Ways to Avoid/Break Plateaus
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MadeOfMagic
Posts: 525 Member
Before reading the following, there could be other things contributing to your plateau, such as you could possibly be overeating (by accident), incorrect calorie deficit, or overestimating calories burned. After the post there is a section titled "Things to do to make sure you're doing everything right". I highle reccomend reading it for many many reasons!
I am sorry for any mispelling and hope it all makes sense. If you have any questions or need any help feel free to message/add me! Have wonderful day and enjoy! :flowerforyou:
:flowerforyou:
WAY TO AVOID/BREAK PLATEAUING :flowerforyou:
You’ll see tons of people posting topics about how they’ve plateaud for weeks/months and they need help on ways to break it. Well here is a sum of things you can do, and if you do them chances are you’ll never plateau. If you are doing the same things over and over again, your body "knows" what to expect so you have to mix it up!
Plateauing can occur for numerous reasons, most of the time it’s because your body has gotten too “used” to your routine, so you have to do things to “surprise” it to keep your body constantly guessing.
HERE WE GO!
ZIG-ZAG YOUR DIET
Zig-zagging, or calorie cycling is the process of varying daily calorie intake, while maintaining the same weekly intake. Instead of consuming (for example) precisely 1200 calories each day - you can mix it up. Eat 1200 calories one day, and 1600 calories the next. In the end when you add up your weekly calorie consumption and than average it by 7 days it should equal to your daily calorie goal.
Ex. Monday: 1200cals
Tuesday: 1600cals
Wendsday: 1400cals
Thursday: 1200cals
Friday: 1600cals
Saturday: 1200cals
Sunday: 1400cals
Total Weekly Calories: 9,600/week divide by 7= 1371 cals/day
Now let’s say my daily goal is 1200cals and not 1371, so right now it’s set with excess of 171 cals, so all I would have to do is deduct 171 calories from each daily goal in order to meet my weekly goals and still zig-zag my diet.
Or you can leave daily calories goals at 1371. You can either burn off 171 by exercising, or instead take 171 cals and multiply by 7, the number it comes out with is amount of calories you would have to burn by exercising that week in order to meet your weekly goals which zig-zaging diet.
Ex. 171x7=1197 calories you would have to burn that week.
SWITCH UP YOUR DIET
If you eat a lot of the same things day after day, switch it up, add some new food that you don’t typically eat. Switch up between eating the usual and the new every other day.
Ex. I like to eat same subways sandwich I always do for lunch, I like to have my usual chicken burrito after work for dinner. So I will do that 4 days of the week and the other 3 days I throw in “unusual”/”new” things.
On my “new” days I eat soups, different types of sandwiches, salads, new fruit or veggies, etc. These days are good for going out because restaurant have large variety of foods and full of new things to try. You can eat whatever you want as long as it’s different from your normal foods.
Monday/Wendsday/Friday/Sunday: Eat my “usual” foods
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: I eat something new and different
SWITCH UP YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE
So you go walking a lot? Then try jogging, or swimming, or cycling -- anything that will change the way your body is working. If you are doing low intensity cardio work, then try some high intensity exercise.
Monday/Wendsday/Friday/Sunday: Do my usual exercise routine
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: Add something new to my usual routine or try something new completely.
HAVE A HIGH CALORIE MEAL
Another way to “Surprise” your body is by throwing in a high calorie meal couple times a week. If your meals are typically 300-500 than have a high calorie meal of 600-1000. If you throw in a high calorie meal couple times a week it will keep surprising your metabolism, which is good for avoiding/breaking the pleateau.
REDUCE CARBS
Try reducing your carb intake to 50-100 grams per day to reduce insulin production and fire up your fat metabolism. Make sure that you’re eating enough protein for your weight .
If you have a carbohydrate snack every day at morning tea time - change it to a protein snack. Whatever you are doing consistently - try mixing it up a bit.
CHANGE MEAL FREQUECY
If you are eating three square meals a day - start adding snacks in between (which may mean reducing the portion size of the main meals). Eating small portions throughout the day will help keep your metabolism going. This is an extremely useful tactic in breaking your weight-loss plateau.
STRENGTH TRAINING
If you’re not doing this already than it’s time to start. Working your muscles will help to strengthen bone tissue, increase lean mass, and ultimately boost metabolic rate. Weight training doesn’t mean you have to become “buff”, you can still build muscle and tone.
THINGS TO DO TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT
SETTING PROPER DAILY CALORIE GOALS ON MFP
When you set your MFP daily calorie goals, it asks your activity level. If you choose any other activity level than sedentary it will give you higher calorie goal because it’s assuming you will exercise that week and burn those calories off; if you do not exercise than you will obviously gain weight. Also if your exercise calories are calculated into your daily goals than whatever calories burned exercising that you log you can’t technically use (eat back) because it’s already calculated into your daily goal.
