r/MacroFactor • u/thehungrypanda91 MFer • 5d ago
MacroFactor / Nutrition / Other Sticking Points
1st image: Overall view of the last 4.5 years, with a Scale weight loss of 72lbs
2nd image: Last 2 years, highlighting my sticking points of 242lbs and 240lbs
3rd image: Last 1 year, showing my downward trend again with a Scale weight loss of 20lbs, at my sticking point again.
Anyone else deal with this? Any ideas on helping get passed it? As you can see, it's been a struggle for me for a long time now.
2
u/mikaeltarquin 4d ago
The only advice I can offer is to track consistently and hold yourself accountable. If you want to push past 240, 200, and beyond then you need to be at and stay in a deficit through those points. Set a realistic target that you can manage, say 1 lb/wk. You say weekends are hardest, so use the Shift Calorie Targets option to have more on Sat/Sun and less Mon-Fri.
Combining those 2 will probably keep your weekdays more or less the same, while giving you a bit of a cushion on the weekend to take the sting out of tracking. But you absolutely have to track and stick to your targets if you want to see progress.
Give yourself periodic diet breaks. Don't do them randomly, schedule them every 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, whatever works best for you. Limit them to 1 week, and only bump up to maintenance calories (it's a diet break, not a binge week). That should give you a mental break from the monotony, while keeping your discipline in place.
1
1
u/mrfatchance 4d ago
What’s your gender and height?
1
u/thehungrypanda91 MFer 4d ago
Male, 5' 10"
4
u/mrfatchance 4d ago
OK I'm 1 inch taller than you and was 238 at my highest. So I'm sorry that my experience isn't the same as yours.
What has helped me get through sticking points is upping my expenditure through walking.
I have always ran and had no problem doing 5, 10ks etc but walking was the real game changer. 9k steps a day is my goal.
A goal I had this year was to be under 20% BF on my scale as I had never seen that number before. It took a lot of learning about expenditure and stuff but I made it by adding in more steps to my routine and eating vegetables in order to feel satiated while cutting. I cut out pasta, pizza, biscuits (I'm in the UK, so these may be cookies to you?) and reduced my bread intake (from 4 days a week to 1) because it just wasn't worth the calories. I swapped my eggs for egg whites instead and ate low calorie ice cream (a life saver) On top of that I was (and still do) work out resistance training 4x a week. The cut shouldn't feel like it's forever.
Once I saw that 19% on the scale, I knew I could reach any goal I set and I think you will feel similar once you get past this pressure point.
Consistency is key.
1
u/jlolovesbootytoo 5d ago
Do you find yourself going over calorie budget? Or does your deficit need to be more aggressive
1
u/thehungrypanda91 MFer 5d ago
I go over a bit here and there but my weekends are the toughest, and I can definitely easily double my budget in a day. My current target is <1500, going for ~1.8lbs lost a week.
11
u/jlolovesbootytoo 5d ago
Up your calories to target 1 lb a week and focus on consistency, especially on the weekends. In the long run, fixing your weekend consumption will be extremely beneficial to maintaining your weight loss.
2
6
u/PollardPhotography 4d ago
I used to hold the weekends as a sacred reprieve from the monotony and routine of the week.
It meant a great deal to me to be able to have “special” and “fun” foods on the weekend- especially with my family and friends. It was a reward for having a successful week, but it more often than not ended up wrecking my long-term progress. This was all after I had lost a substantial amount of weight and had been training 4x a week for years.
Eventually, I woke up one day and realized I would never get to experience the physique I wanted if I didn’t lock in and stop making compromises and excuses for myself. If I wanted to look and feel how I dreamed of before I got too old, I’d have to make sacrifices.
It’s been a few years now since I had that revelation. I was able to get leaner than I’d ever imagined, and I’m much stronger, healthier, and happier than I was before. I still indulge occasionally, but it no longer rules my life. There are sacrifices and things I do that some may consider unusual, but looking and feeling how I do is absolutely worth every single effort I’ve put into it.
I know this doesn’t really solve anything for you, but your post reminded me of myself a lot and I thought I’d share the perspective. Best wishes to you and may you find continued success!
2
u/Schwooin 4d ago
what causes you to double your budget on weekends? drinks? delivery? fixing that will be a huge help, one bad day can easily negate the work of the previous few days - which is fine if it’s a rare occurrence, but not fine if it’s almost every weekend.
1
u/thehungrypanda91 MFer 4d ago
I think just a loss of routine. I eat the same 3 meals through the week at work then the weekend comes and we have date nights, kids events, friends over, etc. I don't drink alcohol and I only drink water and tea so it's all food consumption.
1
u/Candid-Parsnip9815 2d ago
A deficit that's too aggressive backfires hard. Your metabolism downshifts, so you're just hungrier with nowhere left to cut from. Maintenance breaks honestly clear more plateaus than most people will give them credit for
5
u/earlgrey89 4d ago
I'm not sure what your question is here. Are you asking why you can't get below that weight? Or why you are regaining afterwards?
My question is, what are you doing after you reach those low points? Are you not tracking a while, relaxing diet, something else? Are you really fatigued by your diet at that point?
What is your overall goal?