Hitting my first loss plateau

nhaddad

please hitting my first weight loss plateau after 21 pounds loss. I still do 1200 cal aday along with running on treadmill 3.5 miles everyday

DemoraFairy

How long have you been stuck for? You've got a few entries in your diary that aren't weighed, make sure to weigh everything you can in order to get the most accurate log of how many calories you're eating.

barbecuesauce

1. Weigh everything
2. Reset your goal to 1500 or above unless you like losing more lean body mass
3. How long have you been stuck? A couple of weeks? It happens
4. Eat more than 1200 calories
5. Did you know hair loss is a side effect of eating too few calories? Eat more.

vismal

Plateau's almost always occur for a limited number of reasons. If it's less then a month, it's not a plateau and you should just wait longer. If it's more then a month with no weight loss, examine these things. I can say with 99.99% certainty that one of the following points is cause for the plateau:

• Are you actually losing weight and the nonlinear nature of weight loss is just disguising the loss? Weight does not drop off in a linear fashion. This is why it is important to take daily weights and watch the trend, not the number. I prefer to weigh daily, take an average of a week's worth of weights, then compare those weekly averages over the course of a month. You might notice while the current number doesn't indicate loss on a particular day, the trend of the overall weight is moving down.
  
• Are your calorie goals and exercise goals putting you in a deficit? You may need to simply reduce your intake, increase your activity, or both.
  
• Is your calorie count and/or calories burned count (if you eat back burned calories) accurate? Even if your goals are correct, you might not lose weight if your counts are off. If you aren't weighing all your food on a scale (not using estimation or cups/spoons) your count is very likely inaccurate. This includes eating out and eating food you did not prepare/weigh yourself. Give this guide a read: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1 As to calories burned, no matter what MFP, a cardio machine, or even an expensive fitness device tells you, your calories burned count is probably off to some degree. Consider not eating back exercise calories and using a TDEE method to calculate a calorie goal that takes exercise into account
  
• Are you actually meeting your calorie and exercise goals consistently? Having a perfect count, and goals that create a deficit don't matter one bit if you are not hitting them on a fairly consistent basis. How many days do you simply go over or not track at all? How many cheat days? It's very common to see diaries that are iron clad Monday thru Friday and then have no info at all for the weekend.
  
• Do you have a medical condition that you are unaware of that you aren't taking into account? This is LEAST likely. Do not jump to this conclusion first. Examine and reexamine the previous points before you explore this one. If you do think you have a medical condition go see a doctor. Do not waste time self diagnosing, self medicating, or asking people on the forum to diagnose/treat you.