I can‘t lose any more weight. Need advice

[Krataran]

Hey guys
I am 1,78m and 113 kg at the moment. obviously pretty fat but with a lot of muscle mass aswell. I started my last diet at 130kg but i can‘t get past 110kg for some reason. I am eating 2000kcal a day on average, which i consider to be rather low for my weight and height. Also working out everyday since i am trying hard to overcome this plateau. Sometimes i get dizzy during hard workouts and i don‘t think i should go below 2000kcal because of that. Is a refeed or diet break an option? I am really running out of ideas. I dont‘t think i could just reduce my intake here. Because when i finally get to a normal weight what should i eat then? 1000kcal? Already hungry as it is now... Is there any advice someone could give me?

[faithbrah]

make 100% sure you're counting correctly. i find it extremely hard to believe you're not losing weight on those calories

[CommitmentRulz]

How long has it been since you lost ANY weight?

[supramax]

Hey guys
I am 1,78m and 113 kg at the moment. obviously pretty fat but with a lot of muscle mass aswell. I started my last diet at 130kg but i can‘t get past 110kg for some reason. I am eating 2000kcal a day on average, which i consider to be rather low for my weight and height. Also working out everyday since i am trying hard to overcome this plateau. Sometimes i get dizzy during hard workouts and i don‘t think i should go below 2000kcal because of that. Is a refeed or diet break an option? I am really running out of ideas. I dont‘t think i could just reduce my intake here. Because when i finally get to a normal weight what should i eat then? 1000kcal? Already hungry as it is now... Is there any advice someone could give me?

[xsquid99]

Barring any unidentified or undisclosed medical condition, if you're not losing weight then you're not in a calorie deficit. The only indication of a caloric deficit is weight loss, it doesn't matter what "number" you think you should be eating. Getting dizzy during a hard workout is not entirely unusual whether you're on low calories or not. I've seen guys who are bulking pass out after pulling too much on a deadlift.

[Tommy W.]

If the scale doesn’t move for 2 weeks then you’re not in a deficit. 2000 isn’t that low and there’s a good chance you’re taking more than that on an average over the week. Drop 300 a day and after 2 weeks review the outcome. Drop more if the loss is too slow

[AwakeningDragon]

Yes a refeed is an option. eating 200-300g extra carbs for two days or 400g of carbs for one day. This will help your mental state and improve your workouts, but you must return to your deficit thereafter.

[GayCumLord]

Sounds like you're not properly counting your macros. Do you eat anything that doesn't have a nutrition label that you guesstimate? IE homecooking, cooking with oil, etc if so i'd cut that out.

[Tommy W.]

Yes a refeed is an option. eating 200-300g extra carbs for two days or 400g of carbs for one day. This will help your mental state and improve your workouts, but you must return to your deficit thereafter.

just no

[AwakeningDragon]

just no

just yes, refeeds have been used for countless years and there's research to back it up. This person is barely hanging on, and has been dieting for a long time. There is no problem taking a 2 day refeed.


https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5142/5/1/19

[Tommy W.]

just yes, refeeds have been used for countless years and there's research to back it up. This person is barely hanging on, and has been dieting for a long time. There is no problem taking a 2 day refeed.


https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5142/5/1/19

not when someone is 200+ pounds.

[Tommy W.]

Hey guys
I am 1,78m and 113 kg at the moment. obviously pretty fat but with a lot of muscle mass aswell. I started my last diet at 130kg but i can‘t get past 110kg for some reason. I am eating 2000kcal a day on average, which i consider to be rather low for my weight and height. Also working out everyday since i am trying hard to overcome this plateau. Sometimes i get dizzy during hard workouts and i don‘t think i should go below 2000kcal because of that. Is a refeed or diet break an option? I am really running out of ideas. I dont‘t think i could just reduce my intake here. Because when i finally get to a normal weight what should i eat then? 1000kcal? Already hungry as it is now... Is there any advice someone could give me?

you’re eating more than you think. 2000 every day for you you’d be losing consistently.

[satinder747]

Hey guys
I am 1,78m and 113 kg at the moment. obviously pretty fat but with a lot of muscle mass aswell. I started my last diet at 130kg but i can‘t get past 110kg for some reason. I am eating 2000kcal a day on average, which i consider to be rather low for my weight and height. Also working out everyday since i am trying hard to overcome this plateau. Sometimes i get dizzy during hard workouts and i don‘t think i should go below 2000kcal because of that. Is a refeed or diet break an option? I am really running out of ideas. I dont‘t think i could just reduce my intake here. Because when i finally get to a normal weight what should i eat then? 1000kcal? Already hungry as it is now... Is there any advice someone could give me?

