What do you do when you plateau?
Adrienneburrows1
Posts: 71 Member
Not sure what to do about this plateau I have been on for months. I am on 1200 calories a day so I don't know if I should go lower on the calories or not. More exercise maybe? I need some help. I've lost 33 lbs so far but the last 10 just won't seem to go. Can anyone help?
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Replies
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Are you weighing your food?6
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No I don't weigh it but I log everything I eat
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My advice is to start weighing everything you can. I'm sure you are eating more than you think.7
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I'd tell you what I do but it's unhealthy and it makes me sound crazy0
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When I plateau I know I need to work on logging accurately. You are eating more than you think since you're just guessing at portions. Work on your logging - start by using a food scale - and you'll see that scale move again.6
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These are the things that I wish someone had told me when I stalled out 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.7 -
I check my logging and start weighing/measuring everything, yes everything even eggs and individual pudding cups. I know a lot of people either don't want to or hate weighing foods, but many of the plateaus are fixable when a person logs accurately. It does suck at the beginning, but you've got to decide what's more important - getting off the plateau or staying the same.5
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Not sure what to do about this plateau I have been on for months. I am on 1200 calories a day so I don't know if I should go lower on the calories or not. More exercise maybe? I need some help. I've lost 33 lbs so far but the last 10 just won't seem to go. Can anyone help?
Start strength training2 -
I would ask others to take a look at my diary to see if I'm slacking on something (consistency and/or accuracy). Sometimes having a second set of eyes will catch something that we overlook or don't see as a problem.
Along with that I would also recommend a food scale. It can mean the difference between maintaining and losing.2 -
The only times I've "plateaued" I've determined that I wasn't logging properly or effectively.
So I go back over my logging and tighten up - what can I start to weigh? What am I missing? Because the answer is almost always "you're eating too much."7 -
Going thru a plateau stage right now, too. I will continue to do what I have done in the past...keep weighing/measuring my food...keep exercising...keep being patient...and I know that scale will move again sooner or later. After weighing/measuring my food for all these months, I can't not do it because it has become such a habit for me to do so. I log everything because even if it has no calories, there are things like sodium in food and I have to keep track of my sodium intake.2
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Ok. So apparently I will have to buy a scale lol. I don't eat back my calories usually. I do log everything I eat and drink. I don't think I can do less than 1200 calories though.1
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Ok. So apparently I will have to buy a scale lol. I don't eat back my calories usually. I do log everything I eat and drink. I don't think I can do less than 1200 calories though.
Yep please please get the food scale it is a game changer like you will not beleive.
And follow the post @diannethegeek posted.. This is everything you need to know how to proceed!6 -
Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Ok. So apparently I will have to buy a scale lol. I don't eat back my calories usually. I do log everything I eat and drink. I don't think I can do less than 1200 calories though.
You should never go below 1200 - the thing is, you probably aren't eating 1200 like you think you are. Happens to us all (or most of us at least) - we think we're eating less but then we start logging more accurately and using a scale and whoopsie - that wasn't 1200 we were eating, it was much more!5 -
Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Ok. So apparently I will have to buy a scale lol. I don't eat back my calories usually. I do log everything I eat and drink. I don't think I can do less than 1200 calories though.
Without weighing your food, you're most likely eating more than you think. Don't go below 1200. When my scale broke and I couldn't get another for a couple of months, I thought I was doing just fine estimating but I wasn't losing weight. When I started logging again, I was shocked to find out I was eating at my maintenance and not at a deficit.2 -
Ok. I will have to get a scale soon. Thanks. Should I up my exercise too?1
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Ok. I will have to get a scale soon. Thanks. Should I up my exercise too?
Don't go nuts. If you feel like upping it fine. The food scale is the ticket.2 -
What about those color coded food storage boxes? Does anyone use those?0
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »What about those color coded food storage boxes? Does anyone use those?
They still aren't as accurate as weighing. Think about how much food one can stuff into a box as opposed to just barely filling it. It's easy to go over calories with them since it is hard to gauge exactly how much food can go into them.2 -
If you cant go below 1200 calories, increase your exercise a little0
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So weight all of my food and put the weight amounts in my diary?
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Have some control with this, but... If you are stuck where you have been for a while, eat different foods like crazy for about a week, and start the process again. Don't log a flipping thing. Just eat. Your body has gotten used to what you are doing. Trick your metabolism into not knowing what to expect. (Ok, I am now hiding behind a trashcan to avoid the bottles and paper balls being thrown at me.)1
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »So weight all of my food and put the weight amounts in my diary?
Yup. Diannethegeek post nails it. Print that and post on fridge.
Exercise is less important in weight loss, but very important for general health and happiness. HIIT and resistance strength training will boost your metabolism and speed up your loss.
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »So weight all of my food and put the weight amounts in my diary?
Yep. It's that simple.
To lose weight you don't have to exercise. It's just a matter of eating less calories than your body Burns daily. The exercise has additional benefits which a lot of people on this post and other post have gone into so I'm not going to repeat them.2 -
What's the point of logging if it's not accurate? Logging that you ate 1200 calories doesn't mean you actually ate 1200 calories. You don't really know how much you are eating until you accurately weigh it.
As you get closer to a normal/healthy body weight those extra unmeasured calories will make the difference. Your body is telling you that the number of calories you are eating now is what it takes to maintain your present weight.2 -
Do another cleanse.5
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Adrienneburrows1 wrote: »Ok. So apparently I will have to buy a scale lol. I don't eat back my calories usually. I do log everything I eat and drink. I don't think I can do less than 1200 calories though.
So the "cleanse" didn't really work and the real answer is you have just been guessing at how much you are eating.
You can lose the rest when you get serious about losing it - serious enough to knuckle down and do the work necessary.5 -
emmylootwo wrote: »Do another cleanse.
I hope you were being sarcastic...2 -
Mavrick_RN wrote: »What's the point of logging if it's not accurate? Logging that you ate 1200 calories doesn't mean you actually ate 1200 calories. You don't really know how much you are eating until you accurately weigh it.
As you get closer to a normal/healthy body weight those extra unmeasured calories will make the difference. Your body is telling you that the number of calories you are eating now is what it takes to maintain your present weight.
I ballpark log. I overestimate my CI and underestimate my CO. According to my weight loss so far it's been pretty accurate. Just because you need to weigh doesn't mean everybody does or should. If I had to weigh every morsel I put on my lips I would quit pdq.
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