Looking for advice on my current plateau after 12 months of weight loss! Help is much appreciated.

I3umble

Hi all,

First of all, happy new year! You are all doing such a wonderful job and your continued success and willingness to push forward in such a trying and stressful year is inspirational. Keep it up, you will hit your goals.

I am struggling a little bit at the moment and any help or advice that anyone can offer me will be greatly appreciated and will surely go a ways to getting me back on track.

Beginning my weight loss/fitness journey in December 2019, I am 12-13 months in. I am happy with my progress, if a little frustrated. I am going to outline some information below so it is easier to quickly skim through:

• Starting Weight (December 2019): 275lbs
• Current Weight (January 2021): 202 - 205lbs
• Height: 5'8
• Sex: Male
• Weigh in: Every morning (It's not obsessive, I use it because I like following stats on my FitBit)

I have calculated my TDEE, here they are below:

• BMR - 1,874 Calories
• Sedentary - 2,249 Calories
• Light Exercise - 2,577 Calories
• Moderate Exercise - 2,905 Calories
• FitBit Calories Burned (average burned per day according to my FitBit): 2,800 - 3,000 calories

I have been weighing in at 202 - 205lbs from November 11th 2020. No matter what I do, this number has never gone below 202 or above 205; I am constantly hovering in this range. I have been tracking my food with MyFitnessPal for some time now and I am actually on a 330+ day streak, I weigh all of my food using kitchen scales and I scan the correct food in to the app. When I say I track everything, I mean I track everything. If I add 1 spoonful of almond milk to a coffee, it is added to my food diary. So, I know exactly what I am eating and how much.

I have, essentially, completely cut sugar out of my diet; sugar free almond milk, no confectionary, sugar-free muesli/porridge, etc. The sugar I get is from small amounts of fruit or tiny amounts in food. I usually stay under 28grams of sugar per day. I also stay under 150grams of carbs, I'd say probably 75% of the time.

I do not eat takeaway food. No fast food. No read meat. No soda. My diet consists of a lot of fish, chicken, vegetables, fruit, eggs, zero-sugar Greek yoghurt, coffee, green tea, almond milk, muesli, porridge and I drink anywhere from 2.5 - 5L of water per day.

On MyFitnessPal my caloric intake has been around 1,100 - 1,300 calories for months. I was actually completely fine eating this amount, I wasn't starving myself (or it didn't feel like it!), I wasn't intentionally sticking to this number. I was eating for nutrition and when I was hungry. If I hit 1,800 one day, that's fine. Hell, I had around 4,500 calories at new year - 1,700 in food and the rest in beer!

As for exercise, in Spring/Summer/Autumn I was walking 10,000 - 20,000 steps per day. We are now in Winter, my entire area has been encased in ice for weeks so I am only averaging 3,000 - 5,000 steps per day, as I am also on lockdown. I have incorporated some extremely minor weight exercises in to my routine now, every 2 days. I was quite weak as I was ill for a long time so I have started with a 12kg Kettlebell and 50kg weights. I will up this when my body becomes more fit.

From January 1st I have made a conscious effort to eat more - I have seen some suggestions that eating too little can have a negative effect. I have been trying to force myself to eat 1,500 - 1,900 calories per day for 7 days before dropping again. (Is this something I should be doing? Am I in the right ballpark?)

So, In conclusion I have been eating well below my TDEE and this was working for me, I didn't feel hungry, weak, etc. I have done the same thing for months and my weight loss has completely stopped. My measurements have stayed the exact same for months, so it doesn't seem to be a case of losing inches but not weight.

Clearly I am doing something wrong here, somewhere. I have no idea. I am looking for advice so I can learn, grow and correct any mistakes I am making to get me back on track. It could just be a case of a plateau that will go away if I keep on keeping on, but I am not sure if that is actually a thing or not?

I know that plateau's happen, but I will be in the 2 month range of staying at the exact same weight and measurements soon. My food diary should be open, so if you want to check it out, feel free.

Sorry for the long post, I tried to include as much information as possible in here. All help is appreciated.

callsitlikeiseeit

I3umble

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

As helpful as this chart is, I have already ran through it. I am constantly in contact with my GP regarding my health and have been for the last 2 years.

