Crazy ways to bust out of a plateau?

astrose00

So far, I've been losing weight / size consistently. I'm hoping to avoid the dreaded weightloss plateau. If I do find myself in one I have a few ideas I will try (one at a time):

• Eat a little more than usual
• Change exercise habit (workout in the morning vs. the evening or more HIIT vs. steady state cardio or do a completly different activity)
• Try carb cycling
• Change sleeping habits (sleep more)
• Change up "diet" (eat completely different stuff than I have been eating, like higher fats, or even higher carbs).

Does anyone have other ideas they have heard of? Have they worked for you? Please describe your plateau (duration, etc.) and how the weight started coming off again.

kommodevaran

Or you could just adjust calories eaten and loss rate to your new lower weight.

astrose00

kommodevaran wrote: »

Or you could just adjust calories eaten and loss rate to your new lower weight.

Lol, of course that would be the first thing I do. I am referring to things that are not intuitive.

Thanks.

emdeesea

Introduce weight lifting into your routine might be something to consider if you're not already doing it. Cardio is only going to get you so far.

ninerbuff

Plateaus are actually not that common. That entails 6 weeks of consistency with eating and/or exercise and no weight movement. If one binged or had a "cheat" day during that time, it's NOT a plateau since consistency was broken.
Stalls (which are under 6 weeks or less) happen often and it's usually an issue with calorie intake. Not always, but many who claim to have stalled forgot about something they may have eaten, lacked sleep, were under stress, etc.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

astrose00

ninerbuff wrote: »

Plateaus are actually not that common. That entails 6 weeks of consistency with eating and/or exercise and no weight movement. If one binged or had a "cheat" day during that time, it's NOT a plateau since consistency was broken.
Stalls (which are under 6 weeks or less) happen often and it's usually an issue with calorie intake. Not always, but many who claim to have stalled forgot about something they may have eaten, lacked sleep, were under stress, etc.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thanks. This makes sense. I suspect I would only have a problem with the sleep and stress since I am very tight when it comes to logging and measuring. Hopefully, I won't experience a stall or plateau.

MKEgal

Well, my latest "stall" was about a month, and it broke last night, on day 2 of just not feeling like going to the gym + eating over my calorie limit.

I have no idea if those 2 things had any effect, or it's coincidence, and I certainly didn't plan for it to happen.

Before that, I'd been continuing to exercise, increasing intensity, and was trying to stick to my calorie goal (though I usually ended up eating back a couple hundred from exercise ).

I believe in physics & biochemistry. As long as I burn more calories than I eat, I will lose weight.

astrose00

MKEgal wrote: »

Well, my latest "stall" was about a month, and it broke last night, on day 2 of just not feeling like going to the gym + eating over my calorie limit.

I have no idea if those 2 things had any effect, or it's coincidence, and I certainly didn't plan for it to happen.

Before that, I'd been continuing to exercise, increasing intensity, and was trying to stick to my calorie goal (though I usually ended up eating back a couple hundred from exercise ).

I believe in physics & biochemistry. As long as I burn more calories than I eat, I will lose weight.

I have a crazy cat that looks just like that!

I am very analytical and my mind works the same way. I think this should be very scientific but it's not when you look from in the weeds. I guess if I looked at my weight loss over the course of the last 3 months, it's averaged about what I expected based on my calories and exercise targets. The concept of stalls or plateaus just don't make sense to me, though. Not when they last longer than a week or two (assuming everything is in order: diet, exercise, sleep, etc.).

serindipte

I'm 11 months in and haven't had a plateau yet. I've had stalls, but they have never been a mystery.. they have been when I've slacked up and eaten a bit more than I should. I tighten up on my intake and start dropping again.

jgnatca

The second last time my "stall" broke it was after ten days of enforced sedentary existence recovering from the flu. This recent "stall" broke after I bought a scale and started weighing myself daily. Duh. I don't get it.