Plateau

Pam1078
Pam1078 Posts: 1 Member
in Motivation and Support
I have been 173 for five weeks. When I hit the daily calculator it says I s/b under 160 in five weeks. So I know I am not eating wrong.

Question: how do I jump start my body to convince it that it is safe to lose weight again.

Replies

  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member


    How many calories do you eat daily? How often do you use a food scale? Has anything else changed in the past 5-6 weeks? Such as changes to your workouts/activity, changes to how you have logged food?
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited November 2020
    If you don't use a food scale, weighing everything you eat, and logging it all religiously, no skipping, cheating, or forgetting, start there.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    MFP is responding to what you're LOGGING that you ate, not what you actually ate. There are some inadvertent errors that people make that can result in them eating more than they think they are or result in them burning fewer calories than they think they are.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,974 Member
    edited November 2020
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    MFP is responding to what you're LOGGING that you ate, not what you actually ate. There are some inadvertent errors that people make that can result in them eating more than they think they are or result in them burning fewer calories than they think they are.

    Yes. And in addition, MFP is just giving you a statistical estimate when it gives you a calorie goal, or gives you the 5 weeks prediction: It's the average of people similar to us according to research studies, basically. If we're not very average (for what can be inobvious reasons, even), then the estimate won't be very accurate. Most people are close to average, but some of us aren't. (MFP's estimate for me is off by 25-30%, too low, even with accurate inputs. Rare, but can happen - high or low. Frankly, though, the need to improve logging accuracy is far more common than discrepancies that big between MFP estimate and reality.)

    Were you losing weight to get to 173? If so, where did you start, and how long had you been at it? If you were sticking to the same calorie goal then as now, how fast were you losing for the last 2-4 weeks when you were actually losing?

    ETA: The idea of "jump starting" to convince your body that "it's safe to lose again" - not realistic. Jump starts aren't a thing, for bodies; and the safety effect is quite small, happens at big deficits, and involves fatigue and down-regulation of activity (both subtle and obvious) that reduces calorie expenditure in daily life. It can slow things down, for sure. And stress-related water retention is also a thing that becomes more likely, if you've been at a big-ish deficit for a long-ish time. That will confuse things on the scale, even when fat loss is actually continuing.

Categories