I can't lose any more weight??

I lost 60 lbs. I was 270 lbs july 2008. I stopped losing like last April. I'm 210-213 now. some days I eat 1400 cals, some days 2000, (metibolic rate is like 2500) I 'should' still be losing weight. Now my classes are kicking up and I can't spend time at the gym like I used to. ( I do like 150 to 20 miles of walking a week going to classes.)

I need to hit about 190 at the least. I'm going to start gaining weight from stress.. I dunno, I hate to think diet pills, but I'm just stuck.

week days I eat yogurt and a 30g protein bar (500 cals total.) No sodas. I eat pizza about twice a week (A lot more this week, because I don't have tie to cook, midterms..) which I have been doing all through my weight loss. Lunch is either bad dorm food, I stopped eating there but once or twice a week as its all fried. Egg burrito or sandwhich. Dinner has been my big one. Eggs, pasta, salads, SOUP (most often). maybe 5 beers a week (again, mid terms lol)...

ME: 21, male, 6ft 1, about 5 to 8 hours of sleep.

I've worked out the amount of energy you need to maintain your weight to be around 3000 cals a day.  I would suggest you go with that for a few weeks instead of keeping on dieting.   Even though you're busy, make a big effort to eat wholesome nutritious foods rather than prepared junk or beer which will make you gain fluid... if not fat.

If you can get your body comfortable and 'holding' at 210-213 on 3000 cals a day or so, then you can drop back to 2300 in due course and take it from there.   1400-2000 is far too low for you so, whatever else you do, don't eat that little or you'll struggle.  (The CC calculators are not calibrated for people under 21... and you're only just outside that zone so you need more energy than an older person the same size)

Good luck

3000 cals?!! Uhm I would ballon up crazy if I ate that! Thats how much I ate at 270!!!.. My math says about 2200 + exercise... or 2700 MAX.

2000 cals is

yogurt 200, protein bar 300, sandwhich 400, milk 100, egg burrito ~ 400, salad with dressing 150, another sandwhich 400, and some other stuff...

Your telling me to eat a litterly insane amount of food. 

lets see, 2 yougurts 400, 3 sandwhiches, 1200, 2 milks 200, 2 salads 300,  4.5 slices of pizza 900..

I chose pizza because I couldn't think of anything else higher in cals.

maybe sub the 5 slices of pizza for two giant burittos..

OR chicken chipolte brand 3 times in one day. (a buritto there is 2 meals..1200 each)

I'm sorry.. no fricking way. I know your trying to help but wow no fricking way.

The Min I should eat is 1500 the max is 2000. Those are MD recomended numbers. Your plan would really hurt me.

Sorry, it's not "literally an insane amount of food". May people trying to gain weight are told to eat that much or more... but they are also underweight.  Their body naturally uses much less energy (calories) than your body does. 

Gi-Jane is right on.  You seem to starving your body, and your body has regulated your metabolism to use less calories.  You need to eat more so that your body realizes that you do intend to nourish it. 

The only other thing that could be happening, is if you are fooling yourself about how much you are eating.  When you count calories are you estimating the amount you are eating?  Or are you weighing and counting every morsel of food you put in your mouth. 

Because I (and a lot of other people on this site) can say that I can lose weight on 1700-1800 calories with a few hours of exercise a week, and I am a lot smaller than you.  You should be able to lose on more than that. 

How do you know the calories of the food you eat? The protein bar I'm going to assume is easy because the calories should be fairly accurate to the label, yogurt too, but the pizza, sandwich, burrito, salad dressing, etc - do you use a food scale and make it yourself? Is it from a restaurant?

The reason I ask is...I've read a few articles (and I really believe them to be true) that even though restaurants posts their calories, they can be anywhere from 20-300% off, and of those restaurants that do not post their calories, people tend to underestimate how many calories they're really eating.

For example, you may think a burrito is only 600 calories, but it might be more than 1,000+. Restaurants often deep cook their burrito meat in lard, so it's not 5 ounces of beef you're eating, but 5 ounces of beef cooked with lard.

A slice of pizza might be recorded as 200 calories, but a regular slice of pizza from any eatery is probably closer to 500-700. Costco slice of pizza for example is between 700-800 for 1 slice!

