Help! I've hit a Plateau!
Options
Replies
-
Relax and take a breather. Unless you're into fitness/bodybuilding competitions or something similar there's really no need for breaking out a food scale, your diet is super easy to figure out especially with a site like this. The first thing I do when I notice myself hitting a plateau is take a week off (in most cases plateaus are you body's reaction to being overworked). Don't stop the clean eating but give your body a chance to relax a bit, you'll be surprised how effective it is. Next is your diet, you can't eat like you're doing 30 minutes of cardio a day and trying to drop a few pounds if you're training for marathons it simply won't work. When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau), the only way to stop it is to take a break, eat a few more calories than usual, and let your body reset. This is also why you shouldn't go any longer than 90 days without taking at least a full week off. Eat 4-6 times a day and simply use your hands as guidelines, for main meals carbs and proteins should be about the size of the palm of your hand or the size of your closed fist, eat at least 2 servings of veggies a day and you'll be fine. Keep things as simple as possible and use the site recommendations on boosting calories when you're burning as much as you are, loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing0
-
Hi! I have been at a plateau for 4 weeks. Since starting Piyo basically.
I weigh my meats out, and yes I use a measuring cup for the fruits and the yogurt, etc. In the beginning I was weighing out all the things and found there wasn't much difference. Plus, their definitely is not a true half a cup of strawberries because I don't puree them or anything. It ends up being like 4 strawberries. I do weigh the sweet potato also.
I do not eat my exercise calories back.
My calorie intake is 1350. Anything less made me crazy and fatigued.
how come most of your entries from today are cups and tablespoons?
I would suggest weighing all solids for the next three weeks and see what happens.
A half cup of blackberries is going to vary depending on how you fill said half cup. Weighing it out in grams will be much more accurate.
Also, are you using the correct entries from MFP database? I usually cross check them against self.nutrient.com
I agree... In your diary sometime you have "2 slices of bacon - 80 calories" and others "3 slices of bacon - 80 calories"... Double-check which values you are using, and weigh the bacon to better estimate. Also, you have 3 oz of chicken breast as being ~83 calories--most of the sites that I've seen reference USDA values say that 3 oz of chicken has 135-160 calories.
Yikes, you are correct. I did not realize the chicken was so incorrect. That was totally my bad. The bacon is two different types of bacon, the one is ready bacon, which I scanned and the other is another brand that I scanned in.
don't trust the scans either....I scanned a yogurt once...it came up as cheese.0 -
So much wrong in so little space.4thhorseman wrote: »Relax and take a breather. Unless you're into fitness/bodybuilding competitions or something similar there's really no need for breaking out a food scale, your diet is super easy to figure out especially with a site like this. The first thing I do when I notice myself hitting a plateau is take a week off (in most cases plateaus are you body's reaction to being overworked). Don't stop the clean eating but give your body a chance to relax a bit, you'll be surprised how effective it is. Next is your diet, you can't eat like you're doing 30 minutes of cardio a day and trying to drop a few pounds if you're training for marathons it simply won't work. When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau), the only way to stop it is to take a break, eat a few more calories than usual, and let your body reset. This is also why you shouldn't go any longer than 90 days without taking at least a full week off. Eat 4-6 times a day and simply use your hands as guidelines, for main meals carbs and proteins should be about the size of the palm of your hand or the size of your closed fist, eat at least 2 servings of veggies a day and you'll be fine. Keep things as simple as possible and use the site recommendations on boosting calories when you're burning as much as you are, loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing
0 -
4thhorseman wrote: »Relax and take a breather. Unless you're into fitness/bodybuilding competitions or something similar there's really no need for breaking out a food scale, your diet is super easy to figure out especially with a site like this. The first thing I do when I notice myself hitting a plateau is take a week off (in most cases plateaus are you body's reaction to being overworked). Don't stop the clean eating but give your body a chance to relax a bit, you'll be surprised how effective it is. Next is your diet, you can't eat like you're doing 30 minutes of cardio a day and trying to drop a few pounds if you're training for marathons it simply won't work. When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau), the only way to stop it is to take a break, eat a few more calories than usual, and let your body reset. This is also why you shouldn't go any longer than 90 days without taking at least a full week off. Eat 4-6 times a day and simply use your hands as guidelines, for main meals carbs and proteins should be about the size of the palm of your hand or the size of your closed fist, eat at least 2 servings of veggies a day and you'll be fine. Keep things as simple as possible and use the site recommendations on boosting calories when you're burning as much as you are, loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing
Oh dear... where to start....
"When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau)" no, doesn't work like that. Eating too little will not stop you losing weight. http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
"Eat 4-6 times a day" or eat however many times a day you like, doesn't matter.
"loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing" slow?? 2lbs/week is the fastest recommended rate of loss for anyone that isn't under medical supervision. 1lb/week is usually recommended.0 -
4thhorseman wrote: »Relax and take a breather. Unless you're into fitness/bodybuilding competitions or something similar there's really no need for breaking out a food scale, your diet is super easy to figure out especially with a site like this. The first thing I do when I notice myself hitting a plateau is take a week off (in most cases plateaus are you body's reaction to being overworked). Don't stop the clean eating but give your body a chance to relax a bit, you'll be surprised how effective it is. Next is your diet, you can't eat like you're doing 30 minutes of cardio a day and trying to drop a few pounds if you're training for marathons it simply won't work. When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau), the only way to stop it is to take a break, eat a few more calories than usual, and let your body reset. This is also why you shouldn't go any longer than 90 days without taking at least a full week off. Eat 4-6 times a day and simply use your hands as guidelines, for main meals carbs and proteins should be about the size of the palm of your hand or the size of your closed fist, eat at least 2 servings of veggies a day and you'll be fine. Keep things as simple as possible and use the site recommendations on boosting calories when you're burning as much as you are, loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing
If I didn't use a food scale, I would still be 250 pounds (and probably pushing 260 at this point) instead of 188. Starvation mode...nope, that does not happen. Eating 4-6 times...meal frequency is irrelevant. And like I said before, estimating like that would mean I would still overeat.0 -
Thank you all for your insight. I do feel that I was doing something right because I would not have lost 24lbs without doing something correctly.
Sometimes, we make errors, which is why I reached out. But I have also learned that things that works for others may not work for me. To the guy who said "relax and take a breather." I think he is right, and I know a lot of you disagree. It seems there is a lot of negativity and hostility here and that is not healthy for anyone. Sometimes, when we focus to much on one thing our bodies react and increase the stress levels which then causes weight gain (you can all start with the negative comments here).
The really helpful thing is seeing that I made errors with calorie counts on a lot of the chicken which then messed up my daily counts. I feel that measuring things like vegetables via scale or cups is helpful and helped me lose the 24lbs in the past. I do measure the carrots on a scale and I do measure the meats on a scale. To the person who suggested this and pointed it out, thank you.0 -
Hi! I have been at a plateau for 4 weeks. Since starting Piyo basically.
I weigh my meats out, and yes I use a measuring cup for the fruits and the yogurt, etc. In the beginning I was weighing out all the things and found there wasn't much difference. Plus, their definitely is not a true half a cup of strawberries because I don't puree them or anything. It ends up being like 4 strawberries. I do weigh the sweet potato also.
I do not eat my exercise calories back.
My calorie intake is 1350. Anything less made me crazy and fatigued.
how come most of your entries from today are cups and tablespoons?
I would suggest weighing all solids for the next three weeks and see what happens.
A half cup of blackberries is going to vary depending on how you fill said half cup. Weighing it out in grams will be much more accurate.
Also, are you using the correct entries from MFP database? I usually cross check them against self.nutrient.com
I agree... In your diary sometime you have "2 slices of bacon - 80 calories" and others "3 slices of bacon - 80 calories"... Double-check which values you are using, and weigh the bacon to better estimate. Also, you have 3 oz of chicken breast as being ~83 calories--most of the sites that I've seen reference USDA values say that 3 oz of chicken has 135-160 calories.
Yikes, you are correct. I did not realize the chicken was so incorrect. That was totally my bad. The bacon is two different types of bacon, the one is ready bacon, which I scanned and the other is another brand that I scanned in.
you mentioned not eating back exercise calories..you may want to start eating back half of them…
how long have you been eating 1350 for and working 5 days a week?0 -
4thhorseman wrote: »Relax and take a breather. Unless you're into fitness/bodybuilding competitions or something similar there's really no need for breaking out a food scale, your diet is super easy to figure out especially with a site like this. The first thing I do when I notice myself hitting a plateau is take a week off (in most cases plateaus are you body's reaction to being overworked). Don't stop the clean eating but give your body a chance to relax a bit, you'll be surprised how effective it is. Next is your diet, you can't eat like you're doing 30 minutes of cardio a day and trying to drop a few pounds if you're training for marathons it simply won't work. When you put your body into too much of a calorie deficit and continue to push it it recognizes it as a famine situation and will start hoarding all the fat possible (hence the plateau), the only way to stop it is to take a break, eat a few more calories than usual, and let your body reset. This is also why you shouldn't go any longer than 90 days without taking at least a full week off. Eat 4-6 times a day and simply use your hands as guidelines, for main meals carbs and proteins should be about the size of the palm of your hand or the size of your closed fist, eat at least 2 servings of veggies a day and you'll be fine. Keep things as simple as possible and use the site recommendations on boosting calories when you're burning as much as you are, loosing 2 pounds a week may seem slow but it's better than plateauing
so much bro and pseudo science in such small space….0 -
Thank you all for your insight. I do feel that I was doing something right because I would not have lost 24lbs without doing something correctly.
