21 Month Plateau - How to Keep Going?

runlaugheatpie

I am wondering if anyone has specific experience with a very long commute/work day/ waking hours and being on a weight loss plateau.

Personally I am up at around 5am every workday that I go to the office (I try to work 1 day from home), leave at 6:30 to catch my train, have a 2+ hour commute to work, do my 9 – 5 (where possible, if I work late one day I’ll leave early the next), and generally get home around 7pm. This makes for a really long day. I’ve been doing this for about 4½ years now.

I started this particular round of weight loss attempts in March 2009 and lost +/- 40 lbs from then until November 2009. This actually coincided with 1) an operation I had on my foot and 2) Weight Watchers changing their program to ProPoints (or what North Americans know as Points Plus) in the Netherlands.

From November of 2009 until now, I’ve pretty much stayed the same weight. Last spring and summer I also was running a lot and quite hungry during big training periods (I did quite a few races 16K and under and a Half-Marathon) and because I was focusing on fuel to run I ate when I was hungry. Finally I quit WW as it was extremely frustrating to follow and pay for the program and not lose any weight whatsoever.

I have been to my doctor several times, had many tests run to see if there was any medical explanation for not losing weight, 2 dietitians and a doctor of sports medicine and the outcome is: Yes, you are a tad overweight but you are fit and healthy so don’t expect a lot to change. This also based on the fact that I do not get enough sleep and it’s apparently stressful to commute 16 – 22 hours a week.

I am hungry a lot. I have tried to just “suffer” – spreading out what I have to eat from around 6am until I have dinner. I try to make good choices. I get my fruits and veg in, my good fats, dairy, complex carbs and I hardly eat any junk (i.e. I eat pretty clean). I do drink some alcohol on the weekend, a few glasses of wine on Friday and Saturday night (meaning in total < 7 glasses/units per weekend). I’m just learning to accept that I could be hungry and that it’s ok, I’m not going to keel over and die or something just because my stomach is growling.

But it’s the lack of weight loss that is really killing any desire to carry on. Not saying that I don’t want to or wouldn’t eat healthy regardless, I would. It’s more like the constant weighing, measuring, tracking, keeping my calories within range, etc., and then seeing NO DIFFERENCE whatsoever on the scale. Honestly, I really feel like giving up now as it’s just pointless to be so careful.

My measurements are also not really different. I go by my clothes mostly now and at least they still fit. I’m just in maintenance mode I guess.

I am not super overweight or something. I would need to lose another 30 lbs to be at the top of my weight range. I’m 5’5½” and am 42 years old. Actually I’d be happy with even 10lbs off; at this point I want to lose weight just to run better more than anything else. My clothes size is OK. I can shop at “normal” stores. I feel pretty ok about myself.

I guess the reason why I’m presenting all of this is, I’m wondering if there is anyone else out there, working very hard for no actual number-on-the-scale results, who has been on a plateau for more than a year, who also might have a long day/too little sleep/ stressful commute or job – how do you keep going? What makes you stay committed when it can seem sometimes like there’s no real reason (except for the obvious of being healthy and hopefully living a good long life).

Thanks in advance if you read through all that!!

meerkat70

Perhaps the hint is in your suggestion that you're 'hungry a lot'? Are you perhaps not eating enough? Have you tried increasing what you eat a little?

runlaugheatpie

the thing is, I'm hungry regardless. so what I try to do is have a few days where I'm really very near to my daily goal and then there are a few days where I'm just over. I also always eat back most of my exercise calories. I've tried to go "hungry" and I've tried just eating something reasonable and the result is the same.

greyhoundluv

I wonder if it has something with the little sleep. How many hours a night are you averaging?

Balanced_Life

This article has god into on "unexplainable" weight loss plateaus: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/01/unexplainable-fat-loss-plateaus-explained.php

Hope it helps!

CindyWarner

I have had troubles sleeping ecause i'm a shift worker. Then i discovered melatonin. It's your night time hormone that makes you sleep at night. I am told that not getting enough quality sleep can make you gain weight. Now I have not taken it long enough to see a difference in weight but boy do I get a good nights sleep. And it's not addictive like sleeping pills. So talk to your doctor whether or not you should take it and if you do start with the lowest dose, 1g.