If you don't agree with GI Jane's calorie recommendation, that's okay, I would still follow her advice on eating better types of food. A good way to practice eating is closer to the ground...meaning if it looks more like the way it naturally appears in nature, the better it is. Additionally, I highly recommend buying a food scale and start weighing your food for more accurate calorie counting.

You don't have to go extreme, but start keeping some of things in mind. You can only know the number of calories you're really eating if you prepare it yourself and if you use a food scale.

If you need recommendations on how to make quick, low cal meals, w/o having to cook, let me know. I don't have much time for cooking, and I microwave almost everything LOL. Not the best I know, but it works for me and it's better than ordering from a cafeteria or restaurant for sure.

According to your post, what you are doing is not working for you.

What have you got to lose by trying something different?  GI-Jane made some really good points.  She isn't saying that you will lose on 3000 cal/day, but that you will stabilize, your metabolism will speed back up, and then when you drop down again to something more reasonable, you will start losing again.

I think it is better to do a planned reset by meeting your complete energy/nutritional needs for a short period, then start over with a more sustainable plan to drop the rest of your weight.

The goal is 1800 cals a day. That is the metibolic rate of someone who weighs what I want to -100. So it can't be starving if its how I'm going to eat for the rest of my life. (though weight loss is technically starving yourself.) Eating more wont make me lose more weight, I won't listen to that (Most logical.)

You all keep saying I have to eat 50% more to lose weight. Lets look at this with some logic. Metabolic is how much your body burns. Your implying my body is running 30% slower because I eat less. However I am not running 30% slower, maybe 10%. None the less. The body cannot not burn calories and live ;)

I stopped losing weight at finials. I don't lose weight wehn I sit around at summer and classes have been in session a month. So I guess I'm having a hard time with either stress or I'm just not counting right...

I avoid eating out. I don't have the cash for it. I only eat out when I don't have time, like days I'm am at school from 9:30am to 8PM. Calzones on days I program all night lol.

I eat the yogurt + protein bar every day.

The burittos I make myself. 3 eggs.

It's probably things escape me. I'm getting really stressed and you know maybe an extra treat. Like yesterday I treated myself to ice cream.. as I got my instructor to add 20% to my test score grade. How does one keep on track after over a year of calorie counting..

Original Post by l4nce0:

The goal is 1800 cals a day. That is the metibolic rate of someone who weighs what I want to -100. So it can't be starving if its how I'm going to eat for the rest of my life. (though weight loss is technically starving yourself.) Eating more wont make me lose more weight, I won't listen to that (Most logical.)

 A reasonably active man, healthy weight, over 21 can maintain his weight on 2500 cals a day.  You're still overweight, very tall and you're relatively young.  So why would your metabolic rate be 1800-1900?  (Mine's higher than that and I'm lighter than you, female and a good 20 years older) That's the illogical part.  You didn't get to 270lbs on 3000 cals a day... you would have been eating a lot more than that just to maintain your weight I can guarantee.

You've lost 60lbs since July so that's about three or four months?... 15 - 20lbs a month?... 4-5lbs a week.   What you've been doing is a classic crash-diet and what you're experiencing now is the flip-side of crash-dieting..... weight-loss stalls or stops completely despite a relatively low calorie intake.  (Look up 'starvation mode', 'crash diets', 'famine response', 'adaptive thermogenesis') People who crash diet and who depress their metabolism find it very difficult to keep losing and.... worse.... find it really easy to gain weight instead.  They're also at real risk of malnutrition in the long-term.  So the prognosis isn't good if you do nothing different 

You don't have to listen to me if you don't want to, (I mean, what do I know?... eat more to lose weight?... crazy!.... yadda, yadda, yadda, right?... ) but I would point out that what you're doing isn't working, my suggestion beats diet pills and hey... what have you got to lose?

Original Post by l4nce0:

3000 cals?!! Uhm I would ballon up crazy if I ate that! Thats how much I ate at 270!!!.. My math says about 2200 + exercise... or 2700 MAX.

2000 cals is

yogurt 200, protein bar 300, sandwhich 400, milk 100, egg burrito ~ 400, salad with dressing 150, another sandwhich 400, and some other stuff...

 

Your telling me to eat a litterly insane amount of food. 

lets see, 2 yougurts 400, 3 sandwhiches, 1200, 2 milks 200, 2 salads 300,  4.5 slices of pizza 900..

