Plateau

tonchiiiiii

I believe I'm hitting a plateau and it's rather discouraging. I'm a 5'4" male and started my weight loss at 178. I'm down to fluctuating 144-148. I'm on a goal of 1500 calories but usually burn 800-1200 from exercise, so my intake is usually around 1800. I can tell I'm gaining muscle mass so that's one reason for the steady weight. However, my belly will not go away. The abs are showing well but there's still that stupid pouch that won't go away. I've been at the 1500 or less diet, on my last week of p90x, run 3 times a week for 2 miles, I walk a mile morning and again at night. I'm usually taking 15k-20k steps a day so I've been super active since May 27th and I'm nervous to even take a break from working out. Am I paranoid and need to relax? I pretty much never go over and nutritional goals other than sugar(all fruit). So i am not sure if I can do anything differently or just have patients.

malibu927

How long has it been since you lost weight?

B4Rachael

tonchiiiiii

I pretty much go to bed at 148 and wake up at 144. Been like this for almost a month. I've gotten to the point of being excited to see 144.0 vs 144.8 in the morning. Can't seem to break 144 and my goal is 140

tonchiiiiii

Even at the calorie intake I'm at I should be losing weight sitting on my butt..

RoxieDawn

OP, follow the flow chart. What you are experiencing is gonna be one of the points described in the chart above.

dykask

tonchiiiiii wrote: »

I pretty much go to bed at 148 and wake up at 144. Been like this for almost a month. I've gotten to the point of being excited to see 144.0 vs 144.8 in the morning. Can't seem to break 144 and my goal is 140

That is really a big variation! You must sweat or pee a lot at night.

Anyway I was stuck for two years, I was gaining muscle and slowly gaining that weight, about 1 kg per year. My measurements were slowly improving too but my weigh was went from 92kg to 94kg over the those two years. Then I decided to just cut deserts, partly because I couldn't get the one I liked the best, so why not? The results were shocking, my hunger went way down and I was able to stop snacking. I further cut back on added sugar and it got better. I'm now around 86kg and over the last 5 months my waistline is down 10 cm.

I'm actually eating just as much now as I was eating last year, but mostly just 3 or sometimes just 2 meals a day. For me refined sugar seems to be a key problem. Don't know if that would work for you or not. FWIW, I eat lots of whole fruit and the amount of fruit I eat doesn't seem to make a difference. However a couple days of deserts and I'm back to being hungry all the time.

silverfiend

plateaus happen. You are not a machine. Don't give up, just make sure you are following your eating and exercise plan and keep on keeping on. The weight will start coming off again.

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.

tonchiiiiii

I appreciate all the suggestions guys and gals. And I do pee a ton at night.

Ps, my diet doesn't really require a scale(other than the frozen blueberries and strawberries I put in shakes) and I use a heart rate monitor/gps garmin to track my exercise.

malibu927

tonchiiiiii wrote: »

I appreciate all the suggestions guys and gals. And I do pee a ton at night.

Ps, my diet doesn't really require a scale(other than the frozen blueberries and strawberries I put in shakes) and I use a heart rate monitor/gps garmin to track my exercise.

If you aren't losing, then you're eating more than you think. A food scale will be a great tool for you to see just how much you're consuming compared to what you believe a serving is.

happyfeetrebel1

Also, you probably are overestimating your calorie burned. I understand that you are using a Garmin to estimate your calorie burn, but it is probably over estimating by at least 50%. Heart rate monitors are only accurate at estimating the calorie burn for steady state cardio, so if you're doing anything else it will not be accurate anyway. You are just not burning 1200 calories in an average work out.

If you are eating those calories back that could contribute to your plateau.

Christine_72

happyfeetrebel1 wrote: »

Also, you probably are overestimating your calorie burned. I understand that you are using a Garmin to estimate your calorie burn, but it is probably over estimating by at least 50%. Heart rate monitors are only accurate at estimating the calorie burn for steady state cardio, so if you're doing anything else it will not be accurate anyway. You are just not burning 1200 calories in an average work out.

If you are eating those calories back that could contribute to your plateau.

Yep, I only eat a maximum of 50% of my exercise calories back, i have a fitbit which likes to make me feel good and overestimate my burns.

tonchiiiiii

MFP goal is 1500. Even when I "burn" 1200 calories, I still eat only 1800. My garmin is usually telling me I'm under 1000 calories and MFP usually about 500-700 under target. I lost the 35lbs in just shy of 3 months and it has since stopped.

Christine_72

tonchiiiiii wrote: »

MFP goal is 1500. Even when I "burn" 1200 calories, I still eat only 1800. My garmin is usually telling me I'm under 1000 calories and MFP usually about 500-700 under target. I lost the 35lbs in just shy of 3 months and it has since stopped.

Well there goes my theory

tonchiiiiii

I might just have to invest in a tape measure and not bank on the scale. 140 might just not be attainable considering the cardio+p90

cgvet37

http://www.builtlean.com/2012/05/22/weight-loss-plateau/