As for being hungery.... Eat more! But make sure it's veggies that you add because they have low fat/sugar. You should not have to go hungery. Have a half a cup of whatever veggies and wait for 30 min. if you still are hungery than have a bit more and so on. After a while you'll find out how much your body needs in order to not be hungery.

runlaugheatpie

I wonder if it has something with the little sleep. How many hours a night are you averaging?

probably 5½ - 6½ hours on the nights that I actually go into the office. in the weekend I shoot for 8 hours but not more so I don't mess up my sleep schedule too much (and then not be able to sleep on Sunday night which then wrecks the rhythm for the whole week)

runlaugheatpie

I have had troubles sleeping ecause i'm a shift worker. Then i discovered melatonin. It's your night time hormone that makes you sleep at night. I am told that not getting enough quality sleep can make you gain weight. Now I have not taken it long enough to see a difference in weight but boy do I get a good nights sleep. And it's not addictive like sleeping pills. So talk to your doctor whether or not you should take it and if you do start with the lowest dose, 1g.

As for being hungery.... Eat more! But make sure it's veggies that you add because they have low fat/sugar. You should not have to go hungery. Have a half a cup of whatever veggies and wait for 30 min. if you still are hungery than have a bit more and so on. After a while you'll find out how much your body needs in order to not be hungery.

oh I don't have trouble sleeping! it's just that as much as I try to go to bed at 10pm, I'm usually up untili 10:30-11. Or I go at 10 so I can get up at 4:30 so I can do things in the morning that I had no time to do at night (like prepare lunch and snacks, iron, chores, whatever).

My snacks when I am hungry are usually fruit and/or veg. So I do this, but I honestly feel like I could eat all day and it wouldn't make a difference!

I feel nuts really.

runlaugheatpie

This article has god into on "unexplainable" weight loss plateaus: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/01/unexplainable-fat-loss-plateaus-explained.php

Hope it helps!

OK reading that now, thank you!

Jemmuno

Do you do any strength training? A lot of jillian michaels videos are strength training and only 20 or 30 min long and can do at home. People who do strength training 3 times a week and run 2 times a week versus those who do strength training twice a week and cardio three times a week lose more weight. Also, when you run do you run outside or inside on a treadmill? and if you run outside do you do a lot of hills? running on an incline will help build and tone the muscles in your legs which will then burn the fat in your legs. Muscle burns fat which is why strength training is important in weight loss.

runlaugheatpie

when I have time, I do strength train yes. But that's all part of the "problem" - sometimes I get home too late to go to the gym (I have about a 3 hour window to do things in the evening once I'm home, sometimes less, and the gym closes at 10pm). I have been doing strength training at the physio as I have been off running the last two months due to a slight injury. I always run outside and I do hills occasionally (I live in a flat country on the whole, but where i live there are some places with elevation). I have been also cycling instead of running and doing a lot of hills with that as well.

Nowadays, *if* I get to the gym it's mostly for strength and rarely for cardio. I'm changing gyms soon to accommodate my schedule better.

runlaugheatpie

I just want to say it in case - I'm ok if I don't have an "answer" to this plateau, I'm just wondering as well if there is anyone else out there in the same kind of situation.

runlaugheatpie

no one out there with a very long plateau?

runlaugheatpie

I would really love to talk to anyone who has been on a plateau for more than 1 year. Who has tried all of the things mentioned including getting tested to see if there was a medical explanation. I'm really at my wits end. I hope I'm not alone.

meerkat70

I'm so sorry, my longest plateau was 3 or 4 months. I can only sympathise - it must be incredibly frustrating.

It probably doesn't help, but if that's you in your profile pic, I have to say you *look* amazing and very healthy. Is it possible that this really is your healthy weight? I know when I was a teen, I used to battle my body all the time, because really, it just wanted to weight 75kg - not the weight I wanted it to be, as all my friends were petite little things. When I look back at the pics, I can see now that I was both thin and very healthy. I'm tallish, but have huge hands, feet - I'm properly 'big framed'. BMIs are only ever intended to be rough estimates. Do you like how you look and feel at the moment? Have you tried looking at your pics dispassionately, as a stranger would, to see how you feel about them?

runlaugheatpie

thanks for replying anyway. and for the compliment.

if you asked me years ago what my goal weight would be, I would have said 70KG. I've been there before, 10 years ago and I worked pretty hard to get there and keep it off for a while.

I'm older and my situation has changed. I would love to weigh 70KG (it's the very top of the range, in fact in some ranges it's still over), but I am very realistic that that may very well not be possible anymore so really? I'd just love to be under 80 consistently. Close to 75 and I'd be over the moon.

I am "ok" with myself, but I am not totally satisfied, no. I look at the photos and I see someone who's made a lot of effort in the last 3 years to change, but I am not totally happy over 80KG, no.