3rd month of a plateau

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

I see posts like this all the time, and now it's my turn.
I'm in my third month of a plateau. It's horrible, and I'm so determined but it's getting tougher. I have maintained at about 16st since October.
I'm on 1230 calories a day, and I usually hit this within 10 - 20 calories above or below. I rarely feel hungry which is good. I work out 3 times a week, twice at the gym and once at the swimming pool.
I'm so frustrated.. I knew this would be hard, and of course there have been tears, but seing the results kept me going, made me know I was being healthy and doing the right thing.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

_Zardoz_

Go back to basics. Are you weighing and measuring all your food accurately (be honest with yourself) Are you eating a proportion of exercise calories back (this will give you more fuel so your workouts are actually more useful and you burn more)

laddyboy

1st congrats on your success so far...you're doing great.

Let's start with seeing your food log.

What is your maintenance calorie level?

are you eating your exercise calories?

How many calories do you burn doing exercise?

Let's start there and see if we can get things moving again.

MyJourney1960

congrats on your loss so far! i think that plateaus exist but they are usually as a result of *our* getting a bit lax in our eating/logging, and not necessarily a *real* physical plateau. at east that's how it's been for me and others that i know. so as someone said above - go back to basics:

make sure you are diligent about weighing everything.
make sure you are logging EVERYTHING. everything, including that bite of cake, that cup of coffee, etc.

april1445

Shake it up. Have you tried insanity? Or jillian michaels? I was a gym-goer for 20 years, and didn't get the results that I've gotten with these videos. I started with jillian free on you tube. Also, try a break from those low calories. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but that really isn't very many calories. Try 1400.

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. MFP support is amazing.
I do weight everything, and log everything accurately.
I burn between 300 - 500 calories at the gym, and I swim for an hour, breaststroke at the pool, so burn between 700 - 900 calories there.
My Daily Goal
Calories: 1,230
Carbs: 169
Fat: 41
Protein: 46
Sodium: 2,500
Sugar: 25

I pay attention to all of the above. I occasionally go over on Protein or Sodium.
I have to admit that I don't eat back my exercise calories.

I also did own a fitbit for a few days, and on top of sedentry it was adding 300 - 400 calories for an average day with no exercise.

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Also, I have muscle damage to my right ankle, which means I can be limited to the type of exercise I do. Low impact stuff mainly. I do incline walking for 20 minutes which burns around 240 calories. I use the stationary bike at the gym too. I also use a low-impact cardio home workout

eldamiano

I see posts like this all the time, and now it's my turn.
I'm in my third month of a plateau. It's horrible, and I'm so determined but it's getting tougher. I have maintained at about 16st since October.
I'm on 1230 calories a day, and I usually hit this within 10 - 20 calories above or below. I rarely feel hungry which is good. I work out 3 times a week, twice at the gym and once at the swimming pool.
I'm so frustrated.. I knew this would be hard, and of course there have been tears, but seing the results kept me going, made me know I was being healthy and doing the right thing.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

You CANNOT be being honest. You consume only 1,200 calories a day (not sure what people's obsession with going so low is) and also exercise?....

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Hi eldamiano,

There's no point in my lying is there, it would only damage myself, and I'm asking for advice. I wouldn't get the right advice with false information.
Are you saying that I am eating too little? Would this make me hit a plateau?

laddyboy

fail...oops

laddyboy

Thanks for the feedback so far guys. MFP support is amazing.
I do weight everything, and log everything accurately.
I burn between 300 - 500 calories at the gym, and I swim for an hour, breaststroke at the pool, so burn between 700 - 900 calories there.
My Daily Goal
Calories: 1,230
Carbs: 169
Fat: 41
Protein: 46
Sodium: 2,500
Sugar: 25

I pay attention to all of the above. I occasionally go over on Protein or Sodium.
I have to admit that I don't eat back my exercise calories.

I also did own a fitbit for a few days, and on top of sedentry it was adding 300 - 400 calories for an average day with no exercise.

So you do all the above and only eat 1200 calories a day? If yes...that's your problem. You need to eat more. You are only netting between 300-500 OR NEGATIVE calories a day

and your body is storing every calorie to survive.
YOU HAVE TO EAT TO LOSE WEIGHT. Eat girl...eat.

