hit a weight loss plateau
Cj833
Posts: 10 Member
I have hit a weight loss plateau even though I am still a ways away from my goal and I'm wondering what I can do to overcome this. I've been exercising regularly. I know that people might say to cut my calories and i am trying, but I feel like I am eating a low amount of calories and still my weight hasn't budged for over a month. I weigh 165, and am 5'3. I was 200 pounds and have worked hard to lose the weight this far, at first it came off a lot easier obviously and then it started to decline a bit, but like I said this last month- 6 weeks I have not lost any. Any suggestions for people who have experienced this?
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Replies
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You say you feel like you are eating a low amount of calories - how many calories are you eating and how are you measuring them?1
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I’m eating 1400-1600 depending on the day. I have a food scale to weigh meat and stuff like that, and measuring cups if I’m eating something like cottage cheese or whatever. I’m working out 2-3 days at gym and 6 out of 7 days reach my step goal of 11k, usually getting a lot more on weekends.0
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Some days I don’t count my food as accurately but keep it similar to what I’ve eaten on other days that I know calorie count of. Maybe I’m way under estimating how many calories I’m eating?0
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Some days I don’t count my food as accurately but keep it similar to what I’ve eaten on other days that I know calorie count of. Maybe I’m way under estimating how many calories I’m eating?
That's an easy thing to have happen. As long as it wouldn't be psychologically a problem for you (i.e., feel obsessive, in a concerning way), you might consider weighing everything you can (food prepared/eaten at home for a couple of weeks, in a way that lets you confirm whether your estimating is close, or not. While I'm a committed food scale user, I don't think it's essential for everyone all the time . . . but it sure is a great way to diagnose whether food estimation is part of a slow-loss problem, or not.
Personally, I like weighing everything I can (vs. using cups): For something like cottage cheese, peanut butter, whatever, I just put the container on the scale, tare/zero the scale, take out the serving I want, and read the negative on the scale display (set to grams). That negative number of grams is the amount I took out, and that's what I log in MFP. I do the same thing with hunks of hard cheese (cut off what I want, read the negative), etc. So easy, and no extra dishes to be washed!
The other speed tip is to do things like salads or sandwiches by putting the plate/bowl on the scale, zero/tare, add the first ingredient, not the amount, zero/tare, add the next, note, etc. It's quick and easy!7 -
Improving your accuracy - using a food scale to spot check your estimations - seems like a good idea. The notation of '1 cup' or '1/4 cup' on solid food does not necessarily equal that amount when put into a measuring cup. I have no idea why the US uses 'cups' on solid food. If you check your regularly consumed items, you will probably learn your portion sizes are more than you think.
Also, prepackaged single items are often off. I had 2 'large' hard boiled eggs this morning. Package says 50g each. But the combined weight was 110g, not 100g. An extra 10-20% here & there can really add up. This is true for slices of bread & other bread products especially. And then items like fruit: a listing may say 1 medium banana but you don't know how your banana compares to that one. So use listings that include weight, instead. If my banana is 115g I can log that accurately without trying to figure out if it is 'medium' or 'large'.
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