Help with 9-month Plateau

princesslmc2

I'll try to break this down as succinctly as possible...

I started out my journey in May 2010. By June 2011, I had lost 47-48 pounds - which is AWESOME!! In that 13 months, I had drastically changed my normal eating habits, as well as having gone through these workout progreams: P90X, ChaLEAN Extreme, Brazillian Butt Lift, RevAbs, and TurboFire (with a few other random stuff intermixed).

Since June, I have been stuck. I am currently at 195/196 pounds and am 5'8" tall. According to the BMI charts, 197 is obese - I'm not comfortable being that close still. Granted, I know the BMI numbers aren't entirely accurate. My "Eat Healthy" scale extraordinaire says my body fat is at 30-33% (depending on the day). My ultimate goal is 22-25% body fat and 175 pounds (still technically overweight on the BMI chart - but I'm okay with that).

I didn't truly start getting frustrated until after the holidays (and was rather quite pleased I maintained my weight over the holidays!!). But come January 3rd, I've been hitting the workouts HARD again - as well as switching up how I'm eating. Every 30 days, it's something different.

January was cardio month and back to eating all the right foods again.

February was strength training, while upping the protein intake and lowering the carb intake.

This month (March), I've decided to do another round of P90X. And as far as food, I've switched around my calories to eat more of the "solid foods" earlier in the day to hopefully make it easier for my body to process (i.e., oatmeal for breakfast, snacks throughout the day (apples, celery, protein bars), homemade salad with tuna and little dressing for lunch, and a protein shake (Shakeology!) for dinner... *sometimes* some crackers or popcorn after, if I'm still hungry come 7 or 8 PM).

Yet... neither the scale nor the tape measures have budged.

- I workout 40-55 minutes/day (be it cardio or strength training).
- I *net* 1400-1600 calories/day.
- I drink 80-150 ounces of water/day.
- Particularly in March, my nutrition has been 40-50% carbs / 25-30% protein / 25-30% fat.
- I rarely eat out at restaurants (MAYBE 1-2 times/month) - and when I do, I generally choose one of the healthier options available
- My weekends are even under control now!!

What gives? Any ideas/suggestions?

jbakerak

Not too sure, but you could try cutting certain things out of your diet now that your weight has gone down. I don't have too much more to lose, and have been having difficulties as well. But I can't seem to lose weight if I eat breads, pasta's, potato's etc., or I won't lose any weight (this includes hot and cold cereals for me). I also know people that can't eat things like tomatoes or they won't lose weight. As odd as it sounds, could be something you've eaten all along and now that your weight has gone down it prevents you from losing more. Also, not sure if you've tried heavy weight lifting, I've seen quite a few people on MFP talk about how that's the only way they could continue to lose once they hit a certain point. I'm trying the heavy weight lifting thing myself right now, after only one week I lost almost 2 lbs., I expect to possibly gain as well due to additional muscle, but something is working! Hope this helps!

princesslmc2

Thanks for your reply, jbakerak!

Yes... I started the heavy weight lifting in 2010 - and agree with the reviews you've heard. MAJOR inches lost there. I continue to lift heavy weights during my existing strength training workouts.

I like your idea of swapping out different foods to "test" if that's a trigger food. Sounds crazy, I know... but hey - at this point, it couldn't hurt. :-)

boltonholly

I can't relate to the plateau, because my problem is I keep going up! But, I did read this article recently; maybe some ideas here? http://experiencelife.com/article/whos-counting/

renstwin

Sounds like you have been working hard! Maybe this is your body's way of saying it needs a break? I have read before that it can help to take a week off yearly then go back on your program. Couldn't hurt to try it if you have been on a plateau for so long already.

ksanchez311

I'm in the EXACT same boat and I'm about to ask my doctor if maybe my thyroid is to blame.

princesslmc2

All really good feedback!!

ksanchez - let me know what your doctor says!! I actually got mine checked out in December and results came back normal. Other than that, she couldn't offer me any other advice other than what I already knew / had tried. *sigh*

renstwin - I had heard the same thing about giving the body a break. I did that for the month of December (mainly cause I was so busy with holiday-related stuff). *sigh*

boltonholly - (*waves to my traveling workout buddy*) Thanks for the article link!! A few of those things I've looked into and have adjusted, though there is always room for improvement. I just read yesterday that Vitamin B12 can help boost your energy... so I started taking that this morning (and it seems to have helped so far). And am definitely looking into taking other natural metabolic boosters. I'll re-read that article for some more helpful nuggets.