Only lost 2lbs in a month - what gives?

taylormarie097 · March 2021

Female, 23, 5’6. I’m currently down 102lbs (280-177.8lbs), it’s taken about a year and a half. I did this through a 500 calorie deficit and incorporating strength training and a splash of cardio on average 5 days a week of exercise for 30-40minutes a piece - note I never ate back my burned calories so my actual deficit would be higher than 500 at the end of the day.

Since February I’ve only lost 2lbs even though my eating habits haven’t changed (1350 cals daily with everything measured out on a scale) and my exercise has slightly increased: Strength training 4/5 days a week at 30-40m (Apple Watch says 250-350 active cals a session) as well as a good walk with incline 4 days a week for 30m (Apple Watch says 175-215 active cals) * I know my watch is very likely to be over estimating my active calories but gives you an idea.

I’ve never really hit a plateau before and I would love some advice about getting through it. I know starvation mode always floats around but there’s conflicting info about if this actually happens (ie. Minnesota Starvation Experiment) but maybe I’m eating too little when my strength training + walks are factored in?

dragon_girl26 · March 2021

Well, first off, if you've lost two pounds in a month, that means you're still losing so that's not a plateau. A plateau is 4 + weeks with zero movement on the scale (or moving up).
So if you're eating 1350 calories total and you haven't been eating back exercise calories, then you are definitely undereating. That is way too little if you're active. Increasing your activity could be causing additonal water weight retention, which masks weight loss for a few weeks. Starvation Mode in the usual "your body clings to everything and causes you to gain weight" description is a myth, but adaptive thermogenesis is definitely a thing. Undereating can cause your metabolism to slow, which causes your weight loss to slow. It also robs you of energy, which also affects your CO because you aren't able to exert as much effort during workouts. Usually the best thing for that is a diet break.

FTR, I'm about ten lbs lighter than you, close to your height, twice your age, and lose 1 lb a week eating about 2000-2100 calories total. (1310 + activity/exercise).

AnnPT77 · March 2021

Nice work to this point: Congratulations!

Without disagreeing with the above (I don't):

* You could still be holding some water weight from the increased exercise. If you're premenopausal, that would be against a backdrop of normal hormonal fluctuations, so that can combine to make the scale mislead about fat loss. Personally, when I resume strength training after a long break - my typical pattern 🙄 - I gain around 2 pounds of water weight and hang onto it as long as I keep progressively training on a regular schedule. (Other people have different patterns.) It's not fat, so I don't worry about it, I just ride it out. When I'm losing fat, that fat loss eventually shows up on the scale, just delayed.

* Depending on how long your strength sessions are, the Apple watch could be over-estimating the calories. (I don't know what algorithm it uses. If it uses heart rate, that goes up for reasons unrelated to calorie burn, during strength training. Some devices use a different method to estimate strength training these days, if they know that's what you're doing.) The MFP exercise database's strength training estimate ("Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)" in cardiovascular is actually likely to be a better estimate for normal rep/set strength training than a heart-rate-based one. Compare that, using the full time period including normal between-set rests, and and see if it's lower. I'm skeptical of 250-350 for 30-40 minutes. I estimate 108 calories for 40 minutes, for me, but I'm smaller than you are currently (I'm 5'5", 125).

* Starvation mode: "Body holds onto fat" version? No. "People who lose weight very fast or for a long time sometimes experience subtle fatigue/slowing that they might not notice, that reduces their calorie expenditure and slows but not stops weight loss" version? Yeah, that can happen. (The right name for that is "adaptive thermogenesis".) Taking a couple of weeks at maintenance calories periodically, during a long weight loss, may help. More info here, including the science-geekery:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

Another thing that can happen, especially if there are other stress sources in a person's life, is that creeping water weight gain (from cumulative stress) hides some fat loss on the scale. A calorie deficit is a physical stress, and can be enough to see some of this, if losing fast (which I understand you have *not* been doing), or losing for a long time period without a break (which it sounds like you may have been).

As dragon_girl said, you're losing, so you're not in a plateau. You could be experiencing slowed loss, you could be experiencing some deceptive water weight nonsense. Just a couple of things to consider.

Wishing you continued success!

taylormarie097 · March 2021

Thank you for such a detailed response and for such a great explanation! I definitely suspected that it might be due to eating too little but it’s really helpful to hear from other people on this as well. I think you’re definitely right that I’m under eating (TDEE calculators agree as well) but it can definitely be a mind struggle to increase my calories when I’m trying to lose weight - seems counter productive when it really isn’t. I appreciate you taking the time to help!

taylormarie097 · March 2021

@AnnPT77 thank you for the info and the link! I believe the Apple Watch is definitely heart rate based so I definitely take it with a grain of salt - it’s also why I never ate back my exercise calories since I think it’s definitely overestimating. I do more of a circuit style strength training to keep my heart rate up versus the traditional 3 sets of an exercise with rests in between - if that might make a difference as to why my watch calories are high but I still don’t believe it’s accurate.

I have taken a few little breaks here and there (a month at a time of eating at maintenance) but it’s just not a great time to take a large break right now. But maybe I’ll think about eating a bit closer to maintenance and keep a small deficit of maybe 250cals or something.

Thank you for the support! Crazy to think I was 100lbs more than I am now - the human body is certainly capable of some amazing changes!

