plateau and Still no weight loss

SummerTwentyOne

Hi guys,

I’m really looking for advice on diet and exercise help. I’m 5ft 9. My start weight was 275lbs and I managed to get down to 180lbs. Now since July I’ve hit plateau and no matter how hard I try I can never get past the 180 mark.

My original diet was 1500 and for the past 2 weeks I’ve decreased it to 1200. I’ve also been doing different strength workouts and a cardio minimum of a 5k powerwalk 5 days a week. Yet no fat loss and the scale isn’t budging!

I feel great and a lot more cleansed but nothing is physically showing

Am I doing something wrong? I try to drink 3000ml of water a day, 1200 calories, 300-400 calories burned in the morning. Sometimes I eat that back other days I don’t. I also eat clean from home protein shakes for my workout to eating vegetables and whole foods.

Any help on what I’m doing wrong would be amazing! TIA xx

Hannahwalksfar

Are you weighing all your foods? Are you measuring your body? If you are weight training it can mask weightloss through scale fluctuations

ceiswyn

You're pretty close to normal weight now, so you shouldn't be expecting to lose weight as quickly as you did at first.

You should definitely be eating more than 1200 calories, IF you're actually eating that low. Most people who suffer from plateau issues are eating more than they think. Are you weighing all solids, including fruit and veg, measuring all liquids, including drinks and oils, and using good DB entries? If you open your diary, there are a number of common logging issues that people might be able to help with.

kshama2001

How new are the workouts?

I gained 7 pounds of temporary water weight when I started lifting weights again. Took a few weeks to come off.

If not new, there are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

LyndaBSS

I agree that 1200 is too low for you. When I first started mfp, I was at 1200 and had no luck. I bumped it up to 1340 and the weight flew off.

Try raising it again. You've done great so far. Congrats.

SummerTwentyOne

Thanks guys. I’m the queen of secret snacking and without a doubt used to eat over my goal, however if I snack I still log in what I’ve eaten. I do weight my food and liquids and the weights I’ve been doing since mid August so roughly about 3 weeks. I ideally wanted to get into my healthy BMI which is about 14lbs away. My ultimate goal is to reach 150lbs.

emmamcgarity

Have you taken any planned diet breaks to eat at maintenance for a couple of weeks? It might be time

SummerTwentyOne

Oooh, I don’t think I’ve done that. I might give that a try as I’ve never taken a “break” from it. However I was hoping to get this weight shifted by November’s vacation.

PWHF

emmamcgarity wrote: »

Have you taken any planned diet breaks to eat at maintenance for a couple of weeks? It might be time

This - I've been cutting since January, dropped about 12 KG then it all plateaud for me. taking breaks is the key and I've been advised to go on a bulk for 6 months before cutting again. Trying to nuke that last bit with a bigger calorie drop and cardio has not made any difference. So I'm going to increase muscle/strength mass before dieting again then attack the last bit of fat (just the bit covering lower abs now) after winter.

emmamcgarity

SummerTwentyOne wrote: »

Oooh, I don’t think I’ve done that. I might give that a try as I’ve never taken a “break” from it. However I was hoping to get this weight shifted by November’s vacation.

It sounds like you are due a break. I hope you’ll revisit this thread and let us know how a break goes for you. Set your calories to maintenance and continue to track. I’d venture to guess that when you go back to eating at a deficit again in a couple weeks you will have renewed focus, and your body will have enjoyed a couple of weeks without the stress of eating at a deficit.

I can understand wanting to have lost the weight before your vacation, but practicing your maintenance calories now may also give you some useful experience to help you prevent gaining while on vacation.

zebasschick

even if you're weighing your food, there's one more thing to check. many - in my case, most - of the foods i eat that are listed in the database have inaccurate info and that includes the official ones.

a few years ago, one guy on MFP couldn't lose weight because he ate potato salad every day, but the entry he chose was 450 calories low for the amount he ate. his info for his bread and a couple other things was also lower - he was eating at least 550 calories per day more than he thought while weighing and logging everything.

the first thing i do when adding a food for the first time is go into the nutritional info and check the label info online or from my actual label, i check everything, but at least you want to check serving size in grams, not by volume, and calories. when you find an accurate listing, use that, and then you'll have the accurate version to use every time you log it.