So frustrated. Been plateauing for months.

gotmusic69 · June 2013

Hi all-

I am so frustrated in this weight loss journey. Just wondering if anyone was in the same boat or had any advice to offer.

I've lost 70 pounds since September 2010, when I had my 2nd child. I started at 255 & currently fluctuate between 184-187. I've been at a plateau for months. I eat pretty healthy (plenty of smoothies, salads, etc) but I do admit I snack more than I should....I consistently go over on my sugar, although it's something I am trying to reduce...I do, however, stay in my calorie range. (more in that in a second.) I work out 4x a week on average, doing 2 days of high-intensity Zumba and the other 2 days are strength training (sometimes a weigh lifting class, sometimes pilates, sometimes weight machines).

I started trying to zig-zag calories a few weeks ago because, while I was eating 1200-1300 calories, some research told me I should be eating closer to 1600. (I'm 5'6) I have not yet had the results I was looking for.

I'm at the point where I feel like maybe doing something extreme would kick start things, but then I wonder if the weight would come back as soon as I started eating differently again-I just want something that's doable for a lifetime, although if I needed to shake things up for a while, I am up for it. The Whole 30 appeals to me, but as a busy stay-at-home mom of 2 (ages 5& 2) I just don't see how I could do that for a whole month unless someone gave me a tailor-made grocery list with recipes!

I've also wondered if I need to up my exercise....I'd have to get up before the rest of the family to get in an extra hour, but it's doable for the short term. It's not something I'd want to commit to long-term.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this, or had any (non snarky) advice. I'm proud of my weight loss so far but I have 27 pounds to go until I'm at a "normal" weight.

Moviegal77 · June 2013

Congratulations on the weight loss so far, that's amazing and you must be so proud.

I think you need to go back to the drawing board. You need to look at your weight loss differently then when you started at 255 because obviously what worked at 255 has stopped, starting over at your new weight of 184-187. Take a look at what you eat reduce and change where you can, then take a look at your exercise routines and change it up. A whole new plan is in order to kick start the weight loss again.

Good luck.

healthytanya1 · June 2013

I've been doing 1200 calories for 2 1/2 months and lost 20 lbs the first 2 months. Now into june, I lost 2 lbs the first week. I think cuz i started my period so I was releasing the bloat. Now at the end of the 2nd week I gained a lb back. I'm pretty sure my body is in starvation mode at this point. I now weigh 169 so I'm 10 lbs until healthy weight and 19-29 lbs to my goal. My body doesn't have tons of extra fat like it used to so I don't think its happy with 1200 calories anymore. I burn 2100-2400 a day. So as of today I am changing my goals to 1 lb a week loss. So 1600+ calories is where I am going to aim for. Hopefully this works and my metabolism bounces back.
And I'm 5'7" so we are pretty similar.

luckydays27 · June 2013

It helps to open your food diary so we can see what you are eating. That might help figure out what is going wrong.

I was plateau'd for 6 weeks and came to MFP to discover that i needed to go from 1200-1300 cals to 1600 or so. I did that and ate back around 75% of my exercise cals. I started to lose again and have been losing 1 lb a week since.

One month ago I bought a fitbit and now this makes things easier. Fitbit measures my daily activity cals burned and my HRM measures my exercise cals burned. I eat 500 less than what ever that number is. This number changes daily depending on my physical activities that day.

I highly recommend looking into getting a fitbit if you can. There is a groupon you can get for brookstone ($25 for $50 to spend) and apply it toward the fitbit zip. You should be able to get the zip for around $40 (including the $25 you spent at groupon). The one would be around $60.

Danni3ll3 · June 2013

I got stuck too and I started using a spreadsheet from HayBales to help me figure out how many calories I should be eating and how many of my exercise calories I should be eating back if any. You will need to take your measurements. Once you have done that, fill out the Simple Set Up tab completely. This tab works well if your exercise is the same every day. Follow the instructions at the bottom of the page (Changes to make in MFP Settings) for what to put into MFP. Then you are done and you do NOT eat your exercise calories back.

However, if you are like me and my exercise is not the same every day, I have to do a bit more work. On the Simple Set Up tab, I leave the Activity Calculator blank. Then I click over to the MFP Tweak Tab (the tabs are at the bottom) and fill this page out (not really much to fill out). At the bottom, you can input how long an activity took and how many calories you burned. It then gives you a number of calories to eat back and to input into MFP. So basically you don't eat all of your exercise calories back, only a portion that the spreadsheet works out for you. This Tweak has been working nicely for me and has me dropping again.

Here is the link for the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE#gid=14

I hope this helps.

Francl27 · June 2013

I'm 5'5", down to 170lbs, and I've been eating 1600-1850 a day, exercising every day (most days are just a 1h walk and I sit on my butt the rest of the time). I've been losing a steady 5-6 lbs a month.

1200-1300 isn't enough. I wouldn't even zig zag, I'd eat closer to 1600 every day and give it a month.

So frustrated. Been plateauing for months.

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