I would suggest follow 40/40/20 diet. It means, 1 gram of protein and carb per pound of bodyweight and then 20% fats. For example, you said you're presently 110 Kg (around 242 pounds) then shoot for 242 grams of protein & carbs and around 48 to 50 grams of fats. And, see if your strength is increasing and getting any visual change. (It takes time from 6 month to 1 year, so don't expect any immediate results)

The best rule is to go at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If strength is increasing then you shouldn't worried about scale. And, sooner or later you'll start getting visual change too.

Going for crazy 1000 calories diet is like starving to death...I will never ever do that.

I hope it helps. Good luck!

[Tommy W.]

I would suggest follow 40/40/20 diet. It means, 1 gram of protein and carb per pound of bodyweight and then 20% fats. For example, you said you're presently 110 Kg (around 242 pounds) then shoot for 242 grams of protein & carbs and around 48 to 50 grams of fats. And, see if your strength is increasing and getting any visual change. (It takes time from 6 month to 1 year, so don't expect any immediate results)

The best rule is to go at least 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. If strength is increasing then you shouldn't worried about scale. And, sooner or later you'll start getting visual change too.

Going for crazy 1000 calories diet is like starving to death...I will never ever do that.

I hope it helps. Good luck!

work in grams and not %. 242 g of protein is unnecessary for starters. At 242 lbs you need to be concerned with the scale. Too many fails with this post.

[snailsrus]

work in grams and not %. 242 g of protein is unnecessary for starters. At 242 lbs you need to be concerned with the scale. Too many fails with this post.

ya 242 grams of protein almost no one needs. If op just did min 60 grams of fat, 150-170 grams of protein and then fill in the rest of say a base calorie amount of 2000. It would be impossible not to lose weight. The 242 grams of carbs, 242 grams of protein and 48 grams of fat would be 2368 which op could afford to cut more than that.

Also that 40/40/20 would only put me at 21 grams of fat a day and 960 calories a day. Which would be a terrible idea.

[EiFit91]

just yes, refeeds have been used for countless years and there's research to back it up. This person is barely hanging on, and has been dieting for a long time. There is no problem taking a 2 day refeed.


https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5142/5/1/19

There's a comment to that article that I found interesting, https://www.mdpi.com/2411-5142/5/4/85/htm, it shows some flaws in their statistical analysis.

Also as TommyW pointed out this is about lean individuals. The article you pointed to cites a paper that shows that intermittent energy restriction has benefits compared to continuous dieting in overweight/obese people, but if you search the literature you also find papers that find no difference. And if you look at systematic reviews they conclude that there's no difference in success between approaches (e.g. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...1111/obr.12593).

Without further evidence I would regard the advice of using diet breaks as just speculative in the overweight/obese.

The main reason why I don't like advising "diet breaks" to overweight people is that they tend to have a problematic relationship with food, and diet breaks just reinforce that relationship. Maybe it can help with sanity, but in this case where someone is 113 kg and claiming to not lose weight on 2000 calories a day it seems better to try to clean up his calorie tracking.

Just repeating relevant questions already stated but OP, how long time has passed since you last saw the scale moving? And how are you tracking your calories, are you weighing everything? Do you eat any cheat meals during the week?

[Krataran]

First of all: Thanks everybody for the responses. Since i got a lot of feedback i wanted to provide some additional information.

I was working out for a long time (11 years) before i started this diet. Had a really rough time that started a couple years ago with a major accident and the injuries that came with it made me gain a lot of weight. Now i finally found the strength to actually lose it. Never stopped working out. I just gave a **** about what i ate.

The main suggestion in your posts was that i probably underestimate my daily caloric intake. Since that was the most likely reason i double checked everything in an excel sheet and it came out to 1800-2200 calories per day. 2050 on average on the example of last week.

I am currently stuck on this plateau about 3 weeks.

Good to know that getting dizzy has nothing to do with taking to little calories and even bulking people can pass out 😂

I am currently taking 140g protein 60g of fat and fill the rest with carbohydrates.

I think i will stay on this caloric level at the moment and wait a bit longer if the scale starts to move again. Since i am actually building strength (so maybe building muscle?) i will wait a for another week before reducing my caloric intake again.

If my body needs that little to actually work then so be it. Less calories it is.

[EiFit91]

First of all: Thanks everybody for the responses. Since i got a lot of feedback i wanted to provide some additional information.

