My Plateau Nutrition Story, Learn from my mistakes.

Wow what a response! I'm glad I'm not the only one who was/is/did suffer from this same problem. I'll gladly answer all of your questions here

THANK YOU for posting this. This is what I've been going through. I have 9.5 lbs to my goal & have upped my work out intensely (from Tae Bo to Insanity) and kept my calories at what MFP has put me - 1200. Usually, a little lower. Well, I burn close to 1000 calories with Insanity and when you mentioned your Net & that was what your body was running off of, I checked mine. Today it's a big ol' 97. Yes. 97. NO WONDER I have stayed at the same weight within 0.5 lb for the last 5 days. I've lost, in total 228 lbs (97 lbs lost in 2004, then 2 pregnancies - 77 lbs gained & lost with one, 54 lbs with the other) and this is the first time I've been really flummoxed and frustrated about my weight loss & have hit a wall. Now the dilemma: It's 8:26pm, should I be eating something to get my calories up? If so, what?
I've just joined MFP and I wonder if it's the calorie counting to the extreme that's making me go so low in calories; all the other times I've been roughly adding them in my head & been successful. Interesting.

THANK YOU for sharing this!

I would say you must figure this out Chevitz. The Katch McArdle way to figure out your calories is wideley regarded as the most accurate way to determine your caloric needs for your body to LOSE weight. I'll give you the formula you fill in the blanks.

I'll use myself as an example:

First your need to figure out your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). This is the amount of calories you burn if you lie in bed all day, comatose.

The equation:
BMR = 370 + (21.6 x LBM(kg)) (Lean Body Mass is calculated by taking your TOTAL WEIGHT x Body Fat %)
Example - I'm currently 200lbs with 16% BF. 200 x .16 = 32 (I carry 32lbs of fat with me currently)
LBM = 200lbs - 32lbs BF = 168 Lean Body Mass
Now we must convert that to Kilograms. Just google "lbs to kg" and you'll get a converter.
168lbs = 76.20kg
21.6 * 76.20kg = 1646 + 370 = 2016BMR
My BMR is 2016 if I were to lay in a bed all day I would burn at least 2000 calories roughly. "But how does that tell me how much I should eat?" Glad you asked

We now take BMR * activity level = Maintenance Calories

Average activity variables are:
1.2 = Sedentary (Little or no exercise + desk job)
1.3-1.4 = Lightly Active (Little daily activity & light exercise 1-3 days a week)
1.5-1.6 = Moderately Active (Moderately active daily life & Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week)
1.7-1.8 = Very Active (Physically demanding lifestyle & Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week)
1.9-2.0 = Extremely Active (Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job)

Example: My BMR * my activity level 1.55 (I workout 5 days a week for 50 - 70 minutes) = 3125 Maintenance Calories (How many calories I should eat a day to maintain my current body build and weight) My advice is that you are very honest about you're daily schedule, taking into account what you do for a living. I picked 1.55 because I'm walking around all day standing and working out 5 days a week 1.55 felt right.

Maintenance Calories = 3125

Now that we know my maintenance calories it's time to CUT IT for the fat burn. Most people will say "Cut it by 500 calories blah blah blah" Well since some of you have mentioned your eating 1200, you couldn't cut it to 700 or you would literally slowly die inside. Rather, pick a % that you want to shave off. Most choose 20% off your Maintenance I chose 30% because it's working well for me. The most important thing if you pay attention to your body fat %.

My Cut Calories = 2187 I rounded up 2200

It is extremely important that you're eating your 2200 calories everyday. Thinking that you're doing great by eating 1500 or 1700 is really not great, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. You're body will adapt, get use to 1500 calories and you'll get stuck. Eating at your goal will promote weight loss, promote a faster metabolism, coupled with working out you'll be hitting your goals in NO TIME! Be patient!

Quick Blurb about Macros: Macros are your most important nutrients that makeup your calories. I hate that MFP has it set up with % because your body doesn't care if you get 40% Protein 30% Carbs yadda yadda. You really should be able to calculate your own macros P F C

Protein: I would recommend you stick with the bodybuilders recommendations with protein.
1 - 1.15g total weight (if your body fat is average)
1 - 1.5g per lb of LEAN BODY MASS (if you know your body fat and calculated your LBM as stated above)
Each GRAM of Protein is 4 calories. I eat 200g of protein everyday which is = to 800 of my 2200 calories.

Fat: IS NOT THE DEVIL! STOP! "Fat Free this Fat Free that, OH GOOD I'll load my face with fat free ice cream" Nope. Fat is NECESSARY for the body to maintain health and it even helps burn fat! You need to pick the GOOD fats, Poly and Mono are great fats for the body.
Average Body Fat - .45 - 1g total body weight (if you don't know your bodyfat)
High BodyFat - .45 - 1g total LEAN BODY MASS (if you know your bodyfat you'll know your LBM)
Each GRAM of Fat is 9 calories. I eat 92.4g of fat in my diet which is = to 832 of my 2200 calories.

Now add those two up 832 calories from fat + 800 calories from protein = 1632
Now take 2200 - 1632 = 568 calories left for Carbs

Carbohydrates: Oh no! You'll get fat if you eat these! Ennnhhhhhh Wrong. If you're active, an althlete, or working out 5 days a week with weights you're going to need these to FEED THAT MUSCLE!

Carbs are my left over calories 568 divided by 4 = 142g
Considering I'm lifting 5 days a week 142g a day is pathetic so rather then settle for that I choose to take some of my fat down to compensate in the carb department. After all each g of fat is 9 calories so I can get a little over 2g of carbs if I steal it back from fat! Confused?

