Plateau'ed

newmexicandebbie

I seemed to have plateaued for 2 weeks now. Any information that might help me get off of it, would be greatly appreciated. HELP....!!!

NovusDies

Read this:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10155495/just-another-plateau-and-weigh-in-thread

quiksylver296

Get a food scale. Weigh and log everything, no skipping, cheating or forgetting.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

LivingtheLeanDream

2 weeks isn't a plateau.... 4-6 weeks at same weight is.
If you aren't already weighing your food and logging every single thing you eat, now is the time to be vigilant about that.

diannethegeek

Stalls suck, but they can be difficult to troubleshoot without more information. There are a bunch of us around who'd like to help if you want to give some more details and bounce ideas around.

These would be my very generic suggestions without a lot of info, though:

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.

newmexicandebbie

thank you, for the advise. I log every day, weigh in once a week, I do have a scale. I do allow a cheat day on a week end day, maybe that the problem. But will keep focused more.

cheryldumais

Your cheat day may be killing your efforts. It depends on how many calories you eat on that day. To lose one pound per week you need to reduce roughly 3500 calories for the week. If you eat that many calories extra on your cheat day you just erased any reduction you would have seen. When I was actively losing I would eat one "cheat" meal every three weeks or so that brought me up to maintenance calorie level for that day. That is the only way I could get away with a cheat. If you cheat you should still log everything you eat and then you'll know whether that's the problem.

newmexicandebbie

I logged everything I eat everyday cheryldumais. I eat 1200 calories per day.

LivingtheLeanDream

newmexicandebbie wrote: »

I logged everything I eat everyday cheryldumais. I eat 1200 calories per day.

You eat 1200 on your cheat day?

Something's not right because if you were truly eating that low you would be losing.

LivingtheLeanDream

Perhaps weighing yourself more frequently would let you see fluctuations and you'll get a better idea of your trends and see if it's in the right direction.

diannethegeek

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

newmexicandebbie wrote: »

I logged everything I eat everyday cheryldumais. I eat 1200 calories per day.

You eat 1200 on your cheat day?

Something's not right because if you were truly eating that low you would be losing.

I mean, it's only been two weeks since they stopped seeing a loss on the scale. It's entirely possible the OP is losing but it's being masked by water weight or other fluctuations. Two weeks, imo, isn't enough time to make a judgement one way or the other.

LivingtheLeanDream

I forgot it was only two weeks @diannethegeek ...I read too many posts!

diannethegeek

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

I forgot it was only two weeks @diannethegeek ...I read too many posts!

They all start to merge together after a while, don't they? :drinker:

LivingtheLeanDream

diannethegeek wrote: »

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

I forgot it was only two weeks @diannethegeek ...I read too many posts!

They all start to merge together after a while, don't they? :drinker:

yep

cheryldumais

newmexicandebbie wrote: »

I logged everything I eat everyday cheryldumais. I eat 1200 calories per day.

If you logged your calories on your cheat day you can see if you wiped out your deficit. If not then you need to be patient it's only a couple of weeks. If you are still in a deficit you will see a drop eventually. Water and waste in our bodies can make the scale fluctuate but the goal here is to reduce excess body fat and it will balance out eventually. Hang in there.