What's wrong?

bcscene · November 2009

Hello to everyone.
I have been on my weight loss/getting in shape battle for around 10 months. In the last few months I seem to have hit a plateau. I can't seem to lose anymore and I don't understand why. That is one of the reasons I joined this site, so I could track everything better. According to the Food vs Exercise I'm consistently below my target daily caloric intake but still the scale does not move?? I'm pretty active, I do bootcamp for 1hour 3 times a week, play volleyball twice a week, run 2-3 times a week, and am getting back to the pool at least once a week. I don't know what to do. I'm on the lose 1pound a week program. Any sugestions would be greatly appreciated.

laurissa_patten · November 2009

I'm sorry that you are feeling so discouraged hun. I may only be 21 and not have a lot of experience or wise sayings to give ya but I can be here to talk and give ya support! I think that you should put more of your focus not on the number on your scale (throw that thing out! or at least hide it for a week at a time) and more so put your focus into feeling great about yourself! That's what's most important in life...feeling healthy and happy to be you! Ok...soundin a bit hippie-esque....but I mean it. Try and just keep working hard to feel good about yourself!

erickirb · November 2009

Are you eating enough? You may be in starvation mode if not with all the exrcise, make sure you eat most if not all of your exercise calories too.

sweetgl · November 2009

Are you keeping track of what you eat? You may be over eating on your cals or somtimes i feel like your body gets to the point where it doesnt need/or wants to lose any more weight because its already at a healthy weight. Besides you look great why do you want to lose more?

havingitall · November 2009

Same thing has happened to me for the last couple of months I have been bouncing 2 lbs around forever. I am just keeping at it because I know that very soon, it will all start again

SHBoss1673 · November 2009

well, there could be many many reasons, but without more information we really would be just guessing. I guess lets start with the basics, what's your height, weight, and activity level.

Do you eat healthy?

Are you eating your exercise calories?

What is your goal weight and how did you go about finding that weight?

What's your body fat %?

these things will all help greatly in answering your questions.

nolachick · November 2009

dunno if this helps but I read an article yesterday on exactly this topic.

a few of the suggestions were...change ur workout routine every 4-6 weeks. take a rest in between to let ur body recoup.

and I 'lve also heard from a lot of ppl that when u take a day out of each month to eat a lil more or splurge, that kinda helps in confusing ur body.

bcscene · November 2009

well, there could be many many reasons, but without more information we really would be just guessing. I guess lets start with the basics, what's your height, weight, and activity level.

Do you eat healthy?

Are you eating your exercise calories?

What is your goal weight and how did you go about finding that weight?

What's your body fat %?

these things will all help greatly in answering your questions.

Thanks for all of the replies.

Basics:
Height: 5"6 Weight: 160lbs Activity Level: Very active

I eat fairly healthy, I'm not a saint though, I have my days,(and cravings)
I'm not generally eating all of my exercise calories, some days it seems like way too much to consume.
To lose one pound a week I'm supposed to eat 1330 calories a day but some days when I have a lot of activities going on it adds 1000 extra calories. I don't want to eat that much.
Maybe the exercise counters for different activities are not accurate?

My goal weight is 135 pounds
I do not know my % of body fat.

SHBoss1673 · November 2009

Thanks for all of the replies.

Basics:
Height: 5"6 Weight: 160lbs Activity Level: Very active

I eat fairly healthy, I'm not a saint though, I have my days,(and cravings)
I'm not generally eating all of my exercise calories, some days it seems like way too much to consume.
To lose one pound a week I'm supposed to eat 1330 calories a day but some days when I have a lot of activities going on it adds 1000 extra calories. I don't want to eat that much.
Maybe the exercise counters for different activities are not accurate?

My goal weight is 135 pounds
I do not know my % of body fat.

well, first things first, 5'6" 160 lb 30 year old very active(are you sure, very active means professional athlete in a physically demanding sport or the equivalent) female, your maintenance cals are around 2500 or so. Which means 1300 cals BEFORE exercise is way too low, plus, your weight isn't far off from being healthy, I doubt you'd be able to pull off a pound a week, not without going into starvation.

What I'd suggest is, doing 1/2 a pound a week for a while, eat your exercise calories and see where that leads you, give that a month or so and see if it helps. Just my advice, but it's a good place to start.
I DO know that 1300's too low for you.

SHBoss1673 · November 2009

oh and also, you are correct, I wouldn't put a ton of faith in the calorie numbers on here for exercise, those numbers are put in by people on the site, based on their own statistics. Put it this way, if I run 3 miles, and a 5'4" 50 year old woman who weighs 170 runs 3 miles, we're going to have drastically different calorie burns, but that's not accounted for on MFP, those numbers are simply a VERY rough estimate. If you really want to know your calorie expendature with any accuracy I would get a decent Heart Rate Monitor, they aren't 100% accurate on calorie burn, but you'll usually get to within 10% of actual.

here are some of my posts that I wrote a while back, you should read them, they may help.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/9433-expectations

What's wrong?

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