If you like to eat your calories back than do the following:
Set your activity level to “sedentary”, than whatever exercise calories you log you can eat back. Make sure you know exactly how many calories you burned by using HRM, if you follow MFP calories you may end up gaining instead. If you do it this way you treat your calories like a bank. You can save for the weekend so you don’t end up cheating or use them as you please daily.
INVEST IN A HRM
MFP overestimates calories burned by as much as 200-400cals per hour of working out, it overestimated my calories burned walking by 50%! Thank God I wasn’t eating calories back when I first started because I would have gained weight instead of loosing-if that happened I would have gotten discouraged and given up. It’s CRUCIAL to know the right amount of calories burned.
So invest in HRM that comes with a chest strap, amazon does free 5-8 day shipping.
I highly recommend the Polar brands (Polar FT4, FT7, or FT60). If you want a cheap version cause you don’t have much money, than get this Timex Easy Trainer HRM, it’s only $37. If you get this Timex than use below link to calculate calories burned.
:flowerforyou: TIMEX HRM LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F5WB66/ref=oh_o05_s00_i00_details
:flowerforyou: CALCULATOR LINK:
Note: put down 35 for VO2 Max if you do not know yours, do not put 0 or it will overestimate your calories. Scroll down past the ads to use the calculator.
http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/calculators/calories-burned-calculator-based-on-average-heart-rate/
LOG ALL YOUR FOOD/EXERCISE
It’s crucial to log everything so you know how much you’re eating, also it’s important so that you can make sure you get enough protein and fiber in your diet.
FIBER: If you find yourself always hungry you most likely need more fiber, fiber helps you stay fuller longer.
PROTEIN: Make sure you meet your protein daily goals or better, otherwise your body will eat your muscle tissue, and you will lose muscle mass-no bueno!
WATER: You have to make sure you get enough water too, otherwise you will have a lot of “I gained this week and I feel discouraged” moments. My body sometimes holds as much 5 lbs of water, so you may thing your gaining but you’re not, you’re just not getting enough water. If this happens take a look at your sodium, you’re probably having too much. Teas, coffe, sodas, etc do not count as water sources, they actually dehydrate you.
Make sure to log all your foods, if you ever plateau it will help you determine what you need to change up and point out the things that no longer work for you.
AS YOU LOOSE WEIGHT ADJUST CALORIE GOAL
You know how when you first start off you loose a lot of weight and than it slows, and slows, and slows more down? Well that’s because your body is carrying less weight so it needs less and less energy, so the calorie deficit you started off with is much lower now.
For example:
At 200 lbs my BMR was approximately 1750
At 170 lbs my BMR is approximately 1550
The difference in daily calorie burn is 200 calories, multiply that by 7 and it’s 1400 calories each week, that’s almost half a pound! So instead of loosing 2lbs a week like you used to- you now lose 1.6lbs
Now let’s say you want to keep loosing 2lbs like you used to, well you now need to create a deficit of 200 calories each day.
A lot of times MFP has you already set at your lowest amount of 1200cals, and you should never eat less than that. So you’ve to exercise and burn off that 200 calories each day.
Easy way to calculate the deficit is go to BMR calculator, put in your info at your highest weight, write down your BMR; than plug in your current weight and write down the BMR. Take the difference between the calories and that’s how much you need burn exercising in order to keep loosing same weight as before!
NOTE: the closer and close you get to your goal weight, the harder it will become to make that deficit, and the biggest the deficit the less nutrition your body is getting so make sure you take multi-vitamin or dietary supplements so that you get enough nutrition for your body. If you don’t your body could eventually go into “starvation mode”.
STRENGTH TRAINING
As I mentioned below you can break plateaus by doing strength training. Strength training is as important as cardio, it helps speed up the amount of calories you burn resting- the more muscle you have the more you burn while resting. Do strength training every other day, do not do it everyday because your muscles need to rest in order to grow. Strength training does not mean you will become “buff”, you can simply “tone”.
EATING CLEAN+VITAMINS
If your daily calorie goals are low in numbers or if you don’t eat as “clean” as other people do than you need take a multi-vitamin to make sure your body is getting proper nutrition. If your body doesn’t get what it needs it may start eating your muscle tissue, or you may become tired, weak, etc. Also make sure you get enough calcium, as you exercise it’s important to have enough of it.
I am sorry for any mispelling and hope it all makes sense. If you have any questions or need any help feel free to message/add me! Have wonderful day and enjoy! :flowerforyou:
:flowerforyou:
WAY TO AVOID/BREAK PLATEAUING :flowerforyou:You’ll see tons of people posting topics about how they’ve plateaud for weeks/months and they need help on ways to break it. Well here is a sum of things you can do, and if you do them chances are you’ll never plateau. If you are doing the same things over and over again, your body "knows" what to expect so you have to mix it up!
