Weight loss stalled for what feels like forever . . . what to do??

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faythe621
faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hey everybody!

I want to start off by providing some background info:
30(F)
5'5"
HW (weight loss surgery 3/2015): 320
LW: 177
HW (baby born 1/2017): 244
CW: 211-214

I'm stuck at my current weight and have been for about 3 or 4 months. I'll lose a pound, gain a pound and repeat that cycle every week.

My BMR is 1680, my net calories every day are about 1000. 4-5 days a week I do cardio kickboxing for an hour. I have an office job and spend a considerable amount of time sitting down throughout my day.

I am losing inches, I started tracking my inches lost in 6/2020 and since then I've lost 17.5" total from my whole body, about 6" of that just from my waist.

Is it possible that I'm still at a stall because my body is burning fat and gaining muscle? What can I do to break this stall?

How do I stay motivated and keep momentum going even though I'm not seeing results?

TIA!

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Do you use a food scale? If no, start there.
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Do you use a food scale? If no, start there.

    I do use a food scale and weigh my proteins and carbs. I don't weigh veggies.
  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
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    The minimum a sedentary female should be eating is 1200 net calories a day.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
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    Can you open up your food diary?
  • annecantfindausername
    annecantfindausername Posts: 43 Member
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    6 inches is a lot to lose from your waist in three months, that should indicate significant loss, hard to understand how that's not reflected on the scale-- even assuming significant muscle gain. I assume clothing is fitting differently to reflect the measurement changes? I know its never that the scale is broken...but could it be broken?
  • sal10851
    sal10851 Posts: 171 Member
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    Try calorie cycling for a couple of weeks. For example, if you normally eat 1500 calories 7 days per week do a 2000 calorie day 2 of the 7 days. This might jumpstart your metabolism if your body feels restricted.
  • Raegold
    Raegold Posts: 191 Member
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    faythe621 wrote: »
    Hey everybody!

    I want to start off by providing some background info:
    30(F)
    5'5"
    HW (weight loss surgery 3/2015): 320
    LW: 177
    HW (baby born 1/2017): 244
    CW: 211-214

    I'm stuck at my current weight and have been for about 3 or 4 months. I'll lose a pound, gain a pound and repeat that cycle every week.

    My BMR is 1680, my net calories every day are about 1000. 4-5 days a week I do cardio kickboxing for an hour. I have an office job and spend a considerable amount of time sitting down throughout my day.

    I am losing inches, I started tracking my inches lost in 6/2020 and since then I've lost 17.5" total from my whole body, about 6" of that just from my waist.

    Is it possible that I'm still at a stall because my body is burning fat and gaining muscle? What can I do to break this stall?

    How do I stay motivated and keep momentum going even though I'm not seeing results?

    TIA!

    When I calculate your TDEE for a sedentary job, I get 2200.... So if you've been eating only 1000 calories a day, that's a pretty severe deficit to be in long term. Have you seen a nutritionist recently?
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    Raegold wrote: »
    faythe621 wrote: »
    Hey everybody!

    I want to start off by providing some background info:
    30(F)
    5'5"
    HW (weight loss surgery 3/2015): 320
    LW: 177
    HW (baby born 1/2017): 244
    CW: 211-214

    I'm stuck at my current weight and have been for about 3 or 4 months. I'll lose a pound, gain a pound and repeat that cycle every week.

    My BMR is 1680, my net calories every day are about 1000. 4-5 days a week I do cardio kickboxing for an hour. I have an office job and spend a considerable amount of time sitting down throughout my day.

    I am losing inches, I started tracking my inches lost in 6/2020 and since then I've lost 17.5" total from my whole body, about 6" of that just from my waist.

    Is it possible that I'm still at a stall because my body is burning fat and gaining muscle? What can I do to break this stall?

    How do I stay motivated and keep momentum going even though I'm not seeing results?

    TIA!

    When I calculate your TDEE for a sedentary job, I get 2200.... So if you've been eating only 1000 calories a day, that's a pretty severe deficit to be in long term. Have you seen a nutritionist recently?

    I just looked at my calorie totals for the past 7 days. My total daily calorie average is 1600. My net daily calorie average is 1000. That's after exercise calories. I don't eat all my exercise calories.
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    sal10851 wrote: »
    Try calorie cycling for a couple of weeks. For example, if you normally eat 1500 calories 7 days per week do a 2000 calorie day 2 of the 7 days. This might jumpstart your metabolism if your body feels restricted.

    I've actually been doing this, eating less Monday-Friday and then increasing calorie intake on Saturday and Sunday. It worked for a while but I think I'm going to stop cycling and see if maybe my body will respond better to consistent calorie intake across the whole week.
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    annecantfindausername wrote: »
    6 inches is a lot to lose from your waist in three months, that should indicate significant loss, hard to understand how that's not reflected on the scale-- even assuming significant muscle gain. I assume clothing is fitting differently to reflect the measurement changes? I know its never that the scale is broken...but could it be broken?

    I've gone from a size 16/18 to a 12/14 and just about every piece of clothing I own fits differently. I hear people tell me I look different in a good way. I wish I had taken before pictures. I told my coworkers who asked how much I've lost that I'm in a stall and they don't believe me, they said I keep looking smaller every week.

