Does responsibly upping calories always help with a plateau?

jan_andrea

Hey, all. Little intro -- been MFPing since August 2011. Started at around 270; currently at 204, give or take a few. I'm 5'11". Had a lot of easy success early on -- some 40 lbs in the first 4 months, then 20 in the next 4, but since then, it's been a real struggle.

I've been at this current plateau since April, and am pretty fed up with it. Admittedly, not enough to make major changes, although I walk everywhere and stay under my calorie allowance the majority of the time. I don't always eat *all* of my exercise calories, but I don't starve myself by any means. I walk between 3-6 miles on weekdays, and less on weekends. I'm trying to keep my sugar low, but it's always a struggle

Anyway, I thought I'd try to change things up and lower my calories to the 1.5 lbs/week level -- I've been at the 1 lb/week level for ages. However, I find it *very* difficult to stay at 1380 calories unless I really push the exercise, and then I eat all of those calories back. I keep reading that a two-week eating-at-maintenance should help, and honestly, I'd rather do that than what I'm currently dealing with, but like many, I'm afraid I'll just gain weight I have advised my husband (who has lost 40 lbs and who is also plateaued right now) to do the two-week rest, but am having a hard time putting my money where my mouth is. Additionally, he saw a nutritionist a couple of weeks ago who told him to cut his calories still further and not eat back exercise calories, because she said his body was "used to" his current routine and he can no longer eat back exercise calories and expect to lose weight. I had a hard time believing that, because while you are going to build up strength, it's not like walking a mile is suddenly going to use *no* calories.

Before I go on forever... if you were on a long plateau, did eating at maintenance for a couple of weeks actually help? Did it hurt? Do you still eat back your exercise calories (because I don't intend to stop walking -- it's part of my routine now), or just keep it around the maintenance calories? I'm just sick of seeing the same range of numbers on the scale every time I get on it, or worse, have a short loss period and then go right back to where I was :P

ssteinbring677

Bump

I have been at a plateau for a couple months now, and I'm interested in hearing some responses

MinimalistShoeAddict

I have been wondering about this as well although I am in a slightly different situation.

While I was trying to lose weight, I purposely did not record my workouts (because I thought I would lose weight faster if I did not "eat back" my calories). I reached my weight loss goal pretty quickly over a few months.

Now that I no longer want to lose any weight I
1. Increased my calorie intake
2. Started to record and "eat back" most of my calories

Over the past 3 weeks, I have gained 2 pounds when I think I should have lost 1 based on my calorie intake.

Since I record everything I eat I see only two possibilities:

1. My calorie burning estimates from exercise have been too high

or

2. I have only gained water weight (since it is a small amount of weight and I have been consuming a lot of sodium (which increases water retention) over the past few weeks)

Is it possible that one of those two theories could apply to you? I have long wondered if the exercise calorie burning estimates I see online are accurate.

On another note, I see nothing wrong with raising your intake for a while if you think it may help make your life easier (with exercise, etc) or in the case of a previously too low intake level, reset your metabolism.

Good luck!

kaypat09

I was at a plateau around 185 (I'm almost 5'10) and I upped my calories from ~1300 to ~1600. And it worked miracles for breaking my plateau! Granted, I work out 5-6 days a week (about 700calories/workout).

You might want to try switching up your workout routine (workout videos?).

Otherwise, I would say give it a try!