how to beat plateau

ritaluna1387

I cant seem to lose any more weight. How did you guys get passed your plateaus??

queenliz99

Reevulated my food diary.

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ritaluna1387

i usually eat like 1,400 calories per day is that too much?

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queenliz99

Like logging errors?

marie_leverton

That's not too many calories, it is plausibly not quite enough so your body maybe trying to save fat. The alternative is that perhaps you're not eating the right foods? Quite often a change to breakfast can help reinvigorate weightloss. For example, egg white scramble egg with cherry tomatoes and spinach or a small amount of porridge made with soya milk. If you're up for cold food, bananas. Try not too eat something with lots of sugar in first thing, or too much bread. If that doesn't work, try ensuring you space your calories out, if you're active during the day best to eat more calories early and less late on. Do you exercise? What are your 1400 calories made up of (do you eat sweets or something you think may be causing a plateau)?

999tigger

Theres a big chance you are eating more and moving less than you think.

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blktngldhrt

Do you have a food scale? If not, I suggest buying one and measuring your food. You are probably eating more than you think.

blktngldhrt

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

i usually eat like 1,400 calories per day is that too much?

Have you calculated your TDEE? We can't say if it's too much without your height, weight, and activity level.

ritaluna1387

for breakfast normally i eat oatmeal with water and green tea, lunch chicken or fish sometimes beef with vegetables, dinner cereal with vanilla soymilk or piece of toast with peanut butter or with avocado, turkey sandwich. i snack on cheese stick, nuts and fruit. but sometimes i just want a bag of hot Cheetos or something i ate a lot before i started this weight loss journey and i just eat it

queenliz99

But are you tracking the calorie amounts with a scale?

ritaluna1387

what is TDEE?

logg1e

It may help if you opened your diary.

vismal

marie_leverton wrote: »

That's not too many calories, it is plausibly not quite enough so your body maybe trying to save fat. The alternative is that perhaps you're not eating the right foods? Quite often a change to breakfast can help reinvigorate weightloss. For example, egg white scramble egg with cherry tomatoes and spinach or a small amount of porridge made with soya milk. If you're up for cold food, bananas. Try not too eat something with lots of sugar in first thing, or too much bread. If that doesn't work, try ensuring you space your calories out, if you're active during the day best to eat more calories early and less late on. Do you exercise? What are your 1400 calories made up of (do you eat sweets or something you think may be causing a plateau)?

I don't understand any of this. Why would changing the foods you eat for breakfast make any difference at all? Your body doesn't store or save fat when you restrict calories, it burns fat. That's what the body uses for fuel when you do not eat enough calories to meet your daily needs. Why suggest bananas then warn against sugar? Bananas are almost pure sugar. For that matter, why would sugar or bread stop weight loss? Why would the time of day you eat make any difference? The types of foods you eat do not cause a plateau.

The extreme likelihood is that the OP is eating much more then they think. This is a VERY common occurrence. Just in the one reply she says she "usually" eats "like" 1400 calories. That's way different from "I consistently eat 1400 calories daily." Also, even if your calorie count is consistent, what about your tracking methods? You may think you are eating 1400 calories consistently but if you estimate portion sizes or use measuring cups and spoons on solid foods, you are VERY likely miscounting your calories. Food should be weighed on a scale and estimation should be as little as possible. Even then people are prone to forget to log things, have cheat days where they don't track calories, etc. Also how long has the OP be stuck at her current weight? Some people call it a plateau this first week they don't lose weight. I don't consider myself in a plateau until I don't lose for 3-4 weeks.

ritaluna1387

no i don't track my food with a scale. like when i eat oatmeal i just go by the serving size on the box

vismal

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

no i don't track my food with a scale

That would be my first adjustment. You can pick one up for cheat on amazon or at walmart. You can also give this thread a read for ideas on how to track more accurately: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

I was shocked when I began weighing foods. I was over eating on almost everything I was eating.

stopeatingout

Amen to above post!

queenliz99

vismal wrote: »

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

no i don't track my food with a scale

That would be my first adjustment. You can pick one up for cheat on amazon or at walmart. You can also give this thread a read for ideas on how to track more accurately: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1

I was shocked when I began weighing foods. I was over eating on almost everything I was eating.

