Long Plateau what am I doing wrong.

[mstang61]

I'd started my fat loss journey at the end of March 2018 doing a calorie deficit, and lifting weights 4 to 5 days a week about 45min to 1 hour and 15 min depending on what I was working on. I'm 5'10 started at 275 and currently today I'm 206. I've been roughly the same since Mid Nov 2018. I weigh all my foods, and I take in roughly 1650 to 1850 calories a day. I have recently started a re-feed day where my protein and fats are lowered and I eat high carbs (I just started doing that last week, so not sure of the results yet). Normally I eat 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fats. I just can't seem to get off this weight. Its like my body knows I want to be under 200 and its giving me the big F-U. I really don't want to lower my calories anymore as I should still be losing at these numbers. Now the stranger thing is, in Dec I had shoulder surgery so I have not been able to do any upper body till a few weeks ago, so I've been working legs hard, and I have actually lost inches in my waist. In Sept my waist above the navel measured 38, it now measures 36, and my 32 jeans I got for Christmas are loser now, and this was just doing heavy leg workouts from Dec till now. I figured my weight would catch up and start falling again which it has not. I know the scale is just a number, but I'm really wanting to see me under 200 (which I probably have not been since birth lol). Any advice to get the weight to start falling again. FYI, I just had a 2nd surgery on my other shoulder so I'm back to just doing heavy legs again for 3 months.

[xsquid99]

If you're not losing weight you are not in a caloric deficit. Highly unlikely you are 206 lbs and eating 1650 to 1850 calories and not losing weight, you are likely not tracking everything or making some type of tracking errors.

[mstang61]

If you're not losing weight you are not in a caloric deficit. Highly unlikely you are 206 lbs and eating 1650 to 1850 calories and not losing weight, you are likely not tracking everything or making some type of tracking errors.

But If I'm not tracking everything, how was I losing from March till Nov? An if i'm off a little which I'm don't think I am, I'd should still be losing at lease fractions right? I know I can't be off that much where I'm at maintenance which is about 2800 cals.

[xsquid99]

If you weren't consistently reducing your intake over that amount of time then you stop losing weight when calories in matches calories out. For approximately every 10 lbs you lose you have to reduce intake by 100 calories per day.

Congratulations, you found your new maintenance calorie level.

As a side note, most people underestimate their calories by at least 25%, this is usually due to things like not tracking snacks, sauces, condiments, cooking oils, drinks, or failure to account for accurate calories eating out (usually because restaurant calorie numbers are way off). Also if you're in the USA nutrition labels only have to be correct within 20% (and which side do you think they usually err too?).

Your body doesn't know numbers, it only knows if its being given enough fuel to either use what you're feeding it or tap into fat stores, thus you are not in a caloric deficit.

[mstang61]

If you weren't consistently reducing your intake over that amount of time then you stop losing weight when calories in matches calories out. For approximately every 10 lbs you lose you have to reduce intake by 100 calories per day.

Congratulations, you found your new maintenance calorie level.

As a side note, most people underestimate their calories by at least 25%, this is usually due to things like not tracking snacks, sauces, condiments, cooking oils, drinks, or failure to account for accurate calories eating out (usually because restaurant calorie numbers are way off). Also if you're in the USA nutrition labels only have to be correct within 20% (and which side do you think they usually err too?).

I started at 2250 calories, and lowered every time I stalled for more than a month. I'm going to look extra close at my calories even buy a new scale and see what happens. I'm telling you my body don't like 199lbs. I just think going under 1650 is too low.

[xsquid99]

Why do you think its too low? Do you look like you just walked out of a concentration camp? No, you're 206 lbs.

EAT LESS and/or MOVE MORE.

[mstang61]

Why do you think its too low? Do you look like you just walked out of a concentration camp? No, you're 206 lbs.

EAT LESS and/or MOVE MORE.

My workouts begin to suffer. Your right about moving more tho, I work a desk job, so my only activity is really house work and gym.

