I am stuck

casamelsmom
casamelsmom Posts: 54
edited September 20 in Motivation and Support
Help! I keep calories around 12-1300. I work out 5 days per week for 1 hour. I work with a personal trainer 1x/2 weeks. I try to stick to phase 2 of SB diet. I have been doing this for 14 weeks and I actually have gained 4 lbs. Now, over Thanksgiving, I was off work for 5 days. I did not work out. I lost 3 lbs. As soon as I started back to the gym Monday morning, I gained it back. I am getting so frustrated. I know muscle mass takes up less space, pound for pound, but I still should be losing something! I have 10 more pounds to lose. I lost 30 pounds with SB only and did not work out. Now that I am, I can not lose anything. Any suggestions on how to jump start this last 10?

Replies

  • meglide
    meglide Posts: 37 Member
    I think you answered your own question but didn't recognize it. It's simple really ... you have to eat MORE when you're working out.

    When you workout you're burning more calories but you're not feeding your body more. The deficit in this case is too much and it puts your body in "starvation mode." As soon as you ease up on the workouts, the deficit decreases (still a deficit but just not as much) enough for your body to ease out of the starvation mode.

    Try upping you calories to offset for the exercise and see you don't start losing.

    Mike
  • chellebelle315
    chellebelle315 Posts: 298
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/20343-how-i-have-avoided-plateauing-length-warning

    This post may be *sticky* somewhere, but its the one I copy into every thread like this. There are some other great ones out there from successful MFPers that have gone before. "Tamtastics secret to skinny" is a good one. A lot of good information from people who have been doing more than dieting, by making a successful lifestyle change, and sharing what they have learned along the way.

    Hope you find something to help you.

    IMHO if you're working out that much, and sticking to really calorie restricted diet when you only have 10 more lbs to loose, the above post is probably on the right track, you might not be eating enough calories to keep your metabolism humming.
  • photoman67
    photoman67 Posts: 116 Member
    I think these guys are right, you're probably not eating enough with all of that working out you're doing. Also, if you're not doing it now, try some circuit training.

    One more thing, do you feel good? If you do, what else do you have to worry about?

    Take care
  • RockNRollWeekender
    RockNRollWeekender Posts: 44 Member
    Also agree...eat some more calories.

    I know I'm new to this but I've been watching a friend for the last 11 months lose & gain & lose & gain (and also plateau) and I try telling her nicely she's not eating enough. There will be a whole day where she just eats a cupcake? Seriously, that happened. Now that's VERY extreme, but I eat my calories about dead on every day (the recommended plus whatever I earn from my workout) and I think I've lost some significant weight in a short period of time.

    What could it hurt to try for a couple of weeks? :)

    Go for it!
  • lulabellewoowoo
    lulabellewoowoo Posts: 3,125 Member
    Personal experience, in the past three weeks, after increasing from 1200 to 1400 daily calories and eating at least half of my exercise calories has allowed me to lose 3 lb and still losing.
  • prettythinarq
    prettythinarq Posts: 2
    The replies given here are all pseudo-science. There is no way that eating more calories can cause you to lose additional weight. You have hardly gone into starvation mode at 1200 calories a day. I would stick at 1200 and keep exercising and it will happen. We know that each pound of fat is 3500 calories. Depending on how you are exercising in relation to what you are eating - you may only have a deficit of 500 calories per day - meaning a loss of 1lb every seven days. If you are making any errors on your calculations this could be less so double check your exercise calories and also your food for any hidden calories or errors. There are other factors including water in the body that make a difference as well and could explain the unusual 3lb loss without the gym.

