Trying to kick back my body into weight loss after a stop

[daureluc]

Hi,

I have a nutrition background and I currently study fitness.
Of course, all this to lose weight...

I was 87kg for 5f1 which is class obese. so I made my own weight loss program.

Record every piece of food I eat to the bread crumb, apple watch calculate all my energy expenditure.
I've been losing weight great for months 3.5 kg/month.

Then suddenly I'm stuck and yet I:

record everything I eat on my fitness pal
I don't budge from my diet one bit
I exercise daily cardio 5x a week and mild weight lifting 2 to 3 times a week
I also do relaxation 1x a week

I eat 1300 calories and apple watch says I spend just above 2000 per day.

SO, I should, of course, lose 700g per week or 3.5 per month.

But this month, I lost just about 700g???

What's wrong with me? I'm totally confused??

 

[Trusylver]

Trackers are notoriously bad for their accuracy, you get about as much accuracy as closing your eyes and poking a pin in a number board.

Also remember that your body will adapt to not only your calorie intake which needs to be adjusted periodically but the body will become more efficient in its energy use for the exercise that you do.

 

[Llama]

Also: how often do you weigh yourself? If it's only once or twice a month it could be a fluke. Like water retention due to muscle soreness, hormones, sodium consumption, etc.

 

[daureluc]

I weigh myself daily. Because of my nutritional background and fitness studies, I'm very picky about all the details on what I do. But I feel like I'm missing something. Something I don't understand yet, or haven't come across yet?
I've taken into account the possibility of muscle growth, hormonal change (monthlies and all) and this is why I've waited a month of weighing and monitoring, before being annoyed at the lack of weight loss.

Anyone that has some expertise in the weight loss/fitness industry? And could help me explain what seems like an impossibility and yet a reality to me?

 

[Llama]

Unless you changed your fitness routine (more intensity) or added more sodium or artificial sweeteners around a month ago I really don't know. You wouldn't be the first to get stuck for a couple of weeks seemingly without a good reason. Normally it's followed by a sudden nice drop but I haven't found a mechanism to explain it yet.

 

[daureluc]

Unless you changed your fitness routine (more intensity) or added more sodium or artificial sweeteners around a month ago I really don't know. You wouldn't be the first to get stuck for a couple of weeks seemingly without a good reason. Normally it's followed by a sudden nice drop but I haven't found a mechanism to explain it yet.

thanks for this reply, I have indeed increased my fitness routine, but i'm not sure it can justify such a drastic change for 1 whole month? I might just need to weigh it longer... i haven't added any sodium, and even though i've had a little sweeter (couple of spoons twice) it should really matter right? Happy to see i'm not completely the only one struggling for what seems like no reason.

So what do you know about the sweetener thing? I hadn't heard that before?

Maybe for me it's a combination of factors... I've gone at first (9 months ago) for some basic generic advice on weight loss, only to find out after a little while it was a very bad one and would not help one bit. So many fake information on weight loss it's unrealistic. That's where nutrition and fitness truly opened my eyes...

 

[Llama]

The sweetener is just personal experience. I get bloated if I use a lot of it. But a couple of spoons twice shouldn´t make a difference. Upping your exercise intensity can make several pounds of difference (water weight that you drop once your body is used to the new intensity) but it doesn´t stack so if the reason was that you increased intensity once and then stuck to that level you probably would have seen a bit of an increase, then a slow drop again starting from that higher weight.

 

[Trusylver]

Anyone that has some expertise in the weight loss/fitness industry? And could help me explain what seems like an impossibility and yet a reality to me?

There are outliers and complicated cases but as your training should have shown you, without complete information and client history it is impossible to be completely effective in problem solving.

for example

I was 87kg for 5f1 which is class obese.

if you were 87 kg then what are you now, a weight that you weighed months ago is not much help. useful info are things like current weight and bodyfat %

I don't budge from my diet one bit

This says very little about your actual diet. with your nutrition training would you expect to be able to help a client with this level of info ?

I exercise daily cardio 5x a week and mild weight lifting 2 to 3 times a week

Again, this tells me very little about the exercise you are actually doing, again as somebody getting an education about fitness you should understand the devil is in the detail when it comes to exercise. time, intensity, etc. mild weight lifting means very little again intensity and training type come into play.

Most members here start a thread in the diary section to track what they are doing which allows for not only social support but as a way for other members to pick up on problems you may not see yourself, most members have no training but there are some that are very experiences and have personally lost a lot of weight.

