Hit a Wall!!

caseyshelton911

I've lost 85 lbs but thats it, can't seem to get over this plateau!! Been stuck for 3 weeks now. I have tried changing up my diet and exercise. I eat about 1100 or 1300 calories a day and when I work out, I work off what I ate that day. I was drinking diet soda, cut that out, now just water. I work out about 4 days a week. Weighed this morning and not a pound gone. I am truly discouraged!! Any help please!

WBB55

Don't change anything for at least a couple weeks.

But also, how accurate is your logging? Do you weigh foods on a digital scale?

diannethegeek

Opening your diary might help to get you more specific advice. Otherwise, here are my really general tips. Maybe something will get you headed in the right direction.

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Every time you make changes to your diet and exercise routine it can take your body a couple of weeks to catch up. Pick a routine and stick it out for a few weeks before you decide whether or not it's working.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. As you get closer to your goal, the weight loss tends to slow down and normal fluctuations hide the weight loss more often. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

caseyshelton911

Thanks guys I do have a food scale and also double check that my entries are right most the time I use the bar code. I may have jumped the gun on being discouraged. I have been on my journey since March 1st and every week have had loses so going this long without any change has been tough. Thanks again for advice!!

WBB55

You've lost 85 lbs in 26 weeks? That's WONDERFUL progress!! I suggest changing your settings to "lose 1 lb per week" or 1.5 lbs. Things are going to SLOOOOOW DOOOWWWWN as you lose more and more. And accuracy becomes even more important as you progress.

As you keep losing, you might start getting hungrier (you have less fat to live on now). That's ok. That's normal. Make sure to adjust your goals and calorie intake to account for your new weight.

GOOD JOB!!!

mbaker566

it can be frustrating. i had a month where i was stuck. and now i'm stuck again. but then comes the woosh where i lose a few lbs. make sure you weigh and log everything your eat or drink. if you are eating all your exercise calories, consider eating 50-75% or a smaller percentage that you are already eating

caseyshelton911

Thanks WBB55!! It's been a long road!! I will def recalculate my log!! I have def noticed I am hungrier!! Moyer566 I think I said that wrong, if I eat 1200 calories in a day, I burn 1300 calories, so I don't eat what I worked off sorry for the mess up. Thanks for the encouragement!! I guess I will just keep truckin along and hopefully this ends soon!!

SueInAz

Your deficit will get smaller and smaller as you get closer to your goal mostly because you will have a more difficult time creating the same calorie deficit you could when you weighed more. You now burn fewer calories every day and when doing exercise. Because of that, water retention can more easily disguise any fat loss and a miscalculation of calories eaten or burned can more easily erase that deficit. You definitely have to get more stringent with your logging the closer you get to goal.

diannethegeek

caseyshelton911 wrote: »

Thanks WBB55!! It's been a long road!! I will def recalculate my log!! I have def noticed I am hungrier!! Moyer566 I think I said that wrong, if I eat 1200 calories in a day, I burn 1300 calories, so I don't eat what I worked off sorry for the mess up. Thanks for the encouragement!! I guess I will just keep truckin along and hopefully this ends soon!!

Just to be sure, you aren't trying to work off every calorie you eat through exercise, are you? That's a sure way to hunger and burn out of you have your numbers right.

WBB55

caseyshelton911 wrote: »

Thanks WBB55!! It's been a long road!! I will def recalculate my log!! I have def noticed I am hungrier!! Moyer566 I think I said that wrong, if I eat 1200 calories in a day, I burn 1300 calories, so I don't eat what I worked off sorry for the mess up. Thanks for the encouragement!! I guess I will just keep truckin along and hopefully this ends soon!!

The goal is NOT to have a negative net. I hesitate to suggest changing anything since it's working, but you are eating WAY LESS than you need to in order to lose (probably, depending on your accuracy of logging).

I want to emphasize that accuracy becomes more important as you lose more and more.

YOUR GOAL is for the app to say 1200-1400+200=0
(or "eat back" maybe half of the "earned" exercise calories, so 1200-1300+200=100)

Right now, does yours look like this? 1200-1200+1300=1300 remaining?

caseyshelton911

OMG!! No I have been in the negative, now this is something I have been doing over the last few weeks because I thought you had to burn whatever you eat! Thank you guys so much!! I was researching how much I needed to work out and so the last few weeks thats how I have been doing it, I prob should go back to the way I was doing things before because it was working, But of course the weight lose slowed,which it is going too. Thanks so much!!

callsitlikeiseeit

I've lost 70 and have 50 more to go and had to adjust my goals. so now... 1 lb/ week instead of 2, and my calories went down. Which does suck. It could be thats your situation as well. I haven't lost in 2 weeks and am holding steady waiting to see if this works or if i need to tighten up on logging or whatever.

tomorrow is weigh day so I guess we shall find out LOLOLOL

AliceDark

caseyshelton911 wrote: »

OMG!! No I have been in the negative, now this is something I have been doing over the last few weeks because I thought you had to burn whatever you eat! Thank you guys so much!! I was researching how much I needed to work out and so the last few weeks thats how I have been doing it, I prob should go back to the way I was doing things before because it was working, But of course the weight lose slowed,which it is going too. Thanks so much!!

Did you say that you just started exercising a few weeks ago? (I was asking because I was going to explain about water retention with new/increased exercise, but Dianne got to it before I could edit my post. Take her advice -- it's spot-on).

diannethegeek

caseyshelton911 wrote: »

OMG!! No I have been in the negative, now this is something I have been doing over the last few weeks because I thought you had to burn whatever you eat! Thank you guys so much!! I was researching how much I needed to work out and so the last few weeks thats how I have been doing it, I prob should go back to the way I was doing things before because it was working, But of course the weight lose slowed,which it is going too. Thanks so much!!

Burning more than you eat is a thing, but you have to take into account all of the calories your body burns just keeping you alive! Your body is already burning a ton of calories even without exercise. MFP has that all factored in for you, so you can follow their setup without trying to exercise off everything you eat.

If you've been working out that much these past few weeks, no wonder you're not losing. Increasing your exercise routine comes with increased water retention to help cushion and repair sore muscles. That can look like a stall or small gain on the scale, but it's just masking the fat loss still happening in the background. Slow down on the exercise and give your body a chance to rest and repair itself every so often.

caseyshelton911

Thank you!! I have been working out about 4 times a week but not to the extent I have been the last few weeks, but that make perfect sense. I will def take a few days off and go back to my normal workout. I was just trying to switch things up and thought I had to burn what I ate for the day!! Thanks everyone sooo much!!

Liftng4Lis

A plateau is 8 weeks with no loss. Just hang tight and keep doing what you were doing.