[Grelko]

Congratulations, you found your new maintenance calorie level.

If I would take a couple months to figure out my exact numbers, I'd be all set lol.

HUGE CONGRATS to mstang61 for getting into those size 32 jeans.

Took me a solid 9 months of losing weight to get from a size 40 into my 32s.

Drop your calories by a little bit, or start exercising more and you'll start losing weight again. Let us know when you break that 200 mark, I'm headed that way myself. I'm currently at 209.

[xsquid99]

My workouts begin to suffer.

Welcome to cutting, pretty common to see your lifts start to dip off, you are restricting calories after all.

[mstang61]

If I would take a couple months to figure out my exact numbers, I'd be all set lol.

HUGE CONGRATS to mstang61 for getting into those size 32 jeans.

Took me a solid 9 months of losing weight to get from a size 40 into my 32s.

Drop your calories by a little bit, or start exercising more and you'll start losing weight again. Let us know when you break that 200 mark, I'm headed that way myself. I'm currently at 209.

We sound pretty similar. I also started at a size 40 pants. How may calories are you down to a day?

[mstang61]

Welcome to cutting, pretty common to see your lifts start to dip off, you are restricting calories after all.

I'll drop 100 cals. I guess I've just had it in my mind that I'd totally mess up my metabolism, and that getting close to 1500 cals for a guy had always seemed too low, but I'll give it a try for a while. Thanks

[SuffolkPunch]

By the way, you could make it easier for yourself by not eating in a 40/40/20 ratio. There is no magic about that ratio, you simply need to set a calorie target and minimum levels for protein and dietary fat which you need to meet or exceed while hitting the calorie target.

130g of protein and 65g of dietary fat should be enough for those minimums.

[deano110]

I'd started my fat loss journey at the end of March 2018 doing a calorie deficit, and lifting weights 4 to 5 days a week about 45min to 1 hour and 15 min depending on what I was working on. I'm 5'10 started at 275 and currently today I'm 206. I've been roughly the same since Mid Nov 2018. I weigh all my foods, and I take in roughly 1650 to 1850 calories a day. I have recently started a re-feed day where my protein and fats are lowered and I eat high carbs (I just started doing that last week, so not sure of the results yet). Normally I eat 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fats. I just can't seem to get off this weight. Its like my body knows I want to be under 200 and its giving me the big F-U. I really don't want to lower my calories anymore as I should still be losing at these numbers. Now the stranger thing is, in Dec I had shoulder surgery so I have not been able to do any upper body till a few weeks ago, so I've been working legs hard, and I have actually lost inches in my waist. In Sept my waist above the navel measured 38, it now measures 36, and my 32 jeans I got for Christmas are loser now, and this was just doing heavy leg workouts from Dec till now. I figured my weight would catch up and start falling again which it has not. I know the scale is just a number, but I'm really wanting to see me under 200 (which I probably have not been since birth lol). Any advice to get the weight to start falling again. FYI, I just had a 2nd surgery on my other shoulder so I'm back to just doing heavy legs again for 3 months.

Given what you've said I don't think you should be prioritising losing weight on the scale at the moment. You've had a significant weight loss and you've hit a plateau which is very common in this situation. 1,650 - 1,850 is very low for someone at your body weight, in my opinion your body has probably adapted to a lower calorie intake hence this is your current maintenance.

The approach I believe you should take would be to take would be to start reverse dieting and slowly increasing your calorie intake. To a certain extent I almost ignore the scales during this period and accept that there may be some weight gain. I would advocate slow incremental increases in calories, something like 100 calories per week coming from carbohydrates.

You're essentially taking 1 step backwards to take 2 steps forward. If you decrease your calories any lower it's not going to be sustainable in the long term, and you could find yourself in a worse position when you eventually start to increase calories. Focus on your performance in the gym and try and build muscle, incorporate fundamental daily movement but don't do excessive bouts of cardio.

