Stagnating weight loss

[TapTwo]

I am Averaging about 3500-4000 calories burned a day and averaging 1800-2100 calories consumed a day. For some reason after going from 365lbs at 5'6" to 269lbs I have not seen weight loss for 2 weeks. It has instead gained overnight by 5 lbs and stayed there for a week. I need help. 

I Walk with 30-50lbs of plates in my backpack for an hour a day.

I then do weight lifting for another hour doing super sets.

Average daily workout I burn 800 - 1600 calories.

I workout 5 - 7 times a week

[Heybales]

You are eating 50% of what your body is burning?

Gotta tell ya - your body is going to backfire on that and perhaps this is the start of it stressing out and fighting that attempt, and adapting to the foolishness.

Attempting fast weight loss by extreme diet is a great way to become another stat like the majority of people with weight loss attempt that either fail to reach goal weight, or fail to maintain it for more than several months.

Now, perhaps it's not as bad as you report (but still bad) - weight lifting is totally opposite workout where a HR-based calorie burn calculation has any hope of being a decent estimate.

HR-based formula is for steady-state aerobic cardio - weight lifting is completely opposite and therefore badly inflated calorie burn.

Your walking with extra weight the Fitbit is unaware of would also cause the distance-based calorie burn normally more accurate for that, to become inflated too.

Then again if your HR was going up into exercise zone, HR-based was being used. But at the bottom of the range there it's the most inflated.

So either way great potential for being inflated.

Can you pick a recent day (with 1-3 days) to go and either correct the activity record that is there for calorie burn that Fitbit came up with, or manually log a workout record with better figure.

Note the daily burn for that past day first, to confirm Fitbit can still correct the daily stats.

Manually create your own workout record for Weights.

Now use this site to get a correct Gross calorie burn for the walk at the increased total weight.

https://exrx.net/Calculators/WalkRunMETs

Then manually create a Walk, (not Fitbit distance based on steps with wrong weight) but use your own calorie burn.

Now how did the day end up for daily burn?

What was eaten calories for this corrected day?

Several reasons for water weight fluctuations like that.

Because fat is not fast lost or gained.

[TapTwo]

After adjustment it looks like Im burning about 749 calories out of the reported 1600 so a little under half.

It seems that reporting of the calories are doubled which put me at 400 - 800 calories burned a day depending on how active my day is. This is typically because I'll do every other day intense workout and every other day will be a recovery workout.

The caloric intake is accurate I can only eat between 1800 - 2100 calories due to post gastric bypass surgery restrictions. It took me nearly a year to loose over 90 lbs and have been doing this routine since last September

[Heybales]

The more intense the workouts the more inflated they get because of those issues.

And your workouts sounded pretty intense - good job on keeping those up and making them interesting.

Like the adding weight to the back for the walk, to make up for weight lost off the body.

Many people don't realize the loss of fitness they can take with only walking and the body loses a lot of what was carried around.

Hopefully the lifting has seen the same sort of improvements.

So deficit isn't as bad as 50% at least but getting up there, but I'd sure try to get it closer to 30% if you have over 100 lbs to healthy weight.

If you can't eat more, what happens near goal weight doing the hard workouts still?

At some point the workouts will suffer if the deficit is too great.

For example, the 3 legs for maintaining muscle mass in a diet are enough protein, resistance training, and small deficit.

It's usually recommended that max weight loss not be more that 1% of current body weight.

But of course that breaks down when you get close to healthy weight - when big deficits can cause a negative adaptation by the body.

So then it's recommended 0.5% of body weight. Start adjusting that % down through the last 50 lbs

By Fitbit levels of 250, 500, 750, 1000 cal deficits for 1/2, 1, 1.5, 2 lbs loss it is:

under 15 lbs

15 - 30

30 - 50

over 50 lbs.

So back to what I still think is the stress reason for water weight gain and no weight loss on the scale.

I'd suggest keep measurements of main body parts right along with scale weight, which is only a partial part of the story.

Of course it's not good if body is that stressed.

Have you had a deload week since Sep, recovery week of less intense workouts, that would also allow eating without so big a deficit?

Many come back from such weeks totally able to bounce back stronger in their lifts.

You might have problems with the diet break week though, not able to eat enough.

Usually you deload 1 week and eat less as you burn less.

Then you come back stronger with a week with no diet at same time.

Talk about a muscle building combo. Only a week, but still, seen many get over a hump of stalled weight progress on the bar.

[TapTwo]

I have not had a deload week just deload days. I feel stressed if I do not workout so its hard to just not work out. The idea for the plates on my walk came from my time in the Military carrying 80 lbs and having to walk 12 miles in 3 hours. Weights are used to get my heart rate up and try to prevent losing muscle I usually eat 112 - 150 grams of protein a day. Usually through Cottage Cheese, Protein Shake, Eggs, and Turkey. My carbs tend to be high on par with my protein and Fat/Sugar tends to be my lowest. I started last year at 365 and am now at 269. I was at 265 before suddenly gaining weight to 269 overnight. I have been fighting for that past 2 weeks to bring it back to 265. My overall goal is 180. 

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

While the diet break does mean eating at maintenance, the deload week doesn't mean no exercise.

Just not such a load on the body.

You do less weight on lifts, drop a set, stick to the warmup level of weight, that sort of thing.

Cardio is done with the HR in the Fat Burning zone - which used to be more correctly called the Active Recovery HR zone, which helps as the name suggests.

That may mean no weight on back.

You are likely eating enough carbs that's not the issue.

You could just be on the verge of a woosh too.

If you can get more protein, it sure isn't going to hurt, and is getting closer to recommended levels for those doing lifting and intense workouts.

http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

Help you recover from the workouts better. That means less stress on body. Less cortisol, less water weight retained.

[TapTwo]

OK broke through I changed my eating style to Fasting in the morning and lowering Carb intake. Then deloaded and suddenly from 270 to 263 in 2 days

[Heybales]

There's the whoosh!