Plateau ???!!!

Terriberry

I have been at the same weight for about 2 weeks now. I know it's a plateau but I dont know how to get out of it. I started P90x with my son on Monday but only did day one becuz I dont have the time to do it everyday without giving up the gym, which I'm not willing to do. I have been doing cardio 4 times a week and weight lifting 3 times a week. I know it could be that I'm gaining muscle, or my body has gotten use to my workout routine, or maybe I have slacked off on portion sizes with my food. My question is, where do I start so I can get over this hump??

vim_n_vigor

There are several people on this site that swear by adding calories for a while to get past a plateau.

fbmandy55

I have been at a plateau for 2 weeks as well. My scale has not moved from the decimal!!! I'm going to up my calories from 1400 to 1500 and try to hit that eveyday. Good luck!

NancyAnne1960

WOW! 44 lbs. is great!!! I have found when I get stuck, mixing things up does help. It's different for everyone, but you can try eating more calories, or cutting way back on carbs and add healthy fat - avacados are good, look at your sodium and try to drop that off for a couple days, instead of your regular exercise routine, mix that up with walking instead of weight lifting or cardio. Or, if you are eating too much, cut back on that. It's what works for you.

MinnieInMaine

First, congrats on doing so well this far! Would help to see your diary but I'll make some assumtions and try to give advice...

You've already identified a few areas that you think might need help (portion sizes for instance) so start with that - only you truly know your daily habits and can make those changes needed. If you think you're overestimating, start weighing/measuring your foods so you get a better idea of correct portion sizes again.

If you're not tracking sodium, add that to your food diary. A couple of high sodium days (any chance you indluged a bit over the holiday weekend?) can throw things off for up to a week (for me, anyway). And make sure you're always getting at least 8 cups of water/day.

Any chance you're at that time of the month (TOM)?

I truly doubt you've gained that much muscle as it's tough to do without really serious weight training, especially for women, but what might be happening is that with the new P90X program, you could be working muscles that haven't been worked in a while (or worked that way in a while) and therefore they're damaged and retaining water as part of the natural healing process.

Give yourself another week or so, keep mixing it up and following the guidelines and I bet something will happen.

Terriberry

There are several people on this site that swear by adding calories for a while to get past a plateau.

How does adding calories to my daily target help me lose weight? I'm a little confused.

Kolohe71

There are several people on this site that swear by adding calories for a while to get past a plateau.

How does adding calories to my daily target help me lose weight? I'm a little confused.

If you eat too few calories your body can go into starvation mode and will hold onto additional fat for later use. Eating additional calories will pull your body out of this mode.

Kolohe71

I feel your pain. I have been at the same weight for almost 6 weeks now. In order to try and break the plateau, I COMPLETELY changed my exercise routine 4 weeks ago. I saw a (very) small drop just after that, but nothing since then. Today I bumped my calorie limit from 1500 to 1900 to see if I can break it that way. I'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see if it worked.

Best of Luck to you

Remember, any change you make to diet or exercise should be given at least 2 weeks to determine the effectiveness.

Terriberry

There are several people on this site that swear by adding calories for a while to get past a plateau.

How does adding calories to my daily target help me lose weight? I'm a little confused.

If you eat too few calories your body can go into starvation mode and will hold onto additional fat for later use. Eating additional calories will pull your body out of this mode.

I'm just afraid that I might gain weight if I bump up my calories. I'm already at 1600 a day. And I usually exercise about 400-600 cals a day. And I usually eat most of them back. What number should I move up to?

Terriberry

bump

fittertanme

hi there
well I have the same problem and have tried mixing my routine up and the time I work out but its still the same but will not give up and will take your advise and try that and hope it works

Kolohe71

I'm just afraid that I might gain weight if I bump up my calories. I'm already at 1600 a day. And I usually exercise about 400-600 cals a day. And I usually eat most of them back. What number should I move up to?

Does the 1600 include the 400-600 from exercise? Because if it does you are only netting 1000-1200 calories a day which is not enough. If your goal is 1600 calories a day and you average 500 calories a workout, then you should be consuming 2100 calories.

Adding calories is kind of scary, but many people have had success doing it. First thing is to re-enter your goals and make sure you select the appropriate activity level and use lose 1 lb per week as a starting point. Then eat back most, if not all, of your exercise calories. The goal is to be as close to 0 as possible on your remaining calories at the end of the day.