I am just looking for advice from people who have gone through something similar, as I feel like I have tried everything. But I am clearly doing something wrong somewhere.

ninerbuff

So if you hadn't been doing resistance training the majority of the time, a good amount of that weight loss includes MUSCLE MASS loss. Scales don't really tell you if weight loss was muscle or fat. The more muscle you lose, the lower your BMR goes.
So I would institute a programmed resistance training format to your week. Your weight may intitally go up, but realize that if you force muscle to start working, your metabolic rate will rise and will demand more use of calories. From my experience, just about every client I had that did cardio only and progress halted, responded well when I put them on a resistance training program. And they looked better as well.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

determined_M_91

I've read it here in the forums that when experiencing plateau one should eat at maintenance for 10 days-2 weeks and then go back to calories restrictions. I've never experienced a plateau myself as I haven't stuck so long with the weight loss journey unfortunately but just an idea. Maybe switching your diet so drastically for a short period of time will shock your body and when you go back to fewer calories you'll start losing again?

I3umble

determined_M_91 wrote: »

I've read it here in the forums that when experiencing plateau one should eat at maintenance for 10 days-2 weeks and then go back to calories restrictions. I've never experienced a plateau myself as I haven't stuck so long with the weight loss journey unfortunately but just an idea. Maybe switching your diet so drastically for a short period of time will shock your body and when you go back to fewer calories you'll start losing again?

Hi, thanks for taking the time to respond and sorry for taking a while to reply.

I have actually done exactly that! I was eating at 1,100-1,300 calories for roughly 11-12 months and I was losing consistently. I lost between 70-75lbs and it has came to a halt. I haven't lost anything since November. I was skipping lunch every day.

So, I made an effort at the turn of the year to eat more. I upped to 1,500 calories and I'm now at 2,000 - 2,100 calories. That's an increase of up to 1,000 calories per day and I haven't gained anymore weight, 1,100 or 2,100, my body won't budge outside of that small range I posted in the original post.

It also says to me, I must've been eating too little. If I'm not gaining weight at 2,100 and I wasn't losing at 1,100 and my TDEE always suggested I was eating too little, then yeah. I just didn't think eating too little would cause this? I don't understand. If I am burning more energy than I am intaking, especially for a long period of time, while eating healthy and tracking everything, I've no idea why my body won't relinquish any weight whatsoever.

I can't really lower back down to 1,100 - 1,300 either, for a 28 year old male, 5'8 and 203-205 lbs, who is still 50+lbs overweight, it's too little food for my body, I assume.

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it. If anyone else has any further comments it would be greatly appreciated. Again, I'm not saying I'm perfect or not at fault - I must be doing something wrong somewhere.

I3umble

ninerbuff wrote: »

So if you hadn't been doing resistance training the majority of the time, a good amount of that weight loss includes MUSCLE MASS loss. Scales don't really tell you if weight loss was muscle or fat. The more muscle you lose, the lower your BMR goes.
So I would institute a programmed resistance training format to your week. Your weight may intitally go up, but realize that if you force muscle to start working, your metabolic rate will rise and will demand more use of calories. From my experience, just about every client I had that did cardio only and progress halted, responded well when I put them on a resistance training program. And they looked better as well.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thank you!

For someone who hasn't been doing any weight or resistance training, and due to a previous illness I wasn't moving around a lot, where is a good place to start?

I have resistance bands, a 16kg kettle bell and dumbbells up to 8kg.

I've always struggled with this - how long each day should I start? I was doing 10-15 minutes a day and was eventually going to up it after 1-2 weeks, but I'm not sure if 10-15 minutes even achieves anything. Also unsure as to what exercises to do.

Any help here would be fantastic, thank you.

I3umble

Any further help or advice on this would be appreciated.

I upped my calories for 2-3 weeks and was eating between 1,500 - 2,100 calories per day up from my previous of 1,100 - 1,300. I even went fully overboard, intentionally, for one day. I bought fast food - which I haven't done for months (i get no cravings for it at all) and had around 3,500 calories one day, I believe.

