I havent lost weight in 2 months but on a 488cal deficit

[derpderpderp1]

For the past 2 months I have not lost weight. The calorie deficit according to some of the reports is 488 and I believe that is an average for the past 4 and a half months that I have been using this(it calls it calorie restriction). I have been eating relatively the same amount of calories the past two months as I have the first 2 months the only difference is I stopped doing cardio in November however I only burned between 500-1000cal a week but I guess it could have some bearing on metabolism which leads me to this, I have recently had to start taking medication for thyroid and I know that will mess things up. It just does not seem like the loss of cardio and gain of thyroid problem could completely balance out a near 500 cal cut to make it maintenance(eating the amount of cals you need to maintain your body weight). So what I think has happened is because of the thyroid problem I have retained more water weight and one piece of evidence really leads me to believe this and that is during the past 2 months the lowest I have weighed is 206 near the beginning of November(if you check my profile it says 204 but that is just a guess of what I lost over that amount of time and I stopped doing that after that first one)then in the middle of December I started exercising. On Tuesday 20th I weighed 206 then on Friday 23rd I weighed 205. It was too quick of a weight loss to not be water weight.

I have had some people comment on this from Fitocracy but the majority of responses were aimed at what I have been eating saying I need to eat less and no junk of any kind when I have been maintaining a deficit so it doesn't matter that much. It couldn't be that I need to eat less in fact according to a TDEE calculator I need to eat more because I lift weights 3 times a week making it a "moderate activity 3-5 times a week" 3000cal TDEE. However this is a bit preposterous as I would have nearly a 1000cal deficit if this were true/accurate making me lose 2lbs a week when I have only ever lost about 1lb a week.

tl;dr
Why have I not lost weight the past 2 months?
What is my TDEE?

[wildbeanerz]

Maybe you have sodium sneaking into your diet somewhere. Processed meats are horrible for nitrates too.

[derpderpderp1]

Originally Posted by wildbeanerz

Maybe you have sodium sneaking into your diet somewhere. Processed meats are horrible for nitrates too.

The meats I eat are chicken breast, ground beef and steak. Not sure if those are processed however for a long time I was logging a chicken breast that had a lot of sodium in it but then I found a different chicken breast that had very little sodium. I am not exactly sure of the sodium content of my chicken however I would imagine it is the lower one of the two.

And that is another thing that may cause this not losing weight is logging the wrong foods. I doubt that I could be exactly 500cals off to make my weight be at a standstill.

[01gt4.6]

derp x3+1 ,

1. First you need to figure out how many calories you burn on a "normal" day with no workout or cardio. Vito has some info here on how to calculate it.
2. Log food accurately (weigh it if you have to!)
3. Next log workout and cardio under the activities tab
4. Log sleep

I think after you do this you'll probably see that you really weren't as deficient as you though. If you are that deficient, then you have something else going on. Either too much water retention from sodium, medications, etc, and something else. I'd assume that being regulated on thyroid meds would give you put you in the same boat as someone without a thyroid issue?

[VitoVino]

Also derpderpderp1, if you make your journal public we could take a look and see what's going on. You can access the settings from your User CP.

[wildbeanerz]

I second Mike on logging sleep. If you haven't done that before be sure to start. It is definitely more accurate that way.

[kiltman]

While you state your calorie deficit, you haven't stated your caloric intake. That may need to be adjusted. Depending on where you started with your weight, if you've lost a significant amount, your caloric intake should be adjusted down accordingly. I also strongly agree about watching your sodium intake--stay away from any processed foods--especially meats--eat the real deal--fresh chicken, turkey, etc. also, weigh and measure your foods, don't guess. I've found the foods you can select in fit day aren't always as accurate as customizing your own via the food labels of the products you are consuming.

[derpderpderp1]

Originally Posted by 01gt4.6

derp x3+1 ,

1. First you need to figure out how many calories you burn on a "normal" day with no workout or cardio. Vito has some info here on how to calculate it.
2. Log food accurately (weigh it if you have to!)
3. Next log workout and cardio under the activities tab
4. Log sleep

I think after you do this you'll probably see that you really weren't as deficient as you though. If you are that deficient, then you have something else going on. Either too much water retention from sodium, medications, etc, and something else. I'd assume that being regulated on thyroid meds would give you put you in the same boat as someone without a thyroid issue?

I was using Fitdays Sedentary setting on the how many calories I burn on a normal day. I tried a couple of the calculators listed there and one said 2524 another said 2143 both on sedentary activity. I'm not sure if I'm sedentary because I lift weights 3 times a week and do some cardio here and there. I need help finding my TDEE(total daily energy expenditure) or w/e.

For a wile I did not log my workouts and I have never logged sleep.

But what is strange is I have not changed much of anything from September/October where I was losing 1lb/week to November/December where I haven't lost any.

I just started taking thyroid medications and it takes a month to see if it is a large enough dose or not so my thyroid levels are still not in a balance yet.

Originally Posted by VitoVino

Also derpderpderp1, if you make your journal public we could take a look and see what's going on. You can access the settings from your User CP.

I think it is public now.

Originally Posted by wildbeanerz

I second Mike on logging sleep. If you haven't done that before be sure to start. It is definitely more accurate that way.

I will log sleep.

Originally Posted by kiltman

While you state your calorie deficit, you haven't stated your caloric intake. That may need to be adjusted. Depending on where you started with your weight, if you've lost a significant amount, your caloric intake should be adjusted down accordingly. I also strongly agree about watching your sodium intake--stay away from any processed foods--especially meats--eat the real deal--fresh chicken, turkey, etc. also, weigh and measure your foods, don't guess. I've found the foods you can select in fit day aren't always as accurate as customizing your own via the food labels of the products you are consuming. also, livestrong.com has great nutritional information--usually including labels.

I weigh meat and some vegetables and measure other things. Fitday automatically adjusts your calories burned per day when you lose or gain weight(if you log your weight) and it has only been a 50-100cal difference.


I feel like I might just be experiencing a lot of water retention because I am on other medications other than for thyroid and thyroid can make you retain more water. I take lithium, risperdal, doc-q-lace, levothyroxene and some herbal supplements/medications. And to me it sort of makes sense because right around the time I stopped losing weight the thyroid problem got worse enough for the doctors to prescribe medications because they had been monitoring it for a wile via a blood test for lithium levels so it had been questionable for a wile but not severe enough. But I'm just not sure if it's water weight. I hope its water weight or I have been spending the past 2 months thinking I was doing things to have me lose weight when they were just maintaining my weight. I also do not think that this weight stall is from gaining muscle as I have lost 10lbs on my bench press and stalled on my other lifts.

[VitoVino]

I'll PM you about some thoughts I have about your FJ after I take a closer look at it.

Do you take any Chromium or Fish Oil supplements?

[derpderpderp1]

Originally Posted by VitoVino

I'll PM you about some thoughts I have about your FJ after I take a closer look at it.

Do you take any Chromium or Fish Oil supplements?

What is FJ? And yes I take fish oil, I forget to track it sometimes.

Fitness Journal?