Cardio advice to help get past this "plateau"?

ttanderson79

Ok I admit it, I am new to this healthier fitness lifestyle. But because of some recent medical issues i need to make a change. I lost four pounds real quick right out of the gate by giving up soda and most fast food for a week but I seem to have hit a "plateau". I know that just doing more in the simple answer but do you have any practical help to get me past this initial success and onto consistent results? I need to loose another 25+ lbs.

DeguelloTex

One week isn't a plateau. If you're eating in a deficit, you just need to keep doing so.

DemoraFairy

How long has it been since you lost weight? A plateau is usually 6 weeks or more without loss. You mention cutting out soda and fast food, but do you count calories? Cutting those things out isn't going to help if you just replace them with other calories.

kk_inprogress

DeguelloTex wrote: »

One week isn't a plateau. If you're eating in a deficit, you just need to keep doing so.

This.

JenMc14

Definitely not a plateau. You lost because you cut out high calorie foods, and also, they were likely high in sodium, so you were retaining water.
1. Figure out how many calories you need to survive. Then, eat less than that. You can read the stickies, and about the MFP method and go that way. It's fairly simple, and MFP does the calculations for you.
2. Invest in a food scale. Weigh everything you eat and log it fo an accurate picture of calories consumed.
3. Do a combo of cardio and resistance training, start small, find something you like and time where you can be consistent.
4. Have patience.

groodlesuk

Does 5 weeks qualify as a plateau?

groodlesuk

Vertical scale is Kg (not Lbs)

nordlead2005

I do practically no cardio and I'm down 22lb.

I personally, do ~3hr of weight training, and 90 minutes or so of cardio (ultimate frisbee, where I half run, half walk) per week. A rough estimate puts that at 1350 calories burned most weeks. That is enough for 0.38lb/week. Basically, cardio and weight lifting accounted for ~19% of my weight loss. Half of that was weight lifting, so cardio accounted for only 10% of my weight loss, or 2.2lb.

Do what JenMc said.

Liftng4Lis

A plateau is 6-8 weeks of no loss. It takes longer than a week. Keep doing what you're doing and it will come.

ttanderson79

Thank you all for the advice and encouragment!
I think I can live with around 1500 cal per day. The crazy "hunger" pangs seem to be going away...I am just starting to get into a rythmn. I got up this morning and took a brisk hour walk before work which seemed to help. I think can stay consistent with the walking 3 days per week and also add in strength training 2 days.

Logging in perfect days with MFP really gives me a boost!!

999tigger

Keep going you sound like you have got a routine. take it one day at a time. Weight loss will all revolve arouind the deficit.

mlz1413

I log every day and I am honest about everything I eat and drink, the barcode scanner is brilliant. I figure if I'm not honest with myself then I'm on a loser before I start.

Seeing the weekly averages is a good way of noting bad habits, for me alcohol, so it's been easy to set myself a goal not to drink in the week.

Also knowing how many calories are in what you eat can help change your mind about eating the crisps / chocolate etc.

I think your walking goal is a good start, stick to it and see what 6 weeks brings.

ttanderson79

Thanks for the tips and encouraging words...

Sometimes I will log my dinner meal in before I make it to be sure that my ratios and calorie intake for the day is close to perfect. If what I had planned to eat for dinner causes the figures to be way off I can just change what I will eat...I love that ability!!