How to kick start weight loss after demotivation

UmMasud

I've been stuck at exactly 132.8lbs for the past three weeks and need to change things in order to get my weight loss moving again. I'm 5'1 and started out at 173lbs over 28 months ago. I've lost approx 40lbs but ideally, I'd like to lose another 14-15 lbs. Based on your own experience, please tell me what you think is the best way forward from the options below:

(1) increase my calorie intake to 1600 and workout for 2 hours a day
(2) increase my calorie intake to 1800 and work out 2 hours a day
(3) stick to 1200-1500 calories a day and continue working out for 1 hour a day
(4) reduce carbs in my diet and include more high protein foods whilst continuing to workout 1 hour a day
(5) take a couple of weeks off and eat at maintenance for this period before starting again doing what's worked for me up until 3 weeks ago
(6) or some other suggestion?

Please do help. I've been really demotivated lately and this weekend I ate about 6000 calories over 2 days. Last weekend was also a down point and I ate 5000 cals. If I carry on like this I'll be back to where I started.

CynthiaBewley

Demotivation happens to everyone, I know I gained about 10 pounds due to this. Only you know what will work best for your routine. Someone else could suggest working out 2 hours a day, but most people simply just don't have the time for this. Right now it seems like the best thing to do is to try and figure out the source of your demotivation.

Personally, ingesting that many calories sounds like more of a problem than simply lacking motivation. It sounds like perhaps you are fighting depression, or that your body is lacking some nutrients and therefore you are craving everything in sight. It could be that you have some deeper issue, and there is not much chance of successfully losing weight until you figure out what that problem is.

I have found that if I simply avoid situations that allow me to overeat, the problem mostly solves itself. Sometimes a little white lie is even neccessary. This holiday season, in order to prevent myself from overeating on the goodies at work I told everyone that I have a gluten allergy. It isn't true, but just about every baked good has gluten in it, so telling people this meant that I couldn't touch those things.

aliciab307

Depending on your intake, if its 1200(guessing) you may want to up that, esp if you're exercising and not eating back any calories. Your exercise time depends on your preference and what is actually attainable realistically. If you're interested in taking a maintenance break this user wrote out her experience and I found it very helpful incase I needed a break. Hopefully not as I have roughly 25 lbs left to lose.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MoreBean13

I would say definitely up your intake.

Here are some helpful links. Find out your TDEE, BMR and plug in the numbers to fit you.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/680246-tdee-bmr-what-they-are-and-what-to-do-with-them

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/833500-what-do-i-do-common-sense-cliff-notes

choose whichever one works for you