Help, my first Plateau!

kevstorms

Been doing good on the diet, and working out. Have dropped over 30 lbs since I started! For the past 3 weeks though I have not lost any more weight! My diet is good, 5 meals a day; fruits veggies lean meats and so on, pretty healthy and standard. I work out anywhere from 3 to 5 times a day, grouping certain muscles together. Again doing all this dropped about 30 lbs in 3 months.

So what do I need to do to plow through this Plateau? I am still 40 lbs from my goal weight! (My workouts are geared toward losing weight and not building muscle yet, but I am aware muscle and fat weight and such)

queenliz99

Do you log somewhere else? Your diary is empty. How do you know you are in a deficit?

kevstorms

I was logging for a while so I can get a feel of where I was with what I was eating. I am usually at about 900 - 1200 calories a day intake now. Have been for about 6 weeks.

malibu927

kevstorms wrote: »

I was logging for a while so I can get a feel of where I was with what I was eating. I am usually at about 900 - 1200 calories a day intake now. Have been for about 6 weeks.

If you aren't losing, you're eating too many calories. Start logging accurately and honestly (you really shouldn't be eating below 1500 calories, if not your goal).

kevstorms

I was very accurate when I was logging. For example, I have ketchup with my eggs, and I log it, and so on and so on. Like I said, I keep track of it in person now rather than the app, but I stay around the 1200 mark daily.

queenliz99

You need to start logging and the minimum for a man is 1500 calories.

queenliz99

Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

malibu927

kevstorms wrote: »

I was very accurate when I was logging. For example, I have ketchup with my eggs, and I log it, and so on and so on. Like I said, I keep track of it in person now rather than the app, but I stay around the 1200 mark daily.

Are you using a food scale to weigh everything? It's very easy to underestimate your calorie intake.

kevstorms

When I first picked out my recipes, I weighed and logged everything. Now that I got used to making them, I don't weigh them anymore. The meats I buy I still weigh BEFORE I freeze them, into 4 oz packs. All the recipes are the same, the amount of everything I use is the same. Nothing has changed in my diet in over 6 weeks basically.

queenliz99

kevstorms wrote: »

When I first picked out my recipes, I weighed and logged everything. Now that I got used to making them, I don't weigh them anymore. The meats I buy I still weigh BEFORE I freeze them, into 4 oz packs. All the recipes are the same, the amount of everything I use is the same. Nothing has changed in my diet in over 6 weeks basically.

,
If you are accurate then keep going. Weight loss is not linear? After 6 weeks, it is usually considered a plateau.

kevstorms

I want to know what I need to do to break this plateau and continue losing lol

queenliz99

You should be losing.

kevstorms

I know but I am not. Kinda getting upset about it, and reaching out to see what others have done to break their plateaus.

queenliz99

Plateaus are from inaccurate logging or you need to make an appointment with your doctor? Have you had a check up lately?

diannethegeek

kevstorms wrote: »

I want to know what I need to do to break this plateau and continue losing lol

The choices are very straight forward. Either wait it out to see if it's just a water weight fluctuation, eat less, or burn more. Unless there's a medical issue in play (which you should take up with your doctor) then one of those 3 will apply.

Unfortunately, without a diary to look at or more details, we're going to have a hard time giving more specific advice.

diannethegeek

kevstorms wrote: »

I know but I am not. Kinda getting upset about it, and reaching out to see what others have done to break their plateaus.

If you're averse to logging your food again, I don't think you'll find much value in what I found useful. But these are the things I wish someone had told me when I plateaued for two months:

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.

stephinator92

Your diary is empty and you're not eating enough... Try eating more - not sure how much you weigh, but try resetting your diary settings to recalibrate your calorie intake. Also are you working out 3-5x per day or per week? If it's per day, that may be excessive... per week seems okay though... It's hard to give too much advice without knowing what you're eating & how much. When you log your food, make sure to weigh and measure everything you eat... good luck!

RoxieDawn

Platueas = eating more than you think almost all of the time rather that be logging issues or exercise calories. Guestimating is not a useful tool.

There are no suggestions to help you unless you follow the MFP counting calorie process which is to log your food intake every single day, preferably 100% weighing of all entries in the diary and tracking exercise.

Otherwise we here in the MFP community cannot offer true assistance to help you break the plateau and I will say that you are not eating 1200 calories a day (thank goodness) and you need to reassess the priorties if you plan to use MFP. You need to adhere to the min required calories. I think you may find that if you eat the calories MFP gave you and not try to exceed a daily deficit that cause havoc on your body, you will start to loose weight.

It is a tool, you can choose to use it or not but when the process is failing you and your are not following the process, we are unable to provide useful hints and tips to assist you.

Best of luck with this.