3 month plateau please help

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Replies

  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
    Did you say you were eating 1900 at maintenance while working out? Probably still not enough. I'm a female, 27 years old, 5'1ish, 175lbs and eat 1900 (and often more) calories to LOSE weight. I'm not abnormal either, there are a lot of women eating 1900 on here to lose weight. As a taller male I'm sure you should be eating more. Use this to calculate your TDEE-20%.
    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
    How many weeks did you eat at 1900 before you dropped it by 300-400 calories? I know it sucks but after 2.5 years of a severe calorie deficit, it will just take some more time to get back to normal. There are a lot of threads on here about plateaus, such as this one:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/826338-tips-to-bust-through-a-plateau-dieters-edema
    Finally, congrats on losing 153lbs! That itself is freaking impressive.

    yeah I personally eat 1400-1600net, and as I am exercising most days, I will eat closer to 2000 calories. I am a 140lb female... I really think that you could be under eating. If you aren't exercising, 1900 sounds about right for maintenance, however if you are exercising too then you are depriving your body, telling it to be more efficient with how many calories it burns (i.e. slowing your metabolism!)
  • runfreddyrun
    runfreddyrun Posts: 137 Member
    have you gotten your body fat tested at a bod pod or dexa scan? if not, i highly recommend it. as i understand it, fat requires fewer calories. meaning, someone with a much higher bf% (like myself) does not require as many calories as someone with a lower bf%. so the standard thing on MFP is to tell someone 'oh, you're not eating enough, you need to eat more! i eat xxx calories a day . . . ' there is not much meaning or truth in this unless someone knows all the information about you (including an accurate bf%) and even then, they are still estimates.

    so go to the bod pod. it's cheap ($35). i'm going in the morning myself.

    and also - i don't know how i feel about this, but there is a registered dietician that comes on here from time to time and he gets the 'starvation mode' and 'plateau' questions a lot. his standard answer is always to reduce the amount of calories you are eating. he also points out how many many people under-estimate their daily calorie consumption while overestimating their calorie burn. take that for what it's worth. i'm sure you can take that too far.

    unfortunately, there is no easy answer. get all the accurate information you can get (i.e. body fat and RMR) and just keep trying things. maybe try reducing 10% (that is what the RI suggests) from your current 1300-1500. make sure to stick with it for a month though.

    and i agree with the suggestion about stopping cardio and starting weight training 2-4 times a week. and then maybe add in a little (1x or 2x a week) of HIIT. many people feel you get as good as or greater benefit from HIIT than you do for steady state cardio.

    don't give up. something will happen at some point. and then make sure to come back here and tell everyone about it. i've been on my own $%#@ plateau for the past few months so i feel your pain.

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