Hello,

I've been successfully losing weight over the past several years on and off by calorie counting. At first, I was eating 1700-1900. I just recently (last few months) lost another 6-7 lbs. eating 1620 most days, up to 1800 when I felt like I really needed it, plus one or two treat meals a week.

Now I've plateaud at 162. It may be partly because I have tendonitis in my left arm for the past several weeks and can't weight train my upper body for now. I've also had to cut back a bit on cardio (down to 2x/week), because the impact jars the sore muscles. It's starting to get better now, thankfully. But the calories I'm eating should be enough to lose a little, even without exercise!

So I'm thinking MAYBE it's time to reduce a little more. But I really really don't want to! I already feel like I'm getting just enough. I suppose if that were the case, though, I'd be losing...?

I'm just looking for feedback, information, sympathy, whatever you've got.

Thanks!

Maybe instead of restricting your overall daily calories, how about going easy on your two treat meals. What do you consider a 'treat meal'? If these are instances in which you go out to restaurants to eat, those meals can bring upon thousands of calories. You should still allow yourself to eat out, but make better choices.

Hi 3beans,

I'm kind of the same way lately. I haven't lost in the last 3 weeks, and I'm considering bringing my calories down. However, I don't know if I want to since I want to have enough calories that I can drop them in the future, when I'm at a "real" plateau. I'm afraid that (for example) if I cut it to 1650 now, and I have to cut it to 1600 when I plateau again at perhaps 210, I'll have to cut it to 1550 when I plateau at 195, and if I keep going, I'm afraid I won't have enough calories left to keep cutting. I'm eating between 1700 - 1800 per day right now.

How long has it been since you've not lost? If you're like me, and it hasn't been that long, maybe we both need to continue to be patient and see if we can break the plateau without lowering calores. I really don't want to go below 1700 per day average yet. I like to eat, and I don't want to lower calories until I have to.

Good luck!

What I have heard is that if you've plateaued for several weeks, then it is time to cut the calories by about 100 per day. You might try maintaining until your tendonitis clears up, then cut the 100 calories per day as well as get back into your regular workout routine. That will really spur your body back into the losing mode.

This is what I go by and it has been helping:

Womens Nutrition Health Guide

I agree with ILUVFOOD that the first step is to cut back on the treat meals--I think one to two per month would be a lot better than one to two per week. I started at about 10 pounds below where you are at now and I found that whenever I went off my diet (e.g., had a treat meal), it was several days to sometimes over a week before I would start losing again (depending on how bad the treat was). If you are having a treat meal once or a twice a week, this could easily explain why you aren't seeing further weight loss.

Your calorie intake may also need to get lower as you lose weight. When I started at 150 lbs, I reduced my calories to 1200 a day and lost about a pound per week. I have been able to increase my calories to 1400 a day and continue losing weight by significantly increasing my exercise. I exercise for at least one hour a day, seven days a week, sometimes a little longer. When I am doing cardio, my goal is to burn around 600 calories on weekdays and 400 calories on the weekends. If you aren't able to increase your exercise, at some point you are probably going to have to reduce your calories.

But I'm not convinced you are at that point yet. I would cut back on the treat meals and see if that helps before cutting calories overall.

- Barbara

Thank you so much everyone for the thoughtful replies! Yeah, the treat meals may be an issue. I don't exactly go hogwild (house salad, 1 bread, 1 small or 1/2 reg entree, 1/2 dessert) but still, 2x/week might be at least one time too many. I'll cut to one per week max and slowly raise my exercise back to where it was before the tendonitis.

Then, if that doesn't do it, I'll re-evaluate the calorie cutting, which is like the last resort for me! I'm not convinced it's time for that either. And food and I are like this .

I love my exercise too. I miss feeling strong. I'm being really good, icing my arm 1-2x daily, and using very light weights when I use them at all. I don't think even at my peak though I'm burning 600-800 a day! I don't trust the counters on the ellipticals, etc., and usually take classes anyway, including strength, step, and latin aerobics (fun!). I think it's more like 250-300 per hour which is pretty much what I can spare. BlueToBlue, what's your routine that you burn so much?

