What am I doing incorrectly?

The scale only measures mass, not what TYPE of mass. If you lose a pound of fat, but gain a pound of muscle, the scale shows "no change." If you lose a pound of fat but gain a pound of water, the scale shows "no change." You could very well be making continued progress in terms of fat loss, but it's being masked from the scale.

The fat loss will make its presence known, however, in the form of inches lost from the body, as a pound of fat takes up more volume than either a pound of muscle or water. So if your clothes are feeling looser, or a tape measure shows a smaller figure, that's a more accurate barometer of whether you're still losing fat.

I'm sitting in the same spot basically... My newest thing I'm trying is Intermittent fasting at 16:8 split and then making sure my first meal is low carb, but lean protein. Also drinking a lot of water and trying to make sure my meals are mostly whole foods and not processed. I've mostly worked on getting the majority of unnatural sugars out of my diet. I'm also working on my mental health along with trying to get to where I'm physically happy again. I don't know if any of this is going to work they say it should help my metabolism jump back. Suffice to say I'm not sure why I'm stuck also but hoping this works.

Yeah, total calories are too high and confirmed if you've put on 10 lbs since October. Tighten that up. Cheers.

cmriverside wrote: »

neanderthin wrote: »

Yeah, total calories are too high and confirmed if you've put on 10 lbs since October. Tighten that up. Cheers.

But she is now at 1500. That weight was gained when she wasn't tracking nor exercising.

Don't you read the whole thread before posting? Rookie!

Hahaha, no I just normally wing it, you know that lol.

Likely culprit.. Not counting calorie intake accurately. "Adding 100 extra calories for ready made or takeout meals" is ringing alarm bells for me. Restaurant salads can easily be 1000 calories or more.

I'm 5'5“ and maintain around 1400-1500. I lost 40+ pounds to get to my goal range of 122-125 at a slow and steady pace eating around 1200-1300. The last 10lbs required VERY accurate logging.

It’s very likely your TDEE estimate is running a little high at 2050 for your current activity level.

Maybe using a ‘sedentary’ setting (1695) then adding exercise calories on the days you do more would show more accurately your likely daily deficit which is evidently less than you’d have hoped for in order to meet your preferred rate of loss.
Doing it this way may also encourage you to go out and take a longer walk or do some more exercise as you can see the difference it makes to how many calories you burn in a day.

Could you consider a Fitbit or other HRM activity tracker that links to MFP? It might be helpful for you.

@ameeters I have your same exact stats, and I also experienced rapid weight gain 1lb / week over the course of a year.

For additional context, this happened to me making the transition from 39 to 40. I had a very active, regular routine - treadmill at a 15 incline at 3-4 speed 30 mins, kettlebells, pilates 4-5 × week 45 mins to 1.5 hours, and what I thought was clean eating.

Here's what I've learned that's helped me to lose 1-2lbs per week with me fitting into previous clothes, several inches in my visceral body fat without losing muscle.

I hired a Dietician. They told me I was grossly underconsuming calories 1200-1300, and I was underconsuming protein and fiber with my workouts. I needed to be closer to 1600. I also needed to up my protein to at minimum to 120g.

She also told me my HIIT workouts were causing extreme inflammation with how often I went into the red with my heart rate. I was averaging around 150-175, and I needed to stay withing the 125-135 max range. If I did peak above that I needed to consciously wait until a lower rate before starting my next set.

She shared my genetic body map of what my body needed with my ratios of macros - 40% carbs / 30% fat / 30% protein.

The one change that had losing weight quickly was implementing a 14-hour fast, just that alone helped with losing 1lb / week.

What's helped accelerate it 2lbs / week is taking the probitic lactobacillus gasseri and Omega 3s. Really sticking to my percentages, and LOTS of protein, lots of legumes and fibrous vegetables.

I also have a sweet tooth, and one thing that helped me was eating Quest protein bars or Think protein bars when that craving would hit. These are low sugar 2-4g with 20-21g of protein. Also, limiting my fruit intake to max 1/2 cup per day.

Also, I'm paying more attention to my InBody scans (Dietician led) and inches lost than my weight. Body recomposition and weight can look totally different based on muscle mass.

Hope this helps!

I don’t mean for this to sound as tough love as this will, but the OP question is what am I doing incorrectly. Many of the answers above offer one idea, but it seems likely that there are multiple things going on.

First it sounds like you are close to your goal weight so in a zone where you have to be super careful in order to actually lose weight (and for some people even to maintain). Instead of weighing yourself regularly, and weighng and logging your food carefully and maintaining the exercise you have been doing to lose weight, it sounds like you
1. Stopped weighng yourself for a period of months (I am really sorry that you were feeling low and I hope you got help and feel better, but when I stop looking at how much I weigh that is already a sign of trouble)
2. are probably overestimating how many calories you are burning if you think you are at 2050 (I am taller than you and trying to GAIN muscle weight and my calories are set well below 2000 by a nutritionist as well as by the site)
3. not accurately weighing and logging the calories you are consuming, (you are probably eating over 1500)
4. regularly having “cheat days” (do you log those at all?) where you could be erasing your entire deficit assuming you have one,
5. Regularly eating lots of sugar heavy desserts as a T2 diabetic which will impact insulin need and other hormones perhaps in ways that are different than for non diabetics and may contribute to inability to manage weight. Besides trying to manage your sweet tooth you should probably be trying to stick to a low glycemic diet to get into remission. If you drink alcohol, you should stop.
6. On top of this you have cut back on cardio exercise (which is most likely to immediately burn calories)

Are you counting accurately? Are you taking insulin?

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition