Ugh! I've hit a Plateau!

tamih373

I started my weight loss journey in February by joining another plan (with the initials WW). I experienced a gradual but healthy weight loss and by April I was down 17 pounds. However, since the beginning of April I've been at the same weight (give or take an ounce) for more than a month now. It's sooooo frustrating. I weigh and log my meals religiously and I do cardio (cycling) at least 4-5 times a week. I cancelled my WW last week and have been using MFP instead, hoping maybe the change would spur some loss. I got on the scale this morning and nope, I'm firmly where I have been since April. It's very discouraging. Any thoughts/tips would be appreciated.

janejellyroll

Have you been on the same plan since the beginning of April? It's hard to tell from your post if you were mixing WW and MFP the whole time or if you just switched to MFP.

riley_kinnett

I had the exact same issue. I hit a plateau for about 5 weeks. You need to switch up your workouts first and foremost. I was running for an hour about 6 days a week. To start the weight loss again you really need to incorporate some other forms of cardio. Try the elliptical or just run for 30 minutes to get you sweating and your heart rate going. Then hit the weights. I guarantee you will start to see weight loss again.

kaylajane11

riley_kinnett wrote: »

I had the exact same issue. I hit a plateau for about 5 weeks. You need to switch up your workouts first and foremost. I was running for an hour about 6 days a week. To start the weight loss again you really need to incorporate some other forms of cardio. Try the elliptical or just run for 30 minutes to get you sweating and your heart rate going. Then hit the weights. I guarantee you will start to see weight loss again.

Switching up your workouts won't make a difference unless your new workouts burn more calories.

If you are at a plateau you are eating at maintenance and need to reevaluate your calorie limit. As you lose weight you require less calories than you did when you started, so if you are certain you are logging your food an exercise accurately, reduce your daily calorie goal by and monitor from there.

riley_kinnett

kaylajane11 wrote: »

riley_kinnett wrote: »

I had the exact same issue. I hit a plateau for about 5 weeks. You need to switch up your workouts first and foremost. I was running for an hour about 6 days a week. To start the weight loss again you really need to incorporate some other forms of cardio. Try the elliptical or just run for 30 minutes to get you sweating and your heart rate going. Then hit the weights. I guarantee you will start to see weight loss again.

Switching up your workouts won't make a difference unless your new workouts burn more calories.

If you are at a plateau you are eating at maintenance and need to reevaluate your calorie limit. As you lose weight you require less calories than you did when you started, so if you are certain you are logging your food an exercise accurately, reduce your daily calorie goal by and monitor from there.

Well that's what I did when I hit a plateau.... Just saying been there done that. Your body gets used to doing the same exercises over and over again and starts to adapt to the exercises so that you conserve more energy and don't burn as many calories. This would be the easiest thing to try in my opinion.

dragon_girl26

and once again, we have the chart! :-)


Actually, though, I would start with kaylajane's advice. It's usually a good practice to re-evaluate your calorie goal after every 10 lbs of weight loss or so, as your body requires less calories at a lower weight.
Exercise is for fitness, diet is for weight loss.

tamih373

Thanks for the suggestions. I can certainly change up my exercise routine. I have gotten into a bit of a rut with my cycling so I need to figure out something else. Adding in some weights is probably a good thing too. I just hope I can hang in there and not get frustrated (a month is a long time to be stuck!!!).

diannethegeek

This would be my really generic advice. If you want more specifics, then opening your diary, providing more details, or answering some of the questions people are asking might help (only if you're comfortable doing that, of course).

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

ridge4mfp

One this is missing from the infamous chart, in my opinion. Luckily, @diannethegeek usually fills that in. That is her #4, recalculate your goals about every 10 lbs.

tamih373

I do have a food scale that I use to weigh things (old habit from WW) and I typically will scan the barcode of my food (if there is one) so that it's accurate. If I cut back my calories any more I will be going below 1200 and I don't think that's healthy.

gianna42

Are you close to your goal or already within a "healthy" weight range for your height? If so it will come off slowly. Mixing things up a bit should help like you mentioned above.

jamacianredhair

riley_kinnett wrote: »

kaylajane11 wrote: »

riley_kinnett wrote: »

I had the exact same issue. I hit a plateau for about 5 weeks. You need to switch up your workouts first and foremost. I was running for an hour about 6 days a week. To start the weight loss again you really need to incorporate some other forms of cardio. Try the elliptical or just run for 30 minutes to get you sweating and your heart rate going. Then hit the weights. I guarantee you will start to see weight loss again.

Switching up your workouts won't make a difference unless your new workouts burn more calories.

If you are at a plateau you are eating at maintenance and need to reevaluate your calorie limit. As you lose weight you require less calories than you did when you started, so if you are certain you are logging your food an exercise accurately, reduce your daily calorie goal by and monitor from there.

Well that's what I did when I hit a plateau.... Just saying been there done that. Your body gets used to doing the same exercises over and over again and starts to adapt to the exercises so that you conserve more energy and don't burn as many calories. This would be the easiest thing to try in my opinion.

I agree this is what I do and it works for me!