Hitting a Wall, suggestions?

whatascene

Hi I'm 5'6.5'', 153lbs, 22 yr old (goal weight is 140). I've been on this journey for a while, and I've been stuck at 153 for over a month now. My calories were reduced already, I work out 4-5x a week (nothing too crazy, usually 45 min cardio, bellydancing). If I eat my work out calories back it's only if I have a cheat day, or I'll eat a small portion of them back. MFP has me on 1,340 calories a day, I don't want to go lower because I think that's when I'd start getting pretty hungry.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? I'm a full time grad student, in my internship and doing full course load, so let's be realistic as well please

Buff2022

Maybe you need to eat more? I don't know but I wanted to say you look great in the profile picture. Keep up the good work.

thesupremeforce

Wear good gloves? You wouldn't want to break your hand.

You're pretty close to the weight you're trying to achieve, so I wouldn't be too worried about it being slow.
If anything, you might want to try bumping up your calories a bit (you seem to be eating below your BMR based on the calculation I just did).

whatascene

Thanks guys I hit the max BMI (155) for my body, I think I'm a little addicted to the thrill of losing another pound! lol. I'm going to give this calorie intake another 2 weeks. I'm also set to sedentary which probably doesn't help the eating situation. If nothing changes in 2 weeks, I'll bump up to lightly active to get some more calories. Thanks for the input I really appreciate it!

MyOwnSunshine

Take rest week or two -- eat at TDEE and back off your workouts to let yourself recover physically and psychologically. Sometimes a break allows us to resume with increased intensity, resolve and commitment.

ernestbecker

Not sure if you're breaking up your meals into at least 5-6 per day, but this will help. I would also recommend that you shock your body by doing something totally different. I wouldn't back off your workouts, but rather doing something that allows you to go hard for a minute, back off for 2 mins, and then go hard again for a minute, for 20 minutes each session. This helped me get my body fat% from 10 to 7 when I hit my plateau. By the way, I don't use the scale to measure success and I understand why most do, but the important thing is to have low body fat, feel good, look good, and of course be healthy. My two cents. Feel free to add me if you like my approach.

whatascene

Thank you! I have heard of the multiple smaller meals a day, and I tried it several times, but I ended up not liking it. I have a ton of friends who are "grazers", but I usually am hungrier when I do that and more miserable than 2-3 decent sized meals a day. I've honestly given it a good chance, I just don't think it's for me. But I really do need to get into the habit of eating breakfast... I'm not a breakfast person. And that's a good idea on the cardio idea, for the last 20 min of my workout I'll add that on and see what happens! Thanks guys!