Plateau

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Roxiehart9
Roxiehart9 Posts: 32
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All,

I've hit a plateau and I need some advice on how to push through this. I have MFP set to eat 1200 calories a day. I've been doing this for about 3 months now and have lost 25lbs. I eat on average 90g of carbs a day and have a high protein intake. I exercise about 5 days a week for an hour (elliptical, spinning, swimming, light weight lifting) I'm trying to figure out how to push through this plateau...any advice or suggestions would be GREAT!

Replies

  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    I've read so much advice on here on ideas and things that have worked for people. For me.. I hit one and busted through it by eating a meal or two way off plan. I gained six pounds, i'm sure a lot water weight...then I hit my diet again and busted down through. At that time I also didn't exercise and I started walking also. I think the increase in calories and the light exercise gave my body something different.

    On here I read:

    Switch up the intensity and variety of your workout

    increase your calories ..if you're at 1200...go up to 1400...and you'd be asked.."are you eating your exercise ca lories back?" some on here do..many eat back half.

    Some would advise you to look on the "eat more to lose more" thread


    one guy said to do squats before and after meals

    another idea..that i'm doing right now to avoid a plateau..is zig zagging calories so your body doesn't adjust.. if you google that topic you'll get a calorie calculator that figures up how to do it..but you'd eat low calories for two days..higher for one..up and down.

    Good luck.
  • rladd6421
    rladd6421 Posts: 455
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    i hit a plateau about two weeks ago and my friend took me off all fats except extra virgin olive oil, and my only carbs are now steel cut oats, or old fashioned oats, sweet potato, quinoa, and brown rice but only 20-30g a serving, ended up losing 4 more lbs. Treated myself today with a small piece of cheesecake lol.
  • Evasavealot1
    Evasavealot1 Posts: 76 Member
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    Stick to cardio. You can divide the cardio for twice a day. That works for me.
  • Roxiehart9
    Roxiehart9 Posts: 32
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    The 1200 cal is an average. Some days it's 1400 some days its 1000. I try not to eat back my exercise calories, but based on some of the message boards, it looks like I probably should start doing that. Is it more of just a "shock" or another "jumpstart" for my body to bust through this?

    I'm a teacher and coach, and since school is about to start, my gym routine is going to go south for a bit until the fall sports season is over. I just don't want the hard work I did this summer to go to waste and I want to continue progressing.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    you may bust through it by stopping the exercise and sticking to your 1200.
  • crowntech
    crowntech Posts: 8 Member
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    Hello,
    I'm on the same type of diet but with120 carbs and hit a wall also. My trainer said carb/calories were fine but to eat an extra snack a day. I currently eat breakfast, snack, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. By eating so many snacks it keeps my metabolism reved up. Also to eat most of your carbs by your afternoon snack. I feels like all I do is eat. I did a cheat weigh in and I think it's working. Good Luck!
  • WintersMoonlight
    WintersMoonlight Posts: 14
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    I was on a 3.5 month plateau.
    I have cut out all fruits from my diet recently,took me awhile to figure out that the sugar was inhibiting my weight loss.
    I've also cut out all breads,rice and pastas from my diet, caffeine (rip)
    No more cheat days. I watch my sodium intake and never exceed 1500 mg of it or else I retain water for a long time.
    i've been consuming Healthy fats,Egg Whites,Meats(mostly chicken and fish,I watch red meat),Cheese(no more than 3 oz a day),once in awhile a greek plain fat free yogurt, and lots of veggies.
    The weight has been coming off now.
    Also let me tell you I tried everything to get off my plateau; eating more,eating less,exercising more,exercising less,stopping exercise and taking a week off,lifting heavy weights,lifting moderate weights,no weight lifting,removing all grains and bad carbs but it seems that fruit was my culprit. I was consuming 3-5 servings a day of it and going way over my sugar intake limit.
    I hope this helps anyone out who might need want to try something a bit different.
  • beast8618
    beast8618 Posts: 35 Member
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    The 1200 cal is an average. Some days it's 1400 some days its 1000. I try not to eat back my exercise calories, but based on some of the message boards, it looks like I probably should start doing that. Is it more of just a "shock" or another "jumpstart" for my body to bust through this?

    I'm a teacher and coach, and since school is about to start, my gym routine is going to go south for a bit until the fall sports season is over. I just don't want the hard work I did this summer to go to waste and I want to continue progressing.

    You seem to be doing great hitting your cals. Your body probably has gotten use to your routine. I suggest investing in a punching bag or a partner to hold up some targeting mitts. You get a great intense cardio and its also a great way to shock your muscles to tone. Vary your punches from jabs to uppercuts at a fairly good pace. Your first 15 minutes you will be drenched with sweat. That is a great and fun way to workout and my wife would rather train that way than just run or bike. Good Luck!
  • kaervaak
    kaervaak Posts: 274 Member
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    Two main factors contribute to plateaus:
    Metabolic adaption and muscle catabolism

    Metabolic adaption occurs whenever you eat a calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time. Your body decreases your metabolism because it sees this as a famine or some other kind of hardship and it doesn't know how long it will last. To fight this it starts rationing. The general advice for getting over this kind of plateau is to eat at maintenance for 2 weeks to reset your metabolism. This probably won't fully reset you, but it will get your body to stop being so stingy with the fat oxidation for a little while. As your body fat gets lower, this process happens faster and so you'll need to do resets more often. At very low body fat percentages, there is a technique known as "refeeding" that basically involves doing a metabolic reset once or twice a week (one or two days of eating at maintenance) to try to stave off metabolic adaptation as much as possible.

