What does your plateau look like?

tequierosince06
tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So a couple years ago I hit a major plateau on my weightloss journey. I had lost 25lb and the last 5lb was very extremely hard to lose & unfortunately never achieved it. I started at 190 & couldnt get past 165. I realized I was ok with 165, I looked good, clothes fit good so 165 is my goal this time around.

This time my starting weight was 185 & 165 is my goal weight. Its been a sloww process but in 9mo I finally lost 10lb but I cant seem to get any lower than 174/175. Is it too soon to see a plateau? I weigh myself on Saturdays first thing in the morning. My last 4 readings from the last month (June 4 to July 4) : 175.2, 174.1, 174.5, 175.5

My avg daily calorie count is about 1300, sometimes higher, sometimes lower. I workout 4 days a week. Boxing w punching bag once a week, my workout program includes HIIT & strength and most days I do an additional 20 min on my stationary bike. And im eating about 100g protein minimum it ranges from 100-120g.

My scale hates me lol. I try not to pay attention to the scale but I still weigh in just to see where Im at. My problem areas are my lower belly & my arms. I do see that Im looking better. Ive gained a lot of muscle in my butt & thighs. The top of my abs are visible, my arms are slightly skinnier & I can see my muscles in my arms sometimes. Also my wedding dress fits better than it did at the fitting & I can wear some of my dresses without shapewear underneath.

Its just a little disappointing when the scale doesn’t reflect what you expect to see. And my lower belly/mama pooch makes me want to get cool sculpting lol.

Sub question: are scales that measure body fat percentage accurate? Would that be a good way to tell if im gaining fat or muscle?

Replies

  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    As you only have (had) 20lb to lose, I'm assuming your MFP Goal is set for you to lose at a rate of 0.5lb a week. If it's higher than that, it probably shouldn't be. The last 10lb will be hard and slow as your deficit is much smaller, but it's also a healthier and safer way to lose weight.

    I'm also assuming that you're eating your exercise calories, as you should be, but how are you calculating the calories to eat back? Do you eat 100% of them?

    When you lost the 10lb, did you go back to the Guided Set Up and adjust / save your settings so that MFP recalculated your daily cals? Having lost weight, you need fewer calories.

    You've been in a deficit for 9 or 10 months. Have you had a diet break in that time? If not, see the answers to the post asking how long you should stay in a deficit for. Although, it's actually possible that you currently are eating at maintenance, rather than being in a deficit, if you're still eating the same number of cals that you were given when you weighed 10lb more.

    Whilst it may be disappointing that the scale isn't moving, consider that you can see muscles and definition, so it's not true that nothing is happening.

    And although I don't have any experience myself, every comment I've ever read on here about scales measuring body fat says that they're not accurate /are a gimmick. Possibly good for getting an idea of a general downward trend, but no-one rates them as far as I can tell.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    edited July 2020
    Actually mfp is set at losing 1lb a week. I dont lose weight quickly in general so thats why I went with 1lb/week. Mfp says that I should eat 1660 calories and im eating less than that.

    I dont eat my exercise calories back. Im trying to make sure I understand what you are asking. Example If I ate 1300 cal & burned roughly 250calories in exercise I am not eating back the extra 250cal in food. I end my day at total 1300 cal consumed.

    Ive been trying to lose weight for 9 mo but I haven’t been eating the same amount of calories for that whole amount of time. My daily calorie intake is actually not the same day to day. I just try not to go over 1550. Sometime between 9mo I Have fallen off the wagon & eat around maintenance calories. I have stopped counting calories And just make healthy choices. I have started counting calories again. When I feel it isnt working i change something. Whether its counting cal again or changing my workout routine to add more strength or do more cardio or both.

    I actually haven’t readjusted mfp to my new weight. How do I do that?
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    Go to My Home - Goals - View Guided Set up.

    MFP is designed such that you are supposed to eat your exercise calories back. You're also supposed to eat the number of calories that it gives you as it has built a deficit in, based on what you entered in the set up screen. So if you're eating 1300 and burned 250, but didn't eat those 250 back, you're only eating 1050 calories a day. The minimum recommended for women is 1200 and, after a period of time below this, you may suddenly find (with no warning) that you're losing your hair or are impacting your muscles or are suffering from a number of other potential issues. Just bear in mind that your heart is a muscle.