Fast forward a few days and my weight drops back down to 203lbs, where I stay for a few days and today I jump back to 204.2lbs and I have no idea why. My body is utterly stuck in this 202 - 205lbs weight range for 3 months and I am at a complete loss as to what else I can possibly do.

For my height, I am still looking to lose another 50-55lbs, it's not like I am 5-10lbs off my goal here. I have a lot of weight left to lose and I am still classed as Obese in the BMI range. Eating 1,100 calories or 2,100 calories should still result in a loss for me. Especially as I am intentionally going out of my way to hit 6,000 - 15,000 steps per day.

I drink nothing but water and hit a minimum of 2.5L per day.

I barely eat any sugar, I have dropped my carbs and vastly upped my protein through eggs and chicken. I don't even drink full dairy milk, I drink either coconut or almond milk - mostly unsweetened.

janejellyroll

I would define a plateau of six weeks or more without weight loss when you're on plan. What you're experiencing is frustrating, but it sounds like your calories haven't been consistent during this period. You took a "diet break" but your calories were still really low for someone who burning an estimated 2,800-3,000 a day. By consuming under 1,500 for an extended period, you put your body under extreme stress. It also sounds like your diet is pretty low fat and low carbohydrate, both of those can be stressful for active people. While weight loss happens in a calorie deficit, there's also some good evidence that putting your body through unnecessary stress can complicate this process. The goal should really be to have a deficit that is moderate enough to avoid unnecessary stress.

What you're drinking, the sugar, avoiding dairy and red meat, not having fast food -- these are irrelevant other than how they impact your overall calorie goal.

If I was in your situation, my goal would be to give my body a break from what reads like a pretty stressful year. I would make sure I was getting enough fat (again, not sure your diet is low fat, but it reads like it might be). I would make sure that I was consuming enough food to support my current level of activity. From an evolutionary POV, what you've done for the past year is to signal to your body that times are tough and you are in a dangerous situation. Your body is trying to keep you going. When you think about it, there's really no good situation in nature where we are consuming much less than we need. Our weight management decisions have to take that into account. We can't run our bodies for free and "starvation mode" is a common diet myth, but it is true that the stress of a large calorie deficit over an extended period of time can cause your body to slow down some metabolic processes. It causes muscle loss, especially if you're active. It causes you to move less throughout the day, which further reduces your calorie burn. I would do a true diet break - not 1,500. I would accept that my weight might bounce up a little during this period. My goal would be to eat at a level to maintain for about six weeks or so and then resume dieting with the goal of a more moderate deficit.

These are just my thoughts: whatever you decide to do, I know this must be really frustrating and I wish you the best.

L1zardQueen

Do you use a food scale? Look at the chart again.

ninerbuff

I3umble wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

So if you hadn't been doing resistance training the majority of the time, a good amount of that weight loss includes MUSCLE MASS loss. Scales don't really tell you if weight loss was muscle or fat. The more muscle you lose, the lower your BMR goes.
So I would institute a programmed resistance training format to your week. Your weight may intitally go up, but realize that if you force muscle to start working, your metabolic rate will rise and will demand more use of calories. From my experience, just about every client I had that did cardio only and progress halted, responded well when I put them on a resistance training program. And they looked better as well.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thank you!

For someone who hasn't been doing any weight or resistance training, and due to a previous illness I wasn't moving around a lot, where is a good place to start?

I have resistance bands, a 16kg kettle bell and dumbbells up to 8kg.

I've always struggled with this - how long each day should I start? I was doing 10-15 minutes a day and was eventually going to up it after 1-2 weeks, but I'm not sure if 10-15 minutes even achieves anything. Also unsure as to what exercises to do.

Any help here would be fantastic, thank you.

Start small like you've been doing and increase the time to up to at least 30 minutes. Start off 3 times a week with at least one day's rest in between. As you progress, then you can add resistance and/or sets.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I3umble

L1zardQueen wrote: »

Do you use a food scale? Look at the chart again.

Yes.

