Real frustrated

gppj55br5q
gppj55br5q Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I have been cutting calories and have even been seeing a personal trainer 2 times a week and now have recently did 3 days a week and am going to stick with that.
I started out just shy of 250lbs at 6ft. I have been working out with my trainer for 2 months. I quickly got down to 238lbs. Now I’ve been between 238-235 for weeks now and it’s really starting to annoy me. I find myself sore from work outs and im staying pretty consistent aside from the occasional night snack here and there.
I feel like im not making any progress now and am getting real annoyed. I feel like at my weight with the amount I sweat and push it at the gym and cutting calories, I should be dropping weight much quicker instead of being at a complete standstill. Is this normal. Any advice would be wonderful.
Thanks.

Replies

  • margaretmaclean9339
    margaretmaclean9339 Posts: 1 Member
    I am ‘real frustrated’ as well. I walk 35 miles a week and have done so since Covid as my job ended so I decided to retire. I now have the time to take care of myself and I have come to like the walking. I eat sensibly boy usually 3x 400-450 calorie meals and the occasional snack. I initially lost 10 lbs and since then I am stuck. The dietitian says it’s insulin resistance but my blood work is borderline and I don’t officially have pre diabetes.

    It makes me want to give up!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,385 Member
    Yeah, those occasional snacks have personalities of their own and very stealthy, so we have to be vigilant otherwise they will create havoc everywhere they go, sneaky *kitten*. Cheers.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    Your answer is in this thread, from Sidesteel:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Also, read this flowchart:

    jgvus21xw680.jpg


  • gppj55br5q
    gppj55br5q Posts: 2 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Weight training and being sore = water retention = stalled weight loss (fat loss masked by water weight) = could be perfectly normal

    I would suggest measuring yourself and taking progress pictures, as extra ways to track your progress.

    12lbs in 2 months is great progress and weight loss is rarely linear.
    If you don't see any progress (weight and measurements) over a whole month, then you might look at checking if your calorie intake is accurately measured.

    How many calories are you eating and how active are you (aside from your trainer sessions)? Are you male or female, and how old?
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Weight training and being sore = water retention = stalled weight loss (fat loss masked by water weight) = could be perfectly normal

    I would suggest measuring yourself and taking progress pictures, as extra ways to track your progress.

    12lbs in 2 months is great progress and weight loss is rarely linear.
    If you don't see any progress (weight and measurements) over a whole month, then you might look at checking if your calorie intake is accurately measured.

    How many calories are you eating and how active are you (aside from your trainer sessions)? Are you male or female, and how old?

    I’ve been averaging between 1600-2000 cals. I am a 33 year old male. I’m not super active. I’ve been trying to ride my stationary bike on my off days for like 30 min. So maybe 2 times a week on the bike?

  • laytonasmus
    laytonasmus Posts: 12 Member
    So I'm a similar size to you, I'm 6'-2" and started at 247 lb. on October 16 (about 4-5 lb of that was bloated water weight) I'm currently at 234 lb after a month. I read recently that our bodies can adapt if you eat the same amount of calories every day, and will actually store it. So what I started doing is what is called the "zig-zag diet". Essentially, some days you eat 200 kcal less than what your goal is, some days you eat 200 kcal more. It keeps your body guessing and it will help you continue to keep your metabolism high and lose more weight.

    Another thing I did was reduce my caloric goal by 200 kcals. I'm also walking more than I have in the past. In the end, really, if calories-in<calories-out, you will always lose weight. Always. But again, our brains and bodies are smart and will store more if it thinks it's in a permanent deficit.

    Anyway, that all said, everyone is different. Like others have mentioned, you seem to be doing really well already, just keep up the good work. Muscle definitely weighs more than fat, so maybe the measurements you should be taking are waist and hips instead of weight. If you stay the same weight but your waistline is becoming smaller, then you're definitely losing fat.