    If you don't lose weight quickly, it'll almost certainly be because you're under-estimating what you're eating, overestimating what you're burning or a combination of both. Setting MFP to 1lb a week isn't going to make you lose weight any faster if you're over-eating; being accurate in your tracking, will.

    You can make healthy choices but still be eating too much.

    I'd suggest you go through the guided set up, select a sensible rate to lose weight at (which for the amount you have left to lose is 0.5lb a week), track everything you eat or drink, ensuring you measure all liquids and weigh everything else. Also, log your exercise and eat 75% of those calories back as well. Do that for 6 weeks and then look at whether your progress is in line with your settings. It's going to be slow and you may not see any movement in your weight for a while.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    Of course theres going to be some type of human error in tracking my calories & calorie counting but I would like to think im being as accurate as I can possibly be. I weigh almost everything, meats weighed raw, veggies, beans, rice weighed instead of using measuring cups. Even if I cant resist my family’s snacks around the house & end up eating a few tortilla chips I enter it into mfp (not weighed of course). I will try to see if I can do anything different in this aspect to track more accurately.

    As far as drinks. I only drink water & 0cal sparkling waters.

    SO my weight was already updated, I changed weight loss to .5lb/week and it says my goal is 1900. I feel like omygosh thats a lot of food, which I would have to get used to.

    As of right now I will try to eat my calories back from exercising & see if anything changes.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    Strudders67 wrote: »
    Go to My Home - Goals - View Guided Set up.

    I was trying to reply to u^^
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    How tall are you?

    One thing to consider is that many people think MFP over-estimates exercise burn. It's pretty accurate for walking and running, in my experience, if you know the speed you're going at, but your HIIT, boxing and cycling probably won't be as accurate as MFP won't know the intensity of your workout, hence my suggestion to eat 75%.

    Also, be careful with which entries you're choosing from the database for food logged - make sure the nutritional info matches what it says on the packaging / seems realistic. Most are user-entered and a lot are wildly inaccurate.

    Stick with the same plan for 6 weeks and then gauge whether you are losing at the expected rate.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    I use a polar heart rate monitor and reduce the “calories burned” by 25% but since I have not been eating the calories back overestimation wouldn’t be an issue. Will def keep in mind to eat back 75% and not full amt of calories burned.

    What u said about choosing accurate entries from the database is very very true. A friend caught one of my entries was way off. Another thing to be careful about when tracking.

    Thanks for ur help!
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    edited July 2020
    Edit: (typed it wrong) I am 5’7
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    A handful of nuts, post-workout. A splash of oil over your salad. There are ways to boost calories without adding a pile of food to your plate.

    I have no idea how accurate heart rate monitors are, as I don't use one, but I know the subject has come up on the forums before so it may be worth searching to see if you can find feedback about that. What may be interesting would be to manually enter your exercise in to the Exercise tab on MFP and see how that compares.

    The key thing is to track carefully and be consistent for a period of time. If you weigh yourself daily, or even weekly, you'll almost certainly see that the scales will go up and down - that's very very normal - but what you'e looking for is an overall downward trend over a period of several weeks. Once you know, in 6 weeks, how you're doing, you'll know whether to carry on or whether you need to eat more or less of your exercise calories to achieve your target weight loss rate. Good luck with losing those last 10lb.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    Heart rate monitors are not fully accurate so i take the calories burned w a grain of salt & the reason why I reduce estimated calorie burn by 25% sometimes more if I dont feel I put in a lot of effort. I do compare to the estimates that mfp provides. A lot of the time mfp estimates are higher than my manual calories entered. But for steady state cardio like cycling my monitor & mfp are about the same.

    I do love pistachios so now I can eat a full serving instead of half. That will def help w higher calorie goal.

    Thanks again!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,953 Member
    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    I use a polar heart rate monitor and reduce the “calories burned” by 25% but since I have not been eating the calories back overestimation wouldn’t be an issue. Will def keep in mind to eat back 75% and not full amt of calories burned.

    What u said about choosing accurate entries from the database is very very true. A friend caught one of my entries was way off. Another thing to be careful about when tracking.

    Thanks for ur help!