I3umble

ninerbuff wrote: »

I3umble wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

So if you hadn't been doing resistance training the majority of the time, a good amount of that weight loss includes MUSCLE MASS loss. Scales don't really tell you if weight loss was muscle or fat. The more muscle you lose, the lower your BMR goes.
So I would institute a programmed resistance training format to your week. Your weight may intitally go up, but realize that if you force muscle to start working, your metabolic rate will rise and will demand more use of calories. From my experience, just about every client I had that did cardio only and progress halted, responded well when I put them on a resistance training program. And they looked better as well.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thank you!

For someone who hasn't been doing any weight or resistance training, and due to a previous illness I wasn't moving around a lot, where is a good place to start?

I have resistance bands, a 16kg kettle bell and dumbbells up to 8kg.

I've always struggled with this - how long each day should I start? I was doing 10-15 minutes a day and was eventually going to up it after 1-2 weeks, but I'm not sure if 10-15 minutes even achieves anything. Also unsure as to what exercises to do.

Any help here would be fantastic, thank you.

Start small like you've been doing and increase the time to up to at least 30 minutes. Start off 3 times a week with at least one day's rest in between. As you progress, then you can add resistance and/or sets.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thank you! ☺️

I3umble

janejellyroll wrote: »

I would define a plateau of six weeks or more without weight loss when you're on plan. What you're experiencing is frustrating, but it sounds like your calories haven't been consistent during this period. You took a "diet break" but your calories were still really low for someone who burning an estimated 2,800-3,000 a day. By consuming under 1,500 for an extended period, you put your body under extreme stress. It also sounds like your diet is pretty low fat and low carbohydrate, both of those can be stressful for active people. While weight loss happens in a calorie deficit, there's also some good evidence that putting your body through unnecessary stress can complicate this process. The goal should really be to have a deficit that is moderate enough to avoid unnecessary stress.

What you're drinking, the sugar, avoiding dairy and red meat, not having fast food -- these are irrelevant other than how they impact your overall calorie goal.

If I was in your situation, my goal would be to give my body a break from what reads like a pretty stressful year. I would make sure I was getting enough fat (again, not sure your diet is low fat, but it reads like it might be). I would make sure that I was consuming enough food to support my current level of activity. From an evolutionary POV, what you've done for the past year is to signal to your body that times are tough and you are in a dangerous situation. Your body is trying to keep you going. When you think about it, there's really no good situation in nature where we are consuming much less than we need. Our weight management decisions have to take that into account. We can't run our bodies for free and "starvation mode" is a common diet myth, but it is true that the stress of a large calorie deficit over an extended period of time can cause your body to slow down some metabolic processes. It causes muscle loss, especially if you're active. It causes you to move less throughout the day, which further reduces your calorie burn. I would do a true diet break - not 1,500. I would accept that my weight might bounce up a little during this period. My goal would be to eat at a level to maintain for about six weeks or so and then resume dieting with the goal of a more moderate deficit.

These are just my thoughts: whatever you decide to do, I know this must be really frustrating and I wish you the best.

Thank you for the time you put in to your post, I appreciate it a lot.

From November - January I was eating roughly the same amount of calories as I had been, that's why I'm questioning the plateau. I've been steadily losing since Jan 2020, I had a short stall of 4 weeks or so in June and then my body started letting go of weight again. Right now, I've now been in that same weight range from November - Jan 22nd. Eating 1,100 or 2,000. Exercising or not exercising. Every time without fail, if I see the aces drop to exactly 203lbs I know for a fact it will go back up.

I am going to try and eat a little more, but honestly, I am struggling to even eat 1,800 and that is 3 meals per day. I feel like I'm forcing myself to eat despite not being hungry.

88olds

My experience. I started at 285 lbs. Over 18 months I lost to about 220. Then I got stuck. And I stayed stuck for years 215-220 lbs. Then like a lot of guys I joined a gym. I started training with weights. It was great. I built my upper body. My wife seemed very pleased with the results. It was fun. But the gym wasn’t great for weight loss.

Then one day my neighbor up and died. Just like that. Here I was with my unfinished weight loss project. I joined Weight Watchers. Despite what they say, when I was in it, WW was basically calorie counting dressed up for copyright protection. It worked. I made goal weight at 184 lbs. That was 2006, I’ve been maintaining ever since. About 175 lbs yesterday.