The goal during this phase would be to be around the same body weight and composition as you are now but consuming more calories, once you're in a better position then you can look to lose more weight and you'll find it a lot easier.

[Frank Drebin]

How long have you been stuck for? Couple things that worked for me to initiate a whoosh are

1) Drinking a pile of water (preferably all in the am to prevent pissing all night). I know it sounds counter intuitive but drinking lots of water helps me from retaining water.
2) Heavy/long cardio sessions always help drop the pounds in the short term (water weight) but they also seem to help with initiating a whoosh

[mstang61]

Given what you've said I don't think you should be prioritising losing weight on the scale at the moment. You've had a significant weight loss and you've hit a plateau which is very common in this situation. 1,650 - 1,850 is very low for someone at your body weight, in my opinion your body has probably adapted to a lower calorie intake hence this is your current maintenance.

The approach I believe you should take would be to take would be to start reverse dieting and slowly increasing your calorie intake. To a certain extent I almost ignore the scales during this period and accept that there may be some weight gain. I would advocate slow incremental increases in calories, something like 100 calories per week coming from carbohydrates.

You're essentially taking 1 step backwards to take 2 steps forward. If you decrease your calories any lower it's not going to be sustainable in the long term, and you could find yourself in a worse position when you eventually start to increase calories. Focus on your performance in the gym and try and build muscle, incorporate fundamental daily movement but don't do excessive bouts of cardio.

The goal during this phase would be to be around the same body weight and composition as you are now but consuming more calories, once you're in a better position then you can look to lose more weight and you'll find it a lot easier.

I thought long a hard about this, there is a guy on youtube name Colin that explains all about it. I had planned to do this but since I only have 20 more lbs to get to my goal weight, I'm going to try dropping cals again one more time and see what happens, then reverse diet for a year to build my metabolism back up while trying to build muscle as calories increase. I'll give it another month to month in a half then start the reverse diet. Have you tried it? If so how did it work?

[mstang61]

How long have you been stuck for? Couple things that worked for me to initiate a whoosh are

1) Drinking a pile of water (preferably all in the am to prevent pissing all night). I know it sounds counter intuitive but drinking lots of water helps me from retaining water.
2) Heavy/long cardio sessions always help drop the pounds in the short term (water weight) but they also seem to help with initiating a whoosh

I've been suck since Nov 2018, your right I do need to drink more water. I'll concentrate on doing that.

[Tommy W.]

I'll drop 100 cals. I guess I've just had it in my mind that I'd totally mess up my metabolism, and that getting close to 1500 cals for a guy had always seemed too low, but I'll give it a try for a while. Thanks

I don't think you're understanding that you're taking in far more calories than you think on a weekly basis.

[SuffolkPunch]

I've been suck since Nov 2018, your right I do need to drink more water. I'll concentrate on doing that.

You don't retain excess water that long. As others are saying, you are eating more calories than you think - we've all been there.

[deano110]

I thought long a hard about this, there is a guy on youtube name Colin that explains all about it. I had planned to do this but since I only have 20 more lbs to get to my goal weight, I'm going to try dropping cals again one more time and see what happens, then reverse diet for a year to build my metabolism back up while trying to build muscle as calories increase. I'll give it another month to month in a half then start the reverse diet. Have you tried it? If so how did it work?

Ultimately it's your decision so I don't mean to be overly persistent with this I would just caution not to sacrifice long term success for a short term goal. 20 lbs is a significant amount of weight to lose, that's 10% of your current body mass. I've seen this happen numerous times, when someone fixates on a number on the scale they resort to unsustainable methods to reach it, once the goal is hit too big of a hole has been dug and they rebound. I worry that you might be setting yourself up to be in a worse position than you're currently in - higher body weight with a lower calorie maintenance.

I'm sorry if this is coming across as critical or negative as that's not the message I'm trying to get across. The reality is your calorie intake is already very low, on a good day you're having around 9 calories per lb of body weight.

