Hitting that dreaded Plateau

bluefish49

Sugars!

I hit a plateau last November. A trainer at the gym instructed me on sugars. I now keep my daily sugars below 45g, and my daily cals below the MFP suggestion. I do NOT eat back my exercise calories. There will be a whole bunch of people on here who will tell me I'm full of BS. Let 'em. My AVERAGE weekly weight loss for the last 11 months has been 2 lbs a week. I weigh weekly. At first I was concerned when I would gain a pound or two during a certain week. I saw a pattern, looked at the slope on the graph, and was no longer concerned.


2 pounds a week average x 52 weeks = 104 pounds. My total loss as of this post is 193 pounds. I've gone from a 5X shirt to a "L" a 66 inch waist to a 38. If anyone thinks my method is wrong for me, they can go scoop some of my BS off the gym floor. Oh, and I also like to ruin other people's workouts because I like to hang on to the hand-rails on the treadmill. :laugh:

Good luck!

CherylP67

I started Couch to 5k on August 24. I started working out with a personal trainer 2-3 times a week for an hour around September 12, and I started outdoor bootcamp 3 times a week last week.

I weigh 2 pounds less than I did on August 24, and I lost that between August 24-30.

My weight is constantly up and down the same pound, and it's frustrating. I eat at TDEE-20% for a lightly active person, although I am a nurse at a pediatric hospital and I exercise a lot. I eat back about half of my exercise calories. Last night after work, I came home and had a mini binge, I had some Halloween candy, 2 servings of flavored almonds, and the scrapings left on the side of the carton of Ben and Jerry's. I quickly was dead asleep after the sugar crash and slept 12 hours. I don't believe in cheat meals per se because this is my lifestyle and I'm not sure it's possible to cheat on your lifestyle. I was hoping this gorge would jump start something, but it didn't.

Good things that have happened since I stopped dropping scale weight.
- people started noticing that I've lost weight and marvel at how awesome I look (muscle tone perhaps?)
- I look in the mirror and see my back flab is going down
- I can now run for 30 minutes straight and 3.3 miles without stopping
- I bought a pair of size 6 jeans and I weigh 164 (5'5") I mostly wear 8's though, but I'm 46 and I've had 4 kids and I'm in single digits
- I'm a runner, a legit sweat dripping runner, I'm getting to know the other runners I pass on my runs, I got a thumbs up from a cute guy I've passed before as we passed today, although I was red faced, sweaty, my clothes were drenched in sweat, and I'm sure there was an odor trail wafting behind me
-I can wrap my hands around my thighs and almost touch them together, before I would have needed 3 hands to do this
-my trainer said that I'm losing subcutaneous fat, she can see my muscles moving when I work on my lifts

This isn't one of those rah rah I don't care if the scale doesn't drop posts.... I really want the scale to drop.

I'm not perfect, I'm a work in progress, I realize the scale will move when it's ready and I'm supposed to feel good about my overall health improvement, and I do.

I just want the scale to drop too. Maybe one day soon I'll get over that, most likely after the scale resumes it's downward trend.

CherylP67

Sugars!

I hit a plateau last November. A trainer at the gym instructed me on sugars. I now keep my daily sugars below 45g, and my daily cals below the MFP suggestion. I do NOT eat back my exercise calories. There will be a whole bunch of people on here who will tell me I'm full of BS. Let 'em. My AVERAGE weekly weight loss for the last 11 months has been 2 lbs a week. I weigh weekly. At first I was concerned when I would gain a pound or two during a certain week. I saw a pattern, looked at the slope on the graph, and was no longer concerned.


2 pounds a week average x 52 weeks = 104 pounds. My total loss as of this post is 193 pounds. I've gone from a 5X shirt to a "L" a 66 inch waist to a 38. If anyone thinks my method is wrong for me, they can go scoop some of my BS off the gym floor. Oh, and I also like to ruin other people's workouts because I like to hang on to the hand-rails on the treadmill. :laugh:

Good luck!

Oh Bluefish, you are so bad and rebellious.... Doing what works for you! I must have missed the thread about people ruining other people's workouts.

Congrats on your awesome loss.

sweetcheekz82

I will try and reduce my sugar intake and see how that works for me. I am pre-diabetic since I have PCOS so sugars and carbs cut backs is kind of scary to me but that just means i'll be checking my blood sugar a little bit more. Thank you so much for your guys input. My husband notices my body changing and once in a while I will hear someone else say something to me but they mostly just stare are me so I know they've noticed. The other day we went to a clothing store and I walked by a full length mirror. I stepped back and looked at myself and again. My husband was beside me and he said "see I told you that your shrinking", followed by "have you not been looking in the mirror"? We don't have full length mirrors in our house so, no, I haven't got to see my full body looking back at me. The number on the scale is not who I am. My numbers keep shirking on the measuring tape so at least I'm shrinking on one of the scales. I wish my weight could fall off quickly but I am sure that's something we all wish but my thought on that is.... if our weight fell off so quickly then we would appreciate are progress at the end. I am looking forward to not shopping in that plus size section. I'm a size 16 heading towards a 14.

psuLemon

I usually ask about medical conditions.. PCOS and pre diabetic kind of change the game a bit. Both of them require a lower carb diet, especially if there is an insulin sensitivity. Most women I know that have pcos are eating 80 to 120g of carbs a day. While its not require for all people with pcos, you might see it as beneficial. I honestly think if you add some more calories and keel carbs down, then you will defeat this plateau. Also, I highly recommend checking out some of the pcos or diabetic groups on the forum. There are tons of people with more specialized knowledge on those issues.

sweetcheekz82

I was trying for 150 carbs a day but was worried that I wasn't giving my body enough carbs for working out. I had gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy and I had to be on 150 carbs a day diet. I have thought about increasing my protein. My biggest problem is I'm shooting from the hip with what diet I need to be on. My health insurance is not willing to cover cost for anything that will help me lose weight because according to them I'm not fat enough. It's screwed up because it's called preventative maintenance. I don't want to have to gain more weight just to get help to lose weight. I don't know why I haven't thought about looking for groups for PCOS and Diabetic groups. Sounds like a no brainer but I really didn't think about it. I have support groups for PCOS on facebook but didn't think about it here. Thanks for that psulemon. I will defiantly look into it. :happy:

amitchell0918

Honestly 1200 might be to little calories for you to eat and your body could be on starvation mode. I ate 1200 calories for a whole year and stopped seeing any change and then when I would have a cheat meal I would gain 3 lbs. I upped my calories and my exercise and started losing weight again. Hope that might help

psuLemon

No problem. 150 might even be a bit high. Unfortunately, its a bit of trial and error. Also there is no specific diet you have to follow. Anything that you find as sustainable is important. My wife is gluten free and low carb so we have a diet heavy in meats and veggies. Feel free to look at my diary but eggs, meats, veggies and fruit can help.

sweetcheekz82

I am not on a gluten free diet but my kids are and I mostly eat protein and veggies anyways. After I was pregnant I haven't had a desire to eat potatoes so that's one less then to struggle with cutting out of my diet.