Overcoming a Weight Loss Plateau??

Hi all;

I'm 22 years old, female. I'm 5'4" and 199lbs.
I started at 223lbs, so I'm 24lbs down now.

But I seem to have hit a plateau. For the last 2 weeks, my weight has hovers right around 199/200lbs.

Does anyone have tips for overcoming the plateau and kicking my weight loss into gear again??

And also, any advice for not getting upset about it would be very welcome too.
I can definitely sense myself getting really down about this, and I don't want to let it get the best of me.

Thank you all in advance!!! <3

Replies

  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
    firt of all congratulations! You have made it to ONEderland and lost 10% of your body weight! Be patient with yourself. What has changed. Do you need to up your exercise? Be more mindful of your portions? Or just hold on a bit longer? A true plateau is 6 weeks.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    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. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

    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. 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.
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    Try switching up what you eat and how you exercise a bit! Your body may have gotten used to what you have been doing :)
  • joannepimley
    joannepimley Posts: 7 Member
    Eat a little less or exercise a little more until you start to lose again. I used to get so discouraged when i hit a plateau and i would just fall off the wagon. The longest i was in a plateau for was 6 weeks. Ugh.
    Another thing i found helped me sometimes (which is totally unconventional and im not saying you should do it) was to go have a night out, have some drinks and greasy food, enjoy my hangover, drinking loads of water and enjoying food then the next day i would get straight back into it and i would start to shift the weight again