Hitting a plateau

jham2017

Ive lost 34 lbs and am starting a plateau. Any advice? Was doing two a days but stopped as to not let my body adapt to that much excersize while decreasing my food intake a lot. Is this a good course of action?

MindPump1

I would first take a look at your food. What kinds of food are you eating? What does your over all diet really look like. How detailed are you when it comes to tracking fats, carbs, and proteins? Do you drink sugary drinks instead of water? Things like that. If your working out 3-5 times a week, ya you'll want to be in a caloric deficiency while working out, but you also need to be eating enough to fuel your body. second take a look at your workouts. Are they vigorous enough? Are you doing strength training or just cardio? These are just a few things I would start to look at when I hit plateaus. I've hit them before, and they suck. Don't let it get you down. Keep your head up and stay strong. One thing I've done recently is, I've started following Mind Pump. They are a fitness podcast. They have a lot of great information about working out, eating right and the overall fitness industry.

Best of luck! If you want to reply with more details about your current struggle I can't try to help; but I'm not a dietitian, or a trainer. Just speaking from experience.

cgvet37

It sounds like you need to switch things up.

Afura

How long have you been on this plateau?

queenliz99

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

kimdawnhayden

Sometimes you actually need to increase your calories to see a loss.. confusing but it works.

professorhuggins

Have you been readjusting your weight so that MFP decreases your calories? Now that there's less of you, you need fewer calories.

jham2017

I only drink water, besides pre work out and protein shakes. Im keeping my calories to about 1800-2000 a day most days, been on this plateau for about almost three weeks. I try to keep my diet clean but sometimes I cant help but eating some candy or stuff like that.

kimdawnhayden

Oh .... those little extras will get you. Did you go by the recommended calories from MFP? You probably need to recalculate if you've lost that much. Do you do any interval training? Sometimes adding that a couple times a week will bust you through.

wilsoncl6

It sounds like you just need to make some adjustments in your eating or track your calories more diligently now that you've cut off some fat. Being accurate with your calories becomes more important as you lose weight. Do you actually weight your food and, if so, how? Are you just guesstimating or using the package weights? When I hit a plateu, I just evaluate what I'm doing and then adjust how much or what I'm eating and your body can't help but break through the wall. If you've been eating out a lot, many prepared foods have a lot of sodium and that will make you retain water. If you're a female and are having your cycles, you will retain fluids and bloat. I'd cut back on the processed pre-packaged or retaurant foods and drink a lot of water. Maybe then you'll start to see a difference.

jham2017

When i first started i was on point with keeping track of my calories by the packaging and i guess ive been getting very lazy with it. Have reevaluated, and will start being a lot more strict. I go to the gym everyday, lifting is a must, i have no problems there, im making great gains trying to maintain the maxes on bench squat and power cleans. I was doing two a days with cardio twice a day every orher day, but my school and job have been getting more demanding and i now only have time for the gym early in the morning. Also i had acl reconstruction surgery (the reason for my weight gain) and my knee has been getting very irritated and swollen so ive had to halt the cardio for a bit

kimdawnhayden

Lift weights. If you can only do a 2 day program. There is a book called "New Rules of Lifting" by Alywn Cosgrove he details his plan in there and you can customize it to how many days a week you can workout. It takes less than an hour to complete a workout.

MindPump1

jham2017 wrote: »

When i first started i was on point with keeping track of my calories by the packaging and i guess ive been getting very lazy with it. Have reevaluated, and will start being a lot more strict. I go to the gym everyday, lifting is a must, i have no problems there, im making great gains trying to maintain the maxes on bench squat and power cleans. I was doing two a days with cardio twice a day every orher day, but my school and job have been getting more demanding and i now only have time for the gym early in the morning. Also i had acl reconstruction surgery (the reason for my weight gain) and my knee has been getting very irritated and swollen so ive had to halt the cardio for a bit

I think your going to the gym way to much. Every day is over kill. IF you are not working to compete in a show, or to become the next Mr. Olympia, you do not need to be the gym 7 days a week. You need to give your body rest, time to recover. Even if your making some gains now, you mentioned you have an irritated knee. I had knee surgery earlier this year. I'm lifting 3 days a week, and doing band workouts on my off days, and I have seen great improvements in my lifts, and my knee. My squats are back to pre-surgery weight and only getting better. But every day is over kill for 99% of the population of people. You have to give your body time to rest and recover and rebuild the muscles that your destroy in the gym.

kimny72

OP, I don't know enough to give you workout advice, but it never hurts to tighten up your logging and make sure your calorie goal is still appropriate. Sometimes when you've been at it for awhile, you start to take for granted that you know what you're doing and get less precise! My personal opinion is that your diet affects your weight loss more than your exercise, so make sure that's on point, and good luck!

JeromeBarry1

Having myself just gotten to 34 pounds lost, I see no sign of a plateau because I'm careful to maintain my calorie deficit, get plenty of fiber , drink plenty of water, and occasionally intensify my exercise. I also try to consistently keep my sodium in a narrow range to reduce the possibility of water masking true weight loss.

blues4miles

jham2017 wrote: »

Ive lost 34 lbs and am starting a plateau. Any advice? Was doing two a days but stopped as to not let my body adapt to that much excersize while decreasing my food intake a lot. Is this a good course of action?

What does starting a plateau mean? If it's only been 1-3 weeks since you lost weight last, that's not a plateau. That's a natural part of losing weight.

But generally, losing/not losing all comes down to what you are eating. And it doesn't matter how "clean" you are eating. All that matters is if you are getting in fewer calories than your body burns during the day. Candy is just fine if you log it and you are still under calories. But if you are logging poorly and actually eating more than you think, you won't lose weight. But it seems highly probable you just need to be patient and wait a few more weeks.

jham2017

Im back ro pre injury weight, infact ive made a giant improvement, and i do not beleieve working out everyday is overkill, not for an athlete anyways. Even working out twice a day is not bad for you, so long as you dont work the same muscels every time

jham2017

Also false alarm the scale i was using was very very broken, turns out ive lost 5 ish pounds

jham2017

I do not train the same muscle groups with in 2-3 days of each other. There is always room for improvement somewhere