If you've pleateaued, consider increasing your calorie count to maintenance

Here me out. I thought it was crazy when I first heard it because it's counterintuitive and seems to defy math and science.

A few years ago I lost 40 lbs in a year and plateaued about 5 lbs from my goal weight. I was really frustrated. A personal trainer I was working with told me to increase my calorie count by 200 cals/day for a week or so and then drop back down. I thought he was nuts and of course I didn't try it. But after that I heard or read this from some other people and reputable -- stop trying to lose, maintain for a bit, then resume your prior calorie deficit. Some said your body goes into starvation mode which slows down your metabolism, others said your body gets used to the lower calorie intake and adapts.

Fast forward 7 years. I regained all the weight and then some. In part due to injury, illness, depression, 4 pregnancies, only 2 to term. I was at my highest weight ever.

I've lost 35 lbs since the beginning of the year and stalled out at 170. I was eating 1200 calories/day, exercising and on those days eating back less than half my calories burned, and still I could not get below 170. I hit 170.1 a few times and still never got below 170. I had a health scare (everything's ok now!) and spent 2 months maintaining. This week I resumed my weight loss journey just with calorie counting and no exercise and it feels like the weight is falling off me again. I've lost almost 3 lbs this week and finally came under 170.

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Why don't I lose any weight when I exercise and diet?

Male, 5'10, 210lbs, 28%bf, 19yrs old

So basically I took up a new hobby (boxing) and the workouts are usually pretty intense. They're about an hour long, and I go 4-6 times a week. I'm guessing I lose about 600-800 calories per workout session, and I am in a calorie deficit.

I have been going for about 3 weeks now, and I lost the usual 6lbs of water weight in the first two days. But ever since that initial 6lbs of water weight loss, I haven't lost any more weight. I got to 208.8lbs like a week and a half ago, and right now I am at like 209-211 but only on mornings. Does anyone know why this is?

I diet along with boxing as well, and if I were to only diet without any form of exercise, I probably would be at like 204lbs right now. Seeing my weight stay the same for this long is really discouraging, but so far I am still going, but I really want to know what's going on.

By the way, I do have a lot of experience with weight loss, I have constantly been losing 30-40 pounds since the 9th grade (I'm 19 now). And last year I was 248, and dropped to my current weight.

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How do I get out of this cycle?- Any advice appreciated!

Any advice is appreciated! Sorry its long.

A little background on me: I'm a 20 year old female, 5'6, HW: 220 LW: 167, CW: 173

I've struggled with my weight. my entire life; there is not one point in my life that I can think that I was completely happy with my weight. I've basically yo yo dieted my whole life. Usually I can stay consistent for about a month or two, eat one bad meal that then turns into another month or two binge. Repeat this cycle.

This past summer I became really strict on my fitness. I felt amazing; I was working out consistently, eating in my calories, losing weight, and had the willpower to say no to any meal. This soon became a slippery slope. It started with my eating in my calories, but eating junk food. Then it became trying to get my calories down dangerously low. Then I would be so hungry that once it turned midnight, I would eat my calories for the next day and by 3am all my calories would be gone. Then I began binging again, followed by guilt. Then, I would try to counter this by doing like an hour and half of HIIT.

I lost about 10-15 pounds this summer. Then, I came back to college and it's been a mess. I tried to stop calorie counting and intuitively eat, but once I ate something bad, I would binge the rest of the week. Now, I've been binging basically everyday. I feel like complete shit. But my friends want to fo out for dinner tomorrow, and this weekend we are going to the city and just eating food basically, AND then I go home and it's thanksgiving. I just don't know what to do. I think I'm also struggling because I have no workout schedule like I did at home. Here, I'm scared to go to the gym with people my age because I feel like I lost all my fitness.

I just don't know how to accept that food is a part of life. I know I need to learn how to handle myself around it because it is always around and never going away, but I literally just have been binging so bad. And it's super hard because I really want to lose weight. So I feel like I have to restrict and calorie count because I want to lose about 20 more pounds. It's like I'm depressed and binging when I'm gaining weight, but I'm also depressed and binging when I'm losing weight. I also have this fear that I'm wasting my youth not being completely happy with my body. I know that if I would've just stuck to a weight loss plan YEARS or even MONTHS ago, I could've lost the weight.

What has really been bothering me is the way food has ruined experiences in my life. My friends and I are vacationing next month and I'm literally dreading it because I have to decide what to eat. This summer I cancelled so many plans and stressed about what I was going to eat so much. I didn't go on a family vacation because I was worried about my deficit. This summer, I cried on the Ferris wheel after a week long vacation because I ate a slice of pizza. Last Christmas break, I felt miserable and wanted to leave the whole time when we visited family because I was eating like shit. I know its self inflicted because I'm always like I either it good or bad, no in between.