This is the absolute truth

queenliz99

I was on a "ten year plateau" until I started weighing everything I ate.

blktngldhrt

TDEE is total daily energy expenditure. To give yourself a deficit, you can find an online calculator to get your number then subtract 15-25%.

If you're not using a scale and measuring your liquids, you have no way of knowing how many calories you are consuming. Best guesses are usually incorrect.

999tigger

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

no i don't track my food with a scale. like when i eat oatmeal i just go by the serving size on the box

So thats your most likely reason. Your estimates or however you are doing it, mean you are eating more than you think and are more likely at maintenance. That means you wont lose any weight until you are accurate enough to know you are back at a calorific deficit.

Are you doing any exercise? Are you eating back any of those calories? how are you measuring the burns?

It can be helpful if you open your diary.

opalsqueak007

I agree with advice about the food scale. I used to log one portion of porridge for breakfast. When I bought a food scale, I found out I was eating four times that much. Food scale is a great idea. It keeps you in reality.

ritaluna1387

@vismal I've been at 144-145 for almost 2 months

vismal

Tracking calories more accurately and consistently hitting your goal every day is probably going to be the answer. You could also open your diary so we can look at it and give some more suggestions.

ritaluna1387

sometimes i get lazy and just don't exercise

blktngldhrt

vismal wrote: »

marie_leverton wrote: »

That's not too many calories, it is plausibly not quite enough so your body maybe trying to save fat. The alternative is that perhaps you're not eating the right foods? Quite often a change to breakfast can help reinvigorate weightloss. For example, egg white scramble egg with cherry tomatoes and spinach or a small amount of porridge made with soya milk. If you're up for cold food, bananas. Try not too eat something with lots of sugar in first thing, or too much bread. If that doesn't work, try ensuring you space your calories out, if you're active during the day best to eat more calories early and less late on. Do you exercise? What are your 1400 calories made up of (do you eat sweets or something you think may be causing a plateau)?

I don't understand any of this. Why would changing the foods you eat for breakfast make any difference at all? Your body doesn't store or save fat when you restrict calories, it burns fat. That's what the body uses for fuel when you do not eat enough calories to meet your daily needs. Why suggest bananas then warn against sugar? Bananas are almost pure sugar. For that matter, why would sugar or bread stop weight loss? Why would the time of day you eat make any difference? The types of foods you eat do not cause a plateau.

The extreme likelihood is that the OP is eating much more then they think. This is a VERY common occurrence. Just in the one reply she says she "usually" eats "like" 1400 calories. That's way different from "I consistently eat 1400 calories daily." Also, even if your calorie count is consistent, what about your tracking methods? You may think you are eating 1400 calories consistently but if you estimate portion sizes or use measuring cups and spoons on solid foods, you are VERY likely miscounting your calories. Food should be weighed on a scale and estimation should be as little as possible. Even then people are prone to forget to log things, have cheat days where they don't track calories, etc. Also how long has the OP be stuck at her current weight? Some people call it a plateau this first week they don't lose weight. I don't consider myself in a plateau until I don't lose for 3-4 weeks.

I mean, if there's a medical problem the type of foods being consumed could be causing a plateau.. But she didn't say anything about a medical problem.

Banana is sugar. I miss bananas.

I forgot to ask!! What is the length of this plateau?

999tigger

Think youll find it makes the task easier if you move a bit more. Try and walk min 30 mins a day or whatever level you start then walk a bit more or a bit faster each week. You should probably get someone to check your numbers as well and how you are calculating it.

blktngldhrt

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

sometimes i get lazy and just don't exercise

Ha. Me too. Weight loss is more about the calories you eat than the exercise you do.

funchords

STOP IT. If you are putting as much effort into your weight control as you're putting into this topic, its no wonder why you're not getting anywhere.

Can I introduce you to features of the keyboard like capital letters and punctuation marks?

• Are you logging everything?
• Are you weighing, measuring everything?
• Are you serious? A bag of hot Cheetos?

C'mon, back to basics. Just log your food, measure it, and -- yeah, sometimes I want a half gallon of ice cream but I will have a single portion, measured, logged, and within my calorie goal because I'm trying to control my weight.