIT am, cycle am, walk, cycle pm
Saturday: Resistance am, football, resistance pm
Sunday: Tabata, football
I was getting to the point where I have been trying every way possible to get exercise in, my calories did up on Thursdays and Fridays to allow for the extra exercise over a typical day and I was burning between 1000 - 1400 a day in exercise but i was getting to a point where I felt my body needed food or energy and I would end up on a food binge! This happened the past weekend and my willpower of a year in deficit is low so one evening turned into two which turned into three... I was 4lbs away from goal but I havent dared step back on the scale after the weekend.
So this week I have decided to slow down a bit, not go too made on the exercise and find a balance in the amount of calories I eat to feel I have enough on a lower amount of exercise. I do weigh my food, I track everything and feel I know exactly what I am putting into my body, I use my apple watch to track exercise which has been consistent throughout.
Has anyone had any similar issues when so close to goal, I am desperate to get to 147lbs or slightly under so that I can then recomp (although I have started to do this in building muscle) and add calories slowly to find maintenance when I get to target. Hopefully I can find a way to stop sabataging myself through binges and find the optimum calories I can eat to stay satisfied, supply the energy i need to continue becoming stronger and fitter and reshape my body to not look skinny fat.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
2
Replies
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Hi what are your stats? How much weight have you got to lose?
Personally, as some one who has yo-yo dieted since they were 13 and ended up fatter, I would definitely recommend you to slow down. The last few pounds are slow to come off. Aim to lose 0.5 lb a week, otherwise your going to go insane and binge. Our bodies sense when we are being aggressive by over exercising and undereating so it will upregulate ghrelin and cortisol making you even more hungry. Women are even more sensitive to aggressive dieting (and some how we do it the most). Also your exercise routine looks like it’s too much. Your body needs time to recover! Have atleast one rest day and don’t do HIIT more than twice a week (that’s if you’re doing real HIIT, should not last more than 10 minutes for most people).
Weight loss is about sustainable life long habits. The fact that you keep gaining weight shows me that you haven’t learnt how to make this a lifestyle. You’re either on your diet or off your diet. How about changing your mindset? You said you gained again during Christmas and I bet some of it was water weight too.
What I would do is go back to maintenance for a week. Relax, you seem like you’re really stressed out. Then reduce 250 calories from maintenance. Use scoobies online calculators to find out your calories.
I went through the binge and restrict cycle for years without realising. Only in December 2018 when I couldn’t lose any weight and was so fed up i reverse dieted. I found out my maintenance calories are 2480! I thought they were 1900 or something. I’m 5’ 4” aged 25 and at first 2480 seemed like a lot to me but considering my activity level it made sense. I gradually upped my calories over 6 weeks, resistance trained 4 times a week and did my 10000 steps a day. I’ve gained abit of muscle too. Now I’ve just started my cut and I’m eating 2050 calories a day. I feel way better! Before I was only eating 1500/1600 calories then binging so I underate by 800-1000 calories!
So my advice is to reverse diet, then once you feel satisfied, you can go back into a deficit. Remember to weigh all your food because you need to be really accurate at this point. No guesstimating at this point!3 -
Hi what are your stats? How much weight have you got to lose?
Personally, as some one who has yo-yo dieted since they were 13 and ended up fatter, I would definitely recommend you to slow down. The last few pounds are slow to come off. Aim to lose 0.5 lb a week, otherwise your going to go insane and binge. Our bodies sense when we are being aggressive by over exercising and undereating so it will upregulate ghrelin and cortisol making you even more hungry. Women are even more sensitive to aggressive dieting (and some how we do it the most). Also your exercise routine looks like it’s too much. Your body needs time to recover! Have atleast one rest day and don’t do HIIT more than twice a week (that’s if you’re doing real HIIT, should not last more than 10 minutes for most people).
Weight loss is about sustainable life long habits. The fact that you keep gaining weight shows me that you haven’t learnt how to make this a lifestyle. You’re either on your diet or off your diet. How about changing your mindset? You said you gained again during Christmas and I bet some of it was water weight too.
What I would do is go back to maintenance for a week. Relax, you seem like you’re really stressed out. Then reduce 250 calories from maintenance. Use scoobies online calculators to find out your calories.
