Weight loss has completely stalled for 1+ month, looking for advice!

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Replies

  • I3umble
    I3umble Posts: 30 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Alcohol can dehydrate you, which could influence the scale downwards.
    Also, anecdotally, people sometimes see a loss on the scale after having a higher calorie day.
    These short term changes are mostly water weight changes, so the key is keeping an eye on the long-term trend.

    Thanks, I guessed as much. Looks like that was the case after all as my weight has returned to the "plateau" weight.
  • I3umble
    I3umble Posts: 30 Member
    nanamerriman2020 wrote: »
    BMR does not take activity level into consideration - it is what your bodily functions need to keep you alive. Energy spent by your heart, lungs, maintaining body temperature, brain functions, etc. Estimated based on gender, height, wage, age. So you may be mixing some terms.

    As for what could be causing the 5-6 weeks of little to no weight loss? Water weight. 5-6 weeks is not enough time to determine all efforts have failed. What you don't want to do: start going thru a series of actions where you try X for a week or two, then try Y and then change again to try Z. Each time you make a change, to really know if it accomplishes anything - you need to give it time. 4-6 weeks perhaps. By your own statement you've made changes during this time of stall: increased exercise. The body retains water for muscle repair when you increase exercise intensity or start a new exercise routine. Do you have anything to lose by eating in a healthy deficit for another 5-6 weeks?

    Based on established guidelines that men should not eat under 1500 daily, I would think 1500-1950 should be a safe range for you. Assuming you generally have energy to complete your daily activities and exercise and such.
    I3umble wrote: »
    xxzenabxx wrote: »
    To me it seems like you need a diet break. It will honestly help you mentally and physically. There’s no such thing as starvation mode unless you’re talking about countries like Yemen right now, but there is such a thing as adaptive thermogenesis. So eat at maintenance for 2 weeks and then come back to your deficit. Good luck!

    Hi,

    Thanks for your input. I am getting a little confused when it comes to what I need to eat to be at maintenance.

    I have calculated my BMR which is at 2,227 (I set this at lower activity so it is probably higher than this) and then I calculated my caloric needs on the same website (active.com) and it states I require 3,331 daily calories at a light activity or 3,700 at an active level or 3,041 at sedentary.

    I am unsure what level I am eating at here? The BMR or the caloric needs?

    Also I am eating anywhere from 1,500-1,950 calories per day for months and suddenly i just stopped losing weight. If I can't eat too little then what could be causing it?

    Thanks for the help, I appreciate it. Just trying to figure out what is going on with my body.

    Also, can you lose inches but not see a change on the scale? Looking for thoughts on this subject.

    Thanks!

    Hi,

    I have another question for you if you are still around. Again, sorry for the barrage of questions but you have been very helpful to me and I appreciate it.

    Where is best/what is the best method to calculate my TDEE and once I have calculated that, how many calories under that should I be eating for weight loss - 500? 1600 - 1700 cals per day seems quite low for someone with my much weight left to lost to be honest, but I am probably wrong. I still need to lose 95ish lbs. I double checked my fitbit app today and it showing I am burning anywhere from 2,600 - 4,000 calories per day, depending on exercise obviously.

    I am worried if I drop down to 1,700 calories and then in another 30lbs loss I need to drop the calories again, this is clearly not sustainable as I would end up at around 1,300 - 1,400 calories per day?

    Also, if my calories were 1,700 would I eat exercise calories back or should I not?

    Just looking for some guidance with some substance, I am stuck here and there is clearly something I am not doing correctly.

    Thanks.

  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    I can't comment on the best place to find your TDEE but if you enter your stats in to MFP and select a sensible goal, MFP will tell you how many calories to eat to lose at your selected rate. MFP works on the NEAT basis, so you add your deliberate exercise on to that and eat a reasonable portion of those calories.

    TDEE asks you how active you are in general - day-to-day plus intentional exercise and averages that out to give you a calorie figure. If you're not doing the same exercise daily / weekly, you may find that using TDEE is quite inaccurate.

