Plateau Frustrations

Sabreekoonce

I use to weigh 210 pounds at my largest and my goal was originally 120 but due to being stuck between 135-140 for the past 6 months I am starting to think I will never get any lower. I eat below my burned calories, I average 10-12k steps a day, I drink plenty of water, and my diet is primarily produce and healthy fats. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong and it is really starting to bring me down.

I mainly just want to see improvement in my lower abdomen (waist is 27in whereas lower abdomen is 36in) and my hips (40in) but nothing seems to be happening. Should I be concerned?

RAinWA

Congrats on your success, that is awesome!

When I got very close to my goal I really had to be precise with my logging - weighing all solids and measuring all liquids. When you have more to lose you can more easily get away with imprecise food measurements because you have more wiggle room in your calories.

You don't appear to be weighing your food, I would start with tightening up your logging.

xxzenabxx

Are you eating enough protein and engaging in any resistance training?

lorrpb

From a quick look at your diary it looks like you rarely log and when you do you are not weighing your food. Mostly likely you are eating more than you think you are. i encourage you to read the sticky posts on this site and review the many other threads on this site about plateaus and logging and weighing food. This will give you lots of useful information you can apply.

LiftHeavyThings27105

This might be a really good time to simply take a break! From 'diet' and, if you are doing any training, from training.

It will likely do you a world of good, both physically and mentally. It seems like you have been hard at this for a good while! And, much much respect for the results that you have achieved up to this point.

Now, a break usually means eating at maintenance. Maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less (I am more concerned, personally, with the weekly totals)......so don't take this break as "I have free days so I can eat the house and the kitchen sink and all of the dishes in the kitchen sink"!

Have you taken a break at all in the last six months?

an0nemus

I'm going to echo some other posters, when I plateau its because I'm getting lazy, either not moving as much as I should or with weighing/measuring my food.

I started dieting back in mid May, and I've dropped 55 lbs (out of the 80.....) that I want to lose, and I've only had 2 weeks where I haven't lost any weight, and to be honest with myself it was because I wasn't measuring my food accurately.

LiftHeavyThings27105

Also, and I left this off accidentally.....

You have made a tremendous amount of progress. How do you feel at 135 - 140lbs? How do you think that you look? Is there any need to get down to your original goal of 120lbs? Just playing devil's advocate here.....

And, do you have a set of goals in mind for when you do reach your initial goal? Be that at 120lbs or something different...

I ask that question because lots and lots of people spend so much time and effort on getting to their initial goal that, once they arrive, they are lost and end up loosing all that progress because they just sorta flounder around (read: have not new set of goals). I really would not want to see that happen to you....

DebLaBounty

WOW! Congratulations on losing 70 pounds, that is an amazing accomplishment.

I guess I'd rethink the goal. Is there something magical about the number 120? Another way of looking at "being stuck" is "successfully maintaining." I don't know how tall you are, but it's very possible that you are already within the Healthy Normal Range for weight instead of Overweight or Obese. Which is a fabulous thing, too.

If you are concerned, you'll need to weigh your food on a food scale, log as accurately as possible, set your weekly weight loss goal to 0.5 to 1.0 pounds per week, and see how it goes.

corinasue1143

Wow! You've lost so much! Congratulations on the hard work, and congratulations on keeping it off. Whatever you do in the future, be extremely proud of what you've done so far!

Noreenmarie1234

WOW 70lbs! Congratulations on losing so much and maintaining for 6 months!

Are you using a food scale to measure everything how many calories are you eating a day? If it has been that long you are eating maintenance and should either tighten up logging (if you aren't weighing every single thing already) or lower your calories.