Plateau - advice?

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sarski77
sarski77 Posts: 79
in Motivation and Support
After losing about 14lbs since the beginning of January, it looks like the much dreaded plateau has now set in and I have been stuck at 167lbs for over 2 weeks (I am 5’4’’). Measurements haven’t changed either.

Just to give you a bit of background info, I currently eat around 1400 calories and, because I work from home, I am unfortunately pretty sedentary and only manage to squeeze in Wii Fit and walks to meetings over the week.

Now – I know it happens to everyone and I have already decided to get off my backside, but I was wondering if you had any other tips that might help?

I’ve been checking out past threads of plateau and the following came up:
- Increase protein intake / reduce carbs
- Calorie cycling
- Go a bit mad for a day or two just to “confuse” the metabolism

What are your experiences? Anything that can help or shall I just carry on and it’ll come off at some point?

Replies

  • soldier4242
    soldier4242 Posts: 1,368 Member
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    I have been exercising and eating healthy food and keeping my calories pretty much exactly on the numbers that MFP recomends. I started out on the 1st of December at 250 pounds. I am now down closer to 230. On my way I have hit a plateau twice and both times I broke it by not changing anything at all. I just kept on doing what I was already doing and eventually the plateau would break on its own. So my advise would be stay the course. Make sure you are being honest with yourself and don't give up.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    A plateau is usually defined as 6 weeks without loss. Two weeks without loss is not at all unusual even if you're doing everything right. Water retention from exercise, stress, hormones, sodium, etc. can mask weight loss for a couple of weeks. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids to discourage your body from hoarding water.
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
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    Thanks guys, much appreciated.

    soldier4242 - no way I'm giving up without a fight :) You've done so well. I'll stop worrying about it too much!

    Diannethegeek - I really hope it'll shift before it gets to a real plateau then! I'll monitor my water intake more closely. Generally I don't track it as drinking has never been an issue but now I'm curious to see whether, even when I'm stupidly busy at work, I actually drink enough. Thanks for the advice!
  • plateaued
    plateaued Posts: 199 Member
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    Reduce calories and increase exercise.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
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    I had the same problem and I changed my workout regime to one that worked my body harder and suddenly I lost 4lbs in the space of a week.
    Some of your plateau could be water weight and it could also be your muscles have got used to the workouts you are giving your body and therefore aren't working as hard anymore.
    Maybe try to fit in 10-15 minutes of additional exercise each day you work out and you should see some improvement.
    Alternatively, I've heard the Wii has some good exercise dvds available for it? I recommend anything related to The Biggest Loser or Jillian Michaels.
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
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    After losing about 14lbs since the beginning of January, it looks like the much dreaded plateau has now set in and I have been stuck at 167lbs for over 2 weeks (I am 5’4’’). Measurements haven’t changed either.

    Just to give you a bit of background info, I currently eat around 1400 calories and, because I work from home, I am unfortunately pretty sedentary and only manage to squeeze in Wii Fit and walks to meetings over the week.

    Now – I know it happens to everyone and I have already decided to get off my backside, but I was wondering if you had any other tips that might help?

    I’ve been checking out past threads of plateau and the following came up:
    - Increase protein intake / reduce carbs
    - Calorie cycling
    - Go a bit mad for a day or two just to “confuse” the metabolism

    What are your experiences? Anything that can help or shall I just carry on and it’ll come off at some point?

    I had a very similar issue, I increased Protein/reduced carbs and started calorie cycling. That seemed to help for a little while, then I plateaued again.

    I would highly suggest downloading the Spreadsheet from IPOARM, inputting your data and let it tell you how many calories you should be eating. As soon as I did that, and INCREASED my calories, I immediately broke the plateau and have been losing consistently (and MORE) than I was before.
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
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    Reduce calories and increase exercise.

    Errrr, if I did that I would net weeeeell below 1200 which is not really the way I want to do this.
  • davidlconner
    davidlconner Posts: 3
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    How long have you been at 1400 calories? If you have been their for a while then you probably need to drop your caloric intake even more. Calories in vs. calories out... your body needs to burn more calories than what your taking in. So, Your metabolism is very adaptive to what your doing. Just as the last comment said water retention can also play a huge roll in watching the number go down on the scale. If you are worried then stick where you are fire a little longer and just look at yourself in the mirror every day. A picture is worth a thousand words. Don't trust a scale all the time.

    This would be very frustrating but your metabolism could be out of wack as well. You could restructure it by adding more calories to your diet. This would mean that you need to find what your caloric intake is to maintain your current weight. once you do that then start cutting your calories by 200 calories. There are many ways to estimate your caloric intake to maintain your current body weight. Here is a simple formula that will give you an estimate on where to start: (weight x 16 = maintenance calories) this is only an estimate.