Yes I've had experience with reverse dieting, I've applied it coming off the back of contest prep and in off-season when I'm trying to build my calorie maintenance. I follow a pretty straight forward method, I usually eat around 1g of protein per lb of body weight, 0.3g of fat per lb of body weight and simply make up the rest of my calorie intake from carbohydrates.

I usually set up a reverse diet in blocks of 8 - 12 weeks with a 2 week min-cut/diet break (depending on body composition) at the end of each phase, I'll usually just increase my my carbs by 25g per week (100 calories) and assess and make adjustments on a weekly basis accordingly. I've found this successful for minimising fat gain whilst maximising calorie intake. If I was in your position I would set up something very similar with the goal of maintaining your current body weight and building your metabolism back up.

[Tommy W.]

Ultimately it's your decision so I don't mean to be overly persistent with this I would just caution not to sacrifice long term success for a short term goal. 20 lbs is a significant amount of weight to lose, that's 10% of your current body mass. I've seen this happen numerous times, when someone fixates on a number on the scale they resort to unsustainable methods to reach it, once the goal is hit too big of a hole has been dug and they rebound. I worry that you might be setting yourself up to be in a worse position than you're currently in - higher body weight with a lower calorie maintenance.

I'm sorry if this is coming across as critical or negative as that's not the message I'm trying to get across. The reality is your calorie intake is already very low, on a good day you're having around 9 calories per lb of body weight.

Yes I've had experience with reverse dieting, I've applied it coming off the back of contest prep and in off-season when I'm trying to build my calorie maintenance. I follow a pretty straight forward method, I usually eat around 1g of protein per lb of body weight, 0.3g of fat per lb of body weight and simply make up the rest of my calorie intake from carbohydrates.

I usually set up a reverse diet in blocks of 8 - 12 weeks with a 2 week min-cut/diet break (depending on body composition) at the end of each phase, I'll usually just increase my my carbs by 25g per week (100 calories) and assess and make adjustments on a weekly basis accordingly. I've found this successful for minimising fat gain whilst maximising calorie intake. If I was in your position I would set up something very similar with the goal of maintaining your current body weight and building your metabolism back up.

His metabolism is fine. He's just taking in too many calories.

[Grelko]

We sound pretty similar. I also started at a size 40 pants. How may calories are you down to a day?

I still have no idea what my actual TDEE is, so I figured 1900 was a good number to start at this time. I REALLY need to figure that number out, so I can structure my meals accordingly for how I feel each day. (1900 because I've only been to the gym 1 time in the last couple weeks)

Hard to explain really. I get migraines, stomach issues etc, so on certain days I might only eat 800 calories, other days up to 5000+. I've been "trying" to get an average of about 1900/day (I go by weekly calories). Last week it was 1,688/day and I lost 2.3 pounds, but I ate a good bit right before bed and I weighed in the next morning, so I probably would have ended up losing 3 pounds or more.

I started about 5 weeks ago, so my water weight should be gone by now. The weight I lost last week was definately too fast. I might try 2200 or even 2400 for few weeks and see how that goes, until I figure out my actual TDEE, or atleast within 50-100 calories of it.

[JamesD7]

I just got past a plateau. No idea what why I stopped losing weight, no idea why I started again. I got to 165 lbs then just stalled for 3 weeks. Still taking in around 1700 like I had been for 7 months but just stopped losing weight. Literally didn't change anything then last week it just started moving again and I'm down from just over 165 10 days ago to just under 162 this morning. Just started moving consistently downwards again. Weird.

[mstang61]

Ultimately it's your decision so I don't mean to be overly persistent with this I would just caution not to sacrifice long term success for a short term goal. 20 lbs is a significant amount of weight to lose, that's 10% of your current body mass. I've seen this happen numerous times, when someone fixates on a number on the scale they resort to unsustainable methods to reach it, once the goal is hit too big of a hole has been dug and they rebound. I worry that you might be setting yourself up to be in a worse position than you're currently in - higher body weight with a lower calorie maintenance.

