How do I break a plateau?

SuperHero_Girl
SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been going to the gym every other day and tracking my food for about a month now. How I eat has changed drastically, and I've increased my workout time from an initial half hour to anywhere between an hour to an hour and a half. I started out with mainly elliptical and recumbent bike, but have now expanded my regimen to include the crosstrainer, (bit like a stair machine), various naautilus/weight lifting machines, the stationary bike, light weight lifting and swimming. I don't have the money for a personal trainer, or else I would definitely invest in one to expand my workout even further.

As with every other time I've attempted to lose weight, I've lost nearly 10 pounds and hit a plateau. In the past, this is the point in which I tend to get frustrated and give up, which is something I don't want to do this time around. I've done internet searches and there are just too many suggestions on how to break a plateau and I don't know what to do.

What are some of the ways that others here have broken a plateau to continue to lose weight?
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Replies

  • RuthSweetTooth
    RuthSweetTooth Posts: 461 Member
    Open the diary . . . we need data
  • PrettyGirlPayton
    PrettyGirlPayton Posts: 93 Member
    Simply add 5-10 minutes on to everything you are doing now. Or If you are doing it 4 days a week then start doing it 5..Its no secret.Just increase the intensity
  • vickers75
    vickers75 Posts: 1 Member
    Are you still losing inches even though you are not losing pounds and have you increased the intensity of your workouts or incorporated interval training? I also found that changing to using free weights and a swiss ball rather than the weight lifting machines in the gym gave much better results.
  • opuntia
    opuntia Posts: 860 Member
    I always see plateaux as being healthy and necessary periods for one's body to consolidate and stabilise the new weight it has become. And then, once you've had the plateau for a while, you can make a small change and lose some more weight.
  • GnochhiGnomes
    GnochhiGnomes Posts: 348 Member
    How long has the plateau lasted?
  • SuperHero_Girl
    SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
    Diary is open now, I didn't even realize it was private.

    I have been doing random times on machines instead of a set time every time.

    What is interval training?

    Edited to add that I haven't been measuring myself, so I don't know if I'm still losing inches. Also, I'm just now entering the plateau, it's almost a week old, but I know how it's gone for me in the past, so I know that this is the first true one and it could last a while.
  • Libb3C
    Libb3C Posts: 56 Member
    How much do you weigh? Are you already in your healthy weight range and just want to be lower? Are you eating enough calories? Drinking your water? Can you show us a day of food?
  • jackieatx
    jackieatx Posts: 578 Member
    Calorie cycling

    Just read that you wrote its only been a week, don't worry you're not plateauing. Drink lots of water and good sleep this week, take your fiber. Next week will be better, losses don't show up every week
  • SuperHero_Girl
    SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
    I currently weigh 256 pounds and I'm 5'2". If my diary is open now, are you able to see my food?
  • chrisclima
    chrisclima Posts: 4
    You should give it more time. If you have been doing this for only a month, it might just be that your body is adapting to the new routine. You should also try different things - maybe one week try something lighter, like a walk or yoga, then the other week go for the tougher exercises. You should surprise your body, so it never gets used to exercises.

    Good luck and don't give up!
  • kellygirl5538
    kellygirl5538 Posts: 597 Member
    girl i looked at your diary....you are eating out! Cut that out of your diet!
  • iammegs
    iammegs Posts: 38 Member
    If you don't want to change up your workouts TOO much, here's a brief article on interval training (and how to incorporate it into your workouts) from Shape:

    http://www.shape.com/fitness/workouts/interval-training-short-workouts-really-pay

    The basic idea of interval training is you're tricking your heart into staying in a fat burning range for longer by switching rapidly between VERY high intensity and medium intensity, as opposed to the women you see at the gym who stay on the same resistance at the same speed for 30 minutes. I've seen different takes on how long your intervals should be, though.
  • Mishadijo
    Mishadijo Posts: 36 Member
    perseverance, belief and stay positive... no matter what.
  • Sequence88
    Sequence88 Posts: 23
    What has worked for me is to cycle workouts. 6-8 weeks intense cardio, switching to just a warmup with weight training after...if you feel you need more cardio in this period, do it after you've lifted for a good period of time so that you've gotten what you need out of your muscles first, and so on. In the first cycle you'd lose weight, after you'd build muscle and tone, rinse, repeat lol. If you do a similar workout for too long, your body just adjusts and gets used to it, it stops changing as much as you want. If you confuse it a little, that's where I've personally seen the best results.
  • Sk8rG
    Sk8rG Posts: 55 Member
    Your calorie burns seem really high to me. If you can, get a HRM and enter your actual burn. MFP estimates high as do the machines themselves sometimes. There is a whole lot of "eat more" philosophy on here, but sometimes the answer is still eat less. I also find weightloss can be kickstarted by eliminating the processed food - pizza, microwave dinners.
  • mermx
    mermx Posts: 976
    Hi honey, checked your diary back for 4 -5 days and you have mega sodium and a lot of sugar t! maybe watch those 2 things will help?
  • Libb3C
    Libb3C Posts: 56 Member
    Looks like you opened it while I was posting - thanks! Ok what jumps out at me is your carbs - they aren't good carbs like veggies and fruit. I reallllly have to watch my bad carbs to keep the scale moving. I know it isn't any fun, but maybe scale back on the bars and ice cream, that sort of thing. Have some nuts or cheese for the same calories and get in some more protein. Eat some more fruits and veggies.
  • WABeachWalker
    WABeachWalker Posts: 133 Member
    Plateaus really can be discouraging. :smile: :smile: :smile: These are things that I did until I broke a 2 week plateau:

