Frustrated and researched out!

Well, how long have you been doing this?

The best thing you can do is measure *precisely* and weigh daily for at least 6 weeks and then reassess from there what is happening.

If your weight stays stable, then you know you need to cut a bit more in order to see a loss.

You need to be consistent for a good length of time to really determine what you need to do.

I get this!! I was also frustrated by own stall/gain though I hadn't really changed anything. I belonged to the 2022 Spring 5% Challenge. I Had written a blog in regard to my frustration and also posted on the team chats. I did get help I needed. I needed to be honest with myself (I'm SURE YOU ARE!) we did a weekly challenge of understanding our BMR. That helped me some, but than a member talked about the calories we need along with the BMR and TADA suddenly it took hold for me!! I lost just over 7 lbs in 8 weeks, when I hadn't been losing anything since the fall.

If you'd like some more support with a group/team of people come and check us out on the 2022 Summer 5% Challenge right here on MFP. We will soon be starting the challenge. It's a great time to join us. We work on healthy habits (LTGL - Living The Good Life) and exercise, we wish for all to start at their current level of exercise, and yours is already GREAT!! We support each other, care about each other.



https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/143186-2022-summer-5-challenge-community

Love to have you join us and anyone else who wishes to also!

AFTER you JOIN PLEASE PICK one of the teams to join within the 5%.

WOOHOO we are all looking forward to having FUN THIS SUMMER while taking care of ourselves.

Sjdgiraffe1920 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. That's a good point about the Garmin possibly not being accurate. I do weigh my food and check the food details when I log to make sure the details are as the packet. If I don't know calories I generally try to overestimate. But I get the point that there could be inaccuracies creeping in. I guess I hoped that if on average it wasn't going too high I would still get somewhere.

I've been tracking since February. I started on a lower more extreme goal doing a week or so of 1,200 but then realised I wanted more sustainable loss and not to obsess with food.

Online calculators put my bmr at around 1,630 if I put in sedentary. I don't eat more if I exercise more, I don't enter my fitness data into MFP.

I think something is still unclear. BMR is the number of calories you'd burn in a coma, motionless, basically. Your BMR is the same if sedentary or active. Your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is the number of calories you'd burn doing everything that you do (job, chores, exercise, etc.) in addition to the BMR. (The goal MFP gives you is neither BMR nor TDEE.)

So, if your BMR is estimated at 1630, eating 1200 calories but not adding exercise could be quite an aggressive deficit. A very aggressive deficit (fast loss target) could lead to unexpected stress-related water retention (distorting scale results) or fatigue (reducing TDEE below estimates).

On the other hand, if your estimated sedentary TDEE is 1630, eating 1200 might be OK, though not eating back any calories for exercise could still introduce confounding variables.

I'm not sure, given the above explanation, what 1630 is: Really your BMR? If so, fairly meaningless in determining weight loss rate. TDEE if sedentary (which you aren't), then only slightly more relevant.

I've had a couple of weeks when I ate more but didn't really put on weight either.

I guess I'll have to just increase the deficit for a week or six by cutting my intake down more or perhaps trying to fit in some extra exercise and see if it shifts anything. I know I'm fitter than I've ever been so the extra fat I'm carrying is disheartening.

As an aside, my Garmin's all-day calorie estimate is 25-30% off, for me, as compared with nearly 7 years of calorie logging and weight management experience. This is rare, but IME possible. (In my case, Garmin guesses too low, however.)

We might be able to give more nuanced advice if we knew more about you. Certainly, what you plan to try next (cut further, maybe more exercise) could be a reasonable thing after this long a period with no loss, if you prefer to try things experimentally rather than posting more.

Either way, wishing you more satisfying progress soon!

Try this https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutrients_calculator.htm
It will give you a starting point. I'm 73kg, age 42 also working out 4x a week with 30k steps a week. I have been on about 1500 cals for 2 months and I've slowly lost 2 kg. For me it takes at least 2 weeks if being consistent to see any changes. At the same time my waist went down 1 inch. I know this is my level if I want to lose fat
So, remember it's not just about weight. You might be putting on some muscle and losing fat at the same time. Keep measuring waist, chest, legs. If you can eat fewer calories without feeling starving and your weight is not dropping too fast > 1kg per week, then you should be ok.
Also foods make a difference. Too many carbs retain fluids for me.
Ignore the Garmin cals but focus on getting 10k steps a day and regular workouts
Good luck!

I'll jump in.... I took a peak at your diary but its closed. So...without seeing what your macros are set at.... switch out starchy veggies to more leafy and 'solid' greens in your vegetable portions. Try high-fiber such as raspberries and blackberries in your fruit portions. In carb portion go for a higher fiber count such as Bob's Redmill 7 or 12 grain, steel cut oaks; (soaked.) Don't go over any one macro. In my own case, these small changes kick-started a stall I was in.

With only 10 pounds to lose, weight loss can be excruciatingly slow.

Are you using a weight trend app like Happy Scale (iPhone) or Libra (Android)?

I lost almost 40 pounds last year (at age 54) and some weeks and even months it felt like I wasn't making any progress, but the report feature on Happy Scale showed that was not true.