Am I stuck at this weight?!

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Rinne129
Rinne129 Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All!

I am a lifetime dieter at the young age of 25. I battled with minor eating disorders all through high school and college and know for a fact my metabolism is SO out of whack.
I started MFP in November when I tipped the scale at 156 and knew I had to get myself back on track. Although not EVERY day is under the 1200 MFP has me at, I have been pretty darn close most of the time. (My food diary is public). I am extremely active (ran a half marathon in September, currently doing an Insanity/P90X hybrid, and will soon be training for the 10-mile Broad Street Run) and eat healthy about 80% of the time (a girl needs her ice cream!). Despite all my tracking and what feels like extreme restraint and lots of work... I am still right around 152-154.
I recently (at the turn of the new year) started also tracking my alchohol intake. My husband makes homemade wine and I figured I better be tracking those 1-3 glasses I have on the weekends. Since then, I know I have cut my calories even more (gone from NOT counting wine/beer to counting it but still staying close to my 1200 goal).

I feel my best at 140-145 and would really like to get there by this Summer. Anyone have any advice? See something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions??? Or, am I at that "healthy" weight where my body wants me to stay, no matter what, and I should just stop beating myself up about it?

Few notes about my food diary, if you're going to look:
- I don't record water. I drink a ridiculous amount (over a gallon some days).
- Don't look at Saturday!!! HAHA friends were visiting and it was a feeding fest (500+ calories over my net goal... glad I at least did that 5K in the a.m.)
- I am a calorie over-estimator and an exercise under-estimator. I figure I'd rather be under and not know it than over and cheating.

Replies

  • jayliospecky
    jayliospecky Posts: 25,022 Member
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    Hi!

    My initial guess is that for someone as active as you are, you might want to consider increasing your daily calorie goal. If your metabolism is out of whack, I don't really think that it would help it to keep your calories so low while burning so many. You'd probably be better off working at getting your metabolism back to normal.

    Also, if you only have around 10 pounds you want to lose, what do you have your MFP goal set to? Lose 1 lb per week? I think with only 10 to lose, you'd be better off trying to lose only 0.5 lb per week(at the most), and be really patient.

    I don't know your height, but it is also a possibility that your body "likes" being at the weight you are right now. I.e., maybe you're at a healthy weight for your height, but would like to focus on changing your body composition to more lean body mass.

    Either way, I don't think you should be beating yourself up, at all. :flowerforyou:
  • btzisabel
    btzisabel Posts: 29 Member
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    I have wondered that too, because I run every day for like 40 minutes, and when I dont, I swim; I eat healthy (most of the time, yeah, my diary is public too) and I barely drink alcohol, for it contains a ridiculous amount of calories. Yet, I can't seem to go under 165 pounds an it annoys me... like today, I weighed myself and suddenly I was 3 pounds heavier than the last day I weighed and that wasn't even two weeks ago. This makes me mad.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    Hi!

    My initial guess is that for someone as active as you are, you might want to consider increasing your daily calorie goal. If your metabolism is out of whack, I don't really think that it would help it to keep your calories so low while burning so many. You'd probably be better off working at getting your metabolism back to normal.

    Also, if you only have around 10 pounds you want to lose, what do you have your MFP goal set to? Lose 1 lb per week? I think with only 10 to lose, you'd be better off trying to lose only 0.5 lb per week(at the most), and be really patient.

    I don't know your height, but it is also a possibility that your body "likes" being at the weight you are right now. I.e., maybe you're at a healthy weight for your height, but would like to focus on changing your body composition to more lean body mass.

    Either way, I don't think you should be beating yourself up, at all. :flowerforyou:
    I have so been where you are. Hopefully, you'll learn this lesson earlier than I did.

    I have to agree with all of the above. If you aren't eating back your exercise calories, 1200 calories minus all of the exercise is leaving your body with very little calories to work with.

    With 10 pounds to lose, set MFP to 1/2 pound per week loss then eat back your exercise calories. You need to let your body get to a place where it knows it's going to get enough food to sustain it on a regular basis. You might gain a pound or three at first, but then you should start to see a slow but steady drop.
  • Starlage
    Starlage Posts: 1,709 Member
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    hello! my guess- you're not eating enough. 1200 a day is still too low for someone as active as your are so your metabolism still isn't having the chance to learn how to use calories properly. With the amount of energy you're using with how active you are your metabolism is taking the measly 1200 cals and holding onto it (i.e. fat cells) to use for energy later. If you'd increase your calories to 1600 a day I bet you'd see changes! And I agree with jenellio that you should go for a slower loss (my 20lbs has been over a whole year). Keep at it girl and eat more calories! Check out this website to figure out how much you should be eating to maintain and then take a deficit of 500 a day or so to lose a pound a week:

    http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

    join janellio and I at this group: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/17-women-eating-2-000-calories-per-day if you have more questions about that site or similar ones to figure out what your TDEE should be and to have more buddies eating higher cals!
  • Jingram2b
    Jingram2b Posts: 25
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    You definitely need to eat more - especially at your exercise level. Up your protein, for starters.

