Need Advice Please

What is your height and weight? Is the 1,600 your daily consumption or are you adding exercise calories on top of that?

markjoby wrote: »

I’m 5:8. 210..looking to get down to 195. I have not been adding exercise calories into my 1600 a day.

If the scale hasn't moved after 4 weeks you'll need to lower calories since it sounds like you're exercising enough. I'm guessing that if the scale HASN'T moved after 4 weeks you're undercounting your weekly calories.

I think your calories are way too low, especially with the workouts. Your body is probably conserving fat for fuel and lowering your metabolism for energy. I am a 63 yr old 5’2” female powerlifter and my calories are 1551 a day and have been losing 2lbs per week. I would check your macros goal on macros inc. Building muscle and moderate cardio will increase your BMR so you can eat more and get leaner w/o sacrificing muscle.

h82w8lt wrote: »

I think your calories are way too low, especially with the workouts. Your body is probably conserving fat for fuel and lowering your metabolism for energy. I am a 63 yr old 5’2” female powerlifter and my calories are 1551 a day and have been losing 2lbs per week. I would check your macros goal on macros inc. Building muscle and moderate cardio will increase your BMR so you can eat more and get leaner w/o sacrificing muscle.

Yes, your body will compensate by lowering your overall activity level. However, eating more is generally not the answer. Regardless, your body will try to compensate to stay at whatever weight you are currently at. Yes, if you eat a little more, your body will increase activity and use a little more energy. But this will not generally result in any weight loss. At best, they would stay at the same weight. At worse, they would eat too much and continue gaining weight. You have the base concept right, but you may have misunderstood how it ultimately affects weight gain/loss.

I’m a 63 year old man and I’m 6’ 3”. In October I weighed 265, now I’m down to 229 and I’m working toward 200 or so. That’s a loss of only 4.5 pounds a month. I’m eating about 1700 calories a day, with walking and elliptical 30-40 minutes a day, weight training 2-3 times a week. At this age, it’s very slow going. I’ve had lengthy plateaus and occasionally regain 2 or 3 pounds. It’s discouraging at times, but I’m clearly getting results. I’ve tried cutting calories — it might work to get past a plateau, but it’s difficult to get adequate nutrition — and enough protein, which is really important as you age and especially if you’re doing weights and want to build muscle. If you’re at a calorie deficit and exercising, it will happen. Be patient — and just stick with it.

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

h82w8lt wrote: »

I think your calories are way too low, especially with the workouts. Your body is probably conserving fat for fuel and lowering your metabolism for energy. I am a 63 yr old 5’2” female powerlifter and my calories are 1551 a day and have been losing 2lbs per week. I would check your macros goal on macros inc. Building muscle and moderate cardio will increase your BMR so you can eat more and get leaner w/o sacrificing muscle.

Yes, your body will compensate by lowering your overall activity level. However, eating more is generally not the answer. Regardless, your body will try to compensate to stay at whatever weight you are currently at. Yes, if you eat a little more, your body will increase activity and use a little more energy. But this will not generally result in any weight loss. At best, they would stay at the same weight. At worse, they would eat too much and continue gaining weight. You have the base concept right, but you may have misunderstood how it ultimately affects weight gain/loss.

@h82w8lt welcome to the MFP boards! It’s such a pleasure to see another lady my age who lifts!

I do think you have a valid point. I’ve experienced the same thing repeatedly, even in maintenance. If I was stuck during loss, or am hovering higher than I prefer in maintenance, an increase in calories does make my weight drop.

I would also question whether 1600 is too low for OP, or if he’s wildly off weighing and logging on the flip side. Is he counting alcohol? He doesn’t indicate how long he’s been stuck. “Plateaus” loom largest in our own heads and seem to take forever to climb off of. It may just be a temporary thing and require patience. Those last few pounds are, of course, the hardest.

It might be worthwhile to invest in a visit or two to a dietician.

Unless you’ve got a lot left to lose yourself, @h82w8lt , two pounds a week seems pretty intense. Make sure you’re fueling your own fabulous self!

Hope to see you around these boards a lot more.

h82w8lt wrote: »

I think your calories are way too low, especially with the workouts. Your body is probably conserving fat for fuel and lowering your metabolism for energy. I am a 63 yr old 5’2” female powerlifter and my calories are 1551 a day and have been losing 2lbs per week. I would check your macros goal on macros inc. Building muscle and moderate cardio will increase your BMR so you can eat more and get leaner w/o sacrificing muscle.

anecdotal calories are useless for comparisons. Differences in weekly counting and tracking accuracies and widely varying NEAT burn are the main reasons. A pound of muscle only burns around 4 calories a DAY more than a pound of fat so adding muscle is way overrated as far as a BMR boost. Cardio doesn’t improve BMR.