Plateau for over a month now. Advice?

woahitsangie

Alright. Accepting any and all advice on how to break this plateau. Foods, workouts, calories...

I am 5'4 and 154lbs. I upped my calories from 1200 to 1350. I have a stationary bike, elliptical, and two 5lb hand weights available in my home. But, if I must, I will drive to a gym. Help a girl out, I'm pretty bummed.

crystal8208

Did you stay the same or gain with your cal increase?

d2footballJRC

Alright. Accepting any and all advice on how to break this plateau. Foods, workouts, calories...

I am 5'4 and 154lbs. I upped my calories from 1200 to 1350. I have a stationary bike, elliptical, and two 5lb hand weights available in my home. But, if I must, I will drive to a gym. Help a girl out, I'm pretty bummed.

Some people are going to tell you to up your calories for a day. I'm going to say intermittent diet for a couple weeks. I've done both to break plateaus. Granted if you've been exercising 1200 calories is most likely too low unless you are eating exercise calories back. Look into lean gains, or the 5:2 that people are doing. It's a way to shock your body into dumping the water it's most likely storing in the fat cells. (Usually one of the more common reasons you plateau if you are eating at a deficit.)

Goal_Line

What is the intensity of your exercise? Our bodies adapt to exercise and there is less ROI as it does. Perhaps you would benefit by increasing the intensity. Check out various ways to do interval training. HITT or Sparticus Workout with those 5lb weights.

girlonfire01

RE: Plateau - when I plateau on weight loss - my trainer advises I must make a drastic change - to either diet or workout. He will advise me to actually go way up on calories with clean eating for a couple of days, (meaning ioncrease by 400...not just the 150 you added) or to do something with a very high level of cardio...such as intermittent spints on the tredmill for 1/2 hour (20-20 second intervals of sprint/walk) for at least 5 times a week. These suggestions have worked for me in busting a plateau...so they might be worth a shot?

mireyap21

Alright. Accepting any and all advice on how to break this plateau. Foods, workouts, calories...

I am 5'4 and 154lbs. I upped my calories from 1200 to 1350. I have a stationary bike, elliptical, and two 5lb hand weights available in my home. But, if I must, I will drive to a gym. Help a girl out, I'm pretty bummed.

Lots of water my dear! BILLY BLANKS: TAE BO WORKOUTS!. he works you out and really adds variety to your workout! you can view full videos on youtube so you dont need to buy them

Doberdawn

I was plateaued for months. I tried staggering caloriers. Pfft. I tried raising my calories to 1500 (to lose only 1 pound a week). Pfft. Finally a friend sent me this article. I stopped dieting for 15 days... and now the scale seems to be moving again. I plan to do a full diet break every three months from now on.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html

jalas27

After my recent Plateau, I had my trainer look at my diet...we decreased my carb intake, and increased my protein. Now I'm back to losing again! Not sure what your diet is but this made a huge difference for me.

jalas27

Alright. Accepting any and all advice on how to break this plateau. Foods, workouts, calories...

I am 5'4 and 154lbs. I upped my calories from 1200 to 1350. I have a stationary bike, elliptical, and two 5lb hand weights available in my home. But, if I must, I will drive to a gym. Help a girl out, I'm pretty bummed.

Lots of water my dear! BILLY BLANKS: TAE BO WORKOUTS!. he works you out and really adds variety to your workout! you can view full videos on youtube so you dont need to buy them

Great advice, I love the Tae Bo Workouts, havent done them in years. But yes, water is SO important too!

dstevens19

Sometimes the scale isn't the best measure. I take my measurements on the first of every month and without fail, I've lat inches every month, even when the scale was up and down. Good luck!

cwolfman13

Take a "diet break"...i.e. eat your maintenance level of calories for a week to spike your metabolism then go back to a deficit. This works for me...do it every 6-8 weeks or so when I feel a stall coming on...works like a charm. Ultimately, your body adjust to the deficit over time and that deficit becomes the new maintenance...you have to spike your metabolism back to reality.

4theking

I need more information. How much have you lost? How long have you been dieting? How long were you at 1200? How active are you? There seems to be some good advice here but I need more info. before I would know what to do.

cathymarie75

I was like that for a little while. Went away to my in laws for a few days where I can never diet well. And must have jumped started me again. Because I came home started watching what I ate again and next weighin I lost 1.2lbs.


I will try this next time I Plateau again to see if it helps!

woahitsangie

Believe me, I have tried the whole "eat whatever you want for a few days to break the plateau thing" BUT no matter what I stay the 154-156 range. I havent gone past 156 or below 154..no matter how hard I try. I own the billy blanks DVDs, maybe I will try those...up for anything. Husband returns home in 9 weeks, and now im 4 weeks behind weight loss schedule! lol..

crystal8208

Believe me, I have tried the whole "eat whatever you want for a few days to break the plateau thing" BUT no matter what I stay the 154-156 range. I havent gone past 156 or below 154..no matter how hard I try. I own the billy blanks DVDs, maybe I will try those...up for anything. Husband returns home in 9 weeks, and now im 4 weeks behind weight loss schedule! lol..

Diet breaks sometimes needs to be as long as 3-4 weeks. As long as you don't gain (too much) you are fine to eat there for a while.

tatd_820

So glad I read these responses. Ive had several plateau's and they are no fun. Tons of hard work and you sit at a standstill for days. Taking a break scares me though. I'm affraid of getting back to old, unhealthy habbits. I suppose if you just eat more healthy foods it wouldn't hurt. It's still about avoiding the junk foods!

RMNPHike

You still might not be eating enough for your size. I'm at 1250 for 5'2", 118.6 pounds and steadily losing, moderate cardio exercising. Recently I have tried doing the 8-hour diet. Not nearly doing it perfectly (I eat over more like a 9-10 hour time span) and it seems to be working, but also eating very clean, lots of fresh salad, vegetable soups, lean protein and a little bit of healthy fats. The carbs I eat are mostly whole, unprocessed, high fiber.

Peanutbutterx

when i was dieting, that happened to me. then i said skrew it and ate what ever i wanted, gained 5 pounds n freaked out, started dieting again an then i lost a bunch of weight.. it worked for me..maybe im just weird though..

woahitsangie

hope the advice works

cwolfman13

Believe me, I have tried the whole "eat whatever you want for a few days to break the plateau thing" BUT no matter what I stay the 154-156 range. I havent gone past 156 or below 154..no matter how hard I try. I own the billy blanks DVDs, maybe I will try those...up for anything. Husband returns home in 9 weeks, and now im 4 weeks behind weight loss schedule! lol..

Diet breaks sometimes needs to be as long as 3-4 weeks. As long as you don't gain (too much) you are fine to eat there for a while.

Yeah..at least a week, two to three weeks depending on how long you've been so calorie restricted. Just eat to maintenance and spike your metabolism.

Also, time constraints like the one you're putting yourself on cause a lot of stress and anxiety. Dieting, stress, and anxiety do not make for good bedfellows. It's good to have goals and even to incorporate some time sensitive ones...but saying, "I need to be XXX Lbs by such and such a date." is generally a recipe for disaster. Weight loss is simply too non-linear for such things.