AnnPT77 · March 2021

taylormarie097 wrote: »

@AnnPT77 thank you for the info and the link! I believe the Apple Watch is definitely heart rate based so I definitely take it with a grain of salt - it’s also why I never ate back my exercise calories since I think it’s definitely overestimating. I do more of a circuit style strength training to keep my heart rate up versus the traditional 3 sets of an exercise with rests in between - if that might make a difference as to why my watch calories are high but I still don’t believe it’s accurate.

I have taken a few little breaks here and there (a month at a time of eating at maintenance) but it’s just not a great time to take a large break right now. But maybe I’ll think about eating a bit closer to maintenance and keep a small deficit of maybe 250cals or something.

Thank you for the support! Crazy to think I was 100lbs more than I am now - the human body is certainly capable of some amazing changes!

For circuit training estimates, you could compare MFP's "Circuit training, general", which I think makes your Apple estimate a little more plausible. Hard to tell whether Apple's using heart rate, or not: Most of the manufacturers are a little close-mouthed about their algorithms, and some devices that track heart rate don't always use it for all exercises (again, that's assuming they know what exercise you're doing).

As an aside, the small deficit idea IMO can be pretty powerful. However, it can be frustrating, as half a pound a week can be obscured for up to a couple of months, maybe more, on the bodyweight scale, amongst routine daily water weight fluctuations of a pound or two. If you use a weight trending app (like Happy Scale for Apple devices) that may help a bit, but it's still just doing statistical projections, not magic insights, so it can be misled.

I've been losing super slowly (intentionally), in what's basically maintenance, for over a year, at a smaller effective deficit than that. It's been pretty much painless, yet I'm down 12-15 pounds overall (exact number depending which day you ask! 😉). My trending app (Libra, for Android) has had the delusion that I've been maintaining, maybe even gaining, for as much as a month at a time over that span, but I'm confident enough in my personal calorie calculations that I didn't worry about it. Sure enough, expected losses showed up eventually.

Best wishes!

springlering62 · March 2021

I just want to chime in to say, having lost a hundred pounds, expectations can play havoc with reality.

The closer you get to goal, the slower it’s going to come off. But it will come off.

Two pounds in a month is half a pound a week. Many here would be jumping for joy to reach that figure.

Don’t be too hard on yourself. And as others have said, consider bumping your calories up a bit- assuming you weigh carefull and accurately. I’m well over twice your age, only an inch taller, and eating almost twice as much as you simply to maintain. Granted, I’m (probably insanely) active, but my goodness gracious, I couldn’t hack it at 1350.

taylormarie097 · March 2021

@springlering62 thank you for the kind words!

It can just be so hard mentally when I was dropping weight so quickly - sometimes 10lbs change in a month so now to only see a few lbs leaves me feeling disappointed + defeated. I ended up re-weighing myself this morning and was down an additional 2lbs so I’m not going to mess with my cals at this point. I was quite sore yesterday so that could be causing me to hold onto so me excess water along with some PMS too.

I think I’m going to follow a lot of the advice on here and do “Maintenance May” to take a few weeks at maintenance to give my body a break before going back into my deficit come the summer months.

I’m also going to take a wack of measurements as I seem to be down an inch on my waist too. The scale just seems like such an easy weight to measure progress but measurements + pictures are fantastic as well.

PAV8888 · March 2021

You may want to start using a weight trend app as your weight loss slows down when you have less available to lose..

callsitlikeiseeit · March 2021

Strudders67 · March 2021

taylormarie097 wrote: »

@springlering62 thank you for the kind words!

It can just be so hard mentally when I was dropping weight so quickly - sometimes 10lbs change in a month so now to only see a few lbs leaves me feeling disappointed + defeated.

I’m also going to take a wack of measurements as I seem to be down an inch on my waist too. The scale just seems like such an easy weight to measure progress but measurements + pictures are fantastic as well.

Good idea to take measurements. I also agree with the suggestion to look at a weight trending app. To answer another post, I just looked at my weight loss figures over the two and half years I was losing. I averaged 1.3lb a month so, as someone above said, I'm one who would have jumped at your 2lb a month. The key thing is that your weight is still going down. It may not be as fast as you'd like, but it's still going down and I'd encourage you to focus on that rather than any disappointment. You still weigh less than you did a month ago.

all4yum · March 2021

Our weights and weight losses are very similar. Im 5'6" down from around 310 to 172 now. So I'm impressed that your weight loss hasn't slowed down before this. I've had months without mine shifting a single pound, months of just losing 1/2 a pound the entire month. Just don't stop. Keep going. You'll lose 24 pounds in another year at this rate, just enough to help you be near 25 bmi!

I totally agree with maintenance weeks. Once weight loss slows, it can help. I read a study that showed people lost more when they dieted for a few weeks and maintained for a week, repeat. I do maintenance week every one in a while.

I also do fast days when nothing else is working, two fast days often help shift things.

Well done on the weight loss. You're doing great

taylormarie097 · March 2021

@all4yum thank you! Congratulations to you as well! Looking back I guess I have taken small breaks here and there but I’ve been conscious of them so it hasn’t bothered me or I’ve just expected no change since I’ve stopped tracking so diligently.

March has been really awesome mentally for me and I have lots of motivation so I’d like to keep that ride going but I think come April I’d like to take a quick diet break for 7-14 days to give my body a bit of a switch up then get back to it!

Only lost 2lbs in a month - what gives?

Replies

Categories