plateau help!!

I'd try increasing your protein, and eating fewer carbs. But in all honesty, you are probably in body recomposition mode, where you are loosing fat as fast as you are gaining muscle.

Personally I carb-cycle... and my plateaus or gains so far have been 2nd week blips. This month is the first time I really look like I'm having a plateau, but I am sick, so I know I'm retaining water. Things are moving now.. I can't wait for Saturday's weigh-in. Feel free to look at my food logs to see the difference in how I eat.

Looking at your diary and reading your program it seems like you're doing all the right things. You calorie cycle, you eat a good amount of protein, you lift weights and do cardio and your calorie goals seems pretty reasonable (though maybe a touch on the low side).

A few things that you might want to consider:
1. Do you do progressive resistance training? i.e. adding weight consistently
2. Have you ever tried HIIT (high intensity interval training) instead of steady state cardio?
3. Have you tried intermittent fasting? That often helps people break through plateaus
4. Have you tried increasing your calories or eating at maintenance for a few weeks?
5. Have you tried a low carb or paleo diet?
6. Do you get enough sleep and water?

2-3 weeks doesn't sound too bad. Try the things that everyone suggested. If you plateau for several months, then feel free to message me. I plateaued for an entire 3 month. Supplement was the only thing that saved me!

It looks like to me that you need to eat more. At the very least, try to eat all your calories PLUS your exercise calories if you do not want to raise your calorie goal.

I swear by eating more, I was stalled for months then upped my calories to 1500 plus ate back all or most of my exercise calories and boom, started losing again.

I seem to have hit a plateau. I've been steadily losing since July, but neither the scale nor my measurements have budged in the last 2-2.5 weeks. I know this isn't that long, but it's getting frustrating.

I'm opening my diary in case anyone has any suggestions. The one thing you will be sure to notice is how much sugarless gum I chew. I realize it's a lot and it isn't ideal, but this isn't something that has changed over the course of my diet, so I really don't think it's contributing to the plateau. I don't plan to stop or cut down on that anytime, because when I do I just snack more.

Other than the gum thing, does anyone have any suggestions for things I could do differently to try and get out of this plateau? In addition to logging my food and generally staying under my limit, I have been doing ~3 days a week of cardio and 2-3 days of weight training.

Thank you!!

Totally awesome that you are hitting the weights as well as cardio. I love that!

Instead of chewing gum so much brush your teeth or sip some herbal tea (find a flavor that you like, I like spicy ginger lemon or Bengal spice, add pure plain stevia or flavored liquid stevia).

You body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You can not make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

If you have a lot of body fat reserves you would be surprised at how little you can eat (unless you have emotional eating issues or disorders). The leaner you get the less your body has to draw from and then you have to taper up your calories. There is no such thing as starvation mode for woman over 12% body fat or men over 6% body fat. I pretty much proved that for myself by staying strong and building muscle and doing what I did. I'm the leanest, most muscular, and most fit that I have ever been in my life at almost 52 years old.

Separating out the the two things worked for me:

1) Eat less to lose fat.

2) Exercise to gain or maintain lean body mass.

Ignore exercise calories because it's insignificant when you don't have to worry about starvation mode anymore and it's highly over rated. Of course you burn energy, but not nearly what any of the devices say you do.

I found the following quote quite helpful when navigating all the various advice about calories.

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Eating Guide from the Venus Index manuals)

You will have to experiment with the calories to find what is right for you. I can't tell you or anyone else but I can tell you what worked for me http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12