    Good luck!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,151 Member
    gppj55br5q wrote: »
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Weight training and being sore = water retention = stalled weight loss (fat loss masked by water weight) = could be perfectly normal

    I would suggest measuring yourself and taking progress pictures, as extra ways to track your progress.

    12lbs in 2 months is great progress and weight loss is rarely linear.
    If you don't see any progress (weight and measurements) over a whole month, then you might look at checking if your calorie intake is accurately measured.

    How many calories are you eating and how active are you (aside from your trainer sessions)? Are you male or female, and how old?
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Weight training and being sore = water retention = stalled weight loss (fat loss masked by water weight) = could be perfectly normal

    I would suggest measuring yourself and taking progress pictures, as extra ways to track your progress.

    12lbs in 2 months is great progress and weight loss is rarely linear.
    If you don't see any progress (weight and measurements) over a whole month, then you might look at checking if your calorie intake is accurately measured.

    How many calories are you eating and how active are you (aside from your trainer sessions)? Are you male or female, and how old?

    I’ve been averaging between 1600-2000 cals. I am a 33 year old male. I’m not super active. I’ve been trying to ride my stationary bike on my off days for like 30 min. So maybe 2 times a week on the bike?

    We'd expect you to burn mid-2000s calories daily at your size/age/sex, even if sedentary (i.e., average home life, non-vigorous job, minimal exercise). But working 3x a week with your trainer, and 30 minutes on stationary bike, isn't sedentary in a total-calories (TDEE) sense. (I'm not saying you shouldn't be set at sedentary/not very active on MFP. If you were, you'd add the exercise calories separately, if using MFP as designed.) With the exercise, you could be burning around 3000.

    12 pounds in 8 weeks is reasonably consistent with that, roughly, if you're eating 1600-2000. Water weight rebalancing, as Lietchi suggested, is a plausible explanation for a temporary stall. (Yes, a stall from water retention masking fat loss can be multi-week. I've proven this to myself more than once.)

    Your timeline is a bit unclear. If you've been seeing your trainer for 2 months total, and that's when you started trying to lose, that would seem to imply that either you lost the 12 pounds in less than 2 months, or that the stall for weeks has been not really very many weeks? Can you clarify?

    Given all of that, I endorse Riverside's suggestions, including that flowchart. I'm wondering about your logging. That's not a diss: Logging is a surprisingly nuanced skill, and most of us who've been doing it for a while have experienced some . . . um, realizations? . . . along the way. Your MFP diary is closed. If you were to open it up even temporarily, some of the old hands might be willing to take a look, see if anything jumps out on that front.

    I'm puzzled: I'd lose at 1600-2000 gross calorie intake . . . admittedly slowly, but I'm 7" shorter, over 100 pounds lighter, twice your age, and 100% more female. I'd expect you to be losing on 2000 accurately-logged calories, looked at as a multi-week average (which is really the only realistic way to look at it, because water weight fluctuations can absolutely be that weird).

    See:
    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

    Best wishes, sincerely!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    12 Lbs in 8 weeks is pretty fast and it's normal to lose weight pretty quickly early on, especially the first 2-3 weeks as you dump a lot of water weight and inherent waste in your system. It's also normal for that to taper off and in my personal experience that happened to me around the 6 week mark and after that things slowed down to where I could be completely stalled for a couple of weeks and then get a whoosh of a few Lbs seemingly overnight or I would lose a little then gain a little, etc.

    It's annoying in the short run just looking at individual data points from point to point so I started using a weight trending app which allowed me to much more easily see the trend over time. I think most of us go into losing weight with some pretty unrealistic expectations of the Lbs just melting off but unfortunately that isn't the reality and losing weight isn't a linear process of consistent loss throughout the process. It's a long process and all you can do is hold the course and those slow, incremental losses add up over time.

    I also found it very helpful to look at progress outside of just what the scale says. I put a lot of focus on my fitness and fitness goals and achieving those. I made nutritional goals to improve diet quality and understanding and focused on hitting those goals. As I did those things, my weight took care of itself slowly but surely.

    Also consider that you aren't considerably overweight so you aren't going to be able to lose weight at the same rate as someone who is considerably obese or morbidly obese in a healthy manner. It's a slow process.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,120 Member
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Your answer is in this thread, from Sidesteel:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Also, read this flowchart:

    jgvus21xw680.jpg


    This chart needs a new question, maybe after the first one. "Have you lost any weight since you started?"
    Because OP has lost 12 pounds in two months. This flow chart really isn't for them. It's for people who really aren't losing weight.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Your answer is in this thread, from Sidesteel:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    Also, read this flowchart:

    <snip image for space>

    This chart needs a new question, maybe after the first one. "Have you lost any weight since you started?"
    Because OP has lost 12 pounds in two months. This flow chart really isn't for them. It's for people who really aren't losing weight.

    Well, that's splitting hairs, glenmont. :lol: I wouldn't expect less from you, but still...

    OP says:
    I initially lost 10 lbs and since then I am stuck.

    The very first box in the flow chart says:
    Help! I'm not losing any weight.
    __________________________________________________
    This reply below from laytonasmus that I'm quoting, don't listen to any of this. It's all wrong. Zig zagging is an okay way to change up your calories, but it isn't a trick and you definitely don't, "keep your body guessing." Consistent calorie intake balanced by consistent calorie output isn't an easy calculation but it also isn't as exact as 200 calories up or down exactly three days a week (or whatever it says) and that's why diet book sellers come up with all these fancy sounding explanations and Super Hacks that - just aren't.

    Also, adaptive thermogenesis (the part I bolded) also does NOT work like that.
    Here's a good thread on that:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1
    Weight management is about calories, but keep it as simple as possible. Too many "rules" and it's hard to adhere.

    Somebody else can take the "Muscle weighs more than fat" mis-statement. I already wrote a dang book :lol:

    Just no. (below)
    laytonasmus wrote: »
    So I'm a similar size to you, I'm 6'-2" and started at 247 lb. on October 16 (about 4-5 lb of that was bloated water weight) I'm currently at 234 lb after a month. I read recently that our bodies can adapt if you eat the same amount of calories every day, and will actually store it. So what I started doing is what is called the "zig-zag diet". Essentially, some days you eat 200 kcal less than what your goal is, some days you eat 200 kcal more. It keeps your body guessing and it will help you continue to keep your metabolism high and lose more weight.

    Another thing I did was reduce my caloric goal by 200 kcals. I'm also walking more than I have in the past. In the end, really, if calories-in<calories-out, you will always lose weight. Always. But again, our brains and bodies are smart and will store more if it thinks it's in a permanent deficit.

    Anyway, that all said, everyone is different. Like others have mentioned, you seem to be doing really well already, just keep up the good work. Muscle definitely weighs more than fat, so maybe the measurements you should be taking are waist and hips instead of weight. If you stay the same weight but your waistline is becoming smaller, then you're definitely losing fat.

    Good luck!

    @gppj55br5q, Don't start eating less! I would say eat quite a lot more.

    Please read that thread I linked above, this one. https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
    It is good, sound advice from a professional and is part of the sticky threads in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of myfitnesspal.

  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    Based on the stats that you gave, your BMR is ~2050 calories. You should not be eating less than that in a day.

    Your TDEE estimate when using 'sedentary' as your activity level (you can log whatever calorie burn you get from working out in MFP)..... is ~2500/day. Theoretically, this is how much you could eat and maintain your current weight.

    So, if I were you --- I'd readjust your calorie goal and set it to something more like 2,200/day...that's a 300 cal deficit --- plus you are starting to work out some more. You can by all means eat back those calories (especially if you find that you are hungry)...but you could also likely get away with only eating back ~50% of them I'd say and still have a decent/manageable deficit but also be fueling your body well.

    As others have said, if you just started lifting in your routine...there will be a bit of a stall. Generally - you should not expect your weight loss progress to be in a straight downward line. It'll ebb and flow.

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