last 5 kgs to loose but...it seems difficult!

[katanel]

Hi guys,

I've 42 years, 174 cm tall and weight arounds 80kgs. I'm wearing a Fitbit device for almost 1,5 years - bought my first Charge in 2015.

I'm trying to achieve my target of having 75kgs (BMI  < 25) but the last 5 kgs to loose seems to be more or less a complicate story.

I'm logging my daily food on MFP application which integrates with my Fitbit Charge 2 tracker. I'm walking around 10-12k steps per day (my monthly average is 12300 steps). I've a sedentary job (staying 8-9 hrs in front of a computer) but I'm going to gym 2-3 days per week (cardio and workouts). Also every 1hr I’m trying to make 250 steps or more.

I've set in MFP to loose only 0.2kg per week which means around 1828 calories daily (~500 calories less from my TEE which is 2285 calories) but in the last 3 months I only lose 0.9-1kg.

So, what I'm doing wrong? Should I go on a more aggressive calories diet on MFP like 0.5kg/week which means to eat around 1550 calories?

PS: I'm not eating back my calories (exercise added by Fitbit)

[WendyB]

Sometimes the last few pounds are the hardest to lose. I would not go more aggressive. Eating to little will not help you lose more weight. It could make you gain.

How much exercise are you doing?

Have you asked your DR what is a good weight for you?

Keep hanging in there it will come off.

[katanel]

Just found that my BMR is around 1700 calories so eating less is not good...

Any advice?

[katanel]

Hi Wendy,

Thanks for your reply. In few words:

1. Walking at least 10k steps per day but usually hit the 12.500 steps daily - trying to not stay continuously more than 30min at my desk, etc

2. Going to Gym - 3 times per week for 1hr each session and having 20min cardio (spinning, elliptical) and the rest of 40 mins for other exercises...abdominal, back muscles workouts etc

3. Having plans for next year to swim... like 2 times per week around 1hr

thanks.

[Dominique]

What is your weight history prior to your current weight of 80 kg? Were you already 80 kg when you started with Fitbit 1.5 years ago, or did you start from a higher weight back then?

There is a margin of error for both calories in (the intake you estimate with MFP) and calories out (your expenditure as estinated by your Fitbit). If you notice you’re not losing with your calculated deficit (or not losing what you would expect based on it), you need to make small adjustments: either eat slightly less or move slightly more (or a little bit of both).

Btw, I’m also 174 cm (but 13 years older than you) and I posted some details about my "last five pounds" journey earlier this year, during which I went from about 67 to 63 kg in about six months (so it was also very slow). 

[katanel]

Hi,

I had almost 95 kgs about 4 years and  because of some back problems I entered a diet and loose 12 kgs in almost 1 year. Have started to walk more and go to gym, etc

Then, last year when I started using MFP and fitbit I've succeeded to loose weight and have around 75-76 kgs but I think my diet was too aggressive and slowly I started to gain weight again. 

This year my weight was something between 79 and 81 kgs.

Started to log food in MFP 6 months ago again.

[Dominique]

OK, since your initial weight loss (95 -> 83) happened already several years ago (2013?), it should no longer impact your current metabolism, especially since it was done at a very reasonable pace (1 kg/month).

I’m surprised you are not burning more calories (according to your Charge 2) since you are younger and heavier than me, for the same height. Having worn the Surge (my main tracker) and the Charge 2 (secondary tracker) simultaneously for almost four months, I’ve noticed the Charge 2 inflates both steps and calories. For instance, right now (7.25 pm) it reports 17,143 steps and 2,644 calories, vs. 15,183 steps and 2,413 calories for the Surge. You may therefore assume your Charge 2 is a little bit too optimistic regarding your activity level, which could explain you are not losing, in spite of tracking your food intake and having a caloric deficit on paper. If I were you, I would keep my intake the same, but try to move a little bit more, paying attention to NEAT outside work: for instance, try to do some household tasks instead of spending time on social media, watching TV etc.  

If you’ve got from 83 to 75-76 in several months time, I don’t think your diet was too aggressive. On the positive side, at 79-81 you’re still under the level you reached after your initial weight loss. The normal weight range (according to BMI) for our height is 56-76 kg, so I would say you could safely lose another 10 kg before worrying about losing too much or too fast.

Have you made any changes / improvements in your nutrition, besides tracking it (which is already an improvement in itself)?

[katanel]

Hi Dominique,

1. Today I've made 19k steps including 20min Elliptical (credited with around 200 calories by Fibit Charge 2) and I've in total 3432 calories credit by Fibit Charge 2

2. I've eat today 1317 calories

3. MFP is set to 1840 calories target (loose 0.2 kg per week) and for last 7 days I have:

- net average 1117 calories (left)

- daily average is 1872 of 1840 calories as goal

So basically, I've on the positive side with around +1000 calories each day - exactly the same amount of calories given as exercise byt fibit tracker on MFP. Practically I don't take in account the calories added as difference into MFP (not eating back my calories).