Plateauing can occur for numerous reasons, most of the time it’s because your body has gotten too “used” to your routine, so you have to do things to “surprise” it to keep your body constantly guessing.
HERE WE GO!
ZIG-ZAG YOUR DIET Zig-zagging, or calorie cycling is the process of varying daily calorie intake, while maintaining the same weekly intake. Instead of consuming (for example) precisely 1200 calories each day - you can mix it up. Eat 1200 calories one day, and 1600 calories the next. In the end when you add up your weekly calorie consumption and than average it by 7 days it should equal to your daily calorie goal.
Ex. Monday: 1200cals
Tuesday: 1600cals
Wendsday: 1400cals
Thursday: 1200cals
Friday: 1600cals
Saturday: 1200cals
Sunday: 1400cals
Total Weekly Calories: 9,600/week divide by 7= 1371 cals/day
Now let’s say my daily goal is 1200cals and not 1371, so right now it’s set with excess of 171 cals, so all I would have to do is deduct 171 calories from each daily goal in order to meet my weekly goals and still zig-zag my diet.
Or you can leave daily calories goals at 1371. You can either burn off 171 by exercising, or instead take 171 cals and multiply by 7, the number it comes out with is amount of calories you would have to burn by exercising that week in order to meet your weekly goals which zig-zaging diet.
Ex. 171x7=1197 calories you would have to burn that week.
SWITCH UP YOUR DIETIf you eat a lot of the same things day after day, switch it up, add some new food that you don’t typically eat. Switch up between eating the usual and the new every other day.
Ex. I like to eat same subways sandwich I always do for lunch, I like to have my usual chicken burrito after work for dinner. So I will do that 4 days of the week and the other 3 days I throw in “unusual”/”new” things.
On my “new” days I eat soups, different types of sandwiches, salads, new fruit or veggies, etc. These days are good for going out because restaurant have large variety of foods and full of new things to try. You can eat whatever you want as long as it’s different from your normal foods.
Monday/Wendsday/Friday/Sunday: Eat my “usual” foods
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: I eat something new and different
SWITCH UP YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE So you go walking a lot? Then try jogging, or swimming, or cycling -- anything that will change the way your body is working. If you are doing low intensity cardio work, then try some high intensity exercise.
Monday/Wendsday/Friday/Sunday: Do my usual exercise routine
Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday: Add something new to my usual routine or try something new completely.
HAVE A HIGH CALORIE MEAL Another way to “Surprise” your body is by throwing in a high calorie meal couple times a week. If your meals are typically 300-500 than have a high calorie meal of 600-1000. If you throw in a high calorie meal couple times a week it will keep surprising your metabolism, which is good for avoiding/breaking the pleateau.
REDUCE CARBS Try reducing your carb intake to 50-100 grams per day to reduce insulin production and fire up your fat metabolism. Make sure that you’re eating enough protein for your weight .
If you have a carbohydrate snack every day at morning tea time - change it to a protein snack. Whatever you are doing consistently - try mixing it up a bit.
CHANGE MEAL FREQUECY If you are eating three square meals a day - start adding snacks in between (which may mean reducing the portion size of the main meals). Eating small portions throughout the day will help keep your metabolism going. This is an extremely useful tactic in breaking your weight-loss plateau.
STRENGTH TRAINING If you’re not doing this already than it’s time to start. Working your muscles will help to strengthen bone tissue, increase lean mass, and ultimately boost metabolic rate. Weight training doesn’t mean you have to become “buff”, you can still build muscle and tone.
THINGS TO DO TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT SETTING PROPER DAILY CALORIE GOALS ON MFP When you set your MFP daily calorie goals, it asks your activity level. If you choose any other activity level than sedentary it will give you higher calorie goal because it’s assuming you will exercise that week and burn those calories off; if you do not exercise than you will obviously gain weight. Also if your exercise calories are calculated into your daily goals than whatever calories burned exercising that you log you can’t technically use (eat back) because it’s already calculated into your daily goal.
If you like to eat your calories back than do the following:
Set your activity level to “sedentary”, than whatever exercise calories you log you can eat back. Make sure you know exactly how many calories you burned by using HRM, if you follow MFP calories you may end up gaining instead. If you do it this way you treat your calories like a bank. You can save for the weekend so you don’t end up cheating or use them as you please daily.
INVEST IN A HRM MFP overestimates calories burned by as much as 200-400cals per hour of working out, it overestimated my calories burned walking by 50%! Thank God I wasn’t eating calories back when I first started because I would have gained weight instead of loosing-if that happened I would have gotten discouraged and given up. It’s CRUCIAL to know the right amount of calories burned.
So invest in HRM that comes with a chest strap, amazon does free 5-8 day shipping.