The biggest thing to remember is that there is no single approach to weight loss that works, there is always some experimentation.

if you want to get into more scientific intricacies of weight loss then the link found in this forum thread is a long but worthwhile read.

https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/metabolic-adaption.105236/

 

[overlandflyer]

... I eat 1300 calories and apple watch says I spend just above 2000 per day. ...

when you eat could be much more important than either what or how much (to a certain extent) you eat.

could you describe a typical day as far as your sleeping, eating and exercise schedule?

you started at 87kg... where are you now and how long have you been dieting to get where you are right now?

 

[daureluc]

There are outliers and complicated cases but as your training should have shown you, without complete information and client history it is impossible to be completely effective in problem solving.

for example



if you were 87 kg then what are you now, a weight that you weighed months ago is not much help. useful info are things like current weight and bodyfat %



This says very little about your actual diet. with your nutrition training would you expect to be able to help a client with this level of info ?



Again, this tells me very little about the exercise you are actually doing, again as somebody getting an education about fitness you should understand the devil is in the detail when it comes to exercise. time, intensity, etc. mild weight lifting means very little again intensity and training type come into play.

Most members here start a thread in the diary section to track what they are doing which allows for not only social support but as a way for other members to pick up on problems you may not see yourself, most members have no training but there are some that are very experiences and have personally lost a lot of weight.

The biggest thing to remember is that there is no single approach to weight loss that works, there is always some experimentation.

if you want to get into more scientific intricacies of weight loss then the link found in this forum thread is a long but worthwhile read.

https://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/metabolic-adaption.105236/

From 87kg in December, i'm now hovering 65.2kg. my body fat percentage is not an accurate measure (only taken from my personal home scale) is at 30%
About my current diet, i'm trying to be as healthy as possible, fruits and veg as per recommendation most days (5 a day), carb, fat, protein are 50%, 30%, 20% some days, more like 50%, 20%, 30% other days. I eat little processed food, mostly home cooked from whole food. Every other week, i might have either takeaway or restaurant if possible as long as it fits in my calories (i check restaurants values or try to estimate calorie count from experience - i mean if i eat a burger, I''l value it from the most caloric range found at supermarket)

Fitness level was very poor to non existent when i started, so i'm learning at a slow pace. I'm trying to learn about muscles, cardio fitness, heart range... but i'm in the early beginning and i'm not confident yet in what i do. But here it goes:

I was running for 2 weeks at a very high heart rate 170+ but i could only do short time (10mins or less) and found i should not do that, so now i'm running at 150 average for about 20 mins. I run outdoors 5 times a week. On my way back from running or sometimes at the end of the day, then i do some weight lifting. 1 kilo dumbbell on the upper body (shoulder press, bicep curls...), I do some core training with a 3 kilo dumbbell, i try to make it 10 mins min. But i'm only starting so i'm progressively increasing intensity as i can.

Thanks for the link and your message. Of course it make all sense. But i've come across so much un-helpfullness online so far Including proper non-sense from people who thought they knew... (oops)

Even though I've done nutrition, i don't practice as such. It was for me mostly, but in the future, once i reach my goals and gain more confidence, i'd love to help others.

 

[Omega]

Factors that I cannot see you mentioning which can impact loss on the scales while working hard are medication, water consumption and toilet activity.

Some medication contains sodium and my husband and I have noticed gains time and time again if we take either naproxen or diclofenac because of the sodium content. It is amazing how easy it is to take a tablet and ignore the dietary content. LOL it is like when you take a fish oil or garlic oil and ignore the oil content. So easily done!

Water consumption is the other side of the sodium and water retention balance since increasing water consumption helps us to release the retained water. Its worth making sure that you have not cut down how much you are drinking.

Toilet activity can have a major impact too... My weight reduced by 0.75 pounds today in a couple of minutes in a visit to the toilet. It probably sounds crazy - but on my big project when I was monitoring anything and everything linked to my daily weighing and understanding the results I had columns devoted to tracking how regular this was. It probably sounds ridiculous - but it is so easy to get disheartened when we do not understand why our hard work is not giving us the results which we firmly believe we deserve.

 

[daureluc]

thanks for your reply Omega, it's true i haven't mentioned any of this. But i do monitor that as well. And because my weight loss has now stopped for more then a month, it would not be explained by any of these. But i don't take any medication at all. I'm regular and i have a graduated water bottle to ensure my water intake is both adequate and regular

 

[Trusylver]

The first thing I have looked at is the basic numbers

at your weight and height BMI (I hate BMI) you are looking at needing to loose 5.18 kg to be in the "normal range"

Based on bodyfat % (you should be able to get your instructor for your fitness studies to do caliper readings) along with age you need to loose 7.2 kg of fat to drop from low average to ideal.

With such a small amount to loose you will loose at a much slower rate than when you began and normal weight fluctuations can hide your progress.

BMR (Harris-Benedict) 1361.6
BMR (Katch-McArdle) 1355.8

Not a lot of difference but dietary intake may not be providing as much deficit as it first appears a more accurate BF% would help

Protein intake on low days looks good again a more accurate BF% could fine tune this.