    Heart rate monitor is likely to overestimate HIIT, not sure about boxing but iffy, not as good as power meter for cycling (but maybe not too bad if moderate intensity steady state). Estimates are more likely to be on the high side if you're new to exercise, and most HRM will tell you gross calories (includes calories you burn just being alive) rather than net (the added amount, on top of being alive, just from the exercise). Arithmetically, that last doesn't matter a lot for normal short bits of exercise, but can for long low-intensity things.

    As background, this is an oldie but goodie:

    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

    I understand that you're not now eating the exercise back, but providing the info since you seem to be considering doing so.

    The main thing, in eating back exercise, is to be fairly confident that your estimates aren't crazy wrong (errors big enough to wipe out your whole calorie deficit), then to be consistent in how you make the estimates (and how much of the estimate you eat back).

    With consistency (even if the exact numbers are a little off), careful logging, and 4-6 weeks of weight loss rate results, you'll know how much (if any) to adjust your eating goal in order to achieve a sensible weight loss rate. Some people keep switching up methods in the first weeks, so their loss data isn't especially reliable/consistent. A little off, but consistent, is more useful than varied/inconsistent.
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    tequierosince06 wrote: »
    I use a polar heart rate monitor and reduce the “calories burned” by 25% but since I have not been eating the calories back overestimation wouldn’t be an issue. Will def keep in mind to eat back 75% and not full amt of calories burned.

    What u said about choosing accurate entries from the database is very very true. A friend caught one of my entries was way off. Another thing to be careful about when tracking.

    Thanks for ur help!

    Heart rate monitor is likely to overestimate HIIT, not sure about boxing but iffy, not as good as power meter for cycling (but maybe not too bad if moderate intensity steady state). Estimates are more likely to be on the high side if you're new to exercise, and most HRM will tell you gross calories (includes calories you burn just being alive) rather than net (the added amount, on top of being alive, just from the exercise). Arithmetically, that last doesn't matter a lot for normal short bits of exercise, but can for long low-intensity things.

    As background, this is an oldie but goodie:

    https://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Azdak/view/the-real-facts-about-hrms-and-calories-what-you-need-to-know-before-purchasing-an-hrm-or-using-one-21472

    I understand that you're not now eating the exercise back, but providing the info since you seem to be considering doing so.

    The main thing, in eating back exercise, is to be fairly confident that your estimates aren't crazy wrong (errors big enough to wipe out your whole calorie deficit), then to be consistent in how you make the estimates (and how much of the estimate you eat back).

    With consistency (even if the exact numbers are a little off), careful logging, and 4-6 weeks of weight loss rate results, you'll know how much (if any) to adjust your eating goal in order to achieve a sensible weight loss rate. Some people keep switching up methods in the first weeks, so their loss data isn't especially reliable/consistent. A little off, but consistent, is more useful than varied/inconsistent.

    I compare my calculated estimation to what mfp says and sometimes mfp is higher. I do very completely understand that with any exercise that is not steady state cardio is not going to be very accurate. This is why I reduce the amt of calories burned when I log it. And even then I do understand that there’s a possibility that number is going to be off. I will def keep that in mind when I Start eating my exercise calories back.

    I will start on monday and see how it goes. Fingers crossed i can make it to another 5lb loss at least.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
    One final point that I thought of - what do you have your activity level set at in MFP? It should be based on your normal day-to-day, excluding intentional exercise.

    If you normally sit at a desk all day but set yourself as Active because you do all this exercise, you'd be double counting if you then started eating your exercise calories.

    In the meantime, enjoy those pistachios!
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    Strudders67 wrote: »
    One final point that I thought of - what do you have your activity level set at in MFP? It should be based on your normal day-to-day, excluding intentional exercise.

    I have it set at Lightly Active. Normally I work in a laboratory where Im on my feet all day but as of the last few months being at home obv less activity than working all day. Day to day activities include walking around the house, cleaning the house, laundry, riding scooters with my daughter, sometimes we play soccer & recently we started playing tennis.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    I didn't see it anywhere. Do you use a food scale?
  • tequierosince06
    tequierosince06 Posts: 101 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    I didn't see it anywhere. Do you use a food scale?

    Yes I do. I weigh almost everything I log I dont tend to use measuring cups, I weigh it instead. Meats are weighed raw.

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