How did you break your plateau?

Girl_Bomb

Whether it be a change of workouts, eating habits, going paleo, eating more, eating less etc

Please share your stories, iv been stuck for a year.

Derpinaaa

Bump.
I started Insanity today in hopes of breaking my plateau.
But I have no advice for you.

SRHelicity

I'm currently plateauing now after having being on a 750-1000 calorie deficit diet since early January (I'm at 169 lbs, down from ~185 lbs). My target weight is 164 lbs, which was my "stable" weight from the time I was 18 until nearly 27 (after which time my weight began creeping upward). At any rate, I've been stuck at 168-169 lbs for about a week. I'm still running a ~700 calorie deficit from my TDEE, so I don't know if this means that my metabolism has slowed or that I'm just holding onto more water weight since I started lifting weights a couple of weeks ago.

From what I've read, there are at least two primary "camps" -- (1) eat at maintenance for a day or two to "reset" your metabolism, (2) keep chugging away realizing that weight loss is often not consistent and often comes in "spurts", (3) change up your diet and exercise routine substantially, etc... I'm debating about whether option (1) or (2) is better for me right now. I think I'll go with (2) for another week (that is, continue chugging away). If my weight doesn't budge in the next week, then I'll go for option (2). I think I remember that the big Key study on calorie deficits from decades ago stated that metabolic changes were relatively minor (~10%) for calorie deficits <1000 calories per day, so I suspect metabolic changes aren't the reason why my ~600-700 calorie daily deficit hasn't yielding many weight changes lately. Since I've only really started lifting weight in the past 2-3 weeks, my plateau is probably from "newbie" muscle gains, but I'm not sure.
Just my 2 cents based upon my research...

skylark94

Go to maintenance for at least a couple weeks, then reset to no more than 20% below your TDEE.

sunnyside1213

I gave up everything with empty calories, including alcohol.

sharleengc

For me it's always just switching something. Doing a different exercise for a bit, or taking a week off from exercise. Changing calories doesn't really affect my progress, I usually have to mix it up with exercise.

johnjoy1064

Dukan diet for 5 days =8 pounds

m0_0m

Removed all processed foods.

Girl_Bomb

Probably should have included that I did a metabolic reset and ate at my TDEE, did the hole EM2WL thing for about 6 months, did a 15% calorie deficit yadda yadda yadda and in the end gained 15 pounds. I also do weight training, lots of it.

Iv barely touched processed foods in the past two years

And now iv began eating paleo almost a month ago.

skylark94

Probably should have included that I did a metabolic reset and ate at my TDEE, did the hole EM2WL thing for about 6 months, did a 15% calorie deficit yadda yadda yadda and in the end gained 15 pounds. I also do weight training, lots of it.

Iv barely touched processed foods in the past two years

And now iv began eating paleo almost a month ago.

What's your body fat %? What was it before and after your reset and you started lifting? When I started lifting heavy I gained weigh and lost fat.

Girl_Bomb

lets bump this to get more responces im not 100% sure my BF because i went over a year ago got told like 30% went again few months later got told 26% THEN like two days after that got told 32%, i did this at two different gyms, i own a caliber and it came up with about 20% BUT looking in the mirror, at pics and in the mirror there is no way its that low, also i have a lot of muscle you can feel it but not see it lol so i MUST lower that BF.