I think it's over..

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JaimeBrown5
JaimeBrown5 Posts: 324
in Motivation and Support
From September til February I lost 25 lbs. From February to now, I've lost 2 more, and one of them comes and goes all the time. I think my body has decided that even though I don't want the extra 30 lbs, IT does. Ugh.

I know I could eat cleaner, but I can't live like that forever. I love sugar.

I work out 3-4 times a week, I eat back my calories. If I have a massive overage day, I usually have it balanced out through the week with extra calories and it's fairly rare that even when I am over, I'm over my maintenance level.

I strength train usually twice a week, I run a couple days a week too. I'm an active person despite a desk job. I just want the scale to move again!

And yes, I've been measuring. That's stopped moving too.
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Replies

  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    I've read a lot recently that a great way to break a plateau is a 2 week diet break (eat at maintenance) and a 1 week deload (lifting break).
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,124 Member
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    Set your Goals at "Lose 1/2 lb a week"....and try that for a while - like a month.
  • thriftycupl
    thriftycupl Posts: 310 Member
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    Have you done a search on plateaus here on MFP? There is tons of great information already posted. I had a 7-8 week plateau. Now I'm trying different exercise and a different way of eating. Search out the forums on here. Again, great information is posted.
  • Athijade
    Athijade Posts: 3,280 Member
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    Open your diary.
  • secretlobster
    secretlobster Posts: 3,566 Member
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    Open your diary.

    This

    and give us an idea of what your BMR and TDEE are please?
  • JaimeBrown5
    JaimeBrown5 Posts: 324
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    Hm, I thought it WAS open. TDEE is about 1850, BMR is 1540.

    Rae - I DID take a deload break, remember my meltdown after my 4 weeks of SL5x5 when nothing moved then either?

    I'll get it opened.. hold on...
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
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    Have you reassessed your goals? As you lose weight, MFP slowly takes calories away from you.

    Alternatively, are you set at 2 pounds a week for weight loss? You may need to back that off, because the closer you get to your goal the slower it's going to get.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    Hm, I thought it WAS open. TDEE is about 1850, BMR is 1540.

    Rae - I DID take a deload break, remember my meltdown after my 4 weeks of SL5x5 when nothing moved then either?

    I'll get it opened.. hold on...

    K. What about two weeks of eating at maintenance?

    I can see your diary. Maybe it's only open to friends.
  • lifestyle50
    lifestyle50 Posts: 8 Member
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    I think all of us who have had a lot to lose have gone through this. I certainly know your pain, I'm just trying to get back on track after about 3 weeks of depression. For me, it was a major accomplishment not to have gained over the past 3 weeks, and I think that a plateau instead of a mountain for you is nothing to ignore, well done for keeping the weight off.

    I find for me after a long period of weight loss I tend to get sloppy with my measuring. I think I can just spoon it out to the right portion, but I now realize that without the discipline of a measuring cup and scale my portion sizes grow and I'm getting more calories than I am tracking, so the weight doesn't come off. Make sure you are measuring carefully and logging every single thing you eat.

    Someone else commented on changing your routine, a good idea. For your strength training, I've been told over and over that your body learns how to the routine more efficiently and you get less of a workout after a while doing the same thing. You need to change it up, change the pace of the reps (slower is better), or do more reps with less weight or less reps with more weight. Try different excercises that hit the same muscle groups. I'm no trainer, but knowledgable people tell me you need to do this to keep burning the same number of calories per workout.
  • lmelangley
    lmelangley Posts: 1,039 Member
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    Set your Goals at "Lose 1/2 lb a week"....and try that for a while - like a month.


    Agree with this. MFP wants me to eat 1200 calories a day, but I plateau if I don't eat at least 1325.
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    How are your settings for TDEE? Is it set to sedentary then you add exercise?
  • JaimeBrown5
    JaimeBrown5 Posts: 324
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    I'm eating at 1500.. I had it at 1400 for a 100 calorie window for overages that I may have missed or for things like ketchup, but I found that I was going over and once I was over by 100 (which was fine) I was just continuing to go over cuz I had failed for the day. So I put it back at 1500 and other than weekends when I can blow it out of the water, I'm not too far off.