I was working out for a long time (11 years) before i started this diet. Had a really rough time that started a couple years ago with a major accident and the injuries that came with it made me gain a lot of weight. Now i finally found the strength to actually lose it. Never stopped working out. I just gave a **** about what i ate.

The main suggestion in your posts was that i probably underestimate my daily caloric intake. Since that was the most likely reason i double checked everything in an excel sheet and it came out to 1800-2200 calories per day. 2050 on average on the example of last week.

I am currently stuck on this plateau about 3 weeks.

Good to know that getting dizzy has nothing to do with taking to little calories and even bulking people can pass out ������

I am currently taking 140g protein 60g of fat and fill the rest with carbohydrates.

I think i will stay on this caloric level at the moment and wait a bit longer if the scale starts to move again. Since i am actually building strength (so maybe building muscle?) i will wait a for another week before reducing my caloric intake again.

If my body needs that little to actually work then so be it. Less calories it is.

Your fat intake is low for your weight, read this:

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...hp?t=173439001

I get dizzy and feel like crap if I go low-fat for an extended period of time.

Also, you could have been losing weight but it's being masked by water retention. Do you have daily weigh in data for the last three weeks?

And how are you tracking your calories, are you weighing everything?

[Krataran]

I am not weighing myself daily. Just twice a week since on a day to day basis weight just fluctuates too much. I can start weighing daily if that helps with providing more data.

I track my calories by only having like 10 different meals that i put together everyday. At the start of the diet i weighed everything and wrote it in an excel sheet to calculate my makros and calories. By now i know how many calories/ makros one of those meals has.

[SuffolkPunch]

I am not weighing myself daily. Just twice a week since on a day to day basis weight just fluctuates too much. I can start weighing daily if that helps with providing more data.

Daily would be better. The way to deal with noise in data is more data - not less. Any statistician would concur.

We regularly see people who think they aren't losing weight - but they have just used two data points to judge this - the start and end points. But either or both of those could easily have an unfavourable bias due to water weight shifts.

[EiFit91]

I am not weighing myself daily. Just twice a week since on a day to day basis weight just fluctuates too much. I can start weighing daily if that helps with providing more data.

I track my calories by only having like 10 different meals that i put together everyday. At the start of the diet i weighed everything and wrote it in an excel sheet to calculate my makros and calories. By now i know how many calories/ makros one of those meals has.

More data is always better. I think you don't have enough data to know for sure that you have actually stalled. I'd suggest weighing yourself daily for two weeks on 2000 calories/day as you are currently eating and then look at how the weight curve is trending.

Many people make counting errors when they track calories or overrely on sources that can be unreliable for many food items (for instance MyFitnessPal), so doublechecking things could be a good idea as well. This is because even with limited data it seems weird that you haven't seen any scale changes in three weeks if you are really eating 2000 a day - the steeper the deficit the less data you need to sift the signal from the noise and 2000 calories a day at 113 kg seems very low so it shouldn't be hard to see your weight trending down. At your weight this means you either have a really low TDEE or you are not counting correctly.

For instance, things like pasta and rice can introduce major biases into your counting if you are making the wrong assumption about how many calories they contain. I mention these in particular because I think they are a common problem, and I have seen online "weight clubs" report huge mistakes on how much they contain. They are not very filling and are high in calories, so combining these with counting errors can lead people to feel hungrier than they should given the size of the calorie deficit.

[Krataran]

Makes sense. Will do that and update you guys in 2 weeks. I will also start again weighing my food so that there can‘t be any errors in my estimates. Thanks for all the replies.

One more side note... I just finished watching the video that got posted above. Since i don‘t expect any of you to watch a 30 min video i will quickly summarize it and then ask my questions.

The video talks about fasting and the benefits it provides. low insulin level for better fat loss, no muscle loss (for some reason. contrary to everything i read so far), faster metabolic rate etc. It says that just eating less lets your metabolism go down but eating nothing for some time doesn‘t effect the metabolism. This whole idea is super new for me but it kinda makes sense. Does anyone have experience with fasting for weight loss? If so... Did you lose muscle?

[EiFit91]

Makes sense. Will do that and update you guys in 2 weeks. I will also start again weighing my food so that there can‘t be any errors in my estimates. Thanks for all the replies.

One more side note... I just finished watching the video that got posted above. Since i don‘t expect any of you to watch a 30 min video i will quickly summarize it and then ask my questions.