    The P90x/Insanity hybrid will help your cardiovascular endurance, but it may not be the best way to help with a weight loss/body recomposition goal.

    I would also recommend that you don't focus on the scale and focus on how you look/body fat. You can recomp your body, not lose weight, and look amazing.

    Focus on your resistance training -- push your muscles, that's how they grow and help you use more body fat. Increase your weight, lower your reps - use compound movements (no, you won't look like a man). P90x has some (note: not everything is a compound movement with P90x).

    Also - rest more. Give your body time to recover.
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    Hi All!

    I am a lifetime dieter at the young age of 25. I battled with minor eating disorders all through high school and college and know for a fact my metabolism is SO out of whack.
    I started MFP in November when I tipped the scale at 156 and knew I had to get myself back on track. Although not EVERY day is under the 1200 MFP has me at, I have been pretty darn close most of the time. (My food diary is public). I am extremely active (ran a half marathon in September, currently doing an Insanity/P90X hybrid, and will soon be training for the 10-mile Broad Street Run) and eat healthy about 80% of the time (a girl needs her ice cream!). Despite all my tracking and what feels like extreme restraint and lots of work... I am still right around 152-154.
    I recently (at the turn of the new year) started also tracking my alchohol intake. My husband makes homemade wine and I figured I better be tracking those 1-3 glasses I have on the weekends. Since then, I know I have cut my calories even more (gone from NOT counting wine/beer to counting it but still staying close to my 1200 goal).

    I feel my best at 140-145 and would really like to get there by this Summer. Anyone have any advice? See something I'm doing wrong? Suggestions??? Or, am I at that "healthy" weight where my body wants me to stay, no matter what, and I should just stop beating myself up about it?

    Few notes about my food diary, if you're going to look:
    - I don't record water. I drink a ridiculous amount (over a gallon some days).
    - Don't look at Saturday!!! HAHA friends were visiting and it was a feeding fest (500+ calories over my net goal... glad I at least did that 5K in the a.m.)
    - I am a calorie over-estimator and an exercise under-estimator. I figure I'd rather be under and not know it than over and cheating.

    Being that you're "extremely active" I'd recommend you eating a bit more. You've got ~15 pounds to lose, if you take it 1 pound a week that's 4 months. Just in time for summer, that means a 500 daily deficit.

    Working out 5 times a week, estimating your height at 5'6 (which doesn't matter that much for calorie needs), you burn ~2150 calories. Given that, 1650 would be the minimum amount you'd want to eat. since you're "very active" you probably burn even more than the predicted 2150.

    Having too great a deficit can cause many problems:
    1. set you up to overeat later
    2. cause you to lose muscle mass and lower your metabolism
    3. cause burn out
    4. make you tired, exhausted, and burn fewer calories because of a lack of energy to move around as much as you normally would

    **This isn't a race to the finish line. you CAN lose the weight. You CAN eat yummy foods and not starve. i'd surely up my calories though! If you have any questions or need advice feel free to message me! **good luck**
  • Rinne129
    Rinne129 Posts: 6
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    WOW thank you all so much!!! I like this idea of lowering my weekly goal to .5 lb...

    For those who asked, I'm about 5'7". I am not overweight by any means, but right now, at this weight, I feel uncomfortable. To "tone up" is why I started the P90/Insanity hybrid.... hopefully it will pay off!

    Thanks again all. Best of luck on your ventures, too!
  • emmaruns
    emmaruns Posts: 189 Member
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    Hey there,

    I agree with what others have said about upping your calories. Here's what happened with me.

    I was eating 1300 cals a day, 45 minutes on the elliptical in the morning and walking 6-10 miles a day (I have a treadmill desk so I walk while I work. Walking now, actually, but I digress).

    Mathematically, I should have been losing like 4 pounds a week with the "deficit" I was in. However, when I had one big meal (maybe like your Saturday meal?) I instantly gained 4 pounds. I also lost and gained the same 3 pounds for 3 weeks. Oh so frustrating!

    Then a bit over a week ago, I upped my calories to 1800-2100 a day. What happened? Yup, lost those 4 pounds from my big meal plus another two, busting through the plateau!

    I realized my body isn't aware that I'm on a diet. It just thinks we're on some sort of trek and food is scarce, lol. Now that I am feeding it more, it's more cooperative about letting me shed some pounds!

    Good luck and feel free to friend me!

    Emily

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