Is it possible ...

Just because it's set for you to lose 2lbs a week doesn't mean you will. You may not be eating enough. Are you eating exercise calories? Are you measuring your food properly? Logging properly? Getting enough water? Not getting a lot of sodium? Etc.

that I'm not eating enough? I've been stalled with my weight for about 3 weeks. The scale hasn't even budged a tenth of a pound.

I have my daily calorie deficit set to lose 1 pound per week or 500 calories per day. The last few weeks I've been averaging an additional 1100 - 2000 calorie deficit for the week. This still puts me over total calories for what would be a 2 pound per week weight loss goal, which my body should be able to tolerate since I still have well over 100 pounds to lose.

I've been exercising 5 days a week .. a mix of cardio and strength training ... burning 200 - 350 calories a day of which I'm eating back about half.

Is it possible that my body just can't handle a 2 pound a week deficit and I need to try to start eating back up to my 1 pound per week goal?

How many calories does it give you for 1 pound per week? I've never seen 2lbs per week translate to over 2100 calories before. Are you using a HRM to monitor actual calorie burn or using MFP's calculations? Do you change up your exercise every so often so your body doesn't get too used to it?

I would track sodium instead of fiber. If your sodium is way up there and you aren't drinking enough water, your body will retain water.

My calorie goal for 1 lb/wk is 2,190/day. Last week I averaged 2,000 net calories/day. The week before I averaged 1,780 net calories/day. The week before that was about 1,850 net calories/day.

I've been consistently losing 1 - 1.5 pounds per week up to this point ... just been the last 3 weeks where nothing is moving.

I don't have a HRM, so I've been using a spreadsheet with some calculations I found on the web that factor in average HR, duration of exercise, weight and age to determine calorie burn. That number is usually lower than MFP or what the machines in the gym show.

It may be me, but that seems really high for a female. I'm eating 1200 a day. Are you logging EVERYTHING you eat?

My calorie goal for 1 lb/wk is 2,190/day. Last week I averaged 2,000 net calories/day. The week before I averaged 1,780 net calories/day. The week before that was about 1,850 net calories/day.

I've been consistently losing 1 - 1.5 pounds per week up to this point ... just been the last 3 weeks where nothing is moving.

I don't have a HRM, so I've been using a spreadsheet with some calculations I found on the web that factor in average HR, duration of exercise, weight and age to determine calorie burn. That number is usually lower than MFP or what the machines in the gym show.

It may be me, but that seems really high for a female. I'm eating 1200 a day. Are you logging EVERYTHING you eat?

It's not that high even for a female. I know plenty of women who eat 2000+ calories and are rockin abs. Most people on this site believe you have to eat 1200 which isn't true. If you do programs like P90X, 1800-2400 calories for women is very common.



OP, do me a favor and figure out your BMR (go to tools) or the link I provided. And post all the results. You just may be at apoint where you need to decrease your deficit (what is your current weight height and age and your weight goal) and we can evaluate. I will note, there seems to be a lot of carbs in your diet and not a lot of protein/fats. Veggies don't seem too prevalent as well. I would definitely recommend eating 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat to help reduce some of the water weight from the store glycogen from the additional carbs.


http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

I'm 46 and for me to lose one pound a week I cannot not eat over 1200 a day, 2000 seems more like a maintenance amount of calories. My doctor explained to me that as we get older it gets harder to drop the weight. Perhaps you were losing previous on 2000 because you were larger but as you get smaller, your body needs less calories. My suggestion would be to bring your daily calories down to 1400 for a few weeks and see if that doesn't jump start your weight loss.

Perhaps lower your daily carbs as well, just a peek at your dairy shows you over 200 grams of carbs a day. For me to start losing I had to bring mine to around 125 a day.

Good luck to you

The reason it becomes hard to lose weight as you age is because you lose lean muscle mass. And since lean muscle mass drives your metabolic rate, its the reason you have a harder time losing. Now the problem comes in to where doctors make generalizations like eat xx number of calories to lose weight but yet they don't do any metabolic testing. When a person has a BMR of 2200 calories, eating under it will do 1 thing; slow it down. Now, I do understand as you lose weight, you will or most likely will slow your BMR down but your goal (or what should be a goal) is to reduce it to only 10% or 1 lb of lean muscle mass for every 10 lbs lost. This is also why, it's important to understand deficits and how they can affect the body. Too large will create for huge loses of lean muscle mass which kills your metabolism; this is very true with those doing VLCD (like HCG) where people lose 50% of the weight from muscle loss.


So with that said, lets take a slightly different approach to weight loss (or at least a look); this will be based on the methods of the Katch McArdle formula (TDEE multiplier guidelines below).


BMR = 2291
TDEE Multilpier = 1.375 (based on your workout schedule)


TDEE = 2291 *1.375 = 3150
Caloric Needs = 3150 -1000 = 2150


This is the amount of calories I would suggest eating every day; 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fats. Also try to get more veggies in your diet and fresh meats. This will help reduce the amount of sodium that you take in. Also, foods such as nuts, avocado and extra virgin olive oil are high in very healthy fats. I eat 3000 calories a day, so feel free to look at my diary and add me as a friend is you need help.

For exercise, look into doing a mix of cardio and heavy strength training. When i say heavy, I mean you are failing at 8-12 reps. Muscle is more dense than fat and smaller by volume so if you maintain lean muscle mass, you will burn more fat. If you want a workout program that will help with the results; chalean extreme, power 90, turbo jam, turbo fire are all good and have modifications that you can do.




* Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (little or no exercise, desk job)
* Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk)
* Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
* Very active = BMR X 1.725 (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk)
* Extr. active = BMR X 1.9 (hard daily exercise/sports & physical job or 2X day training, i.e marathon, contest etc.)