    1. Evaluated my eating, cutting back on sodium. Under the MSP "tools" heading, you can add sodium tracking to your food record.
    2. Added another 20 minutes of fast walking in the late afternoon or evening.
    3. Went gluten free until the weight plateau broke (added benefit: a persistent seborrheic dermatitis cleared up completely!)
    4. Drank a little more water.
    5. Changed my workout routine to challenge my body in different ways. Switched to bike riding or to doing intervals of walking fast for 3 minutes alternated with 1 minute of walking as fast as I could.
    6. Be encouraged that plateaus are normal for many people. Power through it with your positive attitude and you will be rewarded with a good loss that will make up for the plateau time.
    **** You're worth it. Keep going!****
  • TinaInFlorida
    TinaInFlorida Posts: 51 Member
    Things that stood out to me....monitor sugar intake and add more fruit and veggies :-)
  • Articeluvsmemphis
    Articeluvsmemphis Posts: 1,987 Member
    girl i looked at your diary....you are eating out! Cut that out of your diet!

    initially wasn't going to comment, but this is not good advice. eating out is not bad, it's all about choices. with that being said just watch overall calories and lean more so the healthier options when you can.

    i wouldn't be able to lose weight if i had to cook for myself, just saying
  • SuperHero_Girl
    SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
    To Sk8rG: I have a heart rate monitor and that's what I'm using to get my calories burned from. You're not the first to point it out, even I'm surprised, but I'm going off what my monitor tells me at the end of the day.

    Everyone else, I'm still working on gradually changing how I eat, but considering that, at the very beginning of this, I had days of near 4000 calories, I'm doing LOTS better.

    I can definitely cut out the coffee and whittle down on the ice cream, but I love the fruit and nut bars as a snack, I don't know that I want to give those up. I wonder if the sodium comes mainly from the frozen meals...but they're so convenient for work lunches.
  • Libb3C
    Libb3C Posts: 56 Member
    Drink some extra water - maybe 10 glasses when you are eating the frozen meals. I went a little further back and noticed you eat nearly the same thing for breakfast daily - try shaking that up a little too!
  • SuperHero_Girl
    SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
    I eat nearly the same thing for breakfast everyday because it's the easiest thing to throw together in the morning before work. Any suggestions on how to switch it up?
  • kellygirl5538
    kellygirl5538 Posts: 597 Member
    Sorry eating out is not good I dont' care what people say. If you spend 800 calories on one piece of pizza that is not good. I have been known to exercise out my bad diet, and I see that a lot of people on here do that ...you can't excerise out a bad diet.
  • southofpleasant
    southofpleasant Posts: 10 Member
    I think you should increase protein and decrease carbs a bit
  • kellygirl5538
    kellygirl5538 Posts: 597 Member
    I think you are right to change your breakfast, I had the same problem eating icream for breakfast. Try to keep you breakfast around 200-300 at the most .
  • Libb3C
    Libb3C Posts: 56 Member
    If you like eggs, you can make egg muffins - here is what I did for 1 dozen - you can freeze them too. 1.5 cups of egg whites (I do this for higher protein, lower cals but you can do eggs too, about 5-6), 1 cup of shredded cheese, 10 diced slices of lunch meat, onions, peppers, whatever else you want to add in. Mix it all up then laddle it out with an ice cream scoop in to a greased muffin tin (I use cooking spray). Cook for 20-25 mins at 350 and have 2 or so for breakfast! I make them ahead then keep them in the fridge for the week - my kids and husband like them too. You can use any kind of cheese, any meat, etc, I just use MFP recipe dealy to come up with the nutrition info. Have some fruit along with them too.
    I eat nearly the same thing for breakfast everyday because it's the easiest thing to throw together in the morning before work. Any suggestions on how to switch it up?
  • rhoyalenigma
    rhoyalenigma Posts: 6
    Hey! I looked at your intake for today, I would highly recommend that you decrease your intake to 1,500 or 1,700, also start taking vitamins and increase the amount of fruits and veggies you eat. Also try to cut out a lot of the refined carbohydrates that you're taking in. You want the calories that you do ingest to fill more than 1 role in your body. Juicing is always a good way to get more fruits and veggies into your system and increase your amount of micronutrients!
  • Tedebearduff
    Tedebearduff Posts: 1,155 Member
    I currently weigh 256 pounds and I'm 5'2". If my diary is open now, are you able to see my food?

    I looked at 2 days I would cut out sugar and ice mocha lattes stuff like that ... Food is 80% of your weight loss (personally I think it's 90%) so I would work on cleaner eating. I saw ice cream sandwiches and stuff ... that would be gone as well.
  • SuperHero_Girl
    SuperHero_Girl Posts: 72 Member
    Just a note - today was a bit of a fluke day. I didn't actually have ice cream for breakfast - I had it at midnight, so it counted for today, and I just put it in the breakfast section. On days I workout, I always have a banana prior to work out and an 8 oz organic chocolate milk box after.

    A lot of the stuff I try to eat is recommended by the Eat This, Not That series.

    The pizza was also unusual. I panicked the day I got it because, after working out, I had a net calorie intake of 410 and I felt like I needed to get more quickly.

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