Those Last 10lbs

fitobsessed

Dammit, I've reached a plateau. My weight hasn't budged in a few weeks. I've stepped up my strength training workouts, but I suppose I haven't changed my diet (consume 1275 a day). Why do people reach this plateau?

What could I POSSIBLY do now? Does this mean that I just wasn't meant to go below where I'm currently at?

P.S. I REFUSE to do any fad diets (coworkers just tried to convince me to do the Blueprint Cleanse) or quick fixes for instant gratification. That stuff never works out (no pun intended) in the long-term.

neekz0r

Try eating at maintenance for a week or two, then drop back down to 1275 a day.

dawlschic007

Try upping your calories intake instead. It may take a few days for it to register, but if you are working out more consistently for longer periods of time than your body may need more calories to keep it running better.

fitobsessed

AHA. When I do work out I always end up working out all the calories I've eaten for the day. I even drink green tea every morning to speed up my metabolism.

What the two of you wrote make sense.

dawlschic007

Do you eat your excersize calories back? That may help if you are not already doing that.

mrsjennifermaffei

I agree, eat your resting/ maintaining calorie amount which would be like 1800 or so and then drop after a week to 1275. You'll see something amazing happened. Thats how I got over my plateau last week and have lost 7lbs since then.

fitobsessed

Do you eat your excersize calories back? That may help if you are not already doing that.

oooh no, I'm not. By the time I'm done at the gym, most nights I'm so exhausted I don't finish my meal. For instance here was Monday:
I ate 1195 calories, but burned 1238. Of that 1195 calories I ate, for dinner was only 290 calories. I'm just not that hungry after working out for so long. Plus I'm sleepy, and then I feel I need to stay up for two hours after eating to help my body digest so I just stop eating.

So maybe the key is to eat several small meals while I'm AT work (I'm a M-F, 9-5 person), since I put in such intense workouts. Then if I end up not eating dinner, or don't eat that many calories, that's okay because I consumed a lot of calories during the day.

Does that make sense?

fitobsessed

I agree, eat your resting/ maintaining calorie amount which would be like 1800 or so and then drop after a week to 1275. You'll see something amazing happened. Thats how I got over my plateau last week and have lost 7lbs since then.

Holy sh*tballs LMAO.

Okay, I will try that. I guess I need to eat SMALL meals, because I get so full sometimes!! Plus with drinking water, I feel I'm just eating, just to eat. Know what I mean?

jlr_12

Here's the thing...if you are regularly exercising off more calories than you eat, all the green tea in the world is not going to help your metabolism. You've been severely under-feeding your body if that's the case. I agree with everyone else, try eating more. If you continue to eat so little, and burn so much, when you get to maintenance if you try to eat the number mfp gives you, you will GAIN because your metabolism has slowed down so much. You should really try to start eating more in a regular basis...try eating 1/3 of your exercise cals for a week, then half, then all (provided your burns are correct...like if you're using an HRM). Eating your exercise cals back will help with your strength training as well...if you're eating a negative amount of calories in the day, there's none left for your body to use to build muscle, so all that strength training isn't benefiting you as much as it could be.

fitobsessed

Here's the thing...if you are regularly exercising off more calories than you eat, all the green tea in the world is not going to help your metabolism. You've been severely under-feeding your body if that's the case. I agree with everyone else, try eating more. If you continue to eat so little, and burn so much, when you get to maintenance if you try to eat the number mfp gives you, you will GAIN because your metabolism has slowed down so much. You should really try to start eating more in a regular basis...try eating 1/3 of your exercise cals for a week, then half, then all (provided your burns are correct...like if you're using an HRM). Eating your exercise cals back will help with your strength training as well...if you're eating a negative amount of calories in the day, there's none left for your body to use to build muscle, so all that strength training isn't benefiting you as much as it could be.

Yes, I'm using an HRM. No wonder I'm not seeing a decent amount of muscle definition after three months of working out, and I wasn't that heavy to begin with. Le sigh....

Thanks for the advice.

dawlschic007

Also, if you can anticiapte how many calories you usually burn on workout days then you should plan your meals in advance so that you are eating the majority of your calories before you workout (i.e. in the morning, lunch and snacks). Then have a smaller meal afterwards, if you're not very hungry. But you should still eat after a workout. You're probably really tired after workouts because your body doesn't have enough fuel since you burned it all.

fitobsessed

Makes sense. I'm almost over my limit today and I plan to go bowling. Bringing my HRM with me lol.

dawlschic007

Surprisingly, bowling burns quite a bit of calories! Have fun!

fitobsessed

Sweet! lol