I went through the binge and restrict cycle for years without realising. Only in December 2018 when I couldn’t lose any weight and was so fed up i reverse dieted. I found out my maintenance calories are 2480! I thought they were 1900 or something. I’m 5’ 4” aged 25 and at first 2480 seemed like a lot to me but considering my activity level it made sense. I gradually upped my calories over 6 weeks, resistance trained 4 times a week and did my 10000 steps a day. I’ve gained abit of muscle too. Now I’ve just started my cut and I’m eating 2050 calories a day. I feel way better! Before I was only eating 1500/1600 calories then binging so I underate by 800-1000 calories!
So my advice is to reverse diet, then once you feel satisfied, you can go back into a deficit. Remember to weigh all your food because you need to be really accurate at this point. No guesstimating at this point!
Thank you, sorry yes my stats are:
33 Male
5ft 7"
SW 242lbs
GW 147lbs
CW 151lbs
Body fat % 9
Reverse dieting is interesting, I will look into that some more, I think my concern has been going to maintenance and it not being right and then gaining weight! But to be fair the way im doing it isnt helping me find my maintenance either!
In terms of my hiit I am doing 20 minutes, 2 rounds of 5 exercises incl squats, burpees etc at 40 sec on and 20 sec rest between. I have a desk job during the day so to get moving I exercise at 6am, walk for an hour at lunch and then something most evenings as mentioned.
In terms of calorie setting mfp has me on 1500 and I have been eating aiming to eat back some of my exercise calories, most likely not enough though! I had changed my rate of loss to 1lbs a week but that still placed me on 1500 a week, the only time it changed was at 0.5lbs a week it put me at 1850ish which maybe I should do for a month or so?0 -
Body fat 9% ? I'm assuming that a typo.
I'm 5' 9", and decently muscular at 158 lbs and I'd guess I am 19%, not 9.
... for me, I lost 30 lbs and had strong diet exhaustion ... so I decided to take a period of eating maintenance; and focus on a different goal (I signed up for a race... never been a runner ). And eating maintenance has been a good break. The goal doesnt matter... I call them mini-quests, it takes my mind off the big deficit picture.
After my race March 30th I will be ready for big deficits again ... and can cut down to summer-abs without going mentally nuts.
Maybe try that, try doing something NOT deficit focused for a month or so... it worked wonders for me.1 -
Silent_Soliloquy wrote: »Body fat 9% ? I'm assuming that a typo.
I'm 5' 9", and decently muscular at 158 lbs and I'd guess I am 19%, not 9.
... for me, I lost 30 lbs and had strong diet exhaustion ... so I decided to take a period of eating maintenance; and focus on a different goal (I signed up for a race... never been a runner ). And eating maintenance has been a good break. The goal doesnt matter... I call them mini-quests, it takes my mind off the big deficit picture.
After my race March 30th I will be ready for big deficits again ... and can cut down to summer-abs without going mentally nuts.
Maybe try that, try doing something NOT deficit focused for a month or so... it worked wonders for me.
According to my witherings scale I'm 9% but I know they aren't great in accuracy so I take that with a pinch of salt!0 -
^^ my withings puts me at 22%, but an in body 500 series said I was 18.5% (electrodes on each limb, little more accurate?)1
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If you are at or near 9%, I would suggest don't bother losing more weight. My profile pic is me at about 11% BF% at 142lbs at 5'6".
At 9% you would have a very defined 6 pack and at your hight/weight, a decent amount of muscle. Why are you trying to lose a few more lbs?0 -
If you are at or near 9%, I would suggest don't bother losing more weight. My profile pic is me at about 11% BF% at 142lbs at 5'6".
At 9% you would have a very defined 6 pack and at your hight/weight, a decent amount of muscle. Why are you trying to lose a few more lbs?
I just have 147 as a target, puts me half way into my BMI. In terms of abs I can see them under tension and after working out but I have some skin in the lower part of my belly I want to fill out so I can see a full 6 pack not just 4 and partial v. Hopefully that makes sense.0 -
Honestly, if it’s any encouragement, I think it’s pretty normal to fluctuate up and down 10 lbs throughout the year. Thoughts from others?0
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