I seem to be stuck

[Beavers]

Hi I'm seem to have hit a plateau. For the last week and a half I have eating 1000 cal a day. And burned anywhere from 1500 to 2000 in those days and I'm not seeing the scale move. It has actually gone up a little bit. Is there something that I need to do to get the Weight Lost going again. Anyone can help me please let me know. I am down for sizes now and would like to go for the last seven but it doesn't seem to be working this last week and a half.

[jwis86]

Before someone else posts with starvation mode - I'll tell you unless you've been in a POW camp for the last 18 months that's not it.  It's a complete myth thrown on us by fad doctors like 'Dr. Oz'.

You're eating more then you think, and burning less then you think. 

If you want to track calories you have to weigh everything solid and measure everything liquid.  If you don't your most likely going to underestimate your calories in. 

It's also one week.  Things like water retention can alter that.  Give it some more time.

Simple laws of thermodynamics cal in vs cal out.  Laws of physics can't be changed as much as some would like them to.  From a weight loss standpoint it doesn't matter where the calories come from, nutrition standpoint they definitely do.

[Beavers]

I do count every calorie I eat even if I cheat. I have lost 25 lbs so far. I just do not know why it's not coming off. I exercise on the treadmill everyday but nada.

[HoppingGoblin · Accepted solution]

The same thing has happened to me at least twice now (down 30 pounds since I got a FitBit, about 45 in all). If you're sure about the number of calories you're eating vs what is being burned, just keep at it and if it's anything like what happened to me you'll see a "rubber band" effect where your weight will rebound down to where it should be rapidly.

Maybe someone with biological know-how can explain why but I just write it off as the mysterious and all inclusive "water weight".

[divedragon]

When you practice calorie restriction, over time your basil metabolic rate will decrease to the level of your intake.  An alternative to this is some form of fasting.  Intermittent fasting is the practice of alternating between fasting time and feeding time.  This can be various protocols including 16 fast 8 eat (16:8) where all your calories are consumed within an 8 hour window and all calories withheld the other 16.  Variations on this is 20:4.  Also is the 5:2 diet where you fast two days a week, eating no more than 500 calories on fasting days.

Another protocol is known as Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) in which you eat like 7 am to 7 pm and fast until 7 am the day after.  This would give you approximately 36 hours of fasting time. 

Some non-intuitive things happen when you fast and the longer the fast, to a point, the greater the changes.  First, your body learns to burn fat by breaking them down and converting some into ketones which are used as energy for most cells of the body except red blood cells and specific brain cells, both of which need glucose.  Triglicerieds are also part of the fat cell and these are shunted to the liver where they are converted to glucose for use by the red blood cells and specific brain cells.  As a result of this alternate energy source, your body no longer needs to regulate based on in coming calories.  It regulates based on the break down.  Additionally, after about 2 days, metabolism starts to climb.  In intermittent fasting, alternating fasting times will also increase, it just takes a little longer.

Some will say muscle is sacrificed; however, that is a very short term effect.  The body soon begins to use ketones to preserve muscle tissue.  Stem cell production increases when fasting as do growth hormones.  If you combine fasting with resistant training in combination with stem cells and growth hormones, you can preserve and postentially increase lean mass.  Stem cells is not limited to mucle either.  There is strong evidence that these stem cells with growth hormones can actually create new neurons in the brain.  This effect is shown to have an effect on age related cognitive diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

I have posted numerous links and refernces to clinical studies in a thread "Intermittent Fasting"  located here:  https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Weight-Loss/Intermittent-Fasting/m-p/869309#U869309

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.  There is an on-going debate on this process, so you'll have to wade through all that to make your own decisions.  It has worked for me so far and I've recently began to test my blood ketone and blood glucose levels and am very happy with my progress.  It's not for everyone, but I wish you great luck!

[Dominique]

You may want to take a temporary break from your diet, for the reasons explained here.

[josephz2va]

Question is if you're burning 2,000 calories a day with efficiency and not office work. In my experience, it takes dedicated burning to lose weight. 10,000 steps is slightly easy to make on office work duties, but my body fat doesn't go anywhere unless I'm burning the calories. I haven't been on fitbit for a while, but I would suggest editing your goal and finding a burn time to help lose weight.

I set up a fake goal of 100,000 steps. I know I won't reach there, but the longer I burn the better. On most cardio machines, they can go 60 minutes or 99 minutes. The longer you can stay on, the better.

[Meeko]

I'm in the same boat. Since Feb 19th I've had a FitBit that I monitor religiously. I have used a variation of my competition diet and have started Orange Theory in addition to running. My former trainer told me I had a natural ability to build muscle very quickly - YAY me - so I think maybe some of that might be muscle starting. I am working at a 500-1,000 calorie deficit daily. So, here's my question - I just can't seem to push past the 161 mark...I get 161.4, 161.0, 161.8, 163.0...etc. up and down within about 2 pounds but it's like I just can't seem to get under! I feel that once that barrier is broken, the rest will come off. This is currently what I'm eating:

#1

6 egg whites + cottage cheese

1/2 grapefruit

1/3 cup dry measured oats

#2

Optimum whey protein 1 scoop

1/2 or 1 whole banana (depending if I'm going to run in addition to Orange Theory)

3 strawberries

#3

Small Salad

Chicken Breast

#4

Optimum whey protein 1 scoop

1/2  banana

Handful of almonds

#5

4oz ground turkey

4oz green beans

#6

4oz white fish

4oz green beans

Comes out to about 1500 or so calories...EVERYTHING is measured, eating every 2 1/2 hours and my water intake is just under a gallon now. I'm burning about 2500 a day between the running, OT, and what my fitbit says I'm burning in steps. Not interested in fasting, nor fad diets, this is a lifestyle and must be sustainable. I've done bodybuilding shows (bikini) and placed - I was NOT one of those poor girls who had a handful of almonds between the day before and the day of their show - I was eating my NORMAL meals the entire time. Suggestions on the current diet or workout regimen to break that mark??