4. In MFP I've a breakdown/target of 40% Carbs, 25% Fat and 35% Protein and my last week average

is 39% Carbs, 37% Fat and 24% Protein (maybe too much Fat here?)

5. I've drink a lot of water (> 2Liters) and eat mostly white meat (chicken, fish) and vegetables and not red meat and processed - or verry few.

6. I take my weight each morning after 20min I wake up and after I go to bathroom

Regards,

[elle22]

The last 5 are always very difficult as your body adjusts to the new diet regime as the new normal.   What has worked for me in the past is to switch things up.  Still stay on the diet (in terms of healthy food, calorie levels) but try to eat different kinds of food so your body doesn't get too entrenched in the routine.    Or try, just for a couple of days, to double down on the exercise, maybe a workout in the morning and another one after dinner over the course of the weekend,   Also, try consuming your calories early, mostly at breakfast and lunch with just a light dinner and nothing after dinner.   All of these mechanisms should help to break out of the plateau.

[katanel]

Hi elle22,

thanks for your advice I'll think about seriously especially to eat early my calories.

Also, I'll try to do more exercises.

 Regards 

[AndyDandyPandy]

I don't think losing that last 5kg will make you any happier. What I recommend for you to do is start body building. Lifting heavy. You will be more happier looking younger, leaner with added muscle mass. Losing weight doesn't always mean you're losing body fat. It could mean losing muscle mass. And for people who is near normal bmi they could be losing more muscle mass than fat. If you're eating enough protein and lifting heavy you'll know you are gaining muscle and being muscular means fat loss though you probably won't see much change in weight since you're slowly trading fat for muscle. 

[katanel]

Hi Andy,

Well...lifting weights will not probably happen due to my back/spine problems but I'll try to intensify the exercises at the gym and go to swim. Also eat more good quality protein.

PS: I'm not taking any supplements - any advice here?

[katanel]

Hi @Dominique,

Thanks for sharing TrendWeight website - I've read in your post you shared that you have used this.

So, I started to import my own weight data from Fitbit and here is how it looks:

For the last 6 months (and my food daily logged in MFP) it looks good - about 2kgs lost

 But if you look at 1 year graph we can see that I started to gain in January-February-March (from 78 kgs).

 I think in this period I haven’t logged every day my food in MFP and (important) I've started to go to Gym - more calories burned but I wasn’t take care about the In vs Out calories (too rigorously)

Regards.

[Atomicjoe]

I've gone through these plateaus as well. Here is my advice

Take a 2-week diet break every eight weeks of dieting. The diet breaks consist of eating at or a little above maintenance level. This gives your body a chance to reset any hormone issues that happened while dieting.

Then start cutting again. But eat at a 20% deficit five days a week and maintenance two consecutive days a week. This should help with steady weight loss and minimal plateaus. It's like strength training and deload weeks, two steps forward one step back for steady progress over time.

[Atomicjoe]

One more things don't just track scale weight. Water weight masks fat loss. Take measurements and photos here is an excellent post covering it in detail.

http://rippedbody.com/diet-progress-tracking/

[Dominique]

@katanel: I think that in order to make the most of TrendWeight, you need to have a sufficient amount of data points. Your six-month curve suggests you had no weigh-ins between end of July and mid-September. This is what my own six-month curve looks like:

Except for one week in early November (when I was travelling to the US), everything else is daily. For me, it’s a must, because I don’t count calories, so I look at the red curve almost daily in order to see if my weight is heading where I want it to.

[katanel]

@Atomicjoe- interesting info, thanks!

[Dominique]

---

@elle22 wrote:

Also, try consuming your calories early, mostly at breakfast and lunch with just a light dinner and nothing after dinner.

---

I agree with everything else you suggested, except the above: if you are going to eat 1800 calories during the day, it doesn’t matter when you eat them (and how you split them). If the described way makes it easier to adhere to the diet, then fine. Otherwise any other way to spread your calories across the day will work equally well.

[Dominique]

---

@Atomicjoe wrote:

Take a 2-week diet break every eight weeks of dieting. The diet breaks consist of eating at or a little above maintenance level. This gives your body a chance to reset any hormone issues that happened while dieting.

---

Yes, diet breaks make sense. Here is Lyle McDonald’s take on them. For those not familiar with him, he’s one of the better nutrition experts out there.

[Dominique]

---

@katanel wrote:

PS: I'm not taking any supplements - any advice here?

---

The only supplements worth taking IMO are fish oil and vitamin D (unless you live in a part of the world where you are exposed to sun light year round). Protein as a supplement only if you are not getting enough of it through your diet. Oh yes, and caffeine, in reasonable amounts and not too late in the day.