I'm sorry if this is coming across as critical or negative as that's not the message I'm trying to get across. The reality is your calorie intake is already very low, on a good day you're having around 9 calories per lb of body weight.

Yes I've had experience with reverse dieting, I've applied it coming off the back of contest prep and in off-season when I'm trying to build my calorie maintenance. I follow a pretty straight forward method, I usually eat around 1g of protein per lb of body weight, 0.3g of fat per lb of body weight and simply make up the rest of my calorie intake from carbohydrates.

I usually set up a reverse diet in blocks of 8 - 12 weeks with a 2 week min-cut/diet break (depending on body composition) at the end of each phase, I'll usually just increase my my carbs by 25g per week (100 calories) and assess and make adjustments on a weekly basis accordingly. I've found this successful for minimising fat gain whilst maximising calorie intake. If I was in your position I would set up something very similar with the goal of maintaining your current body weight and building your metabolism back up.

Thanks for taking the time to post, do you leave your fats the same doing that 12 weeks?

[mstang61]

I just got past a plateau. No idea what why I stopped losing weight, no idea why I started again. I got to 165 lbs then just stalled for 3 weeks. Still taking in around 1700 like I had been for 7 months but just stopped losing weight. Literally didn't change anything then last week it just started moving again and I'm down from just over 165 10 days ago to just under 162 this morning. Just started moving consistently downwards again. Weird.

I'm not really sure 3 weeks is a plateau, most likely your body was re-comping, or water weight or both. I've been stuck for 4 months.

[SuffolkPunch]

You don't need a reverse diet, you're not someone that has just done bodybuilding competition prep. You'll be wasting your time OP - but you seem intent on ignoring the obvious cause and latching on to anything else so fill your boots.

[Frank Drebin]

You don't retain excess water that long. As others are saying, you are eating more calories than you think - we've all been there.

This.

Start getting used to being hungry again OP. All the time. Except for 30-45 minutes after you eat.

[mstang61]

You don't need a reverse diet, you're not someone that has just done bodybuilding competition prep. You'll be wasting your time OP - but you seem intent on ignoring the obvious cause and latching on to anything else so fill your boots.

Where am I ignoring the obvious?? Because I asked questions on the suggestion? I already said I'm going to adjust my calories.

[mstang61]

This.

Start getting used to being hungry again OP. All the time. Except for 30-45 minutes after you eat.

lol Yep looks like your right.

[deano110]

Thanks for taking the time to post, do you leave your fats the same doing that 12 weeks?

As mentioned my protein and fat intake is dictated by my body weight, in a gaining or cutting phase I'll adjust my fat and protein intake as my scale weight changes. In the grand scheme of things, calories are king - especially when your goal is solely fat loss, but just how I like to set up my nutrition.

[deano110]

You don't need a reverse diet, you're not someone that has just done bodybuilding competition prep. You'll be wasting your time OP - but you seem intent on ignoring the obvious cause and latching on to anything else so fill your boots.

I disagree that a reverse diet would only be applicable for someone coming out of contest prep. The OP has stated he's lost just shy of 70 lbs, has been dieting for a year and has hit a 4 month weight loss plateau.

Given their success in losing the weight thus far, I'm willing to believe that they're tracking their calories with a degree of accuracy, and taking into account the above factors I think it's an opportune time to start increasing calories gradually and reverse some of the negative side effects of dieting for a prolonged period of time.

To try and cement my recommendation I'll use the example of the biggest loser contestants:

Google 'the biggest loser contestants metabolism' and click on the article from scientificamerican.com (annoyingly I cannot copy and paste links as I've only posted 4 times ha)

Admittedly the OP has probably used much more sustainable methods to lose the weight (not excessive cardio or ultra low calorie intake) but this is still a good case against dieting further in my opinion. As I keep on reiterating, there is a risk in my opinion that you're going to put yourself in a worse position.