How do I get passed this Plateau!?

Kai_Tea

SW: 323.5
CW: 240.5
NEXT GOAL: 220
ULTIMATE GOAL: 170
I have been on a pretty massive weight loss journey this passed year. Since June of 2022 I have dropped about 85 lbs. I am at my lowest weight since 2016 but I have been hovering for about 3 months now! I'm still following the same eating.. anywhere from 1100-1400 cals a day. My BMR is 1830 so I'm at my 500 cal deficit.. but it's just not moving! Any advice or help on how you got passed your hurdle would be appriciated!

tomcustombuilder

you’re taking in a lot more than 1,100 to 1,400 per day on average, consistently. If you were you’d be dropping weight like crazy. Revisit your weekly counting and tracking.

Kai_Tea

I track every single bite I take. every bite. And I use a food scale...

tomcustombuilder

Kai_Tea wrote: »

I track every single bite I take. every bite. And I use a food scale...

well give it a month.

Rockymountainflyer

Salt and carbs can make you retain water. Maybe cut out salt and eat more protein? Also keep it on the lower range (1100-1300) and walk a mile or two a day, but don't eat those calories back. You can walk a mile just around your house. My doctor told me with my age (55) and height (5'3.5), that I needed to keep my calories at 1100 to lose weight. Do I always? No, it's hard. But I do keep it at 1100-1300 and I walk a lot. Even with this, I am losing very slowly but steady.

herblovinmom

Stay the course. Up your water, up your activity if you can, how's your sleep?, how's your stress?, alot of factors at play but keep doing the right things, stay on plan, I've been plateaud for months before just like you, eventually I got a swoosh and it's moving in the right direction again.. Tighten up were you can and refocus on your goals. You got this. Congrats on your wonderful amazing loss so far!!!🥳 🥳🥳

noodlesno

Firstly - MASSIVE congratulations on how far you have come. What you have done up to this point is super impressive.

Unfortunately, even though you are tracking everything you eat, calorie counting can be +/-10% out because it is not as exact as we in the CICO world would like. This is not because you are not tracking perfectly but because the calories on packets are not pinpoint accurate, also each person's body process energy from food differently.

Bodies are incredibly complicated things and it is never as simple as some have made it. If I was in your position this is what I would do;

1) I would up my fibre intake. I have not seen your diary so I don't know if it is great already but if you are not getting in 5/7 different types of fruit or veg a day I would give that a go. Even if it does not change anything your body will love you for it.

2) Drink more water. Most people should be in the 2/3 litre a day camp. This should help get rid of any water retention.

3) Hit your protein goal which I have set at 35/40% of my total calories

4) Try and get a few thousand more steps in a day.

I get that it must be super frustrating at the moment but please remember how far you have come and that even during this plateau you are still going. That is super impressive.

Let us know how it goes.

Kai_Tea

herblovinmom wrote: »

Stay the course. Up your water, up your activity if you can, how's your sleep?, how's your stress?, alot of factors at play but keep doing the right things, stay on plan, I've been plateaud for months before just like you, eventually I got a swoosh and it's moving in the right direction again.. Tighten up were you can and refocus on your goals. You got this. Congrats on your wonderful amazing loss so far!!!🥳 🥳🥳

My sleep absolutely sucks.. lol. And during my entire stall it has been cookie season for my little scout... which sucksssss. So maybe it was just stress? I just feel like this pause has lasted a really long time..

Kai_Tea

noodlesno wrote: »

Firstly - MASSIVE congratulations on how far you have come. What you have done up to this point is super impressive.

Unfortunately, even though you are tracking everything you eat, calorie counting can be +/-10% out because it is not as exact as we in the CICO world would like. This is not because you are not tracking perfectly but because the calories on packets are not pinpoint accurate, also each person's body process energy from food differently.

Bodies are incredibly complicated things and it is never as simple as some have made it. If I was in your position this is what I would do;

1) I would up my fibre intake. I have not seen your diary so I don't know if it is great already but if you are not getting in 5/7 different types of fruit or veg a day I would give that a go. Even if it does not change anything your body will love you for it.

2) Drink more water. Most people should be in the 2/3 litre a day camp. This should help get rid of any water retention.

3) Hit your protein goal which I have set at 35/40% of my total calories

4) Try and get a few thousand more steps in a day.

I get that it must be super frustrating at the moment but please remember how far you have come and that even during this plateau you are still going. That is super impressive.

Let us know how it goes.

Thank you!! It's hard to see what I've already done when I still have 70 to go to get to goal... I've not thought or considered Fiber. But I do take a cleanser pill 3 times a day.. I am on a program through Metabolic Research center. Which is very structured. I haven't been doing very good with getting all my fruits and veggies and my water hasn't been great(just not drinking much in general).. I'll see if I can adjust in those places. Thank you!