Sometimes, we make errors, which is why I reached out. But I have also learned that things that works for others may not work for me. To the guy who said "relax and take a breather." I think he is right, and I know a lot of you disagree. It seems there is a lot of negativity and hostility here and that is not healthy for anyone. Sometimes, when we focus to much on one thing our bodies react and increase the stress levels which then causes weight gain (you can all start with the negative comments here).
The really helpful thing is seeing that I made errors with calorie counts on a lot of the chicken which then messed up my daily counts. I feel that measuring things like vegetables via scale or cups is helpful and helped me lose the 24lbs in the past. I do measure the carrots on a scale and I do measure the meats on a scale. To the person who suggested this and pointed it out, thank you.
as you want to get leaner you have to be a lot more stricter with logging, weighting, etc….0 -
Hi! I have been at a plateau for 4 weeks. Since starting Piyo basically.
I weigh my meats out, and yes I use a measuring cup for the fruits and the yogurt, etc. In the beginning I was weighing out all the things and found there wasn't much difference. Plus, their definitely is not a true half a cup of strawberries because I don't puree them or anything. It ends up being like 4 strawberries. I do weigh the sweet potato also.
I do not eat my exercise calories back.
My calorie intake is 1350. Anything less made me crazy and fatigued.
how come most of your entries from today are cups and tablespoons?
I would suggest weighing all solids for the next three weeks and see what happens.
A half cup of blackberries is going to vary depending on how you fill said half cup. Weighing it out in grams will be much more accurate.
Also, are you using the correct entries from MFP database? I usually cross check them against self.nutrient.com
I agree... In your diary sometime you have "2 slices of bacon - 80 calories" and others "3 slices of bacon - 80 calories"... Double-check which values you are using, and weigh the bacon to better estimate. Also, you have 3 oz of chicken breast as being ~83 calories--most of the sites that I've seen reference USDA values say that 3 oz of chicken has 135-160 calories.
Yikes, you are correct. I did not realize the chicken was so incorrect. That was totally my bad. The bacon is two different types of bacon, the one is ready bacon, which I scanned and the other is another brand that I scanned in.
you mentioned not eating back exercise calories..you may want to start eating back half of them…
how long have you been eating 1350 for and working 5 days a week?
Lets see.....I have been on 1350 calories since November-ish. And Until May I was running 4-5x a week (20 miles a week or so), In mid may I started working out 6 days a week with less running. I take Thursdays off from all exercise (well except my work walk).
0 -
Hi! I have been at a plateau for 4 weeks. Since starting Piyo basically.
I weigh my meats out, and yes I use a measuring cup for the fruits and the yogurt, etc. In the beginning I was weighing out all the things and found there wasn't much difference. Plus, their definitely is not a true half a cup of strawberries because I don't puree them or anything. It ends up being like 4 strawberries. I do weigh the sweet potato also.
I do not eat my exercise calories back.
My calorie intake is 1350. Anything less made me crazy and fatigued.
how come most of your entries from today are cups and tablespoons?
I would suggest weighing all solids for the next three weeks and see what happens.
A half cup of blackberries is going to vary depending on how you fill said half cup. Weighing it out in grams will be much more accurate.
Also, are you using the correct entries from MFP database? I usually cross check them against self.nutrient.com
I agree... In your diary sometime you have "2 slices of bacon - 80 calories" and others "3 slices of bacon - 80 calories"... Double-check which values you are using, and weigh the bacon to better estimate. Also, you have 3 oz of chicken breast as being ~83 calories--most of the sites that I've seen reference USDA values say that 3 oz of chicken has 135-160 calories.
Yikes, you are correct. I did not realize the chicken was so incorrect. That was totally my bad. The bacon is two different types of bacon, the one is ready bacon, which I scanned and the other is another brand that I scanned in.
you mentioned not eating back exercise calories..you may want to start eating back half of them…
how long have you been eating 1350 for and working 5 days a week?
Lets see.....I have been on 1350 calories since November-ish. And Until May I was running 4-5x a week (20 miles a week or so), In mid may I started working out 6 days a week with less running. I take Thursdays off from all exercise (well except my work walk).
hmmm so 8 months at 1350 and you were actually probably netting below that due to not eating back exercise calories…
You may actually want to consider a reverse diet where you add in 100 calories a week until you get to maintenance, stay at maintenance for a few weeks, then slowly cut back down to a deficit..
OR
you could just take a one week break at maintenance and then go back to 1350 but make sure that you NET 1350..so if you burn 600 calories you eat back 300 so 1650 total - 300 burn = 1350 net …
sorry if this is too much information …
but long term extreme calorie deficits can impact your TDEE0 -
No its very helpful, thank you!0
-
You may need to mix it up a little, your body is getting more efficient at running.0
-
I just looked at your macs and you seem to make good choices, I would try to hit that fiber goal tho.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 393 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.3K MyFitnessPal Information
- 23 News and Announcements
- 938 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions