Losing inches, gaining weight. How to lose weight and inches?

bloomblythe5
bloomblythe5 Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

Over the last 10 months I’ve been on a fitness journey, I’m 5’3, 20 years old and I’ve gone from 210 to 174. But I’ve been stuck at a fluctuating weight of 174-180 since December! It’s not all that bad because I have noticed a big difference in how strong I feel which is really great and important and I don’t look at the scale that much because I know that the number doesn’t always represent what’s actually going on. Today I weighed myself for the first time since about March where I was 174 and now I’m back up to 178. I’ve lost a few inches around my body and definitely see some slimming on my body so I know I shouldn’t be too worried about the number but...

How can I start getting that number to go down? I know it’s possible to stay fit and get that number down because I can’t be at 175 forever. It’s just annoying to be at the same weight for so long even though I feel strong and slimmer. And since being in quarantine my eating is definitely less than it was when I was at school full time which has helped with the slimming, and I still workout 4-7 days a week for a good 40+ mins.

Any tips are welcome! Thanks!

Replies

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    The first thing that comes to mind is logging accuracy and correct calorie target. If you are not losing for that long, you are not in a calorie deficit. What is your calorie target and how much are you trying to lose per week?
  • bloomblythe5
    bloomblythe5 Posts: 24 Member
    mmapags wrote: »
    The first thing that comes to mind is logging accuracy and correct calorie target. If you are not losing for that long, you are not in a calorie deficit. What is your calorie target and how much are you trying to lose per week?
    Hey! I calculated my like TDEE a while ago and given that I’m fairly active it was about 2200-2300 calories a day to maintain weight and so I was aiming for about 1900 a day.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited April 2020
    That's a pretty small deficit - and very smart if near the end.

    But it also has little margin for error - either on the burning side, or the eating side.

    Considering food labels in US are allowed to be upwards of 20% off, and what's in the package may not even match for weight of product.

    So during the last say 4 weeks when you were still losing, don't include the steady weight time period.

    What was starting weight, and ending weight?

    What does MFP say you were eating daily on average during that time?
    Did you have a bunch of glaring holes in the diary, say during holidays in Dec?
    Do you have some now?
    That gives inaccurate figures then, hard to base results on it.

    And if the food diary looks pretty complete - did you log by weight? (calories is per gram, not cups and spoons)

  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    In addition to the insights you've been given, TDEE calculators are estimates based on averages. You have real life numbers to use. If you are not losing weight over an extended period, you are not in calorie deficit. Make the appropriate adjustments.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Time to get a food scale. Check out these threads. The second one sounds just like you.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10697068/how-i-stopped-kidding-myself/p1
  • bloomblythe5
    bloomblythe5 Posts: 24 Member
    An update for anyone interested: I still haven’t invested in a food scale but I did cut my calories to 1700, I am taking IT more seriously, and eating probably the cleanest I’ve ever eaten in my life haha haven’t had sugar in a week and cut back on bad carbs! I’ve been making sure I’m hitting my daily protein goal and the best part is I feel strong physically and mentally :)

    Also I’ve lost a lot of stubborn weight I’ve been trying to put off already, down to 170.8lbs! I’ve been trying to break the 170s for months, lets do it!
  • FinanceQueen29
    FinanceQueen29 Posts: 3 Member
    Are you eating a lot of carbs? The scale only moves for me when I remove starches and high carbs from my diet.
  • Steph_135
    Steph_135 Posts: 3,280 Member
    I was in a similar situation to you, around the same age. I still fluctuate and hover around 160. For me, I have to take a good hard look at how stress is impacting not only me eating habits, but also my hormones. I've also done a lot of "personal growth" type work over the years, and spent some time getting more into the psychology of eating, and the power of your thoughts.

    BEST WISHES!!

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