Breaking my Personal Plateau

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sfaust2196
sfaust2196 Posts: 30 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi friends! SO, I have lost over 40 pounds and now weigh 134.8 and am 5'10". Now, I know this is a healthy weight but I just want to lose a few more pounds because I still have problem areas (stomach, hips, thighs, arms.)
For the past 3 weeks, I have been between 134.8 and 136.4 pounds, fluctuating slightly daily. Why can't I break this plateau?! I started losing weight 20 months ago and have never seen this before. I have been eating between 1050 and 1350 calories each day, and performing moderate exercise (intense elliptical 6 hours a week and barre class 3 hours a week). I am not sure why this plateau is not breaking! Does anyone have any tips on what I can do? I don't really want to go below 1000 calories a day and don't have time to exercise more. I'm stuck!
BTW, I am eating pretty healthy food.... veggies, apples, quinoa, and protein in the form of beans, fish, or chicken.

Replies

  • sfaust2196
    sfaust2196 Posts: 30 Member
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    oh and I got my body fat measured, it's 17.4% if that helps. I also don't eat back any of my exercise calories. I am overwhelmed by the whole body recomp thing and am really scared it will make me gain weight
  • Zipbsky
    Zipbsky Posts: 99 Member
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    sfaust2196 wrote: »
    oh and I got my body fat measured, it's 17.4% if that helps. I also don't eat back any of my exercise calories. I am overwhelmed by the whole body recomp thing and am really scared it will make me gain weight

    17% is a low body fat. It seems unlikely that your arms, legs and stomach are "problem areas" at this percent body fat. What is the goal weight you are trying to reach? Your low intake as well as your fear of recomp/ maintaining are concerning.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    Recomp is not about gaining weight. It's about gaining muscle mass.... Whilst losing fat, and eating at maintenance . Your weight should remain stable.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    Good news! If you're eating between 1000 and 1300 calories per day and not eating back exercise calories while doing the elliptical six days per week/barre three days per week, then you're not actually eating 1000 to 1300 calories. You don't have to worry about eating below 1000 to lose weight because you're eating more than you think you are.

    Aside from that, doing intense elliptical six days per week isn't going to do anything for your body composition. Like others have said, recomp is what you need. You need to start resistance training if you want to improve your body composition. Sure you could tighten up your logging by getting a food scale and lose weight but what will happen when you lose five pounds and the fat doesn't come off where you want it to? Are you going to keep trying to lose weight until it does? You could go into the underweight category and it still may not happen, especially when you're not doing anything to retain/build muscle.
  • shirinnajdi554
    shirinnajdi554 Posts: 1 Member
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    Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I am also facing a plateau hitting problem but in another form and want to share what I know. In fact I hit a plateau after 5 months and I was going to quit dieting!!! because thought that it is of no use. Until I read this webpage: https://paleoleap.com/weight-loss-plateau/

