Weight Loss Plateau for 2 months

[Michaelbv]

Hello!

I am an avid FitBit wearer and have been for the past year. Over the course of 4 months, I lost roughly 60 pounds by closely monitoring my calorie intake v. calorie burn. I use a FitBit Blaze. I have striven to consume roughly 1000-1500 less calories than the FitBit says that I burned and it has been working great. The only form of exercise I get is walking roughly 3.8 MPH for an hour every single day of the week.

However, I have been stuck in a serious plateau for the last two months. I still consume roughly 60% of the calories that FitBit says that I burn on an average day, but it hasn't made any difference. I had just entered into the Healthy BMI of 24.5.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Due to a previous injury, I cannot run or lift weights or perform any of the usual high intensity workouts, but I am stymied as to why I am not continuing to lose weight.

[shipo]

@Michaelbv, you're likely to get a number of responses, but from my perspective, you are eating far too few calories and have caused your metabolism to slow down so much to put your body in starvation mode.

Were I in your shoes I'd increase my calorie consumption and my levels of exercise.

[Ukase]

First, kudos on your weight loss success! 

Second - now the real work begins. 

Let's look at what you've done so far: 

An "alleged" caloric deficit of 1000-1500 each day. I say alleged, because none of us can ever really be sure due to natural variations in nature. A "small" sweet potato might have 200 calories...or it might only have 125. Or 250.  So, to get around this variation, I weigh my food. If you're not doing this - I urge you to at least do so for 1 week so you can get a rough idea as to how many you're actually consuming. 

If you're already doing this, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and suggest that Fitbit is overestimating your calorie burn. In my own experience, the more I walk, the more off Fitbit's results are. My math tells me the numbers are off on an escalating scale for my own metabolism. They might be spot of for everyone else, but not for me. 

If I walk 10k steps and it tells me I've burned 900 calories, the truth is closer to 750-800. If I walk 20k steps and it says I've burned 1850 calories, the truth is closer to 1550-1650. If I walk 25k, and it says I've burned 2500, the truth is closer to 1850-1950. 

So...I try not to walk more than 45 minutes in one session. Doesn't seem to help -but it makes my math easier. 

I suggest you mentally subtract 500 calories from the Fitbit total calories burned and plan accordingly. If you still don't see any change, consider this: 

Sometimes, our bodies are working as intended, but we know so little about them, the reaction our various glands and hormones have to an extended caloric deficit surprise us. For example: if you're on an extended calorie deficit, your thyroid may down-regulate your metabolism! It's crazy, right? 

So - my best advice - if you can determine that it's not the fitbit over calculating your burn, and it's not your underestimating your intake - stop eating at a deficit. Take three days (yes, I pulled that out of thin air. A week would be better) and eat no more than a 250-500 calorie surplus. Then start your diet again with a smaller deficit - 500 to 750. 

[ArjyaD]

The question is if you are in a healthy BMI and already lost most of your fat then you will loose weight through your muscles. Which is not a good thing to do. Did you measure your body fat ratio? Good range is 10-15% for non-athletes. If you are a marathoner you will have to be in the range of 10-12% for adequate stamina. if you are a serious bodybuilder you should go below 7% fat. Dont go by the various outdated formulasof Robinson,Miller, Devine etc. You can only loose a certain amount of weight and after that it is your bare minimum weight. 

[AndyDandyPandy]

With a normal body bmi is when it's really a strugle to lose weight.

A suggestion that I can give you that worked for me is intermittent fasting. It really surprised me. I weigh my self every 16 hrs before I eat my first meal. Have not been disappointed yet.

[shipo]

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@AndyDandyPandy wrote:

With a normal body bmi is when it's really a strugle to lose weight.

A suggestion that I can give you that worked for me is intermittent fasting. It really surprised me. I weigh my self every 16 hrs before I eat my first meal. Have not been disappointed yet.

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Why would you want to lose weight if you have a normal BMI?  Makes no sense.

[A_Lurker]

@Michaelbv, like @shipo has said you're probably eating too little for your changed goal, which I'm assuming is going from the top of the BMI range to maybe the middle.  I just worked out my deficit and it's about 30%.  Even that is sometimes considered too agressive, but I did stop in July and eat every calorie that the Fitbit said I burned for 10 days (well, closer to 7 as I couldn't bring myself to do it the first few days).  Overall I didn't affect my speed of loss, in fact, it brought it back to where it had been.

Now, I'm the first to tell you that your calories burned are probably not 100% accurate.  Over 6.5 months I've discovered that I need to burn 3930 calories to lose a pound (it was higher, but it's coming closer to the magic 3500 calories).  And if you look at my last post on the topic it's not a true linear relationship. https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Manage-Weight/Weekly-Weigh-In/m-p/1593430#M46798

However, what you've told us is that for the last few months what was working is not longer working.  So, let's assume that you have done some damage to your metabolism and that your deficit (for your weight) is too agressive.  You can do a metabolism reset - http://eatmore2weighless.com/the-metabolism-reset-guide/ - or simply raise your calories slightly and see what happens.  By slightly I mean that you're eating 60% of what your tracker says you burn, try 75% for a few weeks.

Now, a warning to you, and others, who may be undereating and need to go back to more normal levels.  First, don't do it overnight.  And second, don't change your basic eating habits.  I've found the easiest way to do it is to raise your fat calories slightly.  Yesterday morning I had an omelet with turkey sausage, no butter and a small amount of cheese.  On a maintenance week I might have bacon, use butter, and be more liberal with the cheese.  I don't use it as an excuse to eat tons of junk food.  Of course, even in weight loss mode I'll have chips (210 cal bag) once in a while, and something with a bit of sugar in it pretty much most days.  I manage to do a maintenance week without any weight gain (in fact in July I think I was down 0.2 lbs), however, if I'd gone from moderate carbs to high carbs I would have seen a rather large jump.  It wouldn't have lasted, but this can freak some people out.

[AndyDandyPandy]

@shipo That's the question I'm wondering. Ask the guy.