Ok, Help Me Get Through this Slow Down
 

over the last few weeks my weight loss has slowed down to about .5lbs a week. And honestly, I'm struggling to figure out why. I have my suspicions but I'd love to get some feedback from all ya'll. I'm going to provide as much information here as possible because I'm looking for genuine help lol. [I'm also not going to use the last 3 days as an example of what I normally eat because I've had a really stressful week and haven't been able to eat lunch and what not and have indulged in some higher calorie foods to make up for the calories I didn't get at other meals -- this is not typical and while I still ate within my calorie range I suspect it's why I've slowed down RIGHT NOW, but as for the rest of the time...]

I attempt to calorie cycle, and my usual range of calories is about 1,200 a day. I will admit that there are days where I do seriously struggle to get my calories consumed up to that range, but I always give it my best.

Here are some foods I would eat on a typical day: [taken from my fit day][ps this was a vegetarian day I just noticed. I don't eat that much meat, I'm a mostly vegetarian]
Breakfast:
Nonfat Yogurt - 118 cal
Walnuts - 105 cal

Snack:
Blueberries - 178 cal
Plum - 46 cal

Lunch:
Raisin Bran - 179 cal
Whole Milk - 73 cal

Dinner:
Whole Wheat Dinner Roll: 57 cal
Mayo: 99 cal
Mustard: 10 cal
Avocado: 227 cal
Provolone: 149 cal

Total Calories: 1248

Here's another day:
Breakfast:
Multigrain English Muffin: 160 cal
Cream Cheese: 148 cal

Snack:
Cheese: 68 cal
Blueberries: 79 cal
Homemade Granola: 69 cal
Cashews: 329 cal.

Dinner:
Chicken: 111 cal.
Bread Stuffing [whole grain]: 150 cal.
Yams: 46 cal.
Brussels Sprouts: 31 cal.
Cornbread: 130 cal.

Total Calories: 1,319



I'm attempting to drink more water by drinking 64 ounces a day. I don't normally make it up that high and usually stay around 50 ounces. It's a work in progress.

I also typically do an hour fitness boot camp five days a week which is pretty intense exercise. I estimate that I'm burning about 550 calories each time I do it.

So my friends, any suggestions? My weight loss has stalled out and I'm losing about a pound or less a week, I'd like to get back up to 1.5 or 2 a week again!

why arent you eating any protein?
On 1200 a day, you need protein to spare your muscle mass from being consumed for energy
on 1200 a day i would be getting at least 40% of my cals from protein...20 or more grams per meal....

Originally Posted by mkroyer:
why arent you eating any protein?
On 1200 a day, you need protein to spare your muscle mass from being consumed for energy
on 1200 a day i would be getting at least 40% of my cals from protein...20 or more grams per meal....

I am, just not as much as I should. I eat a largely vegetarian diet and have a very hard time actually eating any meat at all. When I do it has to be in very small portions or I actually get sick. [vomiting sick]

I attempt to suppliment this through cheese or nuts, and usually beans. I just didn't use any bean days as my examples of foods. The problems with beans is that they can be pretty high calorie.


ETA: On that second day I had 51.6 grams of protein. 15% of my diet that day.

Your portions seem freakishly small, if those calorie counts are accurate. If your yams were only 46 calories, you must have eaten about 40 grams--that's 2-3 bites. A 57 calorie dinner roll is 25 grams of bread--again, about 3 bites.

Is it possible that your calorie sources are off? Where do you get your numbers?

Originally Posted by Shmead:
Your portions seem freakishly small, if those calorie counts are accurate. If your yams were only 46 calories, you must have eaten about 40 grams--that's 2-3 bites. A 57 calorie dinner roll is 25 grams of bread--again, about 3 bites.

Is it possible that your calorie sources are off? Where do you get your numbers?

No, they ARE freakishly small. I used to be able to put it away like a horse, but now I can't even finish half a sandwich. My family members have commented that it's like I gave myself gastric bypass without actually having the surgery and they are right. I can only physically eat so much at a time without getting a bad stomachache, so I eat very small portions. They keep me fueled and I tend to snack throughout the day so I'm usually always eating.


Edit: I'm actually weighing my food on a food scale, I'm not going by portion sizes. Oh and I use fitday.

The bread portions are usually only half a roll or less, I don't want to fill up on bread so I try to leave room for everything else.

have you tried cottage cheese, greek yogurt, whey protein supplements, quinoa, EGG WHITES for protein?

Have you considered cutting out pre-made and processed food? That helped me tremendously. I do much better when I make everything myself. No chemicals, no food additives, no modified cornstarch, preservatives, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

Something else which has helped me tremendously is no refined foods. Sugar and white flour are the two big ones that come to mind just now.

I also find that small adjustments can make a difference, muesli with no sweetener instead of granola. Homemade yoghurt digests, for me, better than store-bought. Some foods sit better at certain times of the day than others.

I find when I drink much more water, it helps me. Eleven or twelve glasses a day. It takes effort, but I have more energy, when I do. It flushes out toxins, and rehydrates. I often have 1200 calories days, or lower, and drinking that much water is vital.

