Weight Loss

I am just wondering if anyone else has been working hard (both with healthy eating and exercise) and CANNOT lose a pound? I am within a healthy weight, 5'7 134lbs but have been at about 128 and felt my best there. If I could just get down to 130 I'd be thrilled.

So anyway, I haven't lost an ounce and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this? It is possible that this is just my body's "happy weight" and losing a few pounds would take extreme measures?

I guess it's possible because I sure achieved it!

The lower bf% you have the lower deficit you can maintain to lose fat not muscle.  If you have too high of a deficit your body will start using your muscle to make up for the high deficit, or just stop letting you lose all together.  Like you said you only have about 6+/- to lose... your deficit may be to high.

Me for example, If i have a deficit higher than about 700 I stall or gain weight.

Original Post by lizshuler:

The lower bf% you have the lower deficit you can maintain to lose fat not muscle.  If you have too high of a deficit your body will start using your muscle to make up for the high deficit, or just stop letting you lose all together.  Like you said you only have about 6+/- to lose... your deficit may be to high.

Me for example, If i have a deficit higher than about 700 I stall or gain weight.

how did you work out what your deficit has to be before you gain?

i've heard of having a high deficit that can stall weight lose, but contribute to weight gain? are you sure?

good question. i'm a little confused.

even if you are eating enough according to your bmr, if you deficit is to large your body may still think it is starving.  It will therefore get rid of some muscle and tell your body to store fat, hence a weight gain.  www.phord.com/cc has a feature that tells you your make deficit if you put your bf% in

that website (phord.com) isnt healthy its telling me to eat 1000 calories. CC tells me to eat 2200 (i never get anywhere close to that)

You must be doing something wrong, maybe you made a mistake inputing your info because it never tells you to eat below your bmr.  For example, if you put your activity at sedentary it recommends you eat your BMR and no less.  So unless your BMR is 1000 you are doing something wrong when using the site.

Something must have gone wrong cause all the data i entered was correct i just tried to do it again and it told me that I was too young to do it

Edit: sorry. got a double post because cc was acting weird. none of my posts would show up.

Serious efforts don't really mean much (your bod doesn't care how serious you are.) It's a matter of calories in and out. Something in your efforts isn't what you need in order to lose those last few. We can't tell you what that is without knowing exactly what you've been trying.

And it may be that you don't want to do as much as it would take. Maybe working out & tightening up will be enough to make you happy. There are lots of posts from people who lost inches without losing pounds.

It is very possible if you have a thyroid or metabolic disorder.  Ask your doctor to check your thyroid levels first...

Hi there..I have actually lost 10 pounds with GREAT effort and I have been continuing that effort and adding to it and I have stalled my weight loss. I am at a healthy weight but I feel more comfortable slightly lower. I am 5'4" and right now sitting at 121 pounds. I have to still tone my body up some and have been doing cardio, circuit training , as well as strength training with a personal trainer. I am a mother of three and 36 years old, although I do not want to look too thin I was about 118 two years ago and felt like I looked great, so really I just need to bump myself under the 120 mark and I will be happy.I also have to say that I am intrigued by what lizshuler had to say about the deficit being too high. I have my CC account set at light activity and I add in my workouts which usually burn about 500 calories for the hour depending on what I do that day...that being said I try to stay within a 1500 calorie range for the day. My burn on here after I add my workouts is 2130 a day....I burn 1800 doing no exercise...do you think I need to bump up my intake or exercise to start shedding off the other 5 or so pounds I want to lose? I realize I am piggy-backing on someones elses thread but I have been looking for this answer and it seems I am close here. Thanks so much!!

Are you really being honest and logging every tiny morsel that goes into your mouth?  Ketchup?  Soy sauce?  One starlight candy?  Gum?  Are you measuring and weighing everything exactly?

All those little 10 calorie items add up, especially when you consider that most people probably eat at least several small (10 calorie) items each day.

Personaltraining-  I'm about 21% bodyfat and my max deficit is about 700-800 cals, so you are probably a little lower than that.  It may be a good idea to lower your deficit to 500 (or even have a few maintenance days) and see it that breaks your stall.

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/lyle_mc donald/maximum_fatloss?page=0%2C1

personaltraining, if your numbers are good, you should be losing about a pound a week. Your deficit is not too high (~630).

However, I didn't check cc but my fav. BMR/burn calculator (BMR/RMR Calculator ) gives lower numbers than you listed. For instance, if I use A Little More Active = Exercise or sports 2-4 days/week, the burn is 1767. Assuming that accounts for your exercise, your deficit at 1500 intake would only be 267. You'd be losing, but it will take about two weeks to lose a pound. All of these calculators are estimates so if something doesn't add up, it probably means one of the assumptions is wrong.

I honestly believe that we as a group are under the assumption that if we do X Y and Z the weight loss will absolutely occur. I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree. I "should" be losing 1.5-2 pounds a week. This is not happening. At all.

I just don't think it's necessarily the absolute truth to every body. I personally have done it all right (and tried everything, log everything, more calories, less calories, less cardio, more weights, and on and on) and am barely losing. Am I healthier than I was in May, good dog, YES. Am I smaller? I am juuuuuuuust noticing differences, although subtle. Have I lost weight? Yup, but not nearly what I should have after 11+ weeks of this. I'm beginning to think that my body just isn't having any of this thin stuff---and while I love that I'm feeling FIT, it pretty much sucks to not see progress like I should. And the 3 straight weeks of bloating is not helping either ;).

Bottom line is this: the science is absolutely there that if we follow the rules, the results will occur. That said, there is science and there is personal reality, and if you truly are focused and working and nothing is happening---that you can't beat yourself up too much.  We're all different and we all respond to "dieting" differently, just like there are bodies out there who have never needed a "diet" in their lives regardless of what they eat.  I'm going to keep pressing on, assuming that one of these days POOF all this hard work will manifest into thinner on the outside---and appreciate that healthy on the INSIDE is a great thing as well.

 

 

 

Thanks Chris1208 and Lizshuler for your responses. I too checked out the bmr/rmr calculator and I would say my activity level is that of moderate..I workout hard 5-6 days a week and I am also always on the go all day..setting it at that has my numbers very close to cc's ..that is after I add my exercise here. I am going to try to go on maintance this week just to give my body a rest..I have been going at this since April. If I see a gain I will bump myself down to the 1200-1300 range. I do try to zig-zag my intake anyway so one day I may have 1200 and another I may have 1700...when I average out my week it comes in at around 1500. Lets hope that the added calories will give my body the boost it needs. I totally agree with musicismydestiny...I'm going to keep pressing on, assuming that one of these days POOF all this hard work will manifest into thinner on the outside---and appreciate that healthy on the INSIDE is a great thing as well. Well said! Thank you all and Good Luck to you as well.