I’m obese but I’m not losing weight

ChiharuCaprice
ChiharuCaprice Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
A little back story. When I was 12, I lost about 60 pounds and kept it off until college. In college I gained 75 pounds. Between 2017 and now, I’ve yo yo dieted and got down to 187 in October ‘19. I gained back up to 210 by January 2020.

I started working out in February and started at 208 pounds (I’m 5’4). Between February and March I lost 10 pounds which I believe at least 5 pounds, if not more, was water weight. Now it’s May and I haven’t lost a pound since.

Ironically, I’ve actually started to eat better, change many unhealthy habits, increased my calorie goal from 1400 to 1600, and exercise at least 4x a week (30 min of bodyweight exercises and 30-60 min of HIIT cardio) during the month of April. On April 21st I took measurements and did the same again today. I lost 2 inches off my waist and hips. I’ve never had a plateau last longer than 2 weeks and it’s typically easy for me to lose weight. I’ve already tried increasing my calories and intermittent fasting. Any other tips to get the scale moving?

Replies

  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    You need a tape measure and a caliper to measure your body fat percentage. The scale is just one indicator and it's not the best one either. Good luck!
  • ChiharuCaprice
    ChiharuCaprice Posts: 3 Member
    edited May 2020
    Avidkeo wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lisa2113940 wrote: »
    If you're trying to lose weight, why are you increasing your intake of calories? You should be increasing your calorie deficit.

    The OP began exercising so increasing the calories was likely appropriate. Decreasing them (increasing the deficit) is definitely not something to do when adding exercise.



    Also I'm the same height as her and at 1lb loss a week which is about what she should be aiming for, she's eating the appropriate amount of calories.

    OP are you weighing all your food? That's usually the biggest reason weight loss stalls


    I started my calorie limit at 1200 when I dropped the initial 10 pounds. After the first week of not losing weight I upped it to 1400 calories. About two weeks ago, I upped it again to 1600 calories. I rarely hit 1600 so its more of a range between 1400 and 1600 calories a day.

    I weigh and measure all my food to track my calories as accurately as possible. I only drink filtered and electrolyte water since I sweat a lot when I work out.

    I actually had a cheat meal yesterday (first intentional cheat meal since February) and had a total of 2509 calories. This morning I dropped .2 pounds. The first drop I've seen on the scale since March. Does this mean I need to increase my calories even more?

    I also want to note that I've been exercising since February. When the gym was open I was lifting for about 30 minutes 4 days a week and doing cardio 30-90 minutes 5 days a week. Currently, I am doing 30 minutes of body weight exercises 4 days a week and 30 to 60 minutes of cardio 4 days a week. So the days I work out I am burning between 250 and 500 calories. I have at least 1 dance class a week where I burn 800 to 1000 calories per class (the classes were at least 3 days a week before social distancing).
  • diliveslife
    diliveslife Posts: 42 Member
    I would definitely not increase calories. .2 pounds is really nothing considering water and food waste. You might have had a 1.2 drop without the cheat. Don't overthink your way out of weight loss.

    You seem to have a good handle on it. Trust the process and keep your deficit. If you increase calories again and have even a little bit of a struggle with accuracy you are going to run into the same problem as above. We never burn as many calories as we think with exercise. If anything I would add another walk in the day- just an easy steady state slow burn maybe 20-30 minutes walk around the neighborhood or on the treadmill to a few fave songs in addition to your current workout regimen to guarantee a deficit. This way if you are off by 100 calories say in condiments which can easly occur, you still have wiggle room.
  • Anabirgite
    Anabirgite Posts: 537 Member
    I am very sensitive to water retention. I eat a restaurant meal and 2 days later I gain 2-5 pounds which then takes several days to normalize. Push myself in Body Pump, by lifting heavier weights, plus 2 pounds. Noticing my body trends with bloat helped me deal with the scale fluctuations.
  • xmissxamyx
    xmissxamyx Posts: 70 Member
    bmeadows380 wrote: »
    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    That is such a good article! It's bang on about the fluctuations and such! Just going by the scales I've gained and then lost like almost 3kg just this past week.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
    xmissxamyx wrote: »
    bmeadows380 wrote: »
    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    That is such a good article! It's bang on about the fluctuations and such! Just going by the scales I've gained and then lost like almost 3kg just this past week.

    yup; whenever I find my frustration with the scale values starting to push me toward doing something stupid, I go back and read that article again as a sanity check :)
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited May 2020
    ChiharuCaprice wrote: »
    Avidkeo wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    lisa2113940 wrote: »
    If you're trying to lose weight, why are you increasing your intake of calories? You should be increasing your calorie deficit.

    The OP began exercising so increasing the calories was likely appropriate. Decreasing them (increasing the deficit) is definitely not something to do when adding exercise.



    Also I'm the same height as her and at 1lb loss a week which is about what she should be aiming for, she's eating the appropriate amount of calories.

    OP are you weighing all your food? That's usually the biggest reason weight loss stalls


    I started my calorie limit at 1200 when I dropped the initial 10 pounds. After the first week of not losing weight I upped it to 1400 calories. About two weeks ago, I upped it again to 1600 calories. I rarely hit 1600 so its more of a range between 1400 and 1600 calories a day.

    I weigh and measure all my food to track my calories as accurately as possible. I only drink filtered and electrolyte water since I sweat a lot when I work out.

    I actually had a cheat meal yesterday (first intentional cheat meal since February) and had a total of 2509 calories. This morning I dropped .2 pounds. The first drop I've seen on the scale since March. Does this mean I need to increase my calories even more?

    I also want to note that I've been exercising since February. When the gym was open I was lifting for about 30 minutes 4 days a week and doing cardio 30-90 minutes 5 days a week. Currently, I am doing 30 minutes of body weight exercises 4 days a week and 30 to 60 minutes of cardio 4 days a week. So the days I work out I am burning between 250 and 500 calories. I have at least 1 dance class a week where I burn 800 to 1000 calories per class (the classes were at least 3 days a week before social distancing).

    Possibly over estimating calories burned. Weightlifting doesn't burn much and those are pretty high for cardio. Mfp gives a number that also includes whatever you would burn without exercise during those 30 to 60 mins. Thats why usually people say to only eat back/log 50 to 75% of what mfp says. It's also hard to know if you're putting in the same amount of effort that mfp is using in its estimates.

    The more often you have cheat days and eat 2500, the more often you are wiping out your hard work. You might end up wasting weeks on cheating. Try to stay at or below maintenance calories on days you "cheat". That way at least you wont gain it back, you're just taking a day off. Remember you're not cheating your diet, you're cheating yourself out of your hard work.

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