Example I said 92.4g of fat in my above. I won't eat that much fat, lets cut it to 80g of fat. 92.4 - 80 = 12.4g * 9 calories in each gram = 112 calories (rounded up) available for relocation
112 / 4 = 28g extra for carbs I went from 142g to 170g (thank GOD). Even that is a little low, so don't freak out if you have a lower fat day, workout hard in the gym and you substitute for some HEALTHY carbs.

Oh crap. That's a lot of information. Seriously though thanks for posting. I may have to hire you to do my calculations or risk having my head explode. :huh:

Ok... I want to get this right. With the calculations... and the body fat % the scales say-47% yikes!- I should be at 1400 calories. So, if I happen to work out 2 days a week or not at all, or if I do 3 days, I should still loose? I shouldn't deviate from those calories when workouts are added in?

Thank for all the information!

Nutrition recommendation: Don't rely so heavily on shakes. They're expensive and they're not nearly as filling as real food! I was drinking 3 - 4 Protein shakes everyday when I should have been eating whole food. If you have the time and you have to choose always choose whole food. The only time I really use shakes now is after a workout, before bed (casein) or if I need a little extra protein for my macros that day.

^^^THIS!!!!!!! I recently found myself in this same predicament, thinking I was doing the right thing by drinking a protein shake everyday, but as of yesterday, I switched back to eating whole foods for breakfast, which is what I was initially doing with great results. I don't know if the shakes were causing bloating, but when I looked at myself this morning, I could already see a difference in my waistline. Thanks for sharing! Everything else you said was dead on also, btw!!:bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

Hello all! I thought I would share some of my experience from my journey to 70lbs lighter I promise there is a happy Hollywood ending.

I started in June 2011 based off a bet and a contest. I was trucking along and losing weight pretty rapidly every month. I started at 271 and found myself at 218 by November. Everyone I told about how much I lost was amazed and I was pretty excited at how quickly this was happening. I was averaging about 1200 calories a day eaten and that was WITHOUT my workouts. With workouts I was trying to keep my net calories less than 400 for the day. So technically my body only had about 400 calories of energy to rebuild all of the muscle I was tearing up doing extremely heavy lifting at the gym. I was getting frustrated that I couldn't get my racked weights to go any higher and keep in mind that I wasn't TOUCHING carbs so I had 0 fuel practically. Workouts were miserable, but I endured. If you've ever worked out legs with 0 carbs in your body you do not know what hell is.

Fast forward to end of November/December and I find myself at 205.5, 205.2, 205.5, 205.2, 206, 205. THE FREAKING SCALE wouldn't move and I was getting frustrated. I tried everything, introduce carbs back, carb load days, carb starvation days, changed my workout, muscle adaptation I thought, increased cardio, reduced cardio, increased lifting, bottom line is nothing worked. I would wake up run to the scale and 205. I'm an avid reader, OCD about the things I'm passionate about and I'm incredibly passionate about health now. I found an article by Martin Berkhan discussing calories and "one of the biggest mistakes people make is they eat too few calories while cutting." At first I was confused and thought "Ugh, what? I thought when you cut that is why it sucks because you can't eat calorie rich food." Boy was I wrong. After an email exchange back and forth I was recommended to read "Feed the Muscle, Burn the Fat" by Tom Venuto to learn the basic pillars of diet, muscles, fat, carbohydrates and overall just how our bodies work. BEST THING I EVER DID! What was I doing wrong? I WASN'T EATING! I had sent my body into a "Starvation Mode", which I never believed existed but I'm walking proof. My body was literally holding on to the little calories I gave it, burning my Lean Body Mass, cannot STRESS HOW IMPORTANT LBM IS, and hanging on to the fat to endure the long slow death my body thought I was going through.

January 1st, 2012 I decided to change my calorie goal from 1800, which it was set at, but actually EAT 1800 calories. I did this for the 1st and 2nd, woke up on the 3rd and weighed myself in the morning 204. HOLY SCHNIKEYS! I'm currently at 201 with a goal of 1Lb per week to ensure the tiniest of loss to my Lean Body Mass. Keep in mind that while you're losing weight you're going to lose LBM, but you can negate this by losing slower. The more LBM the more fat your body burns and the faster your metabolism runs. I'm still learning from Tom Venuto's book, I calculated my actual calories using Katch McArdle method and realized I should be eating about 2200 calories. I bumped up my calories and haven't looked back since. I smashed my plateau, immediately noticed my body measurements dropping pretty damn fast, body fat dropped, body responded "Holy crap Nick you're not dying, we'll get back to work burning this nasty fat immediately sir!"

Morale of the story: Eat your freaking calories, you will get stuck sooner or later. You will not be able to keep cutting calories if you only eat 400 calories. Also, if you think you're losing weight eating that little, you are, but guess what? It's muscle not fat thus creating a "Skinny Fat Person". I suggest when you weight yourself on whatever day you have scheduled keep track of your body fat rigorously ensuring that you can determine your Lean Body Mass. At one point in my LBM was 185 and as of today I'm currently sitting at 169 That's a lot of muscle burned up when it should have been fat. Don't confuse weight for fat because it may be muscle.

Nutrition recommendation: Don't rely so heavily on shakes. They're expensive and they're not nearly as filling as real food! I was drinking 3 - 4 Protein shakes everyday when I should have been eating whole food. If you have the time and you have to choose always choose whole food. The only time I really use shakes now is after a workout, before bed (casein) or if I need a little extra protein for my macros that day.

If you like my story, friend me and you can look at my nutrition diary to see what's working great for me I'm always able to help also!