Breaking the plateau

kayleighat

Ok I seriously need some help! I've been doing this for about 1.5 yrs now. The excercise part has consisted of 3 days of cardio and 3 days with weights, usually 20-30 mins each time. Now This has been really good for me because I've lost about 40+ pounds doing it. HOWEVER. I feel like I've reached the number. Since december I have been stuck at 114. I can't get any lower, unless I just don't eat. (which I tried and went to 110! Lol jk i just ate way less than I should have) I've tried shifting calories and I just don't understand why it won't budge. I'm still watching what I eat, trying to eat clean and stick to 1270 for my calories. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to break this plateau? My goal is 105, i'm 4'9, and so fed up with 114! I know there's more fat to lose, my stomach, thighs and love handles are full of it. Maybe it's not so much pounds that I want to lose, but all the fat in my belly and thighs. Thanks in advance!!

IsaackGMOON

I'll just ask my routine thing here, you're probably going to ace each question but just to make sure;

• Are you using an electric food scale?
• Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
• How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?

I'm seeing a lot of cups and tsp's in your logging. How long have you been eating in a deficit?

ibnfaqir

Out of 5 days of dieting add 2 days of refeed or high calorie eating. It helped me restart my fat loss. I also increased the intensity in the gym (no rest during weight lifting, longer cardio, lifting heavier).

ManiacalLaugh

Eating clean isn't going to do the trick. Have you tried nudging down your calories? Normally I wouldn't suggest this, but at 4'9, you fall into a different category than the 1200 limit is typically speaking towards.

On the plus side, you are a "normal" weight. I can understand wanting to squeak down a bit, though. Unfortunately, this is going to work against your attempts to lose that last little bit.

Since you're close to goal, there's always body recomp, too! You might gain a little on the scale, but by eating at or near maintenance and then lifting heavy, you'll probably notice some muscle tone coming in and "firming" things up.

vismal

The issue is that you are already so petite at 4 foot 9. There are very few people on planet earth that I might say 1200 calories is too much, you might be an exception. Also your rate of loss is going to be extremely slow. I would say 0.5 lbs per week is probably the max for you. Unfortunately the thighs are where women typically hold on to fat the longest. They will be the absolute last part of your body to lean out. They may never get totally lean even if you get to a rather low weight. I would make sure your calorie count is extremely accurate. Give this guide a read and make sure you are doing everything in it: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1
If you are indeed following the recommendations, and your calorie count is accurate, you will either have to increase activity, reduce calories, or do a combination of both. I won't lie, it's very hard for extremely petite women to lose that last bit of body fat because their bodies are so small. It can often lead to situations where they have to take their calorie very low relative to larger women.

ninerbuff

If you've been doing the same routine for awhile, then change the INTENSITY. Your body has adapted to your workouts. So either: BUMP the resistance, do cardio faster, less rest time or active recovery between sets.

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DeguelloTex

Even a 10% deficit puts you at about 1383 calories per day, plus the exercise. At your size, the caloric burns aren't going to be huge.

You have a very narrow range for success and if you aren't losing, it's likely due errors in your measuring and logging swamping a deficit that's pretty small even in ideal circumstances.

wildeyezz

Same story as yours. Since last March I have lost 43 lbs, but since this January, I have been stuck there and cannot seem to lose the last 10 to 15 lbs.

I think for me, I just became a little lax and got out of touch with my routine. I opened up my journal and traced back to the weeks when I had successful losses and compared to what I am currently doing.

It turns out that I have let several things slip:
- Food portions
- Sleeping less
- Number of visits to the gym (was 6, and lately have been going only 3/4 times a week)
- Cardio in general (used to burn 800 calories, but lately was burning around 300)

So, last week, I re-charged myself as if I were starting from the very beginning.
I've gone back to the same strict routine. Also, I have set my self a goal to reach 135lbs by Aug 29.

Over the last week or so, I've already gone down from 149 to 146, so I am hoping that I can break through this.
You might want to re-assess and see if you are really (truly, truly) as disciplined as you were in the beginning.

mbaker566

is it that you want to lose the poundage or look better
maybe think more about a little weight training so you look a bit more defined?

kayleighat

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

I'll just ask my routine thing here, you're probably going to ace each question but just to make sure;

• Are you using an electric food scale?
• Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
• How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?

I'm seeing a lot of cups and tsp's in your logging. How long have you been eating in a deficit?

I do use a good scale but it's not electric.
I don't use grams...I have no clue how to calculate using those, I'm not as familiar with the metric system.
I get my calorie burn from my polar FT4 HRM

kayleighat

moyer566 wrote: »

is it that you want to lose the poundage or look better
maybe think more about a little weight training so you look a bit more defined?

I do want to look more defined but the belly fat is what is frustrating me the most! I've tried eating lower and I get so HUNGRY! I don't burn a lot of calories even with hard workouts. As I've lost more and more weight the harder it gets to burn more calories. I thought about trying iifym but have no clue where to start with it.

kayleighat

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

I'll just ask my routine thing here, you're probably going to ace each question but just to make sure;

• Are you using an electric food scale?
• Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
• How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?

I'm seeing a lot of cups and tsp's in your logging. How long have you been eating in a deficit?

I forgot to mention that I have truly been trying to eat at a deficit for only 17 days now. Before that I wasn't logging in mfp, so I can't be sure if I was staying where I should be. I have my days that I cheat also. I try to stick to once a week for that. But I only seem to lose when I pretty much starve myself. When I had my cals set to 1100 I was always starving and I wasted so many calories on things like a tsp of coconut oil and a tbsp of chia seeds!! Its so hard to eat such little calories.

kayleighat

Maybe I need to increase activity. I really am only doing 20-30 mins of activity a day. According to my HRM, I usually burn abou 50-80 cals doing that. Today I tried jogging in the treadmill for an hour and still only burned 250 from that.

kayleighat

What would you guys suggest I set my calorie limit to? I was always following the mfp recommendation which is 1200.

Liftng4Lis

Recomp?

kayleighat

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

Recomp?

How would I do this? Just eating a lot and lifting heavy? How heavy?

IsaackGMOON

kayleighat wrote: »

IsaackGMOON wrote: »

I'll just ask my routine thing here, you're probably going to ace each question but just to make sure;

• Are you using an electric food scale?
• Are you weighing accurately? i.e. using grams instead of cups
• How are you obtaining your calorie burns? MFP, HRM or machines?

I'm seeing a lot of cups and tsp's in your logging. How long have you been eating in a deficit?

I forgot to mention that I have truly been trying to eat at a deficit for only 17 days now. Before that I wasn't logging in mfp, so I can't be sure if I was staying where I should be. I have my days that I cheat also. I try to stick to once a week for that. But I only seem to lose when I pretty much starve myself. When I had my cals set to 1100 I was always starving and I wasted so many calories on things like a tsp of coconut oil and a tbsp of chia seeds!! Its so hard to eat such little calories.

Right.

I guess you being small is going to work against you. Seeing as you're finding it hard to shift the weight, I'd recommend a recomp or a bulk and then cut.