Plateaued, Calorie Deficit, Calories Too Low?

How long have you been at this, this time around, before your weight held steady? Normally, it will take 4-6 weeks on a new calorie intake/activity routine to know what the actual average effect is. If it's been less time than that, it's too early to say there's a plateau.

Most of us lose weight non-linearly, some weeks looking like little/no loss, others with larger than average drops. Adding new exercise (among other things) can lead to some water retention that shows up on the scale, making it look like we're not losing fat when we are.

If your weight has literally been the exact same number for multiple days in a row with daily weighing, and you have an electronic scale, maybe try changing the battery. If you don't weigh daily, how often do you weigh in? If your weight hasn't been the exact same number, how much has it changed over what period of time?

MFP will typically not give a male a calorie goal lower than 1500. I wonder how yours is 1160? That's lower than the 1200 that's the lowest it would give a woman. Then you're only eating 1300?

What does your weekly treat day look like: Do you calorie count that?

You can change your carb goal in MFP if you want to. That's more a matter of personal preference. Protein and fats (or actually some of their subcomponents) are essential nutrients in the sense that our bodies can't manufacture them out of any other nutrient. Carbs are not essential in that sense. People seem to do OK on a wide range of carb levels, with some people finding that too many carbs spike their appetite, others finding that too few carbs tank their energy level. Only way to know where your personal best carb level is, is to experiment, AFAIK.

It's calories that matter directly for weight management, period. Poor nutrition can indirectly affect weight management success: Sub-par nutrition can reduce energy so we move less, burn fewer calories than expected; or sub-par nutrition can trigger cravings, making it hard to stick with calorie goal.


If you only have 18 pounds total to lose, 2 pounds a week is an aggressive loss rate to shoot for, higher on the health risk scale than I'd personally prefer.

If your logging is accurate, I'd say there's a fair bet you're eating too little for your best health outcomes, but that won't stop you losing fat. (It can add to the scale confusion via stress-related water retention, maybe, though.) Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, eat at least the number of calories MFP thinks you should eat to lose weight at a sensible rate (2 pounds isn't a great idea IMO, but even at that rate MFP should give you more than 1150 calories as your goal!)

My main point here, though, is that you haven't given us enough information to understand why you believe you're in a plateau, or how long you've been there, so it's hard to give you a sensible and specific answer.

Make sure your logging is on point. Here's a good guide:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Set your Goals to, "Lose 1 pound per week," and "Lightly Active." Eat 200-300 more on days you exercise for an hour.

Log for a month and then use that data you collect to make adjustments. We can't really give you much more than that.

daryldblack wrote: »

I've plateaued and would love some ideas from the collective.

Age 50
208 lbs,
6'0 inches
26% body fat
goal weight 190
2 lbs./week
Moderate Activity in MFP
Intermittent Fast (for brain health)

Macros:
Low carb (sub-50g/daily)
150g protein (based on 1.6 grams per kg/body weight)
40g fat

Activity:
Exercise 4 X week (2 X 30 min resistance band, 2 X 15 min basic kettlebell routine)
30 min slow state cardio X 5 days/week (walk @ brisk pace or steady stationary bike)
One day weekend is treat day

Daily Calories Burn:
Approx. 400 or so (I take Apple metrics and cut by 50%)

MFP has me at only 1160 as a base goal
I typically consume 1300 calories daily and track 'religiously' in MFP.

EVERYTHING I read is that I am WAY too low for carbs (TDEE Calculator has me at 2911/day at moderate exercise). I get that MFP is a general point. I'm SO confused and have analysis paralysis lol

Ideas? Next steps? Increase calories? How much? Other?

Thank you in advance!

I don’t see how it’s possible for MFP to calculate a daily goal for a man that’s less than the minimum they won’t go past for a woman.

You know that the calorie goal MFP gives you already includes your deficit, right? If you put your goal in to lose 2# a week, you don’t have to take another 1000 calories off of that goal manually. 2160 is likely more than enough to lose consistently.

I was wondering if 1160 calories was a typo as it is clearly too low for a man, let alone a 6' man, but 50g carbs, 150g protein, and 40g fat does indeed = 1160 calories.

Daryl, with less than 20 pounds to lose, change your weekly weight loss goal to a half pound per week and enjoy those extra calories!

There's so much wrong going on there.

With a goal weight just 18 pounds away, you aren't going to be losing two pounds per week of fat. That target drop rate should be much lower, like 1 pound now and soon 0.5 pounds.

Your calorie intake at under 1200 and you are probably burning 200+ in exercise most days too, is way too low.

I would strongly recommend you start doing weights, more than just a little bit with bands and kettlebell.

If you've been doing this for a while already, take a refeed break. Go back to maintenance for a week or two. You'll probably gain a bit of water weight, don't worry about that. Then resume the deficit but at a far more reasonable pace.

That calorie target is WAY too low, even if you were completely sedentary which you obviously are not. I would recommend Googling a BMR calculator to show how many calories you actually should be eating.