Hit a Plateau, any advice?

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dh2312
dh2312 Posts: 33
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 5'5 at 148lbs and am eating 1200 calories a day, or at least trying to stick to that number. I've hit a plateau at this point and am not losing anymore. Wondering if I should raise my calories to about 1400, or cut carbs or something?
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  • Twiztedbeing
    Twiztedbeing Posts: 389
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    I am not an expert and I do not know everything about you, but normally when you hit a plateau, something has to change, either the diet, exercise or both, eating less will not help though as it is unhealthy. Shocking the body by doing something different is a good way to start.
  • mgnmsn
    mgnmsn Posts: 133 Member
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    i would eat more. your body probably went into starvation mode.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    I am 5'5 at 148lbs and am eating 1200 calories a day, or at least trying to stick to that number. I've hit a plateau at this point and am not losing anymore. Wondering if I should raise my calories to about 1400, or cut carbs or something?

    If you don't exercise you should be eating 1400 calories based on your stats. If you exercise it should be more. So how much do you exercIse?
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    Do you mean a true plateau lasting a month or longer, or a week or two with no scale movement?

    My advice, if it's a true plateau:
    Eat at maintenance (or 100 calories below maintenance) for a week. Ignore the scale during this time, as it will show an increase but it won't be fat. After that week, decrease your calories to 20-25% below your TDEE. You will start losing again.

    If it's not a true plateau, I'd still change my calorie goal to a 20-25% cut from my TDEE at minimum, in your place.
  • corbitron
    corbitron Posts: 34
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    I have hit the same thing! I have tried to increase my running but its still not helping!
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,326 Member
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    how long have you been plateaud?
    are you losing inches but not scale weight or is a complete stall?

    i recently had about an 6 week crawl (it wasnt quite a plateau since i was seeing changes in my measurements but not on the scale) and what seemed to help was changing my macros a bit. i didnt really change the amount of calories i ate, just changed the percentages of things. it was unintentional and i ended up eating way more carbs than i normally had been for 4 months. that ended up getting the scale moving.
  • Cocochickdeleted
    Cocochickdeleted Posts: 343 Member
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    How long have you been losing weight, and how long have you been at this plateau?
  • Venturin
    Venturin Posts: 244 Member
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    I agree with Twizted. What exercise do you do? I would suggest more. More cardio, more burn. I pushed through a plateau when I graduated myself from hiking to trail running. Running kicked the weight loss in gear again for me.

    Also check your diet, cut back on processed foods, eat as much fresh food as possible.

    -V-
  • jillthemom
    jillthemom Posts: 31 Member
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    I am 5 ft 4 inches, weigh 118, and I eat 1600 calories daily, plus eat back my exercise calories. I lose about a pound a week. You definitely should be eating more.
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
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    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/weight-loss-plateau/MY01152
  • crazybigchick
    crazybigchick Posts: 245
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    Maybe take a week off. I am not saying go hog wild, but give you body a week to rest and recover. I hit the worlds longest plateau. When I gave up dieting and exercise for a few days, it was like it jump started my body again. I know it sucks to see the scale get stuck! Good Luck!
  • 5pmsomewherenow
    5pmsomewherenow Posts: 163 Member
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    try eating "different" -- change it up.
    Try different exercising too, change that up too -- strength training?

    You're just battling against a set point, and you need to push through it. Bob Greene of The Best Life (Oprah's coach) has written some great strategies on beating the plateu set point.

    http://goarticles.com/article/Stuck-at-Your-Set-Point-Weight/3991717
  • tryinghard71
    tryinghard71 Posts: 593
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    How often are you working out? Are you eating 1200 net? I am also 5'5 and stopped losing around 145 pounds. I was doing all cardio. I increased my work outs by adding more weight lifting and walk a couple of miles on weight lifting days. Went from 6 days a week of cardio to an hour of weights 3-4 times a week. Eat back most all my exercise calories. I have dropped 7 pounds since then. This worked for me.
  • ashleyacee
    ashleyacee Posts: 118
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    I talked to a nutritionist I know and she said my body was in starvation mode at 1200, aspecially when you are active and your body needs the cals the most. When I went over 1200 for example
    (on a weekend) because of this my body would cling on to any extra cals I ate and It would be stored as fat. therefor I could not gain the muscle I wanted or lose weight long-term. It made no sense to me to eat more but now it does, I feel a lot better and am gaining muscle :)
  • lizziebeth1028
    lizziebeth1028 Posts: 3,602 Member
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    eat more, strength train
  • Goal_Line
    Goal_Line Posts: 474 Member
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    We may need a little more info to give you any meaningful input. How much are you exercising? - How long have you been plateaued? What is the ratio of carbs, fat and protean you are currently eating.

    If you are not exercising, start. If you are exercising, change the nature and intensity of it.

    Don't focus just on how much you weigh, there are other variables other than fat the play into this, such as water retention, constipation, etc. You may be losing fat but other factors are keeping your weight the same.

    Relax - stop weighing yourself. When I just kept working my plan knowing that the math was in may favor. After 5 days or so I'd step on the scale and be down 2 or 3 lbs. I think stressing about can play a role in fat retention.

    Be patient, you didn't put the weight on all at once, nor will it come off all at once.
  • mrsbarz
    mrsbarz Posts: 99 Member
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    I've hit the same thing. I've lost 42lbs so far and now nothing. I'm 5ft 3 & eating 1200 cals a day. I'm not particularly mobile (I have arthritis from the neck down). I'm swapping my meals around, so my main meal will now be a lunch time. Hoping that works.
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,785 Member
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    i would eat more. your body probably went into starvation mode.

    Her body hit a plateau, starvation mode is a couple of words throw around to scare you into eating more calories.

    Mix it up some high cals one day, low the next day, different exercises. You are not in starvation mode, unless you've ate NOTHING IN THE LAST FEW YEARS or your under 5% body fat, and I don't think you are. Mix it all up
  • tkarguijo
    tkarguijo Posts: 35
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    I agree with the others. You need to make sure you are eating the right amount. I don't believe in cutting something out completely, unless you truly need to for health reasons. I am currently taking pointers from Chris Powell's 7 day carb cycle solution. You cut out carbs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. My hubby and I have really seen some changes in how we feel and been losing inches. He talks about plateaus too...I agree with changing things up to shock your system...just make sure you aren't cutting back on calories or over exercising for your caloric intake. If you are carb cycling, the shock to the system is to go a week without cutting carbs and then go back into the carb cycle. Hope this helps. Good luck!

    Also, I agree that the high calorie, low calorie cycle helps too. This is actually integrated into the carb cycle also. Either way you go...I think you will see a difference.
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,785 Member
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    I've hit the same thing. I've lost 42lbs so far and now nothing. I'm 5ft 3 & eating 1200 cals a day. I'm not particularly mobile (I have arthritis from the neck down). I'm swapping my meals around, so my main meal will now be a lunch time. Hoping that works.

    I think you need to do something more than that. More like up your calories a day or two and then lower them for a day. If your not mobile from arthritis can't you do things in the water? You need to fool your body into thinking your feeding it more so it will start releasing fat for burning again

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