Plateau?

kate21797

So I haven't lost weight in over 5 weeks, all the while counting calories very religiously. I exercise about 5 days a week for 30 minutes, and I'm set t eat 1200 calories a day. I guess this is the plateau. How did you get over the plateau? If I up my caloric intake, won't I just gain more weight? I'm really scared to eat more for fear of gaining back what I've worked so hard to lose.

TavistockToad

Do you eat back exercise cals?

kate21797

Always yeah. So if I eat 1500 calories a day, it's because I exercised off 300.

AlissaFL

Good question! I hit a Plateau and scoured the message boards for an answer. I kept doing what I was doing and the plateau continued. I finally upped my calories and the plateau continued. I stopped working out as much or as often as I had (there was a death in the family that first included a illness and hospital stay, so I wasn't able to make my workouts) and I gained weight. I am now right back where I started a year ago. If you find the answer that works for you, please share because I never found anything that worked.

YaGigi

Maybe you should eat half of your calories? Or not eat at all of those calories?

I'm no pro, just suggesting, I'm also in plateau now

TavistockToad

Always yeah. So if I eat 1500 calories a day, it's because I exercised off 300.

Your ticker says you have 4lbs to lose, so change your cals to lose 1/2lb per week. And maybe change your exercise routine, try something new?

kate21797

But see I thought I needed 1200 calories a day. Going lower than 1200 net a day seems rather dangerous to me. If I go up to 1350 or 1400 for a few weeks, and then drop back to 1200, will I lose weight?

kconforti

Sometimes you need to wake up your metabolism by changing our calorie intake for a day. Spike it one day and then go back to 1200 the next. OR as previously said, change your workout routine. That will get it going again as well. Do you lift heavy weights, or mostly cardio? Lifting heavy will also boost your metabolism.

I also don't add my burned off calories back on to the 1200. I stick as close to the 1200 as I possibly can regardless of the calories I have burned.

I used to plateau as well but have had success doing these things.

Good luck!!

lucasmoten

I experienced something similar when I upped my cardio workouts.

Check that the calories you 'gain' from your exercises are accurate. MFP calculators aren't based upon net calorie burns, so if you exercise quite a bit, and take MFPs numbers, you'll be logging more calorie burn then reality.

My solution was to look for alternate calculators online, compare and average results. Eventually, I ended up settling on the following formulas for walking and running..

Running Gross Calorie Burn = .75 * your body weight in pounds * miles
Running Net Calorie Burn = .63 * your body weight in pounds * miles
Walking Gross Calorie Burn = .53 * your body weight in pounds * miles
Walking Net Calorie Burn = .30 * your body weight in pounds * miles

For example, lets say your weight is 128 pounds, and you run 5.5 mph hour (10:54 pace) for 40 minutes, or 3.67 miles. A rough estimate of gross calorie burn would be .75 * 128 * 3.67 or 352 calories. MFP may be pretty close to this number. However, what you really want is the net calories because MFP is already taking into consideration your normal burn had you not exercised at all. So you would want to edit the calories MFP calculates, putting in the result of .63 * 128 * 3.67 or 296. As you can see, 352 vs 296 isn't much, but adds up over time and of course with longer workouts or higher weight. The disparity is even more pronounced for activities of lesser intensity like walking. An hour of walking every day at a 3.5 mph pace would yield a difference of 722 calories over the course of a week, or nearly a pound in a months time (about 11/year)

Another consideration is look at what you are eating vs water intake. I can't see your diary, but one thing to watch is your sodium levels assuming you are accurately capturing your food. If sodium is high, you need more water to compensate or else your body will hold onto water. If this is the case though, you can find out rather quickly. If you consume vast amounts of water (10-16 glasses a day for a few days) you'll shed the excess rapidly.

MoreBean13

But see I thought I needed 1200 calories a day. Going lower than 1200 net a day seems rather dangerous to me. If I go up to 1350 or 1400 for a few weeks, and then drop back to 1200, will I lose weight?

This would be my recommendation, don't go lower. Your plateau is pretty standard with 1200 diets, and it's one of the reasons not to do it.....I would suggest figuring out your BMR and TDEE and picking a calorie limit between the two, but in the meantime going to 1300 this week and 1400 next week is a good start.