how to beat plateau

missiontofitness

ritaluna1387 wrote: »

what are all this comments about bananas I only ate 1 on Wednesday. I don't eat bananas every day

I was providing an example of how calorie overages can add up. I was not implying that you eat them every day.

SteveMFP123

For a few weeks I couldn't lose weight while doing nothing differently then I found out I wasn't eating enough, after actually eating my recommended calories instead of under eating by 300 - 400 every day I started losing weight again.

_Terrapin_

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^^ first plateau lead to me buying a scale.

kittkat100

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.

This is a perfect answer. You will hear all kind of feel good myths like "you are gaining muscle and it weighs more than fat so you are probably still losing, starvation mode is causing your body to cling to the calories so eat more, food eaten after dark stores as fat etc etc" and all these answers do is keep you further from goal. You cannot take something much more complex than that and generalize it to justify eating more.

If you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. The stalls can be from stored water and glycogen (when released the whoosh of weight drop shows on scale) but there is nothing happening, unless you have a medical condition, that would keep you from steadily losing weight each month if truly creating a deficit. Actual plateaus are trickier. They come at a time when you need to reevualate calories to suit your new size/calorie expenditure.

Also remember weight loss can be quite slow. Creating a deficit of 3500 cal for average of a pound loss weekly is harder than you think. One binge day and you could already have changed you average to .5 lbs loss per week for example. This is where there is some issue with cheat days. I stagger calories to keep body guessing (and keep my sanity) but my weekly number still needs to remain in deficit or I wont lose.

Remember to measure. Eyeballing can be quite deceiving.

Finally, if exercising...remember these calories tend to be overestimated. You burn x calories just breathing. Adding exercise calories on top of that doesn't work. It is safer to subtract the calories you would have burned just sitting on couch from the workout calories. If you do not, you could be eating more than burned.
Ex. MFP states 100 cal burned in exercise. 30 would have been burned just sitting. MFP doesn't track that way. It credits you the full exercise calories. I personally would track it as 70 (not getting into metabolism boost, gained muscle and all that, just crude example.)

I guess what I am saying is if you aren't losing weight, you are not calculating calories in/out correctly. The only answer is you are not consuming less than you burn.

I hope everything works out for you. There is some great advice on here
If I may ask, what is your weekly loss amount set to?

kittkat100

OP, make sure to track everything. Even one bite off someone plate can be 20-40 calories depending. Set a quick calories under "my foods" even to keep track to make it simple.

Losing weight the first the first month will show the greatest loss. The 15 lbs initial could have been 7.5 lbs of fat and 7.5 lbs of water and such. Once you drop that you have to track more carefully as things are not as simple nor as quick.
If you aren't tracking dinners how do you know those weren't 1000 each? You would be amazed when you start to see what a full days eating looks like calorie wise when you log every single bite.
You can do this. You just have to be realistic. "I don't know why I am not losing" and calling a plateau when you have no idea of what is consumed is really jumping the gun. Start tracking at least until you get a feel for what really works and what doesn't.

ritaluna1387

I try to lose 1lb per week

ritaluna1387

kittkat100 wrote: »

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.

This is a perfect answer. You will hear all kind of feel good myths like "you are gaining muscle and it weighs more than fat so you are probably still losing, starvation mode is causing your body to cling to the calories so eat more, food eaten after dark stores as fat etc etc" and all these answers do is keep you further from goal. You cannot take something much more complex than that and generalize it to justify eating more.

If you have a calorie deficit you will lose weight. The stalls can be from stored water and glycogen (when released the whoosh of weight drop shows on scale) but there is nothing happening, unless you have a medical condition, that would keep you from steadily losing weight each month if truly creating a deficit. Actual plateaus are trickier. They come at a time when you need to reevualate calories to suit your new size/calorie expenditure.

Also remember weight loss can be quite slow. Creating a deficit of 3500 cal for average of a pound loss weekly is harder than you think. One binge day and you could already have changed you average to .5 lbs loss per week for example. This is where there is some issue with cheat days. I stagger calories to keep body guessing (and keep my sanity) but my weekly number still needs to remain in deficit or I wont lose.

Remember to measure. Eyeballing can be quite deceiving.

Finally, if exercising...remember these calories tend to be overestimated. You burn x calories just breathing. Adding exercise calories on top of that doesn't work. It is safer to subtract the calories you would have burned just sitting on couch from the workout calories. If you do not, you could be eating more than burned.
Ex. MFP states 100 cal burned in exercise. 30 would have been burned just sitting. MFP doesn't track that way. It credits you the full exercise calories. I personally would track it as 70 (not getting into metabolism boost, gained muscle and all that, just crude example.)

I guess what I am saying is if you aren't losing weight, you are not calculating calories in/out correctly. The only answer is you are not consuming less than you burn.

I hope everything works out for you. There is some great advice on here
If I may ask, what is your weekly loss amount set to?

I try to lose 1lbs per week

JayRuby84

999tigger wrote: »

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