Lietchi

I think that if you've been eating 1100-1400 calories a day since June 2022, you might consider taking a 'diet break': our bodies can learn to get by on lower calories (for example: lower energy level, making you less active, slower hair and nail growth,...) eating more for a few weeks might give your body a boost and also give your mind a break. Your intake is pretty low considering your current weight. I started out at a lower starting weight but always ate at least 1700 calories, often more, to reach a normal BMI. (You don't mention your age, height or activity level, those play a role too)
I'm not saying you should 'go crazy', but just increasing your intake by 250-400 calories a day for a few weeks might be useful. You may see a slight increase on the scale, but it should mostly be increased food waste in your digestive tract and some extra water weight.

Other possibility: you may be weighing your food and tracking everything you eat, but perhaps some of your food database choices aren't accurate? If you open your diary, we could check and see if anything jump out at us as perhaps not being correct.

PravaSagitta

BMR or TDEE? My TDEE is 2000, my BMR is 1671. You might not be eating enough. I know it sounds backwards, but you have to eat properly to lose weight. I'm currently eating 1900 calories per day to properly nourish myself (I breastfeed a toddler too, so adjusted I'm eating 1700 calories). I'm losing weight. You are killing your metabolism. A plateau shouldn't last this long.

ETA I'm 200lbs, slowly but surely losing weight.

sarabushby

Do you ever have ‘cheat days’ or meals that you don’t log? I know that you said you record every bite but some people will say that and do it most days but then one day a week have a non-logged day which actually blows their deficit for the week. They genuinely believe they are on a restricted diet in a deficit but sadly evened out across the week it’s not the case.

Maybe you would be open to sharing your diary and inviting feedback? People can (kindly) perhaps spot any weird data entries as they may have ‘been there done that’ themselves. They might also have ideas that would help you to feel more satiated and have more energy to increase activity levels.

tomcustombuilder

You are most likely at maintenance now. You need fewer calories after losing so much weight in order to continue losing unless your activity amount went up substantially.

99% percent of the time for no loss is attributed to not giving a certain amount of weekly calories sufficient time to work or there is no weekly calorie deficit.

Other people’s anecdotal calorie amounts are invalid for comparison due to a completely different lifestyles and also their counting and tracking is off also. Nobody can figure calories, TDEE or exercise calories perfectly so there will be a spread of inaccuracies.

Good luck in your continuing goal. I’d try to get in more daily activity as a start. Long walks are amazing.

zebasschick

Kai_Tea wrote: »

I track every single bite I take. every bite. And I use a food scale...

when you select a database entry for your food on MFP, do you check it against the package info or USDA? there are a lot of inaccurate database entries including the "verified" ones.

cmriverside

Well, since you're adamant that your tracking is accurate (I still question that) and you say you've been stuck at the same weight for three months on an intake of 1100-1400 (also questionable,) my advice is see a doctor. You should be losing at your weight of 240. There could be something medical going on.

kshama2001

Kai_Tea wrote: »

I track every single bite I take. every bite. And I use a food scale...

I have several schools of thought:

1. I see your diary is open and I took a look. I do see a lot of slices, cups, tsp, etc. However, at your weight and calorie level, I'm not sure that would be enough to account for a plateau.

You could tighten up your logging for a month and see what happens. If nothing, do see a doctor.

2. You've lost 85 pounds in a short amount of time. Perhaps it is indeed time for a diet break.

3. Have you added any new exercise recently? Stress? Stress can increase cortisol, which can lead to water retention, which masks weight loss on the scale.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/dietary-restraint-and-cortisol-levels-research-review.html/

...a group of women who scored higher on dietary restraint scores showed elevated baseline cortisol levels. By itself this might not be problematic, but as often as not, these types of dieters are drawn to extreme approaches to dieting.

They throw in a lot of intense exercise, try to cut calories very hard (and this often backfires if disinhibition is high; when these folks break they break) and cortisol levels go through the roof. That often causes cortisol mediated water retention (there are other mechanisms for this, mind you, leptin actually inhibits cortisol release and as it drops on a diet, cortisol levels go up further). Weight and fat loss appear to have stopped or at least slowed significantly. This is compounded even further in female dieters due to the vagaries of their menstrual cycle where water balance is changing enormously week to week anyhow.

And invariably, this type of psychology responds to the stall by going even harder. They attempt to cut calories harder, they start doing more activity. The cycle continues and gets worse. Harder dieting means more cortisol means more water retention means more dieting. Which backfires (other problems come in the long-term with this approach but you’ll have to wait for the book to read about that).

When what they should do is take a day or two off (even one day off from training, at least in men, lets cortisol drop significantly). Raise calories, especially from carbohydrates. This helps cortisol to drop. More than that they need to find a way to freaking chill out. Meditation, yoga, get a massage... Get in the bath, candles, a little Enya, a glass of wine, have some you-time but please just chill.