Are you determined to hit a specific weight ? or are you looking for improved body composition and appearance ? I am going to assume the latter

I was running for 2 weeks at a very high heart rate 170+ but i could only do short time (10mins or less) and found i should not do that, so now i'm running at 150 average for about 20 mins. I run outdoors 5 times a week. On my way back from running or sometimes at the end of the day, then i do some weight lifting. 1 kilo dumbbell on the upper body (shoulder press, bicep curls...), I do some core training with a 3 kilo dumbbell, i try to make it 10 mins min. But i'm only starting so i'm progressively increasing intensity as i can.

Your running is using somewhere between 113 - 198 calories each run
Lifting light (3 METS) is using 34 calories

I do not know your general activity level so assuming sedentary and then adding specific exercise

TDEE 1627
Running 113
Lifting 34 (this is generous)
Total 1774
Less 1300
Deficit 474 calories

A deficit of 7700 calories is needed to loose 1 kg per week
Current deficit is less than 3318 calories per week so around a 430 gram loss per week could be expected.


a few considerations, if your lean mass is less than currently calculated (higher BF%) then calorie burn will be even less which could very much put your current rate of loss within the margin of error.

Exercise mix should be a little different to maximise fat loss and retention of lean mass, current lifting is not adequate for muscle retention. Interval training will increase long term calorie burn compared to steady state and will have lower levels of muscle loss. Remember the fat burning zone for heart rate is a myth.

If body composition doesn't matter, just the number on the scale, then adding in a nice long walk should be enough to move the scales a little quicker.

 

[daureluc]

The first thing I have looked at is the basic numbers

at your weight and height BMI (I hate BMI) you are looking at needing to loose 5.18 kg to be in the "normal range"

Based on bodyfat % (you should be able to get your instructor for your fitness studies to do caliper readings) along with age you need to loose 7.2 kg of fat to drop from low average to ideal.

With such a small amount to loose you will loose at a much slower rate than when you began and normal weight fluctuations can hide your progress.

BMR (Harris-Benedict) 1361.6
BMR (Katch-McArdle) 1355.8

Not a lot of difference but dietary intake may not be providing as much deficit as it first appears a more accurate BF% would help

Protein intake on low days looks good again a more accurate BF% could fine tune this.

Are you determined to hit a specific weight ? or are you looking for improved body composition and appearance ? I am going to assume the latter



Your running is using somewhere between 113 - 198 calories each run
Lifting light (3 METS) is using 34 calories

I do not know your general activity level so assuming sedentary and then adding specific exercise

TDEE 1627
Running 113
Lifting 34 (this is generous)
Total 1774
Less 1300
Deficit 474 calories

A deficit of 7700 calories is needed to loose 1 kg per week
Current deficit is less than 3318 calories per week so around a 430 gram loss per week could be expected.


a few considerations, if your lean mass is less than currently calculated (higher BF%) then calorie burn will be even less which could very much put your current rate of loss within the margin of error.

Exercise mix should be a little different to maximise fat loss and retention of lean mass, current lifting is not adequate for muscle retention. Interval training will increase long term calorie burn compared to steady state and will have lower levels of muscle loss. Remember the fat burning zone for heart rate is a myth.

If body composition doesn't matter, just the number on the scale, then adding in a nice long walk should be enough to move the scales a little quicker.

That is very interesting thanks, with all this we are narrowing things down lol

I'm currently walking once a day, on top of the running, for about 45min with a heart rate above 90. My RMR was indeed calculated at 1300 and and i've just moved back my current food intake to 1200.

I'm aiming at body composition and weight of course well done for assuming
Also my aim is to lose 500g a week for slow steady loss and to make it easier in the stabilisation phase.

My original apple watch running data, showed i was doing the wrong thing - running to fast - and it seemed like i might have entered into catabolic effect. I do believe i have loss muscle mass through inappropriate exercising, this might explain part of my problem as well. So Imitability trying to correct this.

I haven't done as much HIIT as i should, my muscle mass is so weak, i find it very challenging and not so enjoyable. So i think i just need to try harder and persist until i get stronger.

This morning i did my mini walk/run 8 mins fast walk total calorie spent 31 (apple watch data), mini 5 min run calorie spent 46 (apple watch data) with heart rate 143 and avg Cadence 164spm (what is this figure, how does it matter?)
So even though i think these data are quite acurate, am i right? Do you have better insight?

I think i'll move this conversation in the diary section? Its meant to be more in that category, no?

But i'm so grateful for all your input guys, thank you so much!

 

[daureluc]

Hi All,

My name is Aurelie. I've started a thread in another category, and i'm not moving to this one as it's more relevant.

