HELP! I've plateaued and can't budge

phoebefoldi

I've been stuck at the same weight for about a week now, have been eating between 1200-1300 calories a day, and exercise every second day. Before this plateau I was losing a steady 1kg a week for about 5 weeks, and was doing exactly what I am doing now. Has this happened to anyone before? What did you do to get out of it. I should probably also point out that I have an under active thyroid, but take medicene every morning for it, and haven't changed this routine at all recently.
Thanks!

SueInAz

This chart created by @lemonlionheart may help:



Here's a great post about keeping a food diary that might offer some insight: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10191216/the-most-important-thing-you-can-do-to-lose-weight

If you still have questions, please ask.

nosebag1212

1 week is not a plateau, give it 3 weeks before you change anything and make sure you are measuring your intake accurately with food scales and not just eyeballing it, weight loss is not linear

what are your stats?

RoxieDawn

If nothing has changed are you doing exactly what you have been doing during the 5 weeks you lost weight, understand that weight loss in not linear. There may be times when you drop weight and the next week no weight.

Due to your thyroid you should also take this into consideration.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

diannethegeek

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.