When calorie counting stops working!
 

Hi there,

I have been a calorie counter for years. Every time the scale budges a couple of pounds, I just cut my calories to 1500 and everything falls into place... until now.

Okay, so this past year has been crazy and I haven't paid attention to it much and sure enough I put on 7 pounds in the past 9 months (not pregnant, I plan to gain more than 7 when that happy day arrives:)). So I put a brakes on the calories but NOTHING except a slight gain. Yikes!

I have a career where I am on my feet the majority of my day and I recently started training for my second half marathon so what gives??? It's been three weeks. What gives?

I know that this sometimes happens with age but I'm only 28. Has anyone been in this boat before? Help! I need a jumpstart.

Many thanks,
Christine

That is perplexing, Christine! You say that you recently started training for a marathon. Maybe you're undereating and your body is holding on to every bit of fat it can??? I don't know if that can really happen, but I've read that it can. Also, perhaps you've built some muscle while training for the marathon and that shows up (although, I realize 7 lbs. of muscle would be unusual).

Are you assiduous about weighing and measuring your food and not snacking (even those bites, licks, and tastes) without recording it? I say this because I find it very easy to slip into lax behaviors and those can show up on the scale.

Try 1700 calories for a week?

My guess is that you aren't eating enough while training and it's dragging your metabolism down instead of revving it up. I hope if you're training that you're getting enough protein in b/c that's super important in training and calorie reduction.

I used to calorie count because that was the simplest thing I could come up with to do diet wise, but I would fall back into old *not good* habits & not even enough calories = not losing weight = discouraged.

I switched to IP and I find it's a lot easier to keep track because they do it for me basically.

Try shaking up the calories some (like 1500, 1700, 1500, 1800, 1200) during the week. Confusion seems to be the thing to get your body to pay attention. Also - keep in mind that you are getting a lot of exercise and that means more muscle and sometimes water retention (both of which add weight).

I think you keep plowing forward, make sure you are being honest with your calories and eventually the weight wil come off.

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for the advice. I am going to give 1700 a try for a few days even though it's scary because I feel like I've already put on weight but I have heard that too little can slow things down. I mean, I've experienced this before but never to this extent.

Many thanks for your thoughts!

Check out refeed/cheat days. I have a thread on it (having hit a plateau) and there's lots on google. Don't lose heart. You'll figure it out.

http://www.topfatlosstrainer.com/200...apid-fat-loss/

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-n...-and-lose-fat/

We have very similar stats and I'm a runner too, 1500-1700 is WAY to low for me. I lose at around 1700-1800 with a couple lowish day 1600 and a couple high days 2000-3000.

Also you want to make sure that you are eating cleanly, avoid processed garbage and alcohol (this stuff really messes up your hormone balance).

Lastly, maintenance is a CONSTANT tweaking process. I've found over the last 18 months sometimes I can eat more, sometimes I have to eat less. When I'm training, I MUST eat more!

Good luck to you!