How did YOU get through your plateau?

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  • amann1976
    amann1976 Posts: 742 Member
    Everyone had different ideas about what weight/soze med and women should be, we all know BMI is not perfect but 5ft10 and 150lbs is a BMI of 23. well within 'health' range.

    the whole BMI thing should be thrown off the face of the earth... I have a high BMI but i guarantee i am in better physical conditioning than people half my size.

    take the average nfl running back according to their BMI they would be considered obese

    if you ever worked out with a good trainer they never weigh you to indicate progress everything is done using measurements
  • wattsy84
    wattsy84 Posts: 123
    Everyone had different ideas about what weight/soze med and women should be, we all know BMI is not perfect but 5ft10 and 150lbs is a BMI of 23. well within 'health' range.

    the whole BMI thing should be thrown off the face of the earth... I have a high BMI but i guarantee i am in better physical conditioning than people half my size.

    take the average nfl running back according to their BMI they would be considered obese

    if you ever worked out with a good trainer they never weigh you to indicate progress everything is done using measurements

    Yeh good point, I would happily stay at this weight but be lean, but to do that surely I would need to bulk and cut?
  • wattsy84
    wattsy84 Posts: 123
    Ok so if my TDEE is 3000 and I'm eating roughly 2500-2750 a day heavy lifting 3x week light cardio 2x week heavy cardio 1x week! And being doing this for 3weeks with no change until NOW, I have weighed myself and I'm up to 166lbs now from being stuck at 162-164. This is the first time the scale has moved, I can't be gaining muscle if I'm eating in a deficit? Is it time to cut back down to 2200?
  • claytonmac
    claytonmac Posts: 8
    Yes - do a hard reset of your metabolism... general guidelines for this would be eating 200-300kCal surplus for 2 weeks... then carry on with a -20% deficit.

    How do you do a hard reset of your metabolism??
  • mrincredible93
    mrincredible93 Posts: 146
    I'm 5'6" and I was recently stuck at a 168lb plateau for a little over 3 months. It also coincided with the deep winter months here in the northeast so I wasn't too concerned as long as I was maintaining and not packing on hibernation weight. My body fat is 19.5% so I know I can move down further. I finally pushed through with a combination of intermittent fasting (1 day a week) and muscle confusion. I changed up my work outs, including what time of day I work out at and added in lap swimming to replace cybex arc training for a while.
  • wattsy84
    wattsy84 Posts: 123
    Now I'm wondering if I really need to lose weight or just get lean? How do I do that? Eat at TDEE and lift?
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,944 Member
    I was stuck on a plateau for 3 months. My first 3 months of MFP I lost 12 kilos. Then it stopped and it took me almost 4 months to lose another 3 kilos. When I was losing well at the beginning I was eating around 1350 net. First tried restricting further, adding weight training and increasing cardio to 6 hours a week but nothing seemed to help. Finally I took a 3 week total diet break.

    Ate at just under TDEE for 3 weeks. Set MFP to 0.5 lb loss per week, and ate back half (sometimes all) of my considerable exercise calories. I tried to only eat half because I don't trust the burn rates on the cardio machines at the gym (I don't wear an HRM). This past week I have restricted back to 1300 net, and have dropped a kilo. Next time I plateau, I will not be so reluctant to do a diet break again. I think my body's response to restricting severely for a long period was to slow down my metabolism. The 3 week diet break seems to have re-set my metabolism.

    I was happy not to gain during the diet break, though my weight fluctuated up a kilo at first, but settled back down to my lowest pre-break weight. According to MFP calculations I should have lost at least half a kilo during the break but that didn't happen. It might not be necessary to do a full 3 weeks. If I google Total Diet Break, people recommend one or two weeks.
  • GamerLady
    GamerLady Posts: 359 Member
    Try changing up your routine and working out harder. Your body gets use to the regular routine and becomes easier to do each day, maybe need a change to get you over that hump.

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