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

It seems so weird to eat more, haha!
But that sounds like it's the next step I need to take, in order to kick this.
I'm going to try and up it to 1400, this was what I originally started on, and see how things go.

Thank you for your help, having advice from people who are in the know is vital to the journey.

eldamiano

Hi eldamiano,

There's no point in my lying is there, it would only damage myself, and I'm asking for advice. I wouldn't get the right advice with false information.
Are you saying that I am eating too little? Would this make me hit a plateau?

Ok, not accusing you of lying, just that people frequently miscalculate or innocently miss things from their food diary. I have seen programmes where people forget that they ate sizeable portions and forgot about it when it is surely their responsibility to remember what they ate, hence not being honest. Of course only you know this.

Although I overrate metabolism as an excuse for not losing weight, I understand that eating too little puts the body in starvation mode. I would never recommend eating this little, and it seems that people use it as a benchmark as it is the minimum recommended from doctors. I would recommend eating more and doing more exercise than this scenario.

candiceh3

Also, I have muscle damage to my right ankle, which means I can be limited to the type of exercise I do. Low impact stuff mainly. I do incline walking for 20 minutes which burns around 240 calories. I use the stationary bike at the gym too. I also use a low-impact cardio home workout

I don't burn 240 calories running for 20 minutes. How do you do it walking? Are you sure your calorie burns are correct?

Sorry to hear about the plateau - I know it is frustrating. Chin up ::)

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Hi eldamiano.

Thank you for your suggestion.
The 1230 was actually set by MFP automatically, however, I have kist manually gone in and changed it to 1400, to see how things go. I sometimes do a home workout which burns around 250 calories, so I'm going to try this more often, and I'll probably try to hit the gym a bit more too.
Thank you for your suggestions.

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Hi Candice,

Try high-incline walking on the treadmill. It's amazing
The treadmill automatically changes the angle you're walking.. the more intense, the higher you go. I choose the fat-burn setting, which changes the incline quite quickly. It's really good for my legs, as it's helping to build up the damaged muscles in my ankle too.

_SABOTEUR_

I would say eat 50% of your workout cals or work up to a static calorie consumption per day that is higher (at least 1500.)

I would also try and make the increase entirely protein as your consumption is set very low and it is likely you are losing muscle mass as well as fat.

If you do increase your calories expect and initial weight increase in the first couple of weeks before you see start losing again. Try the increase for at least a month to see if it's working.

Do you have cheat days?

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Hi Saboteur!

Thanks for your input.
Before From April 2013 - Christmas, I could probably count my cheat days on one hand. Christmas I had 3 or 4, due to visiting family. It's very difficult to tell ones mother that you want half what they've put on your plate, without making them think you don't like their food, haha.
Since then, no cheat days.

And considering how much I love chicken (usually boiled in stock) there's no trouble in my protein consumption

Thanks for all your input, it's much appreciated. I considered going through websites, but in the end, most advice is product sponsored, and really, the best advice comes from those going through the same journey as me.

mumof5

how long have you been eating at a defecit? maybe you need a reset?
how do your measure your burns? maybe they are out a little? and i would eat back all my exercise cals especially if my goal was so low. there is a group on here called eat more to weigh less....might be worth the research

mumof5

also i would look at your macros...cut back a little on the carbs and eat more protein. way more protein.

erickirb

If you are in a deficit and not losing there is something else going on. Too large of a deficit your metabolism will slow down, but you will still lose weight, just not what you expect to lose. Since you are not losing in a deficit, go see a doctor, you may be part of the 1-2% that has a hormonal imbalance (thyroid) which means your BMR is much lower than MFP calculates.

