Reached a platuea, now what?

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FeatherStone13
FeatherStone13 Posts: 16
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi! I think I've reached a platuea in my weight loss. I havent gained/lost any significant weight in a week. Any tips on how to over come this hurdle?

Replies

  • AJKrunner
    AJKrunner Posts: 10
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    Change your routine. Every time I reach a plateau I change the type of exercise I am doing. I go from running to biking etc. Also, you may have stalled your metabolism. In which case slightly increasing your calorie intake may be beneficial.

    I have personally found that having green tea before workouts helps to keep the fat burning up!
  • EmilyArndt
    EmilyArndt Posts: 5
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    Yeah the problem probably is your exercise routine. They actually say to change it up every 4 weeks or so. Your body quickly adjusts to whatever workout you are doing and after a few weeks thinks "Hey I got this, this isn't so hard!" which results in not burning as many calories. I just hit this same wall too last week after losing weight every week for almost 7 weeks straight, nothing lost last week! But then again, I've only been doing my elliptical so now its time to change it up!
  • foxywife75
    foxywife75 Posts: 59 Member
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    You could either decrease your calorie intake by 100 calories or increase your exercise. Green tea & red pepper flakes help to keep your metabolism up. Try to consume most of your fiber & protein in the morning because it will help make you feel full all throughout the day. Doing that will help you decrease your calorie intake.
  • savvystephy
    savvystephy Posts: 4,151 Member
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    I am not sure one week is a plateau. I would say keep doing what you're doing and see if it changes next week. A plateau to me is when you're stuck at the same weight for a multiple weeks. Hang in there. :flowerforyou:
  • RedneckWmn
    RedneckWmn Posts: 3,202 Member
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    I have to agree. I would keep doing what you are doing if it's only a week. Or maybe try and make a very small change to what you are doing. You definitely have to keep changing up your workout that's for sure! Maybe try the couch25k program. That really helped get me over my plateau!
  • butterfly25
    butterfly25 Posts: 186 Member
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    dont change anything yet let your body get use to what your doing and savvystephy is right it takes longer than a week to hit a plateau..keep up with what your doing and if you dont see a change after your fourth week in than change it up...:bigsmile:
  • Jammyc
    Jammyc Posts: 3
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    Hi there,

    This happened to me, I didn't lose any weight for 3 weeks! Don't be disheartened just stick with what you are doing and the weight will start to come off again!

    Are you sticking to a certain amount of cals each day? I was sticking to 1200 cals a day and when I plateau'd I decided to up my cals for a couple of days (only to about 1300) it worked for me! I then continued to lose 1-2lb each week after that.

    Good luck .......... Jan :)
  • FireMonkey
    FireMonkey Posts: 500 Member
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    I would agree - you've only started this last month, and one week without the scale moving is not a plateau. Take a look at your eating and exercise habits - if there's anything you want to tweak go for it, but basically you've got to give your body time. Pay attention to how you feel - are you satisfied with your calories or do you always feel hungry? Does exercising make you feel energized or exhausted? Lots of people with weight issues have stopped listening to their bodies - but it can be re-learned.

    Good luck on your journey :flowerforyou:
  • Capucine7
    Capucine7 Posts: 40
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    Change your routine. Every time I reach a plateau I change the type of exercise I am doing. I go from running to biking etc. Also, you may have stalled your metabolism. In which case slightly increasing your calorie intake may be beneficial.

    I have personally found that having green tea before workouts helps to keep the fat burning up!

    I agree with this. Change of exercise and increasing calorie intake for a couple of weeks (about 500cals) then go back to your initial calorie intake for weight loss. Although.....I don't believe you hit a plateau....it`s just too soon to tell.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Right, absolutely I agree, 1 week does not a plateau make. Heck, 1 MONTH isn't a plateau. Sometimes your body needs a few weeks to adjust to the chemical changes that inevitably occur when you change your body composition. Patience is the key in this game, remember, the shortest unit of time you should be thinking in with weight management is 1 month. Anything short of that is not long enough to register real changes.

    When I got down to within 15 lbs of my goal weight, there were months where I didn't lose at all, that's fine, and yeah, it was frustrating, until I realized (and read, and researched, and had minor epiphanies) that all of these 1 week cycles that people like with weight loss are all smoke screens to make us (myself included) feel good about weight management, they aren't actually very good time periods to measure success. Success should be measured in monthly time spans, and in some cases, yearly time spans.
    I know lots of people on here don't want to hear that. Well... here's where my tough love side kicks in. Get over it, there's two ways to do this, for the long term, and for the instant gratification. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they are the same process, but almost never do the two run parallel for very long. Short term setbacks can sometimes be exactly what we need for long term successes. If you always work towards long term success, sometimes you'll achieve your short term goals as well, and sometimes you won't.

    All MHO people, do with it what you will.
  • geri09
    geri09 Posts: 4
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    Hi - any ideas about up and down weight?

    I tend to shed weight put some back on then shed a bit more! but overall slowly going down!

    Geri
  • chgudnitz
    chgudnitz Posts: 4,079
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    I am not sure one week is a plateau. I would say keep doing what you're doing and see if it changes next week. A plateau to me is when you're stuck at the same weight for a multiple weeks. Hang in there. :flowerforyou:
    I'm going to ditto this... Just keep doing what you're doing if it's working for you. 1 week doesn't mean anything over the long run.
  • chgudnitz
    chgudnitz Posts: 4,079
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    Right, absolutely I agree, 1 week does not a plateau make. Heck, 1 MONTH isn't a plateau. Sometimes your body needs a few weeks to adjust to the chemical changes that inevitably occur when you change your body composition. Patience is the key in this game, remember, the shortest unit of time you should be thinking in with weight management is 1 month. Anything short of that is not long enough to register real changes.

    When I got down to within 15 lbs of my goal weight, there were months where I didn't lose at all, that's fine, and yeah, it was frustrating, until I realized (and read, and researched, and had minor epiphanies) that all of these 1 week cycles that people like with weight loss are all smoke screens to make us (myself included) feel good about weight management, they aren't actually very good time periods to measure success. Success should be measured in monthly time spans, and in some cases, yearly time spans.
    I know lots of people on here don't want to hear that. Well... here's where my tough love side kicks in. Get over it, there's two ways to do this, for the long term, and for the instant gratification. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they are the same process, but almost never do the two run parallel for very long. Short term setbacks can sometimes be exactly what we need for long term successes. If you always work towards long term success, sometimes you'll achieve your short term goals as well, and sometimes you won't.

    All MHO people, do with it what you will.
    You know you're going to get yelled at by at least one person... :laugh:
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    You know you're going to get yelled at by at least one person... :laugh:

    ***Sigh*** I know. Wouldn't be the first time. Won't be the last, it won't stop me from speaking truth though. I'm tough, I can take it, my wife's Polish. :tongue:
  • savvystephy
    savvystephy Posts: 4,151 Member
    Options
    Right, absolutely I agree, 1 week does not a plateau make. Heck, 1 MONTH isn't a plateau. Sometimes your body needs a few weeks to adjust to the chemical changes that inevitably occur when you change your body composition. Patience is the key in this game, remember, the shortest unit of time you should be thinking in with weight management is 1 month. Anything short of that is not long enough to register real changes.

    When I got down to within 15 lbs of my goal weight, there were months where I didn't lose at all, that's fine, and yeah, it was frustrating, until I realized (and read, and researched, and had minor epiphanies) that all of these 1 week cycles that people like with weight loss are all smoke screens to make us (myself included) feel good about weight management, they aren't actually very good time periods to measure success. Success should be measured in monthly time spans, and in some cases, yearly time spans.
    I know lots of people on here don't want to hear that. Well... here's where my tough love side kicks in. Get over it, there's two ways to do this, for the long term, and for the instant gratification. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they are the same process, but almost never do the two run parallel for very long. Short term setbacks can sometimes be exactly what we need for long term successes. If you always work towards long term success, sometimes you'll achieve your short term goals as well, and sometimes you won't.

    All MHO people, do with it what you will.

    Thanks Banks. This gives me some more uplifted spirits for my "plateau" of 5 weeks so far. :tongue: I am on the last 20 or so, so that's probably it too. :smile:

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