[Dominique]

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@Meeko wrote:

I just can't seem to push past the 161 mark...I get 161.4, 161.0, 161.8, 163.0...etc. up and down within about 2 pounds but it's like I just can't seem to get under! 

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What is your weight loss "history": what was your starting point and when did you start? How far do you need/want to go?  How old are you and what is your height?

[Meeko]

I'm 5'8, 44 years old and currently 161lbs. Background: Five years ago I was 161 lbs/28% body fat when I started with a trainer, in 92 days (for a show) I was 120lbs/5%BF...these were drastic and incredible results eating 6 meals a day, plenty of sleep, minimal workouts - because my every move/bite/breath was prepared for me by my trainer. In my head I'd like to think I could repeat that (more or less), but realistically I'm giving myself five months to get back to around 130-135lbs off-show season weight, with muscle. I've been consistent with a 'clean diet' for almost 6 weeks now - the cardio portion (running and OT classes) have only been within the last two weeks.

As an example, according to fitbit: (calories in/out) for last week:

Date      In / Out          Weight

3/1        1274/3010      162.2

3/2        1224/2144      161.6

3/3        1052/3373      161.8

3/4        1356/2483      160.8

today     Current          161.8

[divedragon]

I had exactly the same problem at 214.  I started IF with continued calorie restriction - in other words, I ate 1500-1800 calories per day, but only during the hours of 6-10pm.  I lost down to 194 and stuck there as well.  That was back in early December.  I tried everything from increased exercise to upping calories during my feeding.  I then jumped to Alternate day fasting and nothing was working.  I then read about this fast mimicking diet where you eat about 800 calories a day of a certain mix and did that for 5 days, but only lost 5 lbs to quickly gain back 3 soon as my digestive systems filled again. 

I then read at the Diet Doctor website about jump starting weight loss with a 7 day fast.  In this fast, water, coffee-black, tea and bone broth are allowed.  This advice was writen by Dr. Jason Fung, my favorite adviser on the subject of fasting, so I decided to hope in and give this a try.  As of 8pm this evening, I will have completed day 6.  I'm currently traveling for work and won't be home until late Thursday evening, so I can't weigh until Friday morning again, but from what I can tell from my clothes, I feel like I'm loosing.  In addition to that, I'm now useing a blood glucose/ketone meter and I've been in ketosis most of the 6 days.  I'm feeling really good with no loss of energy and very clear focus.  Waiting until Friday will actually be 8.5 days of fasting.  Depending on how I feel, I intend to go until I feel real hunger.  I'll let everyone know my results on Friday - good or bad.

[Dominique]

@Meeko: OK, you want to go from 161 to 135 lbs in 5 months, that’s 26 pounds in 20 weeks, ie. 1.3 pound per week. You need 3500 calories to lose 1 pound, so 1.3 pound requires an average weekly deficit of 4550 calories. That’s an average daily deficit of 650 calories. Quite tough for someone with a BMR of 1429 and still in the normal weight range as per BMI. Especially the need to sustain that for such a long period of time. But the deficits you’ve shown us for the past few days are much bigger than that. Methinks you want to do too much too fast. I understand you’re competitive and you want to meet a deadline, but how about aiming at the same competition in 2017 instead of 2016? I would surely value my own health higher than success at a competition.

[Meeko]

@Dominique It is an aggressive goal for sure, had I not done it previously I would think its impossible. I'm not training for a show at this time, the five month timeline is merely to enjoy summer in a cute bikini LOL. My concern was that I was seeing considerable change on a weekly basis when working with my trainer, and not seeing the same weekly changes now, so I was wondering if maybe I wasn't eating enough? Or perhaps different foods - i.e. chicken vs. ground turkey, or kale instead of green beans. Previously I didn't have to 'think', I just ate what my trainer told me, did the cardio as he said, zombied through his weight training focusing on nothing but proper form and I got the results I wanted. Unfortunately I'm not in a financial position to have a/my trainer right now, so based on what I learned during my three months, I'm trying to not only reach my goal again but also to make clean eating my lifestyle since my food choices over the last several years resulted in the weight gain in the first place. I guess I'll keep you posted on the progress. Thanks for your feedback! 

[Dominique]

OK, let me tell you this (as a guy!): a woman 5’8 doesn’t need to be 135 lbs to look great in a bikini 

Cutting the weight loss goal in half would make your deficit a lot more bearable and decrease your stress.

[divedragon]

You can try cycling your calories.  Eat a full compliment one day and half (or some fraction of your 'need') the next.  That should keep your metabolism pumping while giving you an overall calorie deficite.

[Beavers]

My starting weight was 194 my goal is 145 and my height is 5 4

[Dominique]

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@Beavers wrote:
My starting weight was 194 my goal is 145 and my height is 5 4

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OK, so you started at BMI 33.3 (obese) and you are now (194 - 25 = 169) at BMI 29 (overweight). That’s already a huge improvement. You want to lose another 24 (169 - 24 = 145), which would put you at BMI 24.9 (normal). In other words, you’re half-way through your journey.

I don’t know how long it took you to go from 194 to your current level, but eating at a deficit during a prolonged period of time means stress for your body. Hence the need to give it some rest before starting again.

[I-train-hard]

Add green salad + spinach to every meal. Eat as much as you want, no dressing.

Tellme more about your training days, what do you do, your sets, your reps etc.

[Beavers]

Thank you

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