brimin101

I personally would recommend eating more for a few weeks and see if that helps.
Find out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) add calories burned from exercise and you'll have pretty close to your maintenance level. Adjust your macros too: your protein seems extremely low (.75-1g per pound body weight), at least 30% of total calories should come from fat, and the rest can be carbs.
Once you have that number try and hit it daily for a few weeks, convince your body it's not starving. If you maintain weight or go up after a few weeks at that level try taking away about 100cals for a couple weeks. Aim to lose .5-1 lb of weight per week. 2-4 lbs a month.
Also, don't forget to give your body cheat days/meals every 5-10 days where you go over your calories again to convince the body not to store calories and instead use them.
You don't want to adjust calories and gym time to break your plateau because then you won't know what actually started the loss again. That's my two cents

Wilhellmina

I had a plateau as well for quite a long time. What helped me breaking through is eating between 8 AM and 5 PM, eating from a smaller plate, chewing my food properly, so I feel when I am full and know when to stop eating, adding fish oil to my diet, eating most of my carbs in the morning around my workouts, increasing the proteins. Not really rocket science, but it worked for me.

I eat between 1400 and 1600 by the way. To me 1200 looks quite low.

Phaedra2014

Increase your intake by 200 cals bringing your net up to 1400 - 1450. Do it every day for 2 weeks and collect data.

LMatherly1968

Maybe try some floor work for exercise, basic sit ups, lunges, etc even yoga. The change in exercises uses different muscles and can help break out of the 'routine'. I have also found that having a cheat day maybe once per week is helpful, too. And by cheating, I am simply adding 500-750 calories with healthy choices like hummus and chips, cheese, organic stuff.

Don't give up! Just change what you are doing, work different muscles, and enjoy a healthy snack! Keep up the great work!

STrooper

Although I am a much older male, I shared some of the similarities you discuss (though my calorie intake was much higher than yours, my eventual target loss was one pound per week). Now to be clear I didn't monitor food intake precisely (that came later), so all my loss was slight changes in food intake (I gave up sugar carbonated drinks, downsized some of my meals slightly, etc.)and mostly exercise. Ultimately, I dropped from 250 to 190. But once I got there, getting down to my target weight of 175 seemed impossible. I basically stayed between 186 and 190 for a year.

Now, the good news is that for the year, my measurements changed fairly dramatically. My waist, hips and chest all shrunk by about 4 inches each.

After a year at the same weight, I finally did a step change in my activity level as well as really accurate calorie count. I did eat back my exercise calories to keep the 1 pound per week drop. It went more slowly than that. But, 11 months later I reached my ultimate target weight and switched to maintenance. Even then my weight continued to fall to a low of 165. Since I've taken on marathon training (and have already run my first marathon, preparing for my second), my weight has stayed very steady between 167-170 (running 3-4 days a week).

Hang in there and know that measurements sometimes are more important than weight simply because the muscle and fat structures can and will change pretty dramatically with the sort of levels of weight change we are talking about.

snowflake954

1 hour of breaststroke gives me 760 calories burned---how do you get as high as 900?

WrenTheCoffeeAddict

Hi Snowflake;
Sometimes I do an hour and a half, sorry, should have been more precise.

TwelveSticks

Most of the good advice has already been given, but I'll reiterate...

If you're happy that you're counting / logging accurately, then a big plateau like this can only mean one of two things - you're either eating too much, or you're eating too little (this is the surprising one to most people).

Given what you've said, I agree that what you need to do is diligently eat back (some of) your exercise calories. Your base of around 1200 may be too low as well.

Last year, my weight loss was slowing week on week and I realised it was because I was gradually exercising more and more, yet I wasn't eating back my exercise calories. I started eating them back (2/3rds of them anyway - to allow for over-estimates), and my weight loss resumed.

I'd suggest that you definitely eat back 2/3rds of your exercise calories as a starting point. I'd be inclined to up your base daily goal to more like 1400-1500 as well, to be honest, but that will depend on your level of confidence! Try it for a couple of weeks - be strict - and see if it starts to move in the right direction again for you...

chani8

When i hit a plateau, I dropped my calories to BMR for a few weeks and that kicked it loose.

Did you know you need to recalculate your calorie deficit after every 10 pounds you lose? You've lost a lot already, so it could be that for your current height/weight ratio, you're not longer eating at a deficit when you eat 1250 cals. I am short 5'2" and 44yo and there were times that I had to eat as low as 1050 to get a good deficit. So maybe recalculate your numbers.