    Stick to 1200 a day or less and keep exercising. This is about a change of lifestyle and eventually, by sticking to this you will attain your goal. Congratulations on getting this far and stay strong!
  • lulabellewoowoo
    lulabellewoowoo Posts: 3,125 Member
    I think the idea is to eat exercise calories in addition to eating the 1200 calories. On days not exercising, then eating 1200 calories is probably sufficient. But if you work out 500 calories worth, and only eat 1200 calories, then you are only intaking 700 calories for fuel for the day. The immediate result will probably be weight loss. But your body will start to rebel and hold onto the fat stores. Eventually, your body will even bypass that point and will start to lose again, but you will start losing muscle as well. If your body on a sedentary level burns about 1700 calories a day, and you eat 1200 plus your 500 for exercise calories, then you are at a deficit of 500 calories a day = 3500 calories a week = 1 lb a week. Slow and steady wins the race.
  • meglide
    meglide Posts: 37 Member
    The replies given here are all pseudo-science. There is no way that eating more calories can cause you to lose additional weight. You have hardly gone into starvation mode at 1200 calories a day. I would stick at 1200 and keep exercising and it will happen. We know that each pound of fat is 3500 calories. Depending on how you are exercising in relation to what you are eating - you may only have a deficit of 500 calories per day - meaning a loss of 1lb every seven days. If you are making any errors on your calculations this could be less so double check your exercise calories and also your food for any hidden calories or errors. There are other factors including water in the body that make a difference as well and could explain the unusual 3lb loss without the gym.

    Stick to 1200 a day or less and keep exercising. This is about a change of lifestyle and eventually, by sticking to this you will attain your goal. Congratulations on getting this far and stay strong!

    pseudo science? try this link ...

    http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2007/11/is_starvation_mode_a_myth_no_i.php

    I will grant that prettythinarq has a point. You could be miscalculating calories, both exercise and food. The point is you've hit a plateau and your body is not responding. So assuming you're NOT miscalculating calories, I say try something different. Try eating your exercise calories and see if that doesn't knock you off your plateau.

    Mike
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    So sorry to be a downer on here, but guys, you can't just offer up advice on whether she should be eating more without knowing far more about her situation. Please be careful with this guys, when you throw up things like "eat more" without actually knowing if they probably should, then you reinforce the concepts that MFP is trying to dispel, namely myths, rumors, and extremes. I know everyone means well, but without the facts to base these things on, they are just guesses. I don't want to come off preachy, I'm not trying to be, but I see this a lot on here, and IMHO it's decremental to the legitimacy of the site.

    I've been at this for a while, and done a fair amount of research into the human metabolism, and one thing I can tell you is that the body is a very precise chemical engine.

    casamelsmom, can you provide us additional information so that we can at least offer some edjucated guesses as to your situation? Namely we need height, weight, activity level, what your current goal is at, your body fat % if you have it, any medical issues you may have, and anything else that may be relevant.

    All I can see from what you posted is that you started a new, probably moderately difficult (if I know trainers at all, and I do) routine. Weight fluctuations, always a possibility, will be emphasized now because your body is trying to adjust to a new pattern. 5 lb swings up and down are to be expected for the first month or two when starting a new exercise routine. Much of this is due to water weight, but something you probably don't know is that when the body starts using muscles that it hasn't used in a while it starts collecting more energy (glycogen) and storing it at the muscle sites. This can add up to 2 or 3 lbs depending on the amount of muscle and the type of activity. So you saying you gained during training, and lost it when you stopped makes perfect sense to me. Last thing I would mention is that 2 weeks is an insignificant amount of time with regards to exercise, too small to take an accurate reading from. Give yourself time, It takes months for most people to see real, quality results from a training program, even longer in some cases.
  • meglide
    meglide Posts: 37 Member
    SHBoss1673 makes a great point. Standard disclaimers apply here. Most of us are amateurs and even if some are not, NONE of us know all your circumstances here. So as always take the advice given here with "a grain of salt," figuratively that is.

    SHBoss1673,

    She did say she has been doing this routine for some 14 weeks!!!

    Mike
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    SHBoss1673 makes a great point. Standard disclaimers apply here. Most of us are amateurs and even if some are not, NONE of us know all your circumstances here. So as always take the advice given here with "a grain of salt," figuratively that is.

