Plateau

JJ384ev
JJ384ev Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been experiencing a plateau for over a month now. I do crossfit/bootcamp style workouts 3x a week and lift 1 day. I put in around 7,000-10,000 steps a day too, including multiple trips up and down flights of stairs. I drink 92oz of water or more a day. I eat around 2000 calories a day, often less though. I am careful about making sure to get complex carbs and healthy fats and lean proteins. Is there anything you guys have found that works to break the plateau? I've done so much reading and research and can't find anything that says I should be doing anything different than I am.

Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,982 Member
    If you're not losing, it's because you're eating at maintenance. Gotta know your energy balance accurately. On day you lift you burn more, but on days you're off you may need to eat less than you are now.

    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
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  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    How long had you been losing before this past month of plateau?

    How fast had you been losing before this past month of plateau, on average per week (over how long)?

    How much have you lost, total, since starting? Have you adjusted your calorie intake since starting, if you've lost tens of pounds already?

    Did you loss taper off gradually, while at about the same calorie intake and activity level (both exercise and daily life movement? Or did it stop abruptly, when you'd been losing pretty well up to that point?

    How long have you been doing all of the boot camp/crossfit, strength exercise, and daily steps? Has any of that changed in the last couple of months?

    Have you changed some aspect of your life like going from work at an office/plant to work-from-home, changed jobs, moved house? From what to what?

    Have your eating patterns changed in some fairly significant way, like going from multiple meals/snacks over the day to some form of intermittent fasting (or vice versa), low carb to balanced macro, or some other shift?

    Niner's right. A true plateau can be eating at maintenance, no matter what some so-called "calorie calculator" says. If eating at maintenance, fat loss stops.

    However, weight isn't just about fat. We have more pounds of water in our body than fat (like we can be 60%+ water!). Digestive contents (which will eventually become waste) also matter, amount to multiple pounds at most times for most of us. Bodies are weird. Changes in these things, water and food waste, can hide fat loss progress on the scale for surprisingly long time periods sometimes.

    If you feel up to answering all my ridiculous questions, that might give us a better hint at the cause, and a better basis for suggesting a solution. Without that, people are going to take shots in the dark: Eat more, eat less, take a diet break, change your exercise, sleep less, sleep more, blah blah blah.

    Yeah, one of those might work. Finding the actual cause and fixing it is IMO better.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    You could make a big mystery out of this and look for something really exotic or unique about youself or your situation. Or you could just accept that you are not logging or did not calculate correctly and adjust by eating less calories.
  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    You could make a big mystery out of this and look for something really exotic or unique about youself or your situation. Or you could just accept that you are not logging or did not calculate correctly and adjust by eating less calories.
    So Snarky!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    amfmmama wrote: »
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    You could make a big mystery out of this and look for something really exotic or unique about youself or your situation. Or you could just accept that you are not logging or did not calculate correctly and adjust by eating less calories.
    So Snarky!

    And if there's a water retention problem, or a "not patient enough" problem, or something like that . . . eating less might even be a poor solution, in the sense of having negative consequences.

    (I'm not talking about anything exotic or unique here, either - those kinds of things are fairly common.)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited April 2022
    JJ384ev wrote: »
    I've been experiencing a plateau for over a month now. I do crossfit/bootcamp style workouts 3x a week and lift 1 day. I put in around 7,000-10,000 steps a day too, including multiple trips up and down flights of stairs. I drink 92oz of water or more a day. I eat around 2000 calories a day, often less though. I am careful about making sure to get complex carbs and healthy fats and lean proteins. Is there anything you guys have found that works to break the plateau? I've done so much reading and research and can't find anything that says I should be doing anything different than I am.

    Are you logging or just "eyeballing" your calories? How much weight have you lost? Have you adjusted your calories according to weight you have lost? The smaller you get, the fewer calories your body requires. I honestly don't know too many woman who lose on 2000 calories unless they are very, very active or taller than average or are very heavy.

    For reference, I'm a 5'10" male and have a similar overall activity level as you (which I would consider to be the higher end of moderate) at the moment and lose about 1 Lb per week on around 2200 calories...so just a couple hundred more than you're consuming. My guess would be that for your stats and activity level, around 2000 calories is your maintenance level...so you would need to either reduce calories or increase activity. Once upon a time I was able to lose 1 Lb per week on 2500 calories...but I was doing a lot of long distance endurance cycling and spending about 8-10 hours per week on my bike on top of lifting and everything else in my daily life...I'm still pretty active, but not nearly as active as I was and thus my calorie target has to reflect that.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    amfmmama wrote: »
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    You could make a big mystery out of this and look for something really exotic or unique about youself or your situation. Or you could just accept that you are not logging or did not calculate correctly and adjust by eating less calories.
    So Snarky!

