I've hit the wall (BAMM).

angiebrez

Help. I've hit the wall after losing 35 lbs since January 15 of this year. I exercise 3-4 times a week on the Peloton for 45 min, and am on a 1400 calorie diet. It's been working GREAT...except for the past 10 days. NOTHING. No matter what I do, no weight loss. I've hit a plateau. Now what?

Terytha

Sorry, but that's not a plateau. Here's a hard truth for you: weight loss is so slow, and so variable and influenced by so many things, you can't even call it a plateau until you've stalled for 4 to 6 WEEKS.

So what you do now is wait. Keep your food logging super tight, keep up what you're doing, and wait it out.

My last stall was three weeks, and then I suddenly lost around 4 lbs in 2 days. It just be like that sometimes.

guitargirl55

Congrats on the 35 lbs! That is a lot of progress!

I had the same thing happen. Lost 20 lbs, then I lost motivation after a while when the weight was not coming off for a few weeks, and figured where I was at was "good enough." I gained 5 lbs, and restarted again! I have been yo-yo weightlossing around the same weight for a while now, and I have never quite reached my goal. I am about 10 lbs from my final goal now and this time around, I am committed to seeing myself through to my goal weight.

These are the things that I have learned through my struggle that may be helpful for you to consider.

1) How close are you to your goal? The closer to your goal the harder it is to loose. You may have lost enough that 1400 is now your maintenance calorie intake (or very close to it). You may want to reduce your calorie goal or increase your exercise if you want to increase the speed of your weight-loss. For me, I was eating around 1400 and have dropped to 1300.

2) Is it possible that you are not measuring calories accurately? Are you sneaking something here or there that is messing up your count? Weighing things makes a very big difference and is way more accurate than measuring with cups/tablespoons.

3) You will never be "finished" dieting and go back to eating normal. This is my new normal. I will be eating at this calorie level (or only very slightly more) for the rest of my life. For me, this mindset was really hard to adopt, but it really helps ease the frustration of not making progress.

4) The goal is the process. I set my goal now to be eating well and exercising. The scale is not my goal because even if I do everything right, water weight may skew the scale and make it look like I am not making progress. I still track my weight but I am trying not to focus on it. My goal is to meet my calorie and exercise goals.

5) Take pictures and measurements. You can be losing fat and gaining muscle and maintain the same weight. Measurements and pictures are more accurate forms of progress reporting. I track mine at the end of each month.

Good luck! Don't give up. It is really hard, but keep pushing through!