I chose pizza because I couldn't think of anything else higher in cals.

maybe sub the 5 slices of pizza for two giant burittos..

 

OR chicken chipolte brand 3 times in one day. (a buritto there is 2 meals..1200 each)

 

I'm sorry.. no fricking way. I know your trying to help but wow no fricking way.

 

The Min I should eat is 1500 the max is 2000. Those are MD recomended numbers. Your plan would really hurt me.

Ok why would you come on here and ask for help, only to immediately shoot down and reject the help you get? Obviously what youre doing is no longer working.

If you had it all worked out, like you're trying to make it seem like you do, you wouldnt be submitting a question on here, now would you?

Okay, I'll take another stab at it. 

You say you are not starving your body.  Maybe not, maybe you're not counting accurately.

But if you are starving your body, the lowe metabolism does not just come from activity.  Your body can start shutting down services.  Hair growth, nail growth, healthy skin and such.  You body know you still need to keep moving, so it takes away from some of the non-essential calorie burners that you don't even think about. 

Being on a low calorie diet can also make your immune system suffer, and you may feel tired and cranky.  You may exercise hard, but your activities for the rest of the day may suffer.  You may prefer to just lay on the couch instead of going for a walk at the mall or something and justify it by saying "but I already worked out". 

Also if you are on a low calorie diet your body will start to use your muscles for fuel.  Even if you lose weight, a lot of it will be muscle.  Do you want to lose weight or do you wnat to lose fat. 

So why not try the advice?  Or as everyone has said -- keep doing what you are -- which is obviously not working. 

Well I'm not a male and I'm about 9 inches shorter than you, but if I were eating 2000 cals a day I would GAIN weight.

In my diet I try to eat whole foods, whole grains and very little meat. I have NOT come to rely on prepackaged "diet" foods because I see how many calories they pack, and those are EMPTY calories as far as I'm concerned because I'm still gonna be hungry after I eat that tiny little thing. When I eat fresh, whole foods (squash, green beans, fruit, avocados, spinach, mushrooms) that I cook myself, I can eat a TON of food and stay between 1200-1500 cals/day. I look at labels to see how much I can save calorie wise, and yes, I measure my portions (my scale only cost $4 at Walmart).

I love cheese, especially cheddar, so I go a little more expensive & buy the fat free (45 cal/ounce as opposed to 110 cal/ounce). I use Splenda (they now have a generic brand of that, which costs less, and yay if I catch it on sale) instead of sugar. I use Pam (spray) instead of oil to saute things in and I look for the tortillas and bread with the fewest calories/serving I can find, so that I'm not piling on calories needlessly with my 'wrapping materials.' I eat nonfat yogurt and light soy milk to round out my calcium intake (nonfat = 90 cal/6oz serving, regular Yoplait = 180 cal/6 oz serving - that's more than a 1/2 c serving of full-fat ice cream!), and I've sworn off all but the most OCCASIONAL fast food (and I always ask for a nutrition guide at the fast food restaurants so that I can make the best choice possible, if I'm in a situation where I have to eat on the road).

When I eat out, I try to substitute garden veggies for potatoes, lay off the butter, don't eat the rolls, and if I can get out of having the rice, I do and if not, I'll only eat 1/2 of it. Only eat 1/2 portion of the meat, too, so then I have a lunch or a dinner on another day - and as we know, restaurant portions are obscenely large in most instances. Salads - I only put the least little bit of oil/vinegar type dressings on salad, just for tang, and NEVER AGAIN will I drown my leafy greens in ranch.

Often, it's not how much you eat, but WHAT you eat, that makes the difference.

OH and drink enough water. I find that when I don't drink my 5-8 cups of water a day, my weight loss stalls and I plateau as well. We have to have some way of washing things out of our systems!

I've lost 67 pounds this way and I've been sitting on a plateau for 2 weeks, but I'm not worried, only a little frustrated, because people keep telling me that I look thinner and my pants keep getting looser, even though the scale hasn't moved for a while. I think it's one of those periods of adjustment our bodies go through where it's building muscle and the fat is still coming off; just, we can't tell because there's stuff going on inside the skin that we can't see or feel.

You're eating too little.

You're being stubborn/Take the advice and you'll feel great.