You’ve done a lot in a little over a year. I think weight loss is a matter of riding trends. To get to goal weight I rode 2 trends. Maintaining I’ve had a couple more. I’ve reinvented my program about 4-5 times. When something is working there’s a tendency to think it will work forever. When it stops working there’s another tendency to double down on what we did before.
That’s what I did and it got me nowhere.

I like to look at stock market news on TV. Not because I have a lot of money, but when I was younger I dreamed of having a lot of money. Now its just a habit. They talk about trends a lot. Sometimes a stock will make a big move and then get stuck. They call this consolidating. Looking at my experience I think of the time I was stuck at around 215 lbs as consolidating. The important thing about that time was I didn’t gain back what I had lost. I was adjusting to the new me. I had gone from couch potato to gym regular. A big change made possible by weight loss. I restarted with a different approach when I was ready. Few things in life track on a straight line. Just how it is.

Maybe a diet break. Personally I think your plan was kind of aggressive. Losing that much and eating that little likely cost you muscle mass. Do some research and consider the fitness aspects of what you’re doing. Also there’s a group on here called Larger Losers. You can find it using the search feature. You might find folks in similar circumstances there.

And this- don’t ever quit. Weight loss is about problem solving and persistence. Keep trying and you’ll get this. Good luck.

I3umble

88olds wrote: »

My experience. I started at 285 lbs. Over 18 months I lost to about 220. Then I got stuck. And I stayed stuck for years 215-220 lbs. Then like a lot of guys I joined a gym. I started training with weights. It was great. I built my upper body. My wife seemed very pleased with the results. It was fun. But the gym wasn’t great for weight loss.

Then one day my neighbor up and died. Just like that. Here I was with my unfinished weight loss project. I joined Weight Watchers. Despite what they say, when I was in it, WW was basically calorie counting dressed up for copyright protection. It worked. I made goal weight at 184 lbs. That was 2006, I’ve been maintaining ever since. About 175 lbs yesterday.

You’ve done a lot in a little over a year. I think weight loss is a matter of riding trends. To get to goal weight I rode 2 trends. Maintaining I’ve had a couple more. I’ve reinvented my program about 4-5 times. When something is working there’s a tendency to think it will work forever. When it stops working there’s another tendency to double down on what we did before.
That’s what I did and it got me nowhere.

I like to look at stock market news on TV. Not because I have a lot of money, but when I was younger I dreamed of having a lot of money. Now its just a habit. They talk about trends a lot. Sometimes a stock will make a big move and then get stuck. They call this consolidating. Looking at my experience I think of the time I was stuck at around 215 lbs as consolidating. The important thing about that time was I didn’t gain back what I had lost. I was adjusting to the new me. I had gone from couch potato to gym regular. A big change made possible by weight loss. I restarted with a different approach when I was ready. Few things in life track on a straight line. Just how it is.

Maybe a diet break. Personally I think your plan was kind of aggressive. Losing that much and eating that little likely cost you muscle mass. Do some research and consider the fitness aspects of what you’re doing. Also there’s a group on here called Larger Losers. You can find it using the search feature. You might find folks in similar circumstances there.

And this- don’t ever quit. Weight loss is about problem solving and persistence. Keep trying and you’ll get this. Good luck.

Thank you. This message was insightful, helpful and hit me on a personal level. This was something I needed today.

After reading the replies on here, I think I have more of a plan now than I previously did. I have been eating 1,500 - 2,000 roughly since the turn of the year and have maintained like I was at 1,100-1,300. Over this weekend I am going to have a diet break; not binge, but I'll enjoy the good food. On Monday I am going to re-incorporate kettle bell workouts and slowly up that. I will continue with the walking, not only is it a health choice, I get enjoyment from listening to music, podcasts and being outside. On Tuesday I have a call with a nurse regarding nutrition, something I haven't done before. I've never had a chat regarding weight loss with anyone before.

I don't feel at risk of falling off because this for me has and always will be a complete lifestyle change. My entire life and relationship with food and nutrition has completely changed.

Thank you.