    Also, I should add that in my exercise calories, I use a HRM for cardio, and I do 4xnumber of minutes training to calculate my lifting calories.

    I have a scale and measure when I'm at home and the stuff I eat at lunch has always been the same stuff...

    For the last 2 weeks or so I've been varying my workouts as much as I can. I switched up which lifts I've been doing, I deloaded, I reloaded, I added hot yoga back in, I threw some elliptical in, some incline, varying running speeds.

    I feel GREAT after a good run or lifting session, my body FEELS good, but the numbers are just. There.
  • vonnywaft
    vonnywaft Posts: 182
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    I feel your pain. You've done really well. I lost 14lb, 2 of which keep coming and going, and I have 10lbs still to lose but I've been stuck since October! I don't know what else to try. I've e tried eating more, eating less, exercising, not exercising. I know I have been lighter than this and not just as a child! I just don't get it.
  • JaimeBrown5
    JaimeBrown5 Posts: 324
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    How are your settings for TDEE? Is it set to sedentary then you add exercise?

    Yup. I work a deskjob and I didn't want it to use exercise calories that I may not earn, cuz if I skip a day at the gym, the calorie-guilt would kill me.

    I've put in my info INCLUDING exercise in a variety of calculators - they all say the same, around 1800.
  • _HeathBar_
    _HeathBar_ Posts: 902 Member
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    How are you measuring your serving sizes? Do you have a food scale, are you using it?

    edit: never mind I saw your above reply.
  • davidmcgowan1987
    davidmcgowan1987 Posts: 111
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    Someone else commented on changing your routine, a good idea. For your strength training, I've been told over and over that your body learns how to the routine more efficiently and you get less of a workout after a while doing the same thing. You need to change it up, change the pace of the reps (slower is better), or do more reps with less weight or less reps with more weight. Try different excercises that hit the same muscle groups. I'm no trainer, but knowledgable people tell me you need to do this to keep burning the same number of calories per workout.

    qft

    Your body, same as any organic machine is hard wired for efficiency... tell it you want to run 40 miles a day everyday and you will lean right down to a rake, tell it you want to run 20mph for half a mile twice a day you will bulk out like a sprinter.

    tell it you want to lift X amount of weight X amount of times X often and it will adjust itself so that you can accomplish that goal as efficiently as possible.

    my recommendation would be to hit different muscle groups on your strength days hard, put in a few maintenance reps on your current muscles, but really work the rest hard, force your body to adapt...

    the other option would be to introduce high intensity interval training and long anaerobic cardio sessions to confuse your "efficiency engine" and then after a few weeks switch back to confuse it again.

    look up p90x as thats designed specifically to breakthrough plateus but be warned its a hell of a workout
  • onikonor
    onikonor Posts: 473 Member
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    Your diary looks good, maybe a bit heavy on the carbs.

    Maybe you just hit a plateau and need to take up your system a bit. Have you tried alternative carb days then low carb days for a couple of weeks? Increasing exercise might do it also.

    There a lot of great topics on plateaus if you search.
  • secretlobster
    secretlobster Posts: 3,566 Member
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    You seem educated so you probably already know this, but your diary is very carb-heavy, low on protein, and sodium is often over. Sodium is killer unless your potassium is really great.

    If you're lifting and plateau'ed at weight loss, you really need to focus on increasing protein and fat, while decreasing carbs.

    Your exercise has nothing to do with why you're not losing weight - It's all about your diet
  • NostalgicMuse
    NostalgicMuse Posts: 340 Member
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    Open your diary.

    This

    and give us an idea of what your BMR and TDEE are please?

    Just have to say... THIS is lovely. People with problems reach out and say-- OMG I'm FALLING -- and others reach back to pull you up! Thankful for this community of motivators and people with similar goals.
  • jetabear10
    jetabear10 Posts: 375 Member
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    Eat less calories, more protein, way less sugar, less carbs and try mixing up your exercise routine. Circuit training type stuff where you jump your HR quickly with short rests in between are great for kicking your butt into weight loss.

    Do you run? You might want to give the Couch to 5K program a try...the weight will fall off!

    Cheers and good luck!

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