I highly recommend the Polar brands (Polar FT4, FT7, or FT60). If you want a cheap version cause you don’t have much money, than get this Timex Easy Trainer HRM, it’s only $37. If you get this Timex than use below link to calculate calories burned.
:flowerforyou: TIMEX HRM LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F5WB66/ref=oh_o05_s00_i00_details
:flowerforyou: CALCULATOR LINK:
Note: put down 35 for VO2 Max if you do not know yours, do not put 0 or it will overestimate your calories. Scroll down past the ads to use the calculator.
http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/calculators/calories-burned-calculator-based-on-average-heart-rate/
LOG ALL YOUR FOOD/EXERCISE It’s crucial to log everything so you know how much you’re eating, also it’s important so that you can make sure you get enough protein and fiber in your diet.
FIBER: If you find yourself always hungry you most likely need more fiber, fiber helps you stay fuller longer. PROTEIN: Make sure you meet your protein daily goals or better, otherwise your body will eat your muscle tissue, and you will lose muscle mass-no bueno! WATER: You have to make sure you get enough water too, otherwise you will have a lot of “I gained this week and I feel discouraged” moments. My body sometimes holds as much 5 lbs of water, so you may thing your gaining but you’re not, you’re just not getting enough water. If this happens take a look at your sodium, you’re probably having too much. Teas, coffe, sodas, etc do not count as water sources, they actually dehydrate you.Make sure to log all your foods, if you ever plateau it will help you determine what you need to change up and point out the things that no longer work for you.
AS YOU LOOSE WEIGHT ADJUST CALORIE GOAL You know how when you first start off you loose a lot of weight and than it slows, and slows, and slows more down? Well that’s because your body is carrying less weight so it needs less and less energy, so the calorie deficit you started off with is much lower now.
For example:
At 200 lbs my BMR was approximately 1750
At 170 lbs my BMR is approximately 1550
The difference in daily calorie burn is 200 calories, multiply that by 7 and it’s 1400 calories each week, that’s almost half a pound! So instead of loosing 2lbs a week like you used to- you now lose 1.6lbs
Now let’s say you want to keep loosing 2lbs like you used to, well you now need to create a deficit of 200 calories each day.
A lot of times MFP has you already set at your lowest amount of 1200cals, and you should never eat less than that. So you’ve to exercise and burn off that 200 calories each day.
Easy way to calculate the deficit is go to BMR calculator, put in your info at your highest weight, write down your BMR; than plug in your current weight and write down the BMR. Take the difference between the calories and that’s how much you need burn exercising in order to keep loosing same weight as before!
NOTE: the closer and close you get to your goal weight, the harder it will become to make that deficit, and the biggest the deficit the less nutrition your body is getting so make sure you take multi-vitamin or dietary supplements so that you get enough nutrition for your body. If you don’t your body could eventually go into “starvation mode”.
STRENGTH TRAINING As I mentioned below you can break plateaus by doing strength training. Strength training is as important as cardio, it helps speed up the amount of calories you burn resting- the more muscle you have the more you burn while resting. Do strength training every other day, do not do it everyday because your muscles need to rest in order to grow. Strength training does not mean you will become “buff”, you can simply “tone”.
EATING CLEAN+VITAMINS If your daily calorie goals are low in numbers or if you don’t eat as “clean” as other people do than you need take a multi-vitamin to make sure your body is getting proper nutrition. If your body doesn’t get what it needs it may start eating your muscle tissue, or you may become tired, weak, etc. Also make sure you get enough calcium, as you exercise it’s important to have enough of it.
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Replies
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loved this thread!0
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wow! thanks!0
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Thanks, I'm sure I will need it later. Bump for later.0
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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!0
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thanks!!!0
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love it!! thanks!0
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I loved this thread and will be incorporating some of the tips into my lifestyle..
im the same weight today and i was 7 weeks ago, so as of monday i will commmence zigzaging my calories and change my exercise routine..
thankyou so much, lots of great tips, to help me blast this plateau
cheers0 -
Bump for later0
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So glad you guys can use this! Not all things work for everyone, but couple of these things can truly turn around any plateau. These are ways that I have found here on MFP and online and just put all of it together. It just felt wrong not to share what I have learned and things that helped me with my weight loss so far
Hope everyone has a wonderful night! 0 -
Great to share your knowledge .. thx0
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bump0
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bump0
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Thank you so much!0
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Yeay Thanks for the post!! 0
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You're most welcome! I am no professional, but these are things I have gathered through numerous threads on here, websites and personal experience, it would be wrong not to share especially knowing how difficult it is to get through a plateau. If you instill a couple of these things in your routine you most likely will never plateau, you just have to always keep your body guessing, just always change things up! :glasses:0
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Great post! Thanks!0
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Bump!0
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For later use.....thanks for info in one easy location0
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thanks!0
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Great post. I pretty much agree with all of it and that is rare! :bigsmile:0
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