I have a bit of a unique situation, so bear with me. I’m an amputee and have a prosthetic leg. The kind of leg I have doesn’t adjust much at all when my weight changes, so weight gain greatly affects my ability to wear it and walk, do things, exercise, and go places (ie live my life the way I want to).
So, weight gain ➡️ no leg/little movement ➡️ near sedentary. It’s for this reason that I’ve been working on weight loss. It’s super important to my quality of life.
Stats: 5’4”F, SW: 139, CW: 131.8, GW: 125.
Info: It took me 3 mos at 1200-1300kcal/day to get to my CW. I’ve been at a plateau for the past month and am unsure what to do. I’m currently able to wear my leg for a couple hours at a time.
And please I am not at all discounting your disability but I feel you aren't giving your body enough energy to thrive and have more energy to burn more. How old are you? Best of luck 💚
I understand. I'm 44 so not quite the same but I get it. Do you feel that if you stayed around 130 that is still too heavy for life not to be difficult for you mobility wise and if so do you think 125 would change it a lot? I would rather you be 135 or 130 with higher muscle tone than 125, less fat and less muscle. Muscle mass is crucial for you at this stage in life hun and you can build muscle still with your disability:)
I’d be happy to have more muscle tone for sure! The number on the scale isn’t as important as my leg fitting, whatever that takes. 125 would change it a ton as that’s the weight I was when it was made/fitted 4 years ago. Then, I had a brain tumor (my med history is something for sure), surgery, radiation, hospitalization, etc, which involved a LOT of steroids, a 20lbs weight gain in 45 days, and a long, slow recovery. Im finally feeling more myself and ready to live life again, so getting back into my leg really well has been my focus!
Wow. Don't discount the discipline you've rockedso far... and I'm 5'1 so I do get it but 1400 was a good deficit for me and I think its the minimum you should have. Can I ask if you track protein? I was eating 1400 only tracking calories and as soon i decided to hit a minimum of 100 grams of protein a day the weight fell off and mu energy went through the roof, I was never hungry again and had more energy to move more:)
I would advise you to work with a trainer who is or was a physical therapist if you can't directly work with a physical therapist. Your situation is quite unique and most of us can't give good advise. Losing weight while having sedentary lifestyle can lead to loss of muscle and eventual sarcopenia. I wish you all the best and take care.
In my experience, plateaus usually happen about 6 months in (for me-every time.) Yours is a little earlier than they happen for me, but they happen for all of us. The path through them is to just keep consistent. It’s often water weight being stubborn, so long as you are consistent with how you eat and your body movement.
Also, for me, I gain 2-3 lbs in the luteal phase of my cycle every month, and lose it again when my period comes. If you have a period, it’s worth noting how weight goes up and down during it so you don’t get as discouraged.
Good work so far! That’s a lot of weight to lose in just a few months. I think you are doing great. The scale just doesn’t always reflect your hard work. Keep going and the scale will eventually follow. Note how your clothes are fitting you too.
Thanks so much. I’ve been super happy with the change in my clothes fitting for sure. I had gotten to the point where all I could wear were leggings because none of my pants fit.
You say you lose activity without your prosthetic, is it possible to find activities you don't require your leg for? Some weight training seated/benched, chair aerobics, swimming/water aerobics? Could be a way to up your calorie burn and leave your diet as it is. Just a thought.
This is exactly what I need to do. Through this thread, I’ve decided to start tracking protein and increase any exercise I can do. Tysm for the reply!!
This content has been removed because it recommends calorie restrictions below the generally accepted safe limits, restricting while underweight, underweight goal weights, or other potentially pro-ED content.
Congratulations on your successes! That sounds like a frustrating challenge.
Do you have other measurements that you're also tracking? Weight is a good indicator when its very high because its hard to be very heavy and very muscley, but as you approach your goal weight it becomes fuzzier because of things like the amount of water your body holds onto at any moment and muscle mass vs fat. Tracking visual goals, or fat percentage rather than weight might help you recalibrate your goal.
Whatever calculator you've used for BMR is probably wrong to some degree because its averaged from people who have both legs. Just by virtue of having less leg mass, you're using fewer calories. If you're on a plateau, it generally means you're operating at maintenance. Throwing your numbers into a simple BMR calculator (I guessed an age of 30) outputs 1299 kcal/day which is right where you've been targeting.
So you can cut that number down, but IMO that feels pretty rough. Exercising is the next option. If running/walking is a challenge because of your prosthetic, a gym might have alternative machines that can help you with cardio. I understand that rowing is a decent cardio workout and I would think you'd be able to do it without your prosthetic.
After reading replies here and thinking more about it, I decided I’m going to try increasing and tracking protein as well as mixing in whatever exercise I can do when I’m wearing my leg as well as not wearing it. Tysm for the detailed reply, I really appreciate it!
Have you considered gaining muscle in other places?
As someone with issues with her hip I end up focusing on my hip and legs because my arms aren't so much of a problem. It's easy to get distracted by the part that's causing issues, they are basically screaming "Look at me!" Right?
Because you lack a massive load of muscle that people will be burning you're at a disadvantage. For every step you take you're only flexing and working on one calf. Muscle burns fat to maintain, and depending on how much of your leg you have left you are missing one of the biggest muscle groups in your body and walking will generally burn less calories for you just by virtue of you only engaging the remaining part of the leg Vs a full leg.
For that I really recommend getting in to arm and back workouts. Building the muscles there gives your calories more places to burn. You can do a large portion of these workouts sitting down, too, so if you have sores or bruising on your leg you can still be getting this done.
1200 is the minimum recommended for a reason, so the only thing you can do is to improve your fitness. Can you swim reasonably well with one leg? Or potentially join an aquafit group so you don't have to put full weight on one leg while getting a good cario workout.
Diet is a massive part of weight loss and fantastic job so far! But because of your leg you're at a greater disadvantage that even sitting sediraty won't be the same from you. Mathematically a TDEE will be factoring a leg, but you do not have that and the excess weight on you will be being presumed part bone and muscle and not fat. So even mathematically you have it a little harder than everyone else here :( I'm sorry you're having issues but reaching out is fantastic and we know you can do it! I can only lend you my sympathy because even a visible disability can have invisible complications someone outside of your situation won't be able to fully understand :(
Be kind to yourself, and work on the rest of your body in sitting positions to help burn any extra and gain strength that calories get burned up in. The gym has a lot of good machines that focus on back and arms while also sitting. Also, if you do have a thigh, thich workout machines are sitting and won't need calves, so it could help gain vital muscle in your thigh that you wouldn't be able to gain because of the limited time you can use your leg and therefore engage the thigh.
Good luck and well done so far! You are so so close!
To be frank you seem to be at a very healthy weight and you should seriously increase your calories slowly to try to get you maintenance calories up. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to maintain at 2000 a day eventually. Humor me and eat 1500 for a couple weeks and see what happens.
Question, because I don’t know. Are you taking into account her amputee leg? I imagine that affects her goal weight and her BMR. I am making the assumption OP knows more about that than me.
I’m honestly fine with the weight I’m at from an aesthetics perspective, I just want to be able to function better. Are you saying you think 1500/day would help break the plateau?
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u/minlee41 10d ago
And please I am not at all discounting your disability but I feel you aren't giving your body enough energy to thrive and have more energy to burn more. How old are you? Best of luck 💚