How did YOU get through your plateau?

amann1976

Everyone had different ideas about what weight/soze med and women should be, we all know BMI is not perfect but 5ft10 and 150lbs is a BMI of 23. well within 'health' range.

the whole BMI thing should be thrown off the face of the earth... I have a high BMI but i guarantee i am in better physical conditioning than people half my size.

take the average nfl running back according to their BMI they would be considered obese

if you ever worked out with a good trainer they never weigh you to indicate progress everything is done using measurements

wattsy84

Everyone had different ideas about what weight/soze med and women should be, we all know BMI is not perfect but 5ft10 and 150lbs is a BMI of 23. well within 'health' range.

the whole BMI thing should be thrown off the face of the earth... I have a high BMI but i guarantee i am in better physical conditioning than people half my size.

take the average nfl running back according to their BMI they would be considered obese

if you ever worked out with a good trainer they never weigh you to indicate progress everything is done using measurements

Yeh good point, I would happily stay at this weight but be lean, but to do that surely I would need to bulk and cut?

wattsy84

Ok so if my TDEE is 3000 and I'm eating roughly 2500-2750 a day heavy lifting 3x week light cardio 2x week heavy cardio 1x week! And being doing this for 3weeks with no change until NOW, I have weighed myself and I'm up to 166lbs now from being stuck at 162-164. This is the first time the scale has moved, I can't be gaining muscle if I'm eating in a deficit? Is it time to cut back down to 2200?

claytonmac

Yes - do a hard reset of your metabolism... general guidelines for this would be eating 200-300kCal surplus for 2 weeks... then carry on with a -20% deficit.

How do you do a hard reset of your metabolism??

mrincredible93

I'm 5'6" and I was recently stuck at a 168lb plateau for a little over 3 months. It also coincided with the deep winter months here in the northeast so I wasn't too concerned as long as I was maintaining and not packing on hibernation weight. My body fat is 19.5% so I know I can move down further. I finally pushed through with a combination of intermittent fasting (1 day a week) and muscle confusion. I changed up my work outs, including what time of day I work out at and added in lap swimming to replace cybex arc training for a while.

wattsy84

Now I'm wondering if I really need to lose weight or just get lean? How do I do that? Eat at TDEE and lift?

acpgee

I was stuck on a plateau for 3 months. My first 3 months of MFP I lost 12 kilos. Then it stopped and it took me almost 4 months to lose another 3 kilos. When I was losing well at the beginning I was eating around 1350 net. First tried restricting further, adding weight training and increasing cardio to 6 hours a week but nothing seemed to help. Finally I took a 3 week total diet break.

Ate at just under TDEE for 3 weeks. Set MFP to 0.5 lb loss per week, and ate back half (sometimes all) of my considerable exercise calories. I tried to only eat half because I don't trust the burn rates on the cardio machines at the gym (I don't wear an HRM). This past week I have restricted back to 1300 net, and have dropped a kilo. Next time I plateau, I will not be so reluctant to do a diet break again. I think my body's response to restricting severely for a long period was to slow down my metabolism. The 3 week diet break seems to have re-set my metabolism.

I was happy not to gain during the diet break, though my weight fluctuated up a kilo at first, but settled back down to my lowest pre-break weight. According to MFP calculations I should have lost at least half a kilo during the break but that didn't happen. It might not be necessary to do a full 3 weeks. If I google Total Diet Break, people recommend one or two weeks.

GamerLady

Try changing up your routine and working out harder. Your body gets use to the regular routine and becomes easier to do each day, maybe need a change to get you over that hump.