plateau for 5 months

dyremior

I have lost 60 lbs since November 2010. I was going great losing 1 to 2 lbs per week when in Sept of 2011 my weight loss stopped. I will lose a pound, gain .6, lose .3, gain .8. I am so tired of this! I exercise 6 days a week for 1.5 hours, I use a carido machine for 60 min and then do some weight.
I have tried many different suggestions from other gym mates, including changing up my routine, doing 1 to 2 extremely hard workouts per week. I have tried eating more, eating less, drinking more water.
I am at a loss of what to do, How long do you keep saying that it is muscle? That it is just a plateau? Has anyone else had a plateau that lasted this long?

Captain_Tightpants

I had one that lasted 3 once.

If you've lost 60lbs have you recalculated your BMR and adjusted your calorie deficit accordingly? A body that's 60lbs lighter is considerably easier to move around in terms of calories burned.

Did you start on any new meds?

Did you start eating foods higher in sodium?

Have you had your thyroid function checked?

Good luck. I'm sure you'll break through it. Let us know when you succeed!

clohessy

Mine lasted for almost 8 1/2 months. Thought I would loose my mind. I cut out exercise Dvds . I run an hour every day still couldn't loose so I added walking for an hour to my running and that broke my plateau lost 4 lbs after 2 weeks and 2 lbs every week since.Now I'm starting to slow down to 1lb a week I'll take it though.

KareninCanada

What is your height/weight? Could be you need to recalculate your numbers. BMR does decrease with age as well as with your reduced weight.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html is a pretty detailed calculator. Just hypothetically throwing in numbers since I don't know your stats, let's go with 48yo F, 150lb, 5'5"

Assuming an hour and a half of exercise six days a week, with half of that being vigorous exercise, 14 hours of rest, aka sleeping, sitting, and other inactivity, and the rest split between "light" and "very light"... that gives a BMR of 1381 and a maintenance level of 2251 calories per day.

You can go punch in your own more accurate numbers to nail it down better. Then work on creating your calorie deficit based on that maintenance number. Or do what heybales recommends and base it on your goal weight, then just use that maintenance number as your current number to lose at.

My suggestion is you reduce your cardio and increase your weights. I've been reading "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" and he has some good information in there about how focusing on cardio, cardio, cardio actually hurts our success in the long run because the muscles get to know what they're supposed to do and get more efficient at doing it, thus burning less than we think they are.


Good luck to you.

dyremior

thank you for the tips. I am going to see a nutritionist soon, I have thought about less cardio but have not reduce it yet. I am going to stay with what I am doing till I see the nutritionist.

Jess5825

I'm having the same problem. I workout 6 days a week. for an hour or more. Train to failure once a week. I think I need to go twice a week. Since Septemper, I've lost about 12 lb. That's it. I've tried upping my calories with eating my exercise calories. I think I'm going to have to try to bump back down. I'm at a loss. With the amount I workout and what my body media fit says I burn I should totally be losing. My thyroid was last checked last July or so. If you figure out what you are doing wrong, let me know. I'm almost to the point of just taking a week off and then restarting, because I went away for a week last month and did not track and did not really workout and lost a lb, and that was the last pound I lost.

dyremior

Finally someone in the same boat! I posted on a thread someone else started about weight gain and I have had not so nice things posted towards me. Too the point of wanting to delete my account. I have given up trying to figure this out I am so stressed out it is probably not helping. Most of the advice that people give you on here is just basic stuff that anyone who has been trying to lose weight for as long as we have would know. One guy said that because I do not have my pic on here I should go sit on the couch and eat Twinkies!! It is like "How dare you". I don't take a good pic, I don't like the way I look and will never put one on there. I also will never open my profile so everyone will nit pick my choices.
Sorry for all of this, I just needed to vent!!

sloew

thank you for the tips. I am going to see a nutritionist soon, I have thought about less cardio but have not reduce it yet. I am going to stay with what I am doing till I see the nutritionist.

I am in the same boat as you1!!! I started Jan 2011 and lost 30 lbs, 1/2 way to goal, and in July/Aug everything stopped. I went on a trip and gained 10 of that back and have not been able to get any of that off!!! I tried dropping my calories, I tried upping my calories, I tried HARD workouts 5 days a week and NOTHING!!!! I finally went to the nutritionist she said focus on getting food groups and told me how many of what I need to be eating for 1500-1800 calories. I tried it for a good month and NOTHING!!! I went back to her this past week and she was just as baffled as I was! I did the jillian michaels 30 ds and didn't lose anything inches or lbs! nothing!! Well, she said the next step was to take a medabolic test. Come to find out I have a very fast metabolism and even eating 1800 calories my body was in starvation mode! I have not tried it out to test it but she said I need to be eating 2200-2400 calories a day!!! I'm a 28 year old female! 5'6''. She was surprised! Anyway, if you have been building muscle your metabolism might be high?? Ask the nutritionist if she can set you up with a medabolic test!

We will get through this together! You've done amazing! Don't give up!

dyremior

Thank you for the encouragement! The metabolism testing is one of the first things I am going to ask to have done.