Plateauing---A Heads Up

Euphonasia

What causes a plateau? I haven't hit one yet, but I'm pretty sure that I will if I keep on losing weight at the rate I'm losing it. I try to eat my calories, but I'm doing quite well to hit 1200 (due to financial constraints as well as general lack of appetite), let alone eating my exercise calories. So I need advice. How can I avoid plateauing? Anything anyone can tell me would be immensely helpful.

Shanta1983

Sorry you can really avoid it in my opinion

TamTastic

Wow, you are only eating 1200? Eating that few at this point and with the weight you want to lose will definitely lead to a plateau. I never ate that low..even when I got into a healthy weight range and I still made it to my goal. I think doing that...making sure to eat plenty and exercising well is what helped me reach my goal with very few plateaus. And when I did hit a plateau, it didn't last for more than a week or two.

I am not exactly sure what causes one...but I am of the mind that it is the body's way of adjusting. I think every so often, when losing weight.....all your internal organs are going through a huge change and might just need a chance to sort of catch up. Not sure if that makes sense! But, not eating enough can definitely cause a plateau as well as your body getting too comfortable with whatever exercise you do.

Even at the end....until I reached my goal, I was still eating 1400 cals a day on my non-exercise days. I slowly lowered my calories as I lost. And didn't jump right to 1200 just in case I did hit a long plateau and needed to safely lower them a bit.

When I did hit a plateau..it didn't seem like eating less was what did it...but more changing something at the gym....maybe adding 10 minutes on another machine here or there to keep my body guessing and also just being patient. My body seemed to catch up and move forward again with this method.

Anyway, in MY opinion, you should try to get in more calories during the day...if you can...to leave yourself room to safely lower them should you need to!

:happy:
-Tami

foxyforce

how do you change your caloric intake a day on this site? for the first week i was definitly able to eat just 1200 and now i feel like i am starving myself. you have to eat absolutely healthy and pretty much clean foods as they are so much lower in calories.

today, all i ate was

yogurt for breakfast
roasted chicken sub on white bread with veggies and lite mayo and hot sauce for lunch
1 filet of haddock, 1/4 cup of rice, 1/2 cup of salad
1 big piece of cherry chip cake and 1 cup of cookie dough ice cream
AND
1 handful of almonds

plus i walked over 50 minutes

and i still went over!!! i need to raise my calories, or im gonna discourage myself too fast.

edit: nm! i just changed it to 1400 calories a day...i am still over, but only by a little. this is just more realistic for me and i am still gonna lose. yay!:bigsmile:

Euphonasia

Wow, you are only eating 1200? Eating that few at this point and with the weight you want to lose will definitely lead to a plateau. I never ate that low..even when I got into a healthy weight range and I still made it to my goal. I think doing that...making sure to eat plenty and exercising well is what helped me reach my goal with very few plateaus. And when I did hit a plateau, it didn't last for more than a week or two.

I am not exactly sure what causes one...but I am of the mind that it is the body's way of adjusting. I think every so often, when losing weight.....all your internal organs are going through a huge change and might just need a chance to sort of catch up. Not sure if that makes sense! But, not eating enough can definitely cause a plateau as well as your body getting too comfortable with whatever exercise you do.

Even at the end....until I reached my goal, I was still eating 1400 cals a day on my non-exercise days. I slowly lowered my calories as I lost. And didn't jump right to 1200 just in case I did hit a long plateau and needed to safely lower them a bit.

When I did hit a plateau..it didn't seem like eating less was what did it...but more changing something at the gym....maybe adding 10 minutes on another machine here or there to keep my body guessing and also just being patient. My body seemed to catch up and move forward again with this method.

Anyway, in MY opinion, you should try to get in more calories during the day...if you can...to leave yourself room to safely lower them should you need to!

:happy:
-Tami

Wow! Thanks for the reply! I'm not eating 1200 calories because I'm trying to lose weight quicker. I'm really not. I learned that lesson the hard way a few years back. I'm eating that few calories because I genuinely have no apetite whatsoever. But thank you so much for the advice! I'm going to try to cram a few more down my throat. Maybe a few more snacks during the day will help me out. 1400 seems like a very ideal goal.

TamTastic

You're welcome!

Enjoy some almonds or peanut butter on toast or something. That is an easy way to get a couple hundred more cals in...and tastes good too!!

MTGirl

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/20343-how-i-have-avoided-plateauing-length-warning

Read this - it should help!