Plateaus

69golfergal

From July 2017 to April 2018 I lost 40 lbs. I've been on a plateau for four months. Still logging, exercising, being disciplined. I'd like to lose another 5-10 but if I stay here I'm OK. I've been having some nerve blocks and ablations and read the cortisone might affect my weight. Maybe I should be glad I didn't gain! I'm almost through with treatments so maybe in a couple months I'll break through. At 5'10" I refuse to eat less than 1200 calories. Health before skinny!

BeckyKalish

Good job not gaining through all that!

My doc told me about the 10% rule to break a plateau. Eat 10% less and exercise 10% more for a week. It breaks the monotony and helps to get you losing again. Going below 1200 isn't bad for short periods of time. Maybe that might help

Millicent3015

You have a great attitude and that's half the battle with plateaus. The weight might start shift to again once you're off the cortisone.

lesbarkhouse

Plateaus are normal and cortisol does effect your metabolism (no I am not an expert and have no sources to quote right now, but it is easy to research). Also do a little digging on set-points to see how your body fights you on weight loss sometimes. Doing things like having a diet break, not crazy binge eating, but not tracking closely and being more intuitive and enjoying a few things you might not be enjoying now. Even shifting the macros around a few days a week but still eating around the same total calories can help break a plateau. For example if you are used to eating 150g Protein, 150g Carbs, 50g Fats every day to meet calories for the day, try changing it 2 days a week to something like 165g Protein, 80g Carbs, and 80g Fat... good luck.

1BlueAurora

Those last 5-10 pounds seem to be the most challenging to lose, at least they were for me. I just decided to accept that and be happy I wasn't actively gaining weight. Finally, I started losing about half a pound a week, which was encouraging. I warn you, don't go below the 1200 calories a day. That is the absolute minimum calorie intake for women on MFP. See how you do after you're off cortisol. I think you'll start seeing the progress you want soon after that.

69golfergal

Thanks for all the encouragement, what a nice e community we have! I'm not quitting, I have over a year of hard work invested and MyFitnessPal makes it so much easier.

ljjohnsonrn62

I'm struggling as well. I've lost 56# in the past 2 years and am stuck. I still have about 30 to go, but, bounce around the same 2 pounds up and down every week. I might try to adjust macros a bit to see if I can break through.

countcurt

At the end of the day, if you want to lose more weight, you’ll have to eat less. Since you’re okay where you’re at and you don’t want to eat less, you may wish to reconsider your goals.

Successful weight management (long term) isn’t about what weight you can attain. It’s about what weight you can sustain.

69golfergal

I've been exercising in the gym an hour a day, four or five times a week to the point where I drip sweat. I've never lost weight with exercise but do it for health and energy. MyFitnessPal and Fitbit adds calories for exercise and I do eat more on those days but not even close to the calories allowed. If I have an extra 500c I might use half that or less. I should have a tee shirt that says Will Exercise for Food! Don't even bother telling me not to use the extra calories, it is my best incentive to work out. Science and math tells me I will eventually lose the rest so I'll trust that. First I want to see what happens about a month after my last cortisone treatment. Thanks for all the comments.

cmriverside

I don't know why you are under-eating, but I hope you'll start being kinder to your body.

To heal from physical illness/inflammation you really should eat at maintenance.

For comparison, I'm 5'7" (in my mid sixties/retired/sedentary) and I eat 2000 per day to maintain. To lose the last 10 pounds from 150 to 140, I ate 1800-1900 calories. So about 1600-1700 PLUS 200-300 exercise calories. (1600-1700 Net.)

You don't have to eat so little. 1200 Net is really really low.

elisa123gal

I think you may have answered your own question...if you are going through some kind of medical treatment ..it makes sense your body has a lot going on and is holding steady. Most. likely your diligence in eating right. and exercise thwarted weight gain. So feel good about that! Also.. consider it practice for maintenance.

I bet when there's not so much going on with your body you will get that last ten off. Great work!

69golfergal

cmriverside, you are a lucky person to have a metabolism that allows you to lose with such a high calorie count. We are not all like you, unfortunately. My temperature runs in the high 96 to low 97 range and I have never lose easily. Once I decided to see if I could lose just by exercising, walking and running on the treadmill for an hour a day, six days a week for eight months without shedding a pound.

My last treatment, a knee nerve ablation that also used a little cortisone, is behind me now for a few months. We'll see if the cortisone was the culprit. Fine tuning my macros is next.

I'm glad you can lose eating 18-1900 calories but this isn't my first rodeo and I really do know my own body.

dwaterman2013

I feel you on this. I've been plateaued for 7 months after 30 lbs weight loss. When I get discouraged, I look at it this way: I'd rather be plateaued at 30 lbs lighter than 1 pound heavier than when I started. It helps me to sustain the effort. I also think more about how good exercise makes me feel every day rather than what my weight actually is, though its still important to get to a healthy weight.
My next moves to try to break the plateau are to food journal for two weeks and get a WEEKLY average of calorie intake. Then, I'm going to try a meal prep and base the calorie count on what that average is. I'll try this for at least two months. Basically, think like a scientist and keep experimenting. Just make sure you let the experiments run long enough to see if it will work.

69golfergal

Just read an amazing, myth busting, article that may be the key to breaking the plateau. Don't be put off that it is written for women just adjust for men. Read the whole, long article and especially watch the little video about two thirds of the way through.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/