    I found out that I absolutely have a diet and calorie creep. I added so many different and various new snacks and food to my diet that I could not track them anymore and seems that I underestimate their calories. Especially I underestimated afternoon and after dinner snacks. Now, I will go through my diet more in details to see what happens next. Hopefully I will break my plateau and start to lose weight again.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    I am going to go ahead and echo the others here.
    -If you aren't losing at that cal amount, you are definitely underestimating your intake. You are fairly tall and there is no reason you would not be losing at that amount. You can eat all the clean/healthy food you want, but if you aren't in a deficit you won't lose weight, so definitely weigh all your food.
    -That being said, if you aren't happy with your body composition at your current weight, most likely the problem is lack of muscle base, so even if you lose weight (especially doing mostly cardio as you are currently doing) you will be a smaller version of your current composition now.. which is fine, but it does not sound like you want that
    -17% is really lean and if you were that bodyfat % with your stats most likely you would look pretty defined.. so either the number is wrong or you are seeing fat/problem areas where they do not exist. How did you arrive a that number? Most scales and handheld devices are fairly inaccurate.
    -Adding progressive resistance training (where you progress as time goes on and not just do the same weight every time) will help your body composition. I recommend you stay at maintenance (as it sounds like you are now) where you will be able to gain muscle and lose fat over a longer period of time, patience will be key.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    If you haven't taken a diet break in 20 months, I would highly recommend one. It reads as if you have undereaten for a portion of that time as well.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    sfaust2196 wrote: »
    Hi friends! SO, I have lost over 40 pounds and now weigh 134.8 and am 5'10". Now, I know this is a healthy weight but I just want to lose a few more pounds because I still have problem areas (stomach, hips, thighs, arms.)
    For the past 3 weeks, I have been between 134.8 and 136.4 pounds, fluctuating slightly daily. Why can't I break this plateau?! I started losing weight 20 months ago and have never seen this before. I have been eating between 1050 and 1350 calories each day, and performing moderate exercise (intense elliptical 6 hours a week and barre class 3 hours a week). I am not sure why this plateau is not breaking! Does anyone have any tips on what I can do? I don't really want to go below 1000 calories a day and don't have time to exercise more. I'm stuck!
    BTW, I am eating pretty healthy food.... veggies, apples, quinoa, and protein in the form of beans, fish, or chicken.

    I would not consider this a plateau. Women should not compare weight week to week and rather should compare weight menstrual cycle to menstrual cycle, marking the same day each cycle. In other words, compare Day 1 to Day 1, not Day 1 to Day 21.

    You may very well be eating that few calories. Not sure why anybody would doubt it. It's very possible that you are retaining water due to dieting too extremely.

    Lastly, I would echo trigden1991's suggestion to have a diet break. My guess is that if you upped your calories to maintenance for awhile you'd lose some water weight in the process.
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
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    As others have said, weigh your food - you can put on weight eating a healthy diet if you eat too much of it! And then, having weighed everything and calculated your calories, try eating back some exercise calories (if you have some to spare once you've weighed everything, of course).
    It sounds like your WEIGHT is fine, you just want some bits to be firmer rather than smaller. If you are doing 3 hours barre a week I am not sure why your lower area (thighs etc) would still be a problem as you are doing lot of exercise targeting hips, thighs etc. Maybe add in some resistance/toning classes.
  • sfaust2196
    sfaust2196 Posts: 30 Member
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    Maxematics wrote: »
    Good news! If you're eating between 1000 and 1300 calories per day and not eating back exercise calories while doing the elliptical six days per week/barre three days per week, then you're not actually eating 1000 to 1300 calories. You don't have to worry about eating below 1000 to lose weight because you're eating more than you think you are.

    Aside from that, doing intense elliptical six days per week isn't going to do anything for your body composition. Like others have said, recomp is what you need. You need to start resistance training if you want to improve your body composition. Sure you could tighten up your logging by getting a food scale and lose weight but what will happen when you lose five pounds and the fat doesn't come off where you want it to? Are you going to keep trying to lose weight until it does? You could go into the underweight category and it still may not happen, especially when you're not doing anything to retain/build muscle.

    Thank you so much for all the replies! I want to clarify I know how much I'm eating- I weight everything, don't use oil when cooking anything, and cook EVERY SINGLE MEAL myself. If I didn't make it I don't eat it.

    I will add I have PCOS so a slow metabolism, and just started estrogen therapy so maybe that is causing water weight? Not sure though cause the scale stopped moving 3 days before the med. I'm so frustrated!
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I'm going to question your definition of "problem areas". 135lbs, 5'10", and 17% body fat without much muscle doesn't sound very healthy. Have you talked to your doctor about your desire to lose more weight?
  • sfaust2196
    sfaust2196 Posts: 30 Member
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    My
    BusyRaeNOTBusty wrote: »
    I'm going to question your definition of "problem areas". 135lbs, 5'10", and 17% body fat without much muscle doesn't sound very healthy. Have you talked to your doctor about your desire to lose more weight?
    Doctor told me not to lose more weight. I don't have to necessarily see a smaller number just less bloated and fat!

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