Help! I've hit a plateau

shooshoo26
shooshoo26 Posts: 2 Member
in Motivation and Support
I began my healthy journey in May of this year. I jumped in full force. I eat a low-carb, mostly clean diet. No soda or tea or juice. I exercise (on the treadmill) about 4-5 days a week. I've lost 59 pounds now, but I have hit a plateau. I still have about 75 lbs to lose! I'm not sure what to do to get out of this rut. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • tifftaffy
    tifftaffy Posts: 141 Member
    I could only suggest trying a different exercise than just the treadmill? There are tons of exercise dvds available to borrow from the county libraries, that way you don't have to buy them right away. See which ones you enjoy the most, and then decide if you want to invest in a selection of various workout dvds to use at home.
  • katimama
    katimama Posts: 191 Member
    I would also suggest changing up your workout routine. I need to take that advice myself! I spent the past year on the treadmill (mostly) and I'm at standstill after loosing around 50-55lbs. Due to a knee injury I recently went on the elliptical and had an amazing workout - huge burn! I was shocked as I had stopped using the elliptical and switched to the treadmill last January. I think my body was in need of a change and I'm hoping the scale will start to agree.
  • kendallvon
    kendallvon Posts: 170 Member
    I hit a plateau at the beginning of June that lasted almost until September. What helped me break it was a serious look at my food diary (and what *wasn't* there). I was a victim of "carb creep". Just a taste here and a taste there really do add up. I need to do more looking, I think... (d*mn spray whipped cream!) This might help...
    http://www.lowcarb.ca/tips/tips008.html
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    How long has it been since you actually lost weight? You may just be dealing with fluctuations after having fairly consistent losses - this isn't unusual. Have you been doing the same thing on the treadmill all along or slowly increasing your distance/speed? Are you tracking your food consistently? Do you eat back all, or part of your exercise calories? Have you made any changes to your food choices, exercise or general routine recently?
  • shooshoo26
    shooshoo26 Posts: 2 Member
    I haven't increased my speed or distance on the treadmill the whole time. I'm sure I should, it still seems so hard for me. I do try to do zumba, only occasionally though.I track pretty consistently except when cooking for my family. I taste the food I fix for them ;-) I've lost pretty consistently, until about 3 weeks ago.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    The first thing I want to say is that three weeks is still within the time frame where this all could just be water weight masking fat loss. Three weeks is at the higher end for that sort of thing, but I feel like I should mention the possibility that you may be doing nothing wrong.

    If you're comfortable opening your diary for us to see, it might help us to figure out what's going on. Assuming you have no health conditions that complicate your weight loss, most of the issues we see are logging accuracy issues. People have a tendency to underestimate how much they're eating and overestimate how much they're burning, which can lead to plateaus and stalls because you're eating more than you realize. That's usually the first place to check and see if there are any issues.

    Are you guesstimating any of your portion sizes? Eating out anywhere where you don't have control of the ingredients being included?

    Are you sure you're choosing accurate entries in the database (a lot of entries, unfortunately, have been entered with wrong information)?

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

    Personally, I lost most of my weight without ever using a food scale, but my logging is a lot easier and accurate now that I have one. If you're not using one, it might be worth looking into.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale

    Are you having any cheat days? Or high sodium meals that might be causing you to retain water around your weigh in day?

    Are you logging your exercise here and eating back any of the earned exercise calories that MFP adds to your goal? If so, what method are you using to estimate your burn? MFP and gym machines may overestimate certain activities. An HRM is better, but you still might want to eat back a smaller portion of those just in case.

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