How do I break my plateau?

Babygi6003

I have been stuck boucing around between 160-164 lbs for the past 2 months and I think I am in a plateau. What would you suggest to help me break it? I am eating 1200-1400 calories a day and working out 5x a week (burning 600-800 calories a day)

Yisrael1981

Have you calculated how much you need to eat to lose weight? Are you doing any muscle building exercises? This can cause you to stay at the same weight however lose fat .
If you have a body fat scanner it can help to see what is going on
Also this may sound odd, however you might want to stop exercising for a week or two to give your body a break..600-800 calories is pretty intense and can cause your body to retain water

arditarose

You're eating too much, most likely over estimating your calories burned. What are you doing to burn 600-800 calories per day? What is your activity level set to? Are you weighing food on a food scale?

Babygi6003

I have calculated my BMR and it is 1728 and it is saying I should be eating around 2000 calories a day to lose but that seems insanely high!

I am doing T25 in the mornings and cardio in the evenings (Ellipitcal, bike, treadmill). I am using a HRM to track my calories burned. I have my activity level set to sedentary since I am working a desk job.

hautepop

2000 calories sounds about right on exercise days - 1400 base to lose 1lb or so per week, then eat back your exercise on top. Any less food and you'll damage your metabolism.

So I don't think it's eating too much or not exercising enough.

Is it what you eat? 1400 or 2000 cal of whole foods, fresh veg & home cooked protein is very different to takeaway and processed meals. Some calories are more available than others (related to the amount of fibre in your diet). Protein takes a surprising amount of energy to digest.

So eating really clean for a week (but not cutting total cals) could be a way through this plateau? Good luck!

snowflakesav

I saw that you are using a HR monitor to get your calorie burn from exercise. Since you are using an energy supliment which raises heart rate your calories burned from exercise are going to be off. I think you would start losing weight if you added some activities like walking or biking into your weekend routine and increased your daily movement...stairs, standing, running errands on foot, dog walking.

alyhuggan

hautepop wrote: »

Is it what you eat? 1400 or 2000 cal of whole foods, fresh veg & home cooked protein is very different to takeaway and processed meals. Some calories are more available than others (related to the amount of fibre in your diet). Protein takes a surprising amount of energy to digest.

So eating really clean for a week (but not cutting total cals) could be a way through this plateau? Good luck!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no and no. Calories are calories.

Protein is calculated at 4 calories per gram AFTER the energy used to metabolize it.

Eating clean does nothing but in general keep you fuller.

To OP:

If you are eating 1200-1400 calories per day while burning that many calories with exercise you are probably going to be very ill soon if you aren't already from lack of micro-nutrients and also potentially mentally.

Don't starve yourself. I can't give estimates as I don't know your stats but my advice is as follows:

Start eating maybe 1800 calories a day every day (including off days) and log your weight over 3-4 weeks. If the scales aren't moving drop maybe 100 calories and repeat.

You may also be over estimating calories burned and/or under weighing food. If you are guesstimating you are probably having more than you think! In that case invest in scales!

Good luck!

Babygi6003

I am going to try and eat back more of my exercise calories so that I am eating around 1600-1800 total calories for the day and see if that helps

alyhuggan

Babygi6003 wrote: »

I am going to try and eat back more of my exercise calories so that I am eating around 1600-1800 total calories for the day and see if that helps

You should notice a big difference to not only your health, but your mood as well. Eating below your BMR for long periods of time can be dangerous as that's how much energy your body needs to function.

loratliff

When I felt like I had plateaued (in the midst of half-marathon training), I actually upped my calories and started eating back exercise calories... Then I started losing again.