Please help me and my plateau

jessiebbabii

weight 190-193
waist 35
wrist 6
hips 44
forearm 10
legs(thighs) 22
legs15


-My measurements




Last year I lost 60 pounds doing exercise and eating clean. I did zumba/kickboxing and running as exercise. I gained 20 pounds back of it from holidays / muscle weight.

I've been eating about 1,200-1,800 cals (depending on how many calories I burned that day)
I work out a lot. I go to the gym sometimes I do reps, I'll run, zumba, and kickboxing
MY WEIGHT HASN'T MOVED....and it's been a good hard weeks!

What should I do/what am I doing wrong?!?!?

I want to loose the 20 pounds and keep it off!!! What do I do!?

RunFarLiveHappy

Some suggestions:

Be honest and realistic about your goal setting (if you only have 20 pounds to lose you probably shouldn't try to lose 2 pounds per week, this might give you more calories which might fuel your workouts better AND be realistic with your activity level setting as well)
You might need to eat MORE, depending on how active you are...you only have to eat less than you burn through your whole day of activities in order to lose (this includes calories burned during intentional exercise and otherwise)
Combine strength training with your cardio


Some helpful tidbits:

Your thighs are your quads
Without eating at a surplus or at least maintainance it's doubtful that your weight gain was muscle gain, at least not the majority of it
I wouldn't consider 2 weeks with no movement on the scale to be a plateau--give a program at least 6 weeks
Keep taking measurements and get your body fat tested if possible so you can rely on those vs just the scale for progress
You can visit fat2fitradio.com for some helpful calculators which might help you set different goals on MFP

PepperWorm

2 weeks does not a plateau make.

The scale is not your friend. Are you taking measurements? Noticing a difference in the way your clothes hang on your body? Muscle gain will not reflect a loss on the scale.

I agree with lilbee: EAT MORE. Weigh your food. Keep eating at a deficit. Keep rocking the exercise.

Good luck.

thatonegirlwiththestuff

I hit a plateau months ago. I tried upping my calories, I tried cutting my calories. Someone mentioned carb cycling to me. So 2 weeks ago, I cut carbs almost totally out for 1 week, apart from 2 pieces a fruit/day and 1 serving of greek yogurt. That did the trick. I am not sure how much I lost, but my clothes are baggy now.

PikaKnight

What exactly is your calorie goal? Are you following MFP or TDEE? Are you using a food scale?

jessiebbabii

I follow MFP, and my calorie intake depends on how much exercise I do that day. When I don't exercise I eat 1,200 cals and days when I do a lot I typically take in 1,800 cals

PikaKnight

I follow MFP, and my calorie intake depends on how much exercise I do that day. When I don't exercise I eat 1,200 cals and days when I do a lot I typically take in 1,800 cals

Did you pick a 2lb/week loss? If so, reconfigure to do .5-1lb/week loss. With only 20lbs to go, it's going to take longer. Once you do, eat back your exercise calories. It sounds like you do with the 1800 but just putting it out here just in case. MFP is designed for its users to eat back their calories.

If you aren't using a food scale - invest in one. It's about $15-$30 online/amazon or at Wal-Mart.

If you are using an HRM for exercise, take the number that is given and -30% to help account for inaccuracies.

And ditch the scale # goal. The scale is unreliable and personally, I'd aim for a body fat % goal and use measurements to better track your progress.

keep at this for 4-6 weeks before trying to make anymore adjustments. With any change, it takes your body about 3-6 weeks to "get settled" in.

sef1948

The only thing I've found that works when you plateau is to temporarily increase your calories. That's a scary prospect for most people, but it really does work. Maybe you could decrease your exercise a bit too.

dxing

Up to maintenance calories or slightly above for a week

Don't abuse your options all at once (i.e. lower calories + excessive cardio + low carb). You only have so many things you can change when weight loss slows down. Best way to keep weight off is by attempting to lose as much weight as you can while having to do as little as possible.

Start at the highest range of where you think you'll lose weight, and monitor progress everyday. Take your average from a week or so, and only lower calories when you haven't lost anything in more than 2 weeks.

Lower fat first, and then carbs when necessary. When you don't want to lower macros anymore, start doing cardio. 1 or 2 sessions a week at first, and then add when necessary.