    I went from doing literally zero exercise to 4-5 cardio kickboxing classes a week so I made a pretty big change in my daily activity level, at first I had a good loss but then it stopped and now the inches are still coming off but the scale isn't budging.
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    Go_Deskercise wrote: »
    Can you open up your food diary?

    I don't open my food diary for personal reasons but there's definitely some work I could do on the types of food I eat. I know I tend to eat more processed foods than I should.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,153 Member
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    To be fair, you can't really say you're not seeing results if you've lost 2 clothing sizes and 6 inches on the waist.

    Your net calories are alarming to me, on the other hand you don't count veggies so you're probably (hopefully) eating more than that. I was eating 1750 net calories when I was your weight (and losing weight).
    You say you weigh your protein and carbs. And your fats? As for not weighing veggies, do you eat a lot of them, and what type of veggies?

    I'm going to guess that the intense exercise routine is causing water retention, on top of possibly a bit of gained muscle mass, combined with the stress of a low calorie intake also adding to water retention. But several months of no weight loss is a long time. So logging issues are another option: I would weigh and log ALL foods and check that the food database entries you are using are correct.
  • Go_Deskercise
    Go_Deskercise Posts: 1,630 Member
    edited September 2020
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    faythe621 wrote: »
    Go_Deskercise wrote: »
    Can you open up your food diary?

    I don't open my food diary for personal reasons but there's definitely some work I could do on the types of food I eat. I know I tend to eat more processed foods than I should.

    The issue is not the type of food that you eat.... it's the quantity.
    You could eat all the processed food you want but if you're in a calorie deficit - you will lose weight

    There was a guy that ate nothing but mcdonalds (wouldn't recommend that lol) but he still lost weight bc he ate in a calorie deficit

    Tighten up your logging and then come back and tell us of your progress :)
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Change the batteries in your scale?
  • annecantfindausername
    annecantfindausername Posts: 43 Member
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    There's a good article that gets linked here sometimes, about fat loss, water retention and absolute weight loss. Cant find it though -- it had a really illustrative graph showing basically your situation.

    Legion athletics has a good article on water retention too, just not the one I was thinking of
  • annecantfindausername
    annecantfindausername Posts: 43 Member
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    I'm not at all an expert, but my unqualified advice would be to increase calories, especially from protein, on the kickboxing days, to promote recovery, and increase total step count on the non-kickboxing days to bring the deficit back. Walking is great for burning calories with minimum physical stress. And to double check logging as everyone said, and to absolutely stick with it. You are clearly losing body fat, if that continues it *will* show up on the scale
  • faythe621
    faythe621 Posts: 32 Member
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    Lietchi wrote: »
    To be fair, you can't really say you're not seeing results if you've lost 2 clothing sizes and 6 inches on the waist.

    Your net calories are alarming to me, on the other hand you don't count veggies so you're probably (hopefully) eating more than that. I was eating 1750 net calories when I was your weight (and losing weight).
    You say you weigh your protein and carbs. And your fats? As for not weighing veggies, do you eat a lot of them, and what type of veggies?

    I'm going to guess that the intense exercise routine is causing water retention, on top of possibly a bit of gained muscle mass, combined with the stress of a low calorie intake also adding to water retention. But several months of no weight loss is a long time. So logging issues are another option: I would weigh and log ALL foods and check that the food database entries you are using are correct.

    My total calories average out to around 1600/day. My net calories average out to around 1000/day.

    I track fats used for cooking like butter and olive oil and those are measured portions. I also track measured portions of condiments.

    I eat salads almost every day, usually lettuce, tomato and cucumber with vinaigrette or Italian dressing. The rest of my vegetable servings are typically steam-in-the-bag frozen veggies, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, peas, etc.

    On reflection and from all the helpful advice I've received, I think my problem is that I've caused a stress response in my body from being too restrictive. I'm going to try eating back more of my exercise calories and see if that makes a difference.

    Thank you!
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
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    Are you confident your scale is working correctly? Have you tried changing the batteries, moving it to a new location - recalibrating - and checking it again? As others have mentioned, to lose multiple clothing sizes and inches but no weight change is odd.

    From what you've said, you're consuming ~1600 daily on average, and exercise calculations indicate your exercise is 600 per day average. But you don't trust that # to be accurate so you don't eat 'all' the exercise calories back. If your TDEE is approximately 2200 daily (that # was thrown out above) then that would be a deficit of about 600 per day which is not overly aggressive. If your own calculations indicate your TDEE is much higher, then eating more could give you more fuel and help you be more effective in your workouts and day to day activities. "Net calories" is only a thing if you use the MFP NEAT method.

    If you feel energetic, satiated on your current intake and you feel its not an aggressive deficit: no need to change it. Double check that you're using accurate database entries, creating your own recipes instead of using recipes entered by others. Continue using the food scale. I understand not using it for low cal items like veggies. I assume you are still logging the veggies - at least with an estimate. Whether you have 45 grams of cucumber in your salad or 75 grams, and whether you have 80 grams spinach or 112 grams: not a significant difference at the end of the day.

    Do check your scale. If you've had it for a while, it might be time for an upgrade?

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