Increase Weights to break a Plateau?

Why are you lifting so little? If you have proper form down, I'd greatly increase the weights where you're lifting a weight that's heavy enough to fatigue your muscles in under 10 reps. If you can do 2 sets of 10 reps with proper form, go up. You might see a slight increase in the scale at first, but this will really help you hold onto LBM.

You should always be working to increase weights, that's the whole point. Progression. By increasing weights you will be increasing the amount of work you do and potentially burn more calories as well so it's a win/win situation.

start at 15.

Might I suggest trying the Joyce Vedral Definition workout (Google it-she has numerous books out there) ? If you are working out at home, like I am, then you probably don't have a full set of weights available and it can get quite pricey to invest in them. The trick is to increase your volume (in plain words, do more reps and sets) and intensity. But there is more...you also pyramid your sets with 3 different sets of weights (The book explains how this works with great pictures and a tear out wall chart). Beginners start with really low weights (1Ib, 2Ib, and 3Ib.) because the intensity of the routine simply will not allow anything heavier...you could maybe do 3Ib, 5Ib. and 8Ib but you will not likely ever go heavier than10Ibs, 12Ibs, 15Ibs with a routine this intense. The investment in purchasing a set or two of light weights is significantly less than having enough weights to accommodate large incremental increases. (or a gym membership).

I make this suggestion because I wanted to "lose weight" too but what i realized after a while was what I really wanted was to look tighter, toned, and shapely. And I did not want to deal with going to a gym (waste of time and money in my opinion), or do regular aerobics because they just plain never got me the results i wanted.

This workout did the trick. In 7 weeks I have dropped 2 sizes, lost 3 1/2 inches off my chest, 3 1/2 inches off my waist, 3 inches off my hips, and 2 1/2 inches off my thighs! How much weight have I lost?-who cares! The scale is your enemy, throw it away and buy a cheap tape measure, or use one pair of your pants that are too tight and watch as they start getting too loose!

I still have a ways to go to reach my goal and there will come a time when I will need to start incorporating things like peak workouts to get through that last hurdle but for now, this is the only routine I have ever tried that gave me these results in such a short period of time.

As for food, well, I tried the 1200 calorie gig but i was so weak that I could not function normally. I am now at 1400 and doing much better. The hardest thing for me to learn was how to get 100+ grams of protein every day without excessive calories or fat grams ( I keep my fat grams down to between 25 and 30 grams a day).

I have never posted before but being a fellow work out at home person, I thought it might help you.

You increasing your weights from 5lb to 8lb will not affect your weight loss plateau

How long has your weight loss been stalled for?

If you can't afford heavier weights look into body weight exercises. Think of all the things you lift or move throughout your day- chances are they are much heavier than your weights. Do you have kids? Carry in groceries? Even my cat weighs more than 5 pounds. Good luck!

I work out at home too and want to start weight training but did not know where to start. I am really impressed with your losses in 7 weeks. I am going to check Joyce Vedral's book out. Thanks for the input. Continued success to you.