Thanks again, this was very helpful!

If you aren't sure, try this formula...

BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

If you are sedentary : BMR x 1.2

If you are lightly active: BMR x 1.375

If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 1.55

If you are very active (You exercise daily.): BMR x 1.725

If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 1.9

This will tell you approximately how many calories to eat to maintain your current weight. You need to cut out and/or exercise off 500 calories a day to lose a pound a week. Treat meals may be an issue, or you may be eating not quite enough calories for the level of activity that you are doing which could slow your metabolism, and then the treat meals would basically go straight to your hips/waist/tummy/thighs etc.

Jasmine23: that is a GREAT little gizmo that you linked to! Certainly demystifies the whole thing for me...

Looking at it now, I think I'm not eating enough calories, especially when I take into account all that exercise I'm doing.

Thanks for posting this!

All the daily calorie counters I've tried (and I've tried many -- it's like a hobby for me) show such wildly divergent numbers, I don't know what to believe. I think the 1620 plus the treat meals felt like my compromise. 1620 is perhaps on the low side for my activity level but the treat meals balance it out. And that was working pretty well for a while.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been surprised that I stalled out considering how the tendonitis has limited my exercise. But since it may be a while until it's no longer a problem, I'd like to figure out how to continue losing in the meantime, and that may take some changes, like cutting back on the treats.

Thanks for the responses! I'm glad it's starting this dialogue. It seems like this is something that's never resolved, but we all have information or need advice about it as we go forward.

Actually, the Calorie Queens website is where I got my calorie figure. Goal weight (135) x 12 = 1620. Also, Stumptuous.com suggests 8-12x current body weight for fat loss, and right now I'm at 162, so 1620 is exactly x10. I did exercise at least 3x per week up to a few weeks ago, so the treat meal hasn't felt like a problem until now.

I haven't read the book though. I'll check it out.

I think that your stall is due to a few reasons...

~You have recently had to cut back on exercise. If you are burning less calories per day, then you need to eat less to maintain the same rate of weight loss. You have the tendonitis which limits your upper body work-but is there any way to ramp up the cardio or lower body/ab work?

~You have lost weight, so now your body requires less calories per day than it did when you started. If you want to go lower-you simply need to either drop your calorie level per day slightly-by either omitting the treat meals OR dropping your calorie intake daily slightly-OR ramping the exercise back up.

I would not put too much stock into the calorie calculators, however. You have to do what works for YOU. Everyone is different metabolically. One person in the 160's can lose on 1800 per day...the next person may need 1400...and the next 1200 by that point. The mathmatical formulations are not accurate.

If you feel like you are not getting enough food-fool yourself by eating lower calorie/higher bulk foods like strawberries, oatmeal, and other "feel full" foods to make you feel as if you are eating more.

Well it's almost a month now of this arm injury. Boo! I think I need to go back to the doc. He said I might need physical therapy if it didn't heal with stretches and ice.

Anyway, unfortunately I haven't been able to increase any type of exercise, becase nearly all types of movement activate the shoulder. I didn't realize until now the role our arms play in our lower body movements until I tried taking a step class without using my arms much. Weird!

So I've been doing moderate cardio 2-3x, and the classes include lunges, squats, and ab work. To compensate for the reduction, I tried to cut back calories too far -- to 1350 -- and that lasted less than a day despite incorporating plenty of high volume low calorie foods. Now I'm kind of discouraged. I also have a major work deadline that got extended (mixed blessing there!) and haven't been able to put as much thought as usual into my food plan, let alone give it a total overhaul.

I think I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, at least until I get this project submitted, perhaps until my arm improves significantly. I'm driving myself nuts trying to keep up the weightloss with all this stuff going on.

Sorry for the long rant! I really just wanted to reply to the good advice I got here. Thanks for all your help! And happy belated birthday, Aphil.