    Do you think there is an answer other than eat less calories?
  • JJ384ev
    JJ384ev Posts: 4 Member
    @AnnPT77 I appreciate your thoughts. I will dig deeper into these articles. Your comments are not snarky at all. I was just looking for ideas.

    Samsung health is calculating my BMR at 1870 and I was calculating it at 1790, so those numbers aren't far off. With the intense sessions I'm doing in the gym, I assure I'm burning what I'm saying. 400-700 calories per session. It is somewhat of a circuit/HIIT style, so my heart rate is definitely hitting fat burning ranges. I was talking to my trainer about it and he asked how many calories I was eating and wanted to see my tracker. His opinion was that I was eating WAY under what I should be given the energy I'm expending in my workouts. I DO retain water terribly and take a probiotic and "bloat pill" daily because of it. It helps to curb the water retention, but that has always been an issue for me about a week or so out of every month. I can gain up to 7lbs overnight and then drop it all, plus actually weight 2 days later. I am afraid to cut harder than the 1700, because I worried about what the trainer said about hitting that point where my metabolism slows to hold on to fat stores if I burn too many.

    I've read some things about "metabolism confusion", as I have researched the 3 main body compositions and have heard that the one I feel is most likely where I fit has times where this is needed. I have always been very curvy even when I was at a healthy weight and tended to gain muscle and be stockier, rather than leaner. However, I haven't found enough research to really ground my decision on all of that thought yet.

    I am for sure frustrated because I am absolutely putting in the work and I work HARD. I have my goals and I'm dedicated to them. I have completely changed my eating, cooking, and lifestyle habits.

    Thank you for not judging and actually helping me look for solutions.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    JJ384ev wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 I appreciate your thoughts. I will dig deeper into these articles. Your comments are not snarky at all. I was just looking for ideas.

    Samsung health is calculating my BMR at 1870 and I was calculating it at 1790, so those numbers aren't far off. With the intense sessions I'm doing in the gym, I assure I'm burning what I'm saying. 400-700 calories per session. It is somewhat of a circuit/HIIT style, so my heart rate is definitely hitting fat burning ranges. I was talking to my trainer about it and he asked how many calories I was eating and wanted to see my tracker. His opinion was that I was eating WAY under what I should be given the energy I'm expending in my workouts. I DO retain water terribly and take a probiotic and "bloat pill" daily because of it. It helps to curb the water retention, but that has always been an issue for me about a week or so out of every month. I can gain up to 7lbs overnight and then drop it all, plus actually weight 2 days later. I am afraid to cut harder than the 1700, because I worried about what the trainer said about hitting that point where my metabolism slows to hold on to fat stores if I burn too many.
    IMO, "metabolism slows down" is an unhelpful overgeneralization.

    IMU, what can happen is more like a subtle fatigue that bleeds calorie burn out of daily life and/or exercise intensity. In a context where even fidgeting can account for a couple of hundred calories daily, this slowdown can be almost unnoticed. (I don't know about you, but I'm pretty unaware of how much I fidget!) On top of that, active hobbies can be a little less interesting, maybe body temp drops a fraction of a degree (maybe we feel cold more often), hair/nails growth maybe slows (hair may break or thin, nails may get more brittle, a few weeks down the road).

    None of that prevents fat loss if calories are low enough . . . but it can mean that fat loss is slower than expected at estimated calorie needs levels, or that weird water weight effects confuse body weight results as measured by the scale.

    This is a good read - the first few posts in that thread, written by the OP - to learn about that:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1

    The description of this as "the body holds onto fat because we're eating too little" doesn't really capture the most useful concepts, IMO. It's potentially more actionable than that.

    I've read some things about "metabolism confusion", as I have researched the 3 main body compositions and have heard that the one I feel is most likely where I fit has times where this is needed. I have always been very curvy even when I was at a healthy weight and tended to gain muscle and be stockier, rather than leaner. However, I haven't found enough research to really ground my decision on all of that thought yet.
    I don't think that ectomorph/endomorph/mesomorph concept has practical utility.

    The scientific basis is very weak. This next truly is a bit snarky, but: I used to be an endomorph (for decades), working out hard most days but staying fat; now I'm a mesomorph. What happened? I ate a little less, for quite a long time.

    Somatotypes, as a guide to how to diet or work out, have been largely debunked. Still lots of people using them to market programs, make it seem like this stuff is too complicated for us regular people to figure out on our own. I'm a skeptic.

