Weight won’t budge. Advice?

AnnPT77 wrote: »

gmcurtis wrote: »

I have been doing calorie counting for a while but took a much needed break for a few months. Now I’m ready to get back! I started 15 days ago and my weight will not budge. 137lbs day in, day out. I know I need patience and I am being patient, but I’m wondering if there are any changes I can make to lessen the frustration. I prefer daily weighing because I like all the data.

I’m 35, female, 5’5”. Calories set to 1533 a day. TDEE estimate is 2042 (which is pretty spot on with what my Garmin says my average is). Goal weight is around 125. I’m pretty happy where I am but I know once I switch to maintenance I will gain a bit and I would like a buffer zone.

I eat a healthy plant based diet, mostly whole foods. I track everything and weigh and measure my foods. I eat plenty of protein.

For exercise I run 5-6 days a week (training for some 10Ks and later a half marathon). Next week I am going to be biking to work 5 days a week. I know I should be doing some strength in there but it is tough to fit in. I’m going to try for a couple of days a week.

Aside from being patient and hoping to see a change soon, is there anything I can change?

Manage the frustration? Like: Meditation or prayer, distracting hobbies, journaling, new fitness goals (sounds like you have some already, try some new calorie-efficient foods or recipes, etc.?

Congratulations on being in the home stretch, last 12 pounds (or a bit more, since you want to overshoot).

I'm 5'5", used to weigh 183, was 125.6 this morning. I'd crept up a bit in about year 4 or so of maintenance, was around your current weight of 137 at the peak of that (roughly October 2019). At that point, I decided to lose slowly, like half a pound a week or less. There were periods of 4-6 weeks when even my weight trending app thought I wasn't losing, was maybe even gaining, but (based on the 4 years' experience counting) I was quite sure I was doing what needed to be done. Eventually, scale results confirmed my belief, it just took a long time . . . and I'm menopausal, don't even have hormonal swings in the picture at this point.

If you're female, adult, not menopausal . . . well, 15 days isn't nearly enough. You'd want to at minimum compare your bodyweight at the same relevant point in at least two different menstrual cycles. (Though it's unusual, some women only see a new low once a month!)

I understand that you're trying to lose a pound a week, approximately. Still, at your current weight, within the normal BMI range IIRC, it's likely to be a gradual process (should be, if health and fitness are among your goals). If you want to use counting as your main guide - not the only option - precision in counting (like the whole food scale thing) is your friend . . . and patience is . . . I dunno, maybe your guardian angel? 😉

If you're not using a weight trending app, maybe get one (free): Happy Scale for iOS/Apple, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need one of their devices), Weightgrapher, others. It's not a magic crystal ball, it's just a statistical projection that can mislead sometimes, but it can be a little less murky than just trying to intuit things from daily scale weights.

P.S. Calorie needs calculators (really estimators) and fitness trackers can be wrong about calorie needs . . . or more accurately, any given individual can be somewhat non-average, since all the estimators (including trackers) rely on population averages of similar people.

Were you losing at the expected rate, at the estimated calorie level, previously? Most people are close to average, kind of by definition . . . but a few may be noticeably higher or lower, and a rare few quite far off indeed in either direction. It's unusual, but it happens. (My Garmin is off by around 25-30% in all-day calorie estimates, which is quite rare, but possible. MFP is similarly off. Fortunately for me, they both guess low. I maintain around your estimated maintenance calories (before exercise), despite being age 66 and sedentary outside of intentional exercise - both Garmin and MFP guess around 1500.)

P.P.S. Starting strength training would be good, but be aware that it's likely to add some temporary water weight. It's also possible that a dramatic increase in cycling could do the same. It's just water weight for muscle repair, if your calorie intake and activity level are as they have been (or close). Don't let a scale jump freak you out.

Best wishes!