So, any advice on changing my relationship with food, but also losing weight? Thank you!!

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How did you, or how are you, losing weight?

I love how this sub is a mixture of all different types of people, living different lives and adapting different life styles.

I am aware that weight loss ultimately comes down to a caloric deficit, but I’m curious what worked for you?

Fasting, keto, small meals throughtout the day, one large meal a day, CICO through excercise?

Any foods in particular that REALLY helped you? Any tips or tricks?

For me potatoes really help. So much tasy food for very little calories

Please share your story and what worked for you :)

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Any tips to lose weight in the first month? Reality versus expectations?

23F H: 5'2 SW: 80kg CW: 78kg GW: 55-50kg

I'm 23F (turning 24 next January) and wanna be fit before I hit 25 years old. I think that's an ample time for me to get in shape.

I'm not a first timer when it comes to weight loss, but I feel like I've forgotten what it's like to get up in the morning to run after so many months of inactivity.

Can somebody give me helpful tips to restart? Usually the first month of weight loss is the most vital part becuase it determines what else to improve along the progress.

Any tips and recommendations are appreciated. Thanks!

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Family thinks I have Orthorexia

So I’ve been on my weight loss journey for almost a year (lost 35 pounds, wanting to lose the last 10-15). I’m 5’3 and in college, so don’t have much time to exercise other than walking around campus. I never thought I’d be able to eat less than 1500 cals. But ever since I’ve learned about volume eating, it’s been a GAME CHANGER and I feel satisfied after my meals by eating whole meals. The downside is that, my family thinks i have orthorexia as I always eat whole foods, but I have to because of health issues and overall focusing on lifestyle change, because I was a TOTAL junkie like 5 months ago lol. But like, I still have a small piece of chocolate literally every night and banana pancakes)….Ugh. I’m just trying to fix my relationship with food & found this to be the most sustainable after having binge/restrict cycles. Just feeling frustrated.

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The Thing Behind the Thing Behind the Thing

I think most of us here have experienced realizing that the key to weight loss both includes and transcends just eating less. What often starts with wanting to eat healthier and move more turns into deep diving how to hack our behaviours and build virtues of discipline and self-care: it starts with adding more vegetables and progresses to focusing on stress reduction, building habits that support an exercise routine, avoiding situations that cause overeating, and getting in touch with our hunger / fullness cues.

But the longer I’ve been trying to kick my binge / stress / emotional eating, the more I’ve realized that it goes even a level deeper. Hopefully this sounds more insightful than discouraging, but it’s taken a surprisingly intense exploration into who I am as a person and the way that I move through my life in general to learn what I’ve needed to tackle my issues with food. Here’s a few examples:

1. BODILY AND EMOTIONAL AWARENESS

I’ve been incredibly over-cerebral and disconnected from my body my entire life. Recently in counselling I was shocked to learn that not only does every emotion manifest itself in your body as a physical sensation, but that many people seem to be naturally in touch with this lol. The worst of my binge-eating habit developed mainly out of a need to disconnect from my physical self: the more aware I’ve become of my body and emotions, the less I’ve tried to stomp those sensations out with food. Not only that, but I more aware of and willing to prevent the uncomfortable feeling of overeating and eating things that don’t serve my body well.

1. AVOIDANCE

I have an avoidant personality. My natural inclination is to ignore (but still stress about) a problem until it absolutely MUST be dealt with. Need to make an uncomfortable phone call? I’ll panic about it but continue to do nothing until I’m getting in trouble at work / need my medication right this minute / it’s been three months since they’ve heard from me and I’m freaking out about how terrible of a person I am. It took me years to realize the common thread here, but dealing with my to-do list promptly and not having a million stresses about things I really ought to be doing has probably reduced the number of times I feel the urge to distract myself with a binge by 80%

1. EMBRACING CONSISTENCY

I still don’t understand why, because it sounds awful on paper, but there is a not-insignificant part of my brain that really likes having a pattern of highs and lows in various areas of my life. I first noticed it in how I deal with housework: I’ll spend every spare minute cleaning one week and then let the dishes form a mountainous pile the next. I used to go to the gym six days some weeks, but then be too burnt out to go at all the next. When things are just fine and I’m making steady progress I feel like I’m getting nowhere: even in my marriage I sometimes find myself picking little fights because I just don’t like things being the same all the time. Although I’ve always intellectually known that it’s counter-productive to weight loss, I really prefer to restrict hard and make rapid progress and then eat everything in sight when I inevitably fall off the wagon. It’s taken a lot of mental adjustment to learn the type of moderation where I don’t feel cheated if a special meal doesn’t include a second or third plate, or that a day of eating “only” 100 calories under my TDEE means I’m getting nowhere.

What do you think? Have you had any other similar personal revelations that have impacted your weight loss journey?

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