HELP! Overcoming a PLATEAU!

projectjamaica
projectjamaica Posts: 30
in Health and Weight Loss
I shed 15 lbs on the first month of dieting and working out, which I understand is mostly (or maybe entirely) water weight. After the first month I've been stuck not losing even a tiny bit of weight. The scale isn't budging and I'm not losing inches. I've stuck to the diet and exercise, but I'm still only 15 lbs down.

I understand why it's happening. I know my body is holding unto every calorie possible because it thinks that I'm in a survival situation. I've done my research and it all says I should try calorie cycling, strength training, upping calories, etc.

Can anyone who has been in this situation please tell me how you overcame this? Is there anything specific that you did? Or did you jut stuck to the same diet and exercise?

Thank you all!!

Replies

  • donjessop
    donjessop Posts: 186
    While I cannot say that I have experienced long plateaus, I have experienced periods where I should have been losing weight just based on calories, never mind adding in the exercising. For me it was a matter of adjusting my diet. I needed to boost the amount of protein that I was eating and reducing the amount of carbohydrates. I also upped my water consumption to 10 - 11 cups per day. Within a few days the weight starting coming off.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,307 Member
    Plateaus are misinterpreted most of the time....basically, your probably not in the deficit you think you are, or at all.
  • Siansonea
    Siansonea Posts: 917 Member
    Your body isn't "holding onto every calorie". That's a myth. You're eating more calories than you think you are. Or, you think you can eat a certain number of calories and still lose weight, but you should be eating fewer calories. This "starvation response" is a bunch of hooey, dreamed up by people who just want some kind of excuse to up their calorie intake. Don't fall into that trap. If you're not losing weight, you need to eat FEWER calories, and that's all there is to it. If you log your calories ACCURATELY and don't overestimate the calories you burn through exercise, you will start losing weight if your goals are appropriate for your age, height, current weight, goal weight, and gender.

    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
  • dlionsmane
    dlionsmane Posts: 674 Member
    Not enough information.. how long have you been stuck? How many calories do you consume? height and current weight? All are important along with viewing your diary might allow some help. W/o any of that, I would say that you may not be in the deficit you think you are. Are you measuring/weighing everything?

    I personally have not experienced this, though I have experienced slow loss or no loss for weeks at a time, I know the reason was not enough of a deficit. If you look at my ticker you can see that my weight loss has not been linear, my weight has gone up and has stayed the same for weeks at a time. I never thought of it as a plateau as it was only a few weeks at most.

    If you want serious help you can look at your TDEE http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
    and make sure you are eating enough by comparing what it says to what you have calculated here in MFP, also MFP is designed for you to eat back exercise calories. So you should be netting your goal.

    Good luck!
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    First off, make sure your calorie goal is appropriate. If you have less than about 30 pounds to lose, you should probably be at 1/2 pound per week; otherwise probably 1 pound per week. (Many people come in and go straight to 2 pounds a week, but unless you have over 100 pounds to lose, it's probably too aggressive).

    Then, make sure you're actually eating that. If you aren't measuring carefully (weighing!) your foods, there's a good chance you're eating more. It's really easy for 100 or 200 extra calories to sneak in there, or more, from just estimating portions.

    What exercise are you doing? It may be a factor (new lifting? likely that you're retaining water, for example)

    Then, stick with it for a while. Give