    Ditto for "body confusion" or "metabolic confusion". Those ideas sell a lot of diet and exercise programs. What's the scientific basis? I haven't seen it. For sure, my coaching education (rowing coaching education, not "fitness coaching") didn't support the idea that any kind of confusion is part of systematically developing fitness. Periodization of training? Sure. But that's systematic, not arbitrary variation in stimulii.

    I don't think metabolisms benefit from being confused, either. I think actual metabolism benefits from good nutrition, appropriate calories, and well-planned exercise programs. But I'm an admitted curmudgeon.
    I am for sure frustrated because I am absolutely putting in the work and I work HARD. I have my goals and I'm dedicated to them. I have completely changed my eating, cooking, and lifestyle habits.

    Thank you for not judging and actually helping me look for solutions.

    I think you can get there, truly.
  • WatchMan76
    WatchMan76 Posts: 4 Member
    I've been experiencing a plateau for over a month now. I do crossfit/bootcamp style workouts 3x a week and lift 1 day. I put in around 7,000-10,000 steps a day too, including multiple trips up and down flights of stairs. I drink 92oz of water or more a day. I eat around 2000 calories a day, often less though. I am careful about making sure to get complex carbs and healthy fats and lean proteins. Is there anything you guys have found that works to break the plateau? I've done so much reading and research and can't find anything that says I should be doing anything different than I am.

    Good Morning!

    Check/research Intermittent Fasting or a straight out 24 - 72 hour fast.... Helped me break a plateau.

    :-)

  • keemy911
    keemy911 Posts: 7 Member
    They say fasting helps
  • perryc05
    perryc05 Posts: 226 Member
    edited April 2022
    Don't rule out muscle development from the exercise playing a role in your weight staying static. Also try another metric like measuring your waist regularly. Weight itself is only part of the picture. Do you think you are looking and feeling better? Are old clothes feeling baggy?

    https://www.healthyfood.com/ask-the-experts/difference-between-fat-and-muscle/?utm_source=Healthy+Life+Media+enewsletters&utm_campaign=06c7b5b602-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_6_18_2020_11_40_HEALTHYFOOD_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ad9190b03e-06c7b5b602-203911064&mc_cid=06c7b5b602&mc_eid=86f122a3f1
  • JJ384ev
    JJ384ev Posts: 4 Member
    @perryc05 great point. I do measure regularly, 2x per month. About 2 weeks into this plateau I dropped inches in my waist, hips and thighs, but not since. This week it appears I have lost the extra few pounds I put on overnight when the plateau started. So that could very well be the "culprit" since I do so much strength training and lifting. I haven't dropped sizes, but I know I'm stronger for sure.

    I decided to change things up a bit to see if anything changes. I recalculated my bmr and my TDEE earlier this week and made some adjustments manually in MFP. I upped my protein and carbs and moved to 2200 calories on workout days and cut on non workout days eating 1900 calories and lower carb. My TDEE puts me at well over 600 calories more than that to maintain. So, maybe that will help as well 🤷‍♀️
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    perryc05 wrote: »
    Don't rule out muscle development from the exercise playing a role in your weight staying static. Also try another metric like measuring your waist regularly. Weight itself is only part of the picture. Do you think you are looking and feeling better? Are old clothes feeling baggy?

    https://www.healthyfood.com/ask-the-experts/difference-between-fat-and-muscle/?utm_source=Healthy+Life+Media+enewsletters&utm_campaign=06c7b5b602-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_6_18_2020_11_40_HEALTHYFOOD_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ad9190b03e-06c7b5b602-203911064&mc_cid=06c7b5b602&mc_eid=86f122a3f1

    The linked article doesn't talk about timelines. Yes, someone training well but not losing weight can be losing fat and gaining muscle . . . but we'd be talking about a period of many weeks to months, not a few short weeks, in someone who'd previously been losing fat (and weight) at a decent rate. From her reply, I think OP knows this.

    I wish it were otherwise, but sadly, muscle gain is pretty slow, even under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions include a calorie surplus, in addition to good nutrition, relative youth, a good progressive strength training program, being relatively new to strength training, and more. For women in favorable conditions, gaining a pound of muscle in a month would be a really good result (for men, twice that might be possible).

    Strength training is a great thing in varied ways. Strength increases faster at first, but primarily from neuromuscular adaptation, better recruiting and using the muscle fibers we already have. There can even be appearance improvements from various factors, before muscle mass increases, such as looking more firm or defined. Actual muscle mass gain comes along more gradually, over many weeks to months.

    Multipound weight changes within a short number of weeks, for someone who's been losing weight (fat), are not going to be in any major part muscle mass increase. Water retention for muscle repair? Could be.

    I wish muscle mass gain were quicker, easier. It's worth pursuing.

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