Advice needed please!

marykate1984

I have lost 35lbs so far with about 15 more pounds to loose to reach my goal weight. I eat my 1200 calories each day and exercise for 70 minutes daily on the treadmill but have stopped loosing weight. I have been stuck at the same weight for the last 2-3 weeks or so without moving, anyone have any ideas why or suggesting to get me going again please?
thanks!
Mary Allen
PS. I am 5'5" and my goal weight is 135lb

lucan07

What are your nett calories like each day I was not eating back any exercise calories and a very low nett and stalled, so had to reduce my cardio to up the nett replacing it with some strength work!

The way it was explained to me while the bodies food intake is being cut it doesn't like huge extra energy demands being made upon it!

southpaw3833

Throw in some kind of resistance training! Cardio is awesome and you are doing a lot of it, but if you aren't strength training the plateu will be really hard to get past (not saying impossible). You don't need to bulk up or be a body builder. Start small if you want. Throw in some body resistance work (pushups, squats, etc.) or do some weight lifting. You don't have to do a lot of strength training if you don't want to. But the bottom line is the more lean muscle you have the higher your metabolism will be and simply the more weight you will lose. You have been doing great and have a solid plan, the only recommendation I would make is to add this one other peice to the puzzle. Good luck and keep up the good work!

slepygrl

Shake it up! Get off the dreadmill!! Go outside! Add weights. Take a group fitness class!
Just keep moving!!!!

southpaw3833

Based on what I've read in other posts, maybe your body has adjusted to this routine and you need to change it up. A quick calculation with the info you provided yields a BMR of 1413 and a TDEE of 1695 - and that's if you literally just slept all day (no exercise at all). I'd say you've under-consumed calories for a while and your body isn't using what you take in as efficiently any more. It's not recommended to net less than 1200 a day, so if you're only eating 1200 and then taking exercise off of that, it's not going to be good for your body long-term.

To change things up, do something other than treadmill for exercise. Some cardio videos, bicycling, swimming, anything different so you activate different muscles. Lift some weights. Also try eating at or near maintenance for a week or so to see if you can kind of reset things. I'd aim for around 1600-1700 calories. It might give you a brief gain, but once you go back to the lower level the loss should start again.

Good call! Chances are you will probably have a small gain on onset (muscle weighs more), but it will come off exponentially afterwards!

marykate1984

Thanks to everyone for the advice! I have never counted calories before starting myfitnesspal. What is TDEE?
I think the general concensus is right - I am not consuming enough calories and am burning too many of what I am consuming. Getting off the treadmill would be good as well - I have been looking into zumba but till then some basic squats and such are a good idea.

HerbertNenenger

look into carb cycling too - I read it's supposed to be good to get off a plateau. I'm not sure if 2 weeks is yet considered a plateau, though. More of a stall. Plus, 15 pounds to go, your body is just going to naturally start digging in its heels. I heard it's the toughest. Time to get nasty.

tjphelps73

TDEE is the calorie intake your body uses daily if you did zilch! To just breath air in and out your body will use these calories.
Have you reviewed your macros, ie carbs, protein, fats, & fiber? You may need to adjust your carbs down and your protein up. If you are using what MFP set for you then I can tell you the Carbs are set pretty high. You can manually adjust your goals and change your macros. I also agree with everyone else, you need to change up your routine. I would suggest circuit training. IF you have a dvd player at home then stop by your local library and check out Jillian Michael's Circuit training dvd - it jump started my plateau the last time.

Good Luck!