The video talks about fasting and the benefits it provides. low insulin level for better fat loss, no muscle loss (for some reason. contrary to everything i read so far), faster metabolic rate etc. It says that just eating less lets your metabolism go down but eating nothing for some time doesn‘t effect the metabolism. This whole idea is super new for me but it kinda makes sense. Does anyone have experience with fasting for weight loss? If so... Did you lose muscle?

It is probably suboptimal for muscle gain/retention:

https://www.phillyvoice.com/intermit...loss-research/

This is probably because protein is sensitive to nutrient timing, unlike other macros.

And on average seems to have no benefits over continuous energy restriction for weight loss purposes. A couple of examples:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...1111/obr.12593 (systematic review of short-term trials)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...gSLfyIug#bib12 (long-run randomized trial lasting 1 year)

[satinder747]

First of all: Thanks everybody for the responses. Since i got a lot of feedback i wanted to provide some additional information.

I was working out for a long time (11 years) before i started this diet. Had a really rough time that started a couple years ago with a major accident and the injuries that came with it made me gain a lot of weight. Now i finally found the strength to actually lose it. Never stopped working out. I just gave a **** about what i ate.

The main suggestion in your posts was that i probably underestimate my daily caloric intake. Since that was the most likely reason i double checked everything in an excel sheet and it came out to 1800-2200 calories per day. 2050 on average on the example of last week.

I am currently stuck on this plateau about 3 weeks.

Good to know that getting dizzy has nothing to do with taking to little calories and even bulking people can pass out 😂

I am currently taking 140g protein 60g of fat and fill the rest with carbohydrates.

I think i will stay on this caloric level at the moment and wait a bit longer if the scale starts to move again. Since i am actually building strength (so maybe building muscle?) i will wait a for another week before reducing my caloric intake again.

If my body needs that little to actually work then so be it. Less calories it is.

LOL Besides, hats off to you for your dedication. It becomes very hard to get back on track after getting injured... May you come back stronger than before...

[SuffolkPunch]

Makes sense. Will do that and update you guys in 2 weeks. I will also start again weighing my food so that there can‘t be any errors in my estimates. Thanks for all the replies.

One more side note... I just finished watching the video that got posted above. Since i don‘t expect any of you to watch a 30 min video i will quickly summarize it and then ask my questions.

The video talks about fasting and the benefits it provides. low insulin level for better fat loss, no muscle loss (for some reason. contrary to everything i read so far), faster metabolic rate etc. It says that just eating less lets your metabolism go down but eating nothing for some time doesn‘t effect the metabolism. This whole idea is super new for me but it kinda makes sense. Does anyone have experience with fasting for weight loss? If so... Did you lose muscle?

This is often trodden ground. The bottom line is that you can't "hack" fat loss. Talking about acute hormone effects doesn't serve any purpose but to confuse people. Fat loss *will* be determined by net calorie deficit.

Fasting will negatively affect muscle gain or muscle retention. It's recommended that you get at least 4 widely spaced protein feedings per day. Other macros are less sensitive to intraday timing.

Metabolism is sensitive to long term calorie balance. There is no evidence that fasting intraday has any effect on this.

There is a small amount of evidence that refeeds are useful to lean individuals and diet breaks are useful to more overweight individuals. These are tiny effects compared to getting the basics right and compliance.

[Krataran]

Alright no fasting it is.
Love this forum btw. Everyone is super kind, some advices even supported by sources (hats off for that) and overall just a nice experience. Thank you guys a lot. I will track my calories/makros by weighing them again and weighing myself daily for the next 2 weeks. Will keep you guys updated.
Thanks a lot for all the help

[Tommy W.]

Alright no fasting it is.
Love this forum btw. Everyone is super kind, some advices even supported by sources (hats off for that) and overall just a nice experience. Thank you guys a lot. I will track my calories/makros by weighing them again and weighing myself daily for the next 2 weeks. Will keep you guys updated.
Thanks a lot for all the help

good luck and remember losing fat is simple but not necessarily easy. Your 2,000 ish calories a day is probably around close to 800-1,000 a day off when figured accurately and on a weekly basis.

Fatloss is a product of a consistent weekly calorie deficit over time and nothing more.

[Tommy W.]

If you are losing your weight to lose your tummy and belly fat, so I suggest you to take waist trainer and wear it under your clothes and use during your exercise that will effect more on you belly and tummy fat.

Please stop

[Krataran]

Wanted to update you guys. Today was the first time i weighed under 110 kg in a long time. Seems like your advices helped me Thanks for that!

[supermax30]

Hii,
You try hard, but that scale won't move. Increasing the number of steps you take in a day helps burn calories. If you burn more calories than you consume, you will lose weight.