Not losing despite undereating
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mrandredparis
Posts: 12 Member
Hey Everyone
Despite eating less than 1600 calories per day before exercise I am maintaining my weight not losing. I'm 5'4" 138.2 lbs male. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've reached out to a weight management clinic to hopefully talk to a professional but I thought I would also ask you. If you have any ideas I would be happy to listen. I've checked my kitchen scale by using a measuring cup to test that yes in fact it is working correctly.
Despite eating less than 1600 calories per day before exercise I am maintaining my weight not losing. I'm 5'4" 138.2 lbs male. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've reached out to a weight management clinic to hopefully talk to a professional but I thought I would also ask you. If you have any ideas I would be happy to listen. I've checked my kitchen scale by using a measuring cup to test that yes in fact it is working correctly.
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Replies
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Hi!
What is your weight loss goal and how long have you been logging? You're already in a normal BMI range for your height, so if you need to lose more it will probably be slow going and patience will be really, really important.
If you opened your diary it could help troubleshoot any food logging issues.
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Hm. You're dead center in the middle of a healthy weight as calculated by BMI calculators.
Is there some reason that you have to lose it in a hurry? Because getting lower is going to be a very slow process, like maybe a pound a month...and I hope you'll start eating a lot more. That is a super low (stressful for your body) calorie goal.
Reset your Goals to "Lose 1/2 pound per week." Be honest and realistic when you set your Activity Level here.
Always eat more when you exercise.
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There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings2
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When it happened to me, it was because my food wasn't being calculated properly. There are a lot of different options in MFP, and there were times when I wasn't using the right one or I was underestimating the portion sizes. In addition, most of the time I would skip adding the little things like coffee/creamer, or crystal light; essentially things that were very low in calorie, but they made a difference when I was right at or near my calorie limit.2
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I personally don't have a weight loss goal beyond getting to a healthy BMI but my family doctor who has no weight management experience has said I need to be at 130 lbs. I'm in no rush, but I just don't understand why I stopped losing weight. I will adjust my calorie count to be higher. Thank you for your thoughts2
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mrandredparis wrote: »I personally don't have a weight loss goal beyond getting to a healthy BMI but my family doctor who has no weight management experience has said I need to be at 130 lbs. I'm in no rush, but I just don't understand why I stopped losing weight. I will adjust my calorie count to be higher. Thank you for your thoughts
Only losing 8 pounds is going to be VERY slow. If you recently started exercise, you are likely retaining water, which will mask fat loss on the scale.
Also, under eating is stressful, which can increase cortisol, which can also lead to water retention.
What weekly weight loss goal did you select?
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https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm
That's a BMI calculator.
You are in the healthy range, at 138 pounds, you're at 23.7
130 pounds would put you at 22.3 - also in the healthy range.
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I set my weekly weight loss to be 1 lb a week by my weight management doctor's recommendations which is approximately 1665 per week but found that I usually have to be 200 calories less than that to maintain a 1 lb weight loss per week. I started in October 2020 and have been exercising pretty regularly daily with a power walk, weights, and tai chi alternating days. Although the last 2 weeks my walking has dropped as I used tai chi to combat my cravings as I didn't have to wait two hours after I ate.2
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mrandredparis wrote: »I set my weekly weight loss to be 1 lb a week by my weight management doctor's recommendations which is approximately 1665 per week but found that I usually have to be 200 calories less than that to maintain a 1 lb weight loss per week. I started in October 2020 and have been exercising pretty regularly daily with a power walk, weights, and tai chi alternating days. Although the last 2 weeks my walking has dropped as I used tai chi to combat my cravings as I didn't have to wait two hours after I ate.
Keep in mind that the weight loss rate is an average over time, too - you might not necessarily drop exactly one pound every week on the scale. With less weight to lose, fat loss might be obscured by normal changes in how much water your body is retaining, any food moving through your digestive system and waste products, etc.
If it's very important to you to lose those eight pounds, I'd suggest trying for a half pound per week, log precisely, trust the math, and go. You might not see it show up on the scale every single week, but at that rate you'd still lose it in four or five months. That might seem like a lot of time, but it would also be good practice for then maintaining that weight moving forward.5 -
I have changed my diary to public1
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Also, keep your salt intake in mind. It may be water retention that shows on the scale.3
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Dieting for that long, at kind of a big deficit for so little to lose, may have messed with your stress level, and caused body to adapt.
Are you measuring several body parts for changes too? You may be down to just the waist at this point showing any progress.
Scale only tells part of the story, and fat weight isn't the only thing that changes, water weight is fast and there too.
You may be do better with a different plan of attack, allow your hormones to reset, get your body back to full speed.
Alternate week diet.
500 would normally be unreasonable for so little left to lose, but if you diet a week, eat at maintenance a week - it's not unreasonable anymore.
That's a 500 cal deficit off what you burn in total - including exercise when done.
That's eating at maintenance what you burn in total - including exercise when done.
(yes, I'm implying something here)
First you likely need to slowly get your body up to potential maintenance level - not the suppressed your are likely at. Eating like 200 extra daily for a week.
At some point you'll likely have whoosh effect of retained water.
Get up to estimated maintenance and hold for a week. Then start alternate week diet.
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^This is my plan.
I currently need to lose, I don't know, another 5-10 lbs, maybe. My BMI is what yours is. right now I'm just eating at maintenance and living my summer life. Plan is the fall is alternate week dieting to get those last few pounds. I CANNOT do super precision in logging without triggering something nasty in my brain, which means a bigger deficit is a smarter idea for me - but I still have to account for safety in doing it.
So hard deficit one week, maintain the next, in rotation to get the last bit.
but do a nice, solid, reverse diet as suggested above before you do this. I've been doing diet breaks every 5lbs for 50lbs AND I'll have 3 months of 'break' before I start doing a deficit again.3 -
Based on the info you have shared so far, i would reexamine and reevaluate my goals
I don't know where you started (and your talk about weight management seems to indicate that you started somewhere higher than just the slightly overweight range) but the more lean you get the more you will have to fight to stay there.
You are within the healthy weight range already.
Lightly trying to lose while failing to do so is a valid early maintenance strategy and not something I can disagree with. It can be helpful as a period of stabilization and transition
Pushing yourself to lose within the normal weight range especially after a period of successful weight loss.... in my books, it better have some real reasons behind it.
All losses come with a risk of rebound regain at the aftermath of loss completion. And rebounds don't always stop where we start, they often come with friends2 -
yeah, your doctor may have not realized you'd be really good at food logging AND nutrition when he/she recommended a one pound loss per week - and/or were you heavier when she/he suggested that?
Set yourself at not more than 1/2 pound per week loss, keep logging (excellent job, BTW) and eating ALL your calories, including those given for purposeful exercise.1 -
I started at 175 lbs hovering at the obesity range1
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Like others are saying, I'd look at other measures and the big picture at this stage of the game. Body fat percentage, for example. Types of excercises. Have you considered focusing on strength and muscle gain? Having less fat and more muscle results in easier fat loss. Just focusing on the scale (especially at a healthy weight) might not be the way to go. Look at increasing testosterone and decreasing fat via weight training, if you can. Sounds like this low calorie diet may be increasing your cortisol and preventing you from getting leaner.1
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You said that you eat 1600 cal before exercise. Try not to eat back your exercise calories for a wile1
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My question would be why does your Dr think you should get to 130 lb??
Or was that the target when you were obese and just given as a general number from middle of the healthy BMi range?
You are a young man, I would expect a BMI of 23.7 to be quite healthy for you - unless there is a specific reason to go lower I would focus on maintenance now.8
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