I'm currently 65.4kg and loss from 87 back in December 2020.
I eat 1200 calories per day and do my best to stick at it closely with a fairly balanced/healthy diet.
I eat my fruits and veg, and ITFMM (if it fits my macro).

I exercise daily, i start with a run in the morning 5 days a week (no always the same days). then usually i do either HIITs, or strength to work my upper, core or whole body. Finally on the other 2 days i try to do milk activity or relax.

I use an apple watch to track everything closely, especially my heart rate during exercise. Above 90 in all cases, above 120 while running and HIITs, max 160 in all cases.

I'm 1.58 m tall and my current BMI is 26. It seems like my BF% is around 30

My aim is to reach 20BMI and 24 BF% max

I need help, advice and encouragement to kick back the weight loss, because for the past month and half i've lost just about 700g according to my scale.

I always weight at 6:30 am daily, after toilet visit before any activity/food/water.
I drink plenty from a graduated water bottle.

I use the current macro aim at 50% carbs, 20%fat 30%protein but it's not always exact and sometimes it goes the other way 50%, 30%, 20%
Fibre intake is as close as i can to 25g per day, but that can be challenging to achieve.

I'm a mother of 3 with hubby trying to be encouraging and helpful, so i'm very blessed in that way, but i'm stuck in weight loss, i don't quite completely understand why and i need help to get the bowl rolling again.

I have studied online nutrition for this purpose and got a nice little diploma, now i move on to online fitness learning. I know that with all the information it contains, online learning is still very limited but i'm determined to learn as much as i can and become not an expert but knowledgable enough.

Thanks for reading, i hope to get your engagement, help and advice in my journey

See you soon
Aurelie

 

[Trusylver]

I will move this thread for you and re-name the thread if you like, just let me know.

 

[Llama]

Hi Aurelie, good to see you started a diary! First of all: kudos for all your hard work. I agree with Tru that more strength training would probably be helpful. On those 20% days you are still getting enough protein but at such low calories your body is going to be tempted to use it for fuel instead of building material. Which means you really need to keep up the strength work if you don´t want to lose more muscle mass. And the amount of muscle mass you have on you is going to be the main determinant for how many calories you´re burning at rest after you reach your goal.

 

[daureluc]

I will move this thread for you and re-name the thread if you like, just let me know.

That would be great! this morning i just create a new thread in weight loss diary, is there any chance to merge them? or maybe attached them together or pin the new thread message at the top of this message once its moved?? Not sure if this can be done. Just because i spent some time writing an intro and summarising the whole thing

 

[Trusylver]

merge complete

 

[Err2]

I'm currently 65.4kg and loss from 87 back in December 2020.
...
I'm 1.58 m tall and my current BMI is 26. It seems like my BF% is around 30

Okay, so you should be burning about 1625 calories not counting exercise or physical work.

I eat 1300 calories

Okay, so you should be losing about 1.4kg (3 pounds) a month not counting exercise.

apple watch says I spend just above 2000 per day.

My fitbit says I should have lost over 100 pounds over the last few months I've been using it, but I actually lost about half that. I presume the apple watch is about as (in)accurate.

This morning i did my mini walk/run 8 mins fast walk total calorie spent 31 (apple watch data), mini 5 min run calorie spent 46 (apple watch data)

I would have estimated 68 calories vs the Apple Watch's 77, so it seems in the ballpark. However, you would have burned about ~1.1 calories/minute sitting on your butt -- about 14 calories -- so you really only burned an extra 54-63 calories in those 13 minutes of exercise. So this daily exercise should add about 1/2 lb (~1/4kg) weight loss per month

This double-counting of your base calories seems to be very common with the calorie estimates from fitbits, treadmills, exercise bikes, etc. People like to see the bigger number so I think the manufacturers play along...

this month, I lost just about 700g???

That's about 700g less than expected (not counting exercise), but also about the margin of error of a consumer home scale (99% accurate means yours should be within plus or minus 650g). As others have mentioned, water and waste retention could easily explain that.

Studies have also shown that people who log food/calories in diaries tend to underestimate how much they've consumed unless they weigh and measure everything. This is especially true if you're estimating at restaurants without knowing precisely what they put in: a hidden tablespoon of butter in a prepared dish can throw off that meal's count by over 100 calories.

Instead of fretting too much about that, I think it is better to see how much you're estimating vs how much weight you lost and then adjust how much you think you should eat until the results on the scale match your (healthy) goal rate of weight loss.

PS: A calorie is not always a calorie. It takes very little energy to digest fat or simple carbs, but quite a bit more to digest protein and complex carbs. So 100 calories of meat may only give your body 70 calories of energy while a 100 calorie cookie may give you 93 calories of energy...