    SHBoss1673,

    She did say she has been doing this routine for some 14 weeks!!!

    Mike

    oh, I misread, I thought she said 14 days. It really doesn't change much though. until we know her situation, we can't really comment on whether she's eating the right things.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    oh and By the way, I assume SB is south beach, which is a low carb diet. Assuming that, you should know that starting a low carb diet will almost always cause you to initially lose weight, because, as I said before, you're completely changing your body chemistry, when you deprive the body of carbs (as is done in stages 1 and 2 of South Beach) you basically remove most of the extra glycogen in your system, along with a lot of water, calcium, some protein, and potassium. This drastically alters your body chemistry. NOTE, this does NOT mean you lost fat, not 10 lbs, and probably not even 2 lbs of that weight loss was fat loss. In fact, the mechanisms in South Beach can actually have, initially, a negative effect on your lean muscle mass. That's why it's so important to continue on South Beach for long periods (years), it's really not a diet in the "I'm changing my eating habits temporarily to lose weight" sense, it's more of a "this is how I want to eat for the rest of my life" type diet. Not that any of this is a bad thing, South Beach is actually one of the better eating styles out there if you can stick with it. But it's not an easy lifestyle change for most people, it requires the complete elimination of certain foods, and I don't mean just processed foods, but specific food types in general, which I know I can't do, but some can, and that's great if you can.
  • casamelsmom
    casamelsmom Posts: 54

    casamelsmom, can you provide us additional information so that we can at least offer some edjucated guesses as to your situation? Namely we need height, weight, activity level, what your current goal is at, your body fat % if you have it, any medical issues you may have, and anything else that may be relevant.

    HEIGHT IS 5'4 1/2", WEIGHT IS 133#, 30 MIN OF CARDIO (HIGH LEVEL ON ELIPTICAL) 30 MINUTES OF WEIGHTS/ABS 5X/WEEK MEETING WITH A PERSONAL TRAINER EVERYOTHER WEEK, GOAL IS TO BE BETWEEN 120-125#. BODY FAT IS 32%, NO MEDICAL CONDITIONS, (YOU MISSED ASKING AGE WHICH IS 42) I DO HAVE BREAST IMPLANTS WHICH WEIGH 5 LSB. I HAVE BEEN DOING SOUTH BEACH WHICH IS HIGH PROTIEN, LOW HEALTHY CARBS FOR 3 YEARS. I HAVE BEEN ACTIVE SINCE THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER.
  • meglide
    meglide Posts: 37 Member
    Well it's been 3 days and SHBoss1673 hasn't replied. Maybe if I say something that will get him to respond.

    Casamelsmom,

    If you put your numbers (age, weight, etc) in a calories per day calculator even at sedentary level you should burn 1600 calories per day. Even your Basal Metabolic Rate (calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day) is slightly over 1200 calories. So add to this that 5 days a week you're working out for an hour and a fairly conservative estimate would be that you're burning over 2000 calories on days you exercise. This means that you should have at least 700-800 calories per day deficit and be losing about 1.5 lbs per week.

    Since you're not losing weight, something is off. As specific as you've been about the numbers I doubt the calories could be off by that much, plus I've been very conservative about estimating calories burned. So I recommend you up your calorie intake by 400-500 calories especially on days you workout. If all your accounting with calories is right, then you'd still be at a calorie deficit just not as much. Spending 14 weeks doing the same thing and not seeing results would mean to me, time to change something. Since there is pretty much universal agreement that exercise is good for you and since decreasing your calories would put you below 1200 calories per day and that is NEVER recommended, I say upping your caloric intake is worth a try.

    Mike

    p.s. If for some reason you still don't lose weight and/or gain weight, I would then suggest you see a doctor. I do personally know a woman that hit a plateau and no matter what she did couldn't get past it. She was also feeling run down all the time. She went to see her doctor and it was her thyroid. Doctor put her on some medication, got the thyroid issue corrected and past the plateau she went. So in any case, I hope you don't give up on your goals.
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