    Muscle catabolism is kind of the dark side of weight loss. Your body uses both muscle and fat for energy in a calorie deficit and it turns out that muscle is actually more bioavailable than fat. So if your body is really stressed and taxed for energy, it will preferentially break down muscle tissue for energy. As your body breaks down more and more muscle (and you won't replace that muscle while in a caloric deficit), your metabolism decreases. The best way to prevent this kind of plateau is to eat a high protein diet and do whole body resistance training. This basically tells your body that you need that muscle and it shouldn't break it down unless it really really has to. Also, you shouldn't run a huge caloric deficit, eat a very low calorie diet or engage in extreme cardio training while in a caloric deficit (these are all very stressful on your body and encourage catabolism) if you want to preserve your lean body mass and subsequently, your metabolism.

    One other thing that can happen is that you have progressed from an untrained state to a trained state in your exercise. This results in a decrease in motor unit activation when performing the exercise and a subsequent decrease in the amount of effort and types of muscles recruited. You may be using much less energy performing your workouts now than you were when you started. You should consider doing a progressive resistance training routine such as starting strength to keep your muscles working at maximum capacity.
  • ezavora
    ezavora Posts: 59 Member
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    Two main factors contribute to plateaus:
    Metabolic adaption and muscle catabolism

    Metabolic adaption occurs whenever you eat a calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time. Your body decreases your metabolism because it sees this as a famine or some other kind of hardship and it doesn't know how long it will last. To fight this it starts rationing. The general advice for getting over this kind of plateau is to eat at maintenance for 2 weeks to reset your metabolism. This probably won't fully reset you, but it will get your body to stop being so stingy with the fat oxidation for a little while. As your body fat gets lower, this process happens faster and so you'll need to do resets more often. At very low body fat percentages, there is a technique known as "refeeding" that basically involves doing a metabolic reset once or twice a week (one or two days of eating at maintenance) to try to stave off metabolic adaptation as much as possible.

    Muscle catabolism is kind of the dark side of weight loss. Your body uses both muscle and fat for energy in a calorie deficit and it turns out that muscle is actually more bioavailable than fat. So if your body is really stressed and taxed for energy, it will preferentially break down muscle tissue for energy. As your body breaks down more and more muscle (and you won't replace that muscle while in a caloric deficit), your metabolism decreases. The best way to prevent this kind of plateau is to eat a high protein diet and do whole body resistance training. This basically tells your body that you need that muscle and it shouldn't break it down unless it really really has to. Also, you shouldn't run a huge caloric deficit, eat a very low calorie diet or engage in extreme cardio training while in a caloric deficit (these are all very stressful on your body and encourage catabolism) if you want to preserve your lean body mass and subsequently, your metabolism.

    One other thing that can happen is that you have progressed from an untrained state to a trained state in your exercise. This results in a decrease in motor unit activation when performing the exercise and a subsequent decrease in the amount of effort and types of muscles recruited. You may be using much less energy performing your workouts now than you were when you started. You should consider doing a progressive resistance training routine such as starting strength to keep your muscles working at maximum capacity.

    I read this thread because I feel I am in a plateau right now and looking for help. I think this really relates to me (as much of the other advice) What are some whole body resistance training exercises? I am confused about the limiting the extreme cardio exercises in a calorie deficit. What is considered extreme cardio and what is considered calorie deficit? Im set at only 1300 calories a day and usually eat back my exercise calories. I like to run and will go anywhere from 3-5 miles in 30 -40 minutes.
  • kaervaak
    kaervaak Posts: 274 Member
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    For the average person, plateauing is caused almost exclusively by hormonal adjustments that the body makes when you eat too few calories for an extended period of time. Muscle catabolism is mainly what happens to people who are already pretty low fat who continue to starve themselves by maintaining a large calorie deficit or who engage in extreme (read 2 hours or more per day) low intensity workouts like marathon running.

    Generally, to get over a plateau, you need to convince your body that you are in fact not starving to death.

    Here's a great thread on the way your body responds to calorie deficiencies: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/710742--starvation-mode-exercise-calories-dillema
    Underfeeding is any time you eat below TDEE yes, but as I stated, in order to begin and continue in the process of starvation mode, you must underfeed enough to not be able to maintain the deficit. think of it like this:

    if Calories consumed + energy from storage (fat, protein...etc) =TDEE
    then
    You can maintain the deficit and lose fat.

    BUT
    If Calories consumed + energy from storage is LESS than TDEE then eventually, your body will continue to use glycogen at a greater rate then it can be created, eventually the body will require a means to balance out, this means adusting the energy burning portions of the body (muscles organs, autonomic functions, heat, immune system...etc)
    This is a long slow process, but eventually it can become dangerous.

    AND
    The more fat you have, the larger the amount of energy the body can pull to make the equation above equal out.
    But the body can only use so much fat, because it can't pull fat from unexposed areas (think of a melting ice cube, you can't melt the middle until the top is melted). So there's a finite amount of energy that the body can pull from fat at any one point in time.

    Basically, I would recommend eating at your TDEE for a few weeks to give your body a break. Then when you resume a calorie deficit, eat a smaller one than you were before. 1300 calories is pretty low, you should be aiming for about 250-500 calories below TDEE for healthy sustainable weight loss depending on your current body fat.

    As for resistance training, I'm talking about lifting heavy weights. No pink dumbbells. Follow a structured program like Starting Strength, Strong Lifts 5x5, New Lifting Rules for Women, etc. Resistance training has been shown over and over again to not only be the most effective exercise you can do for losing body fat, but it also preserves your lean muscle and makes you look better.

    As a final note, don't be too hung up on the scale. Your weight fluctuates quite a bit and your bodies natural response to stress (as in a new routine, exercise, diet, sleep schedule, etc) is to hang on to more water. Make smart choices, stick to a plan that works for you and fits your lifestyle and don't stress out too much about how fast or slow your weight is changing. Weight loss is just a by product of healthy living and that's what you should be striving for.

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