Been at a plateau for almost 3 months now

sysasue

So I've been trying to lose weight for about a year now. I started in February of 2020 at a starting weight of 271 and have recently weighed in at 199. Problem is, I've been stuck around the 199-202 range for about 3 months now. I don't live a very active lifestyle. I'm in school, so I spend most of my time sitting at a computer. I do work out every day. 30 mins of strength training and another 30 of cardio. I've been at a 1200 calorie limit for about 6 months of my journey. Working out is something I've only been doing for a month now, and before I started that I was stuck in the 202-204 range. Since I started working out, I've managed to drop to a low of 199 but still haven't seen any real change since. Before, I was losing 1-2 lbs/ week. I'm very conscious of what foods I eat, lots of veggies and meats high in protein. I allow myself one cheat meal, within reason, once or twice a week.

I'm not really sure why I'm stuck. I've stayed on track despite the plateau, and I've still seen no change. This isn't the first plateau I've hit in my journey, but this one just isn't budging. I've seen other posts about needing to increase my caloric intake because 1200 is very low, but I'm scared if I do that I'll start gaining again.

Does anyone have any advice?

richardgavel

You're right about 1200 being pretty low. MFP I think doesn't even allow a goal calorie count below it. How sure are you that you are ingesting 1200 and not more (how are you measuring servings)?

wunderkindking

If you are very sure of the calories you are eating - measuring and logging - then I think you may well have to think about reverse dieting up, and accepting some (not a lot)weight gain and a pause on the loss while you do that, in order to be able to go back to loss. This is especially true if you have yo-yo dieted in the past. cutting your calories more from where you are is not the answer.

You also need to talk to someone more knowledgable than me about that.

sysasue

richardgavel wrote: »

You're right about 1200 being pretty low. MFP I think doesn't even allow a goal calorie count below it. How sure are you that you are ingesting 1200 and not more (how are you measuring servings)?

I like to think I'm pretty good at keeping track. Everything gets logged, including water. I use food scales, measuring cups, etc to make sure I'm getting the most accurate measurements of what I eat.

OHFlamingo

How many calories in those once or twice a week cheat meals? Those add up quickly, and may be part of your problem. Good luck!

sysasue

OHFlamingo wrote: »

How many calories in those once or twice a week cheat meals? Those add up quickly, and may be part of your problem. Good luck!

I try to keep my cheats within my daily intake, but if that's not possible I make sure I don't go more than 200-300 over.

concordancia

The new exercise could be causing water retention. Also, you have actually lost about 5 pounds, which isn't nothing.

Sportertje354

wunderkindking wrote: »

If you are very sure of the calories you are eating - measuring and logging - then I think you may well have to think about reverse dieting up, and accepting some (not a lot)weight gain and a pause on the loss while you do that, in order to be able to go back to loss. This is especially true if you have yo-yo dieted in the past. cutting your calories more from where you are is not the answer.

You also need to talk to someone more knowledgable than me about that.

Yeah similar to what I am thinking. You are asking quite a bit of yourself, being too tough on yourself maybe

I would up the calories, more in line with your lifestyle, and also build in a few rest days a week. Excercise 3-4 days instead of 7.

And agree on talking to someone knowledgeable, like a dietician, check if everything is working as it should, and you're not having metabolism issues for example

dragon_girl26

sysasue wrote: »

So I've been trying to lose weight for about a year now. I started in February of 2020 at a starting weight of 271 and have recently weighed in at 199. Problem is, I've been stuck around the 199-202 range for about 3 months now. I don't live a very active lifestyle. I'm in school, so I spend most of my time sitting at a computer. I do work out every day. 30 mins of strength training and another 30 of cardio. I've been at a 1200 calorie limit for about 6 months of my journey. Working out is something I've only been doing for a month now, and before I started that I was stuck in the 202-204 range. ]Since I started working out, I've managed to drop to a low of 199 but still haven't seen any real change since. Before, I was losing 1-2 lbs/ week. I'm very conscious of what foods I eat, lots of veggies and meats high in protein. I allow myself one cheat meal, within reason, once or twice a week.

I'm not really sure why I'm stuck. I've stayed on track despite the plateau, and I've still seen no change. This isn't the first plateau I've hit in my journey, but this one just isn't budging. I've seen other posts about needing to increase my caloric intake because 1200 is very low, but I'm scared if I do that I'll start gaining again.

Does anyone have any advice?

Unless I'm misreading something here, that doesn't sound like a three month plateau to me?? That sounds like a 3-5 lb loss in the past month.

kshama2001

There are logging errors that people commonly make that cause them to think they are eating less than they actually are that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

One thing I want to look at is what entries you are using in your exercise diary. I started off using "Weight training, free weights" and couldn't figure out why everyone always said that weight lifting didn't burn a lot of calories compared to other forms of activity. I finally realized that entry was inflated and switched to "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)" which alas gives me a lot less calories.