The period of time in which I gained weight, from 1999-2001, was when I ate refined and processed foods. In 2001, I cut out all the sugar and sugar substitutes, and slowly worked my way back to the way I had eaten before. That's what shed the fifty pounds.

That turned out not to be enough, and now I have to eat much less and even more wisely.

These things might not appeal to you, they are just things which help me.

Am sending you all best thoughts for success. :goodvibes

Could it be that you are not eating enough and your body is conserving cals? 1200 - 550 burned only leaves 650 for your body to function.

Originally Posted by mkroyer:
have you tried cottage cheese, greek yogurt, whey protein supplements, quinoa, EGG WHITES for protein?

Yes, I try to eat greek yogurt daily. I haven't tried protein supplements but it's not a bad idea.

Originally Posted by SilverLife:
Have you considered cutting out pre-made and processed food? That helped me tremendously. I do much better when I make everything myself. No chemicals, no food additives, no modified cornstarch, preservatives, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

Another things which has helped me tremendously is no refined foods. Sugar and white flour are the two big ones that come to mind just now.

Those might not appeal to you, they are just things which help me.

Am sending you all best thoughts for success. :goodvibes

Yes, this is actually something I've already done for the most part. I cook almost anything for myself from scratch or my roommate cooks it.

I can try to cut out sugar and refined flour, but I need to eat something like a multigrain english muffin for breakfast for energy. It really really helps me. As for the flour, I try to not eat anything that's white. This is something I could be much more diligent about though.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Originally Posted by envelope:
Could it be that you are not eating enough and your body is conserving cals? 1200 - 550 burned only leaves 650 for your body to function.

IDK, could it be? When I look at my fitday it says that I usually burn about 2800 calories a day, and I usually consume 1263. I'm not overly tired, hungry throughout the day or anything like that ...

Could my body be conserving the calories I am consuming?

also likely your body is consuming your muslce for energy, and your metabolism is adapting (both slowing down due to muscle loss, as well as slowing down due to being in an extreme caloric deficit) In the long run, losing muscle mass is not going to be your friend. My 2 cents, for what its worth :)

get some veggies in there girl! swap out the bready carbs and fat at breakfast/snacks for some veggies and beans, egg whites like someone else said. still vegetarian, but a good source of carbs/prot that will fill you up. i saw you said you need your english muffin, is it whole-grain? sometimes the word "multigrain" doesn't actually mean much. maybe switch cream-cheese for hummus? add some veggies like greens, green beans, peppers, shrooms, etc.
increasing my veggies and adding a serving of beans (black and garbanzo) helped me break through a month+ long plateau.

and great job so far on the weight loss! that's amazing!

Originally Posted by audrina:
IDK, could it be? When I look at my fitday it says that I usually burn about 2800 calories a day, and I usually consume 1263. I'm not overly tired, hungry throughout the day or anything like that ...

Could my body be conserving the calories I am consuming?

Yes.
I think you're not giving your body enough to function. That's a huge deficit.

You're doing really really well. Don't derail yourself by dropping your cals so low you can't sustain it.

It is whole grain, I'm pretty sure, that's something I pretty much require when I buy things now and usually look for but I'm done with the pack so I'd have to look next time I go to the store.

And cream cheese to hummus is a GREAT idea I'll definitely try. I usually do eat a good amount of veggies with dinner, but I had been having a hard time reaching my daily calorie intake so I had to stop eating salads [lettuce based] and switch to whole vegetables as part of the meal, like brussell sprouts, a vegetable salad, roasted tomatoes ... whatever.

But maybe I could make some other changes to what I'm eating.


Thanks for the help everyone and the congrats on the weight loss - I'm not trying to drop my calories too low, I'm working on finding the balance so I can continue to lose weight and be the healthiest, not keep getting hung up. :)

I partially wonder if it isn't the calorie deficet thing and I'm just working out and burning WAY more calories than I think I am...

The more weight I lost the harder I worked out the more I had to eat to keep losing. That said though, I was losing slower, hunger and cranky. So I knew I wasn't getting enough fuel. If you're not hungry or tired I'm not sure I'd give my typical raise your cals suggestion, but it's worth a try. Other options would be to try calorie cycling and try picking up a clean eating or whole foods cookbook for new ideas on getting processed foods out of your diet, this also made a big difference for me towards the end. At some point I went from losing 2 lbs a week to losing 4 lbs two weeks out of the month and little to nothing the other weeks. Maybe your weight loss trend is just shifting. But I would give a few extra cals a try.

Originally Posted by SilverLife:
Have you considered cutting out pre-made and processed food? That helped me tremendously. I do much better when I make everything myself. No chemicals, no food additives, no modified cornstarch, preservatives, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

Something else which has helped me tremendously is no refined foods. Sugar and white flour are the two big ones that come to mind just now.

Can someone explain to me how cutting things like processed foods, chemicals, additives, sugar, etc. actually slow down weight loss if it doesn't change your caloric intake? I can understand how those things can be bad for you nutrient wise, as well as make you hungrier. But, if you genuinely ate the same number of calories, does it make a difference in weightloss? If so, can anyone explain how?

Thanks!