    AnnPT, I think, posted a really good explanation of all this, either yesterday or the day before, in response to someone else. If I find it, I'll revert.

    (FYI, a 500 calorie deficit should have you losing 1lb a week).
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    nanamerriman2020 wrote: »
    PS on Fitbit. Until you know otherwise, assume it has some rate of error perhaps 10%.

    According to this article, it's over 25% high:
    https://www.digiswitch.org/how-accurate-is-fitbit/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974868/
    One of the "key points" in this study:
    The Fitbit Charge HR performed with poor accuracy compared with ECG especially during higher physical exertion and specific exercise tasks. The Fitbit Charge HR was not validated for heart rate monitoring, although better accuracy was observed during resting or recovery conditions

    In other words, don't put a whole lot of faith in what your Fitbit tells ya. When I cut, I only use a fitness tracker as for the step counting feature, but that's just my way *shrugs*



  • jimb2525
    jimb2525 Posts: 1 Member
    I’m 5’9, started at 289 and down to 209. I got stuck at 218 for 3 weeks with no change in diet. I eat 1600-1800(exercise days) calories at day. All of a sudden I lost about 6lbs in a week and it started moving again. It sounds like you are doing everything right. Just need to focus on keeping after it and realize you are making progress, even if it doesn’t show on the scale immediately. Other people could notice changes in my face even when I was stuck at 218 for 3 weeks. (I likely should be eating more and thinking of going to 1800-2000 everyday).
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited June 2020
    I imagine a larger person, or someone who has a greater potential for calorie burning: can possibly have a greater error rate. Keep in mind that a reliable tracker starts from the same established formulas for BMR that all the online TDEE calculators use. The variable is in how much 'credit' the tracker gives for activity/exercise. This particular link quotes a 2017 study. Not sure how relevant it is to NOW as tracker models get updated quite often.

    Best I can tell, figuring out one's true TDEE is always a bit of guesswork, because established formulas & methods are based on an 'average' person of your stats, and only time & data collection will tell if you are average. Track calories in as accurately and honestly as possible for 8-12 weeks, track change in weight, and do the math. If over a good bit of time one loses faster than expected: their TDEE is higher. If losing slower, their TDEE is lower. This of course assumes a high level of accuracy in tracking calories in. Otherwise, there are too many variables in the equation.

    A fairly basic starting point is using MFP for all but exercise: which uses BMR and some measure of activity level. (Activity level based on job/hobbies/lifestyle, not exercise.) There are many online sites for estimating cardio burn and you can easily get many #s so choose one that seems modest and takes into account intensity - not the one that gives the highest #.

    JBanx256 wrote: »
    nanamerriman2020 wrote: »
    PS on Fitbit. Until you know otherwise, assume it has some rate of error perhaps 10%.

    According to this article, it's over 25% high:
    https://www.digiswitch.org/how-accurate-is-fitbit/

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974868/
    One of the "key points" in this study:
    The Fitbit Charge HR performed with poor accuracy compared with ECG especially during higher physical exertion and specific exercise tasks. The Fitbit Charge HR was not validated for heart rate monitoring, although better accuracy was observed during resting or recovery conditions

    In other words, don't put a whole lot of faith in what your Fitbit tells ya. When I cut, I only use a fitness tracker as for the step counting feature, but that's just my way *shrugs*



  • SyrumNeko
    SyrumNeko Posts: 4 Member
    It sounds like you're already doing most of the things I'd have suggested, based on your first post! Scales can lie - muscle mass weighs more than fat mass, and if you're walking up to three hours a day PLUS kettlebell training, there's no way you've made it this far without packing on some muscle :) water retention can also make the scale tell you you've not lost anything, and our bodies have a bad habit of grabbing onto water without warning!

    The best thing you can do is to keep measuring - neck, chest, waist, hips, biceps and thighs are all good points to log. If your tapemeasure is telling you that you've shrunk, and your clothes are too big, then it doesn't matter what the scale says that week!

    Zig-zagging is also a great eating option, as a few people have said - just make sure it averages out over the week and be sensible with it, and you'll be fine.

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