    Also here is a link for you. watch this video, very informative:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wquNN1KPnQc
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
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    I would highly suggest downloading the Spreadsheet from IPOARM, inputting your data and let it tell you how many calories you should be eating. As soon as I did that, and INCREASED my calories, I immediately broke the plateau and have been losing consistently (and MORE) than I was before.

    You mean TDEE -20%?
    Would you mind sharing the link where I can download the spreadsheet from?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    After losing about 14lbs since the beginning of January, it looks like the much dreaded plateau has now set in and I have been stuck at 167lbs for over 2 weeks (I am 5’4’’). Measurements haven’t changed either.

    Just to give you a bit of background info, I currently eat around 1400 calories and, because I work from home, I am unfortunately pretty sedentary and only manage to squeeze in Wii Fit and walks to meetings over the week.

    Now – I know it happens to everyone and I have already decided to get off my backside, but I was wondering if you had any other tips that might help?

    I’ve been checking out past threads of plateau and the following came up:
    - Increase protein intake / reduce carbs
    - Calorie cycling
    - Go a bit mad for a day or two just to “confuse” the metabolism

    What are your experiences? Anything that can help or shall I just carry on and it’ll come off at some point?

    anger confuses metabolism? that is a new one to me.

    What kind of work out program are you going to start? You should try and do something that has you squatting, deadlifting, benchpressing, chin ups/pull ups, overhead press etc and then incorporate these into a three day aweek total body work out..joining a gym would be a good first step....you could also mix in some cardio on non weight days...
  • sarski77
    sarski77 Posts: 79
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    What kind of work out program are you going to start? You should try and do something that has you squatting, deadlifting, benchpressing, chin ups/pull ups, overhead press etc and then incorporate these into a three day aweek total body work out..joining a gym would be a good first step....you could also mix in some cardio on non weight days...

    Not sure - I was thinking of going for longer walks but given what you said it looks like that won't be quite enough. I can't afford the gym at the moment - do you reckon exercise dvds would do the trick?
  • davidlconner
    davidlconner Posts: 3
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    Walking is great! Losing weight is all about diet and nutrition. Exercise is only a tool to help you get into a caloric deficit if your trying to lose weight and burn fat.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    What kind of work out program are you going to start? You should try and do something that has you squatting, deadlifting, benchpressing, chin ups/pull ups, overhead press etc and then incorporate these into a three day aweek total body work out..joining a gym would be a good first step....you could also mix in some cardio on non weight days...

    Not sure - I was thinking of going for longer walks but given what you said it looks like that won't be quite enough. I can't afford the gym at the moment - do you reckon exercise dvds would do the trick?

    I guess exercise DVDS would work if that is all you have....do you have any weights at home?

    You could start running three times a week ...3-5 miles...
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
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    I would highly suggest downloading the Spreadsheet from IPOARM, inputting your data and let it tell you how many calories you should be eating. As soon as I did that, and INCREASED my calories, I immediately broke the plateau and have been losing consistently (and MORE) than I was before.

    You mean TDEE -20%?
    Would you mind sharing the link where I can download the spreadsheet from?

    Here is the link to thread which explains how to use the spreadsheet:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

    And here is the link to the actual spreadsheet:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE


    It is VERY helpful.
  • Lt_Starbuck
    Lt_Starbuck Posts: 576 Member
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    You should realize that anything worth having is worth working hard for.....alllllllll the way until you get there. And then you start working toward the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.

    I'm not sure what your goals are, whether it is to improve your body, improve your health, take on an event or just weigh less... but....

    You can't aim for a goal haphazardly without a plan and without knowledge and comprehension of what it will take and expect yourself to make consistent progress, much less reach where you are aiming.

    You could save yourself some pain, agony and frustration and learn the best way to go about reaching your goals - THEN settle in with the idea that it is going to take a year. Yes a YEAR - if it takes less- awesome! If it takes more - well, you're YOU - you can totally handle it.

    If you are doing the correct workouts to reach your goal, and eating within the proper nutrition and calorie window to be able to handle those workouts and your everyday life, and you still see no changes in measurements, body fat or weight after 3-5 months - THEN you have a real plateau and then you can worry about increasing your intensity or shifting some things around to blow past it.

    But this is not a plateau - it is a failure to launch correctly, - which is the easiest thing to fix of all the problems you could have stumbled upon.

    Learn.
    Work hard.
    Be patient.
    Keep going....
    Don't stop unless it is for your victory dance.

    Decide today that it is going to take a hell of a lot to stop you. You're no weak pushover and today is the day you're going to start proving it to the world.
  • TempoChiarisce26
    TempoChiarisce26 Posts: 43
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    Learn.
    Work hard.
    Be patient.
    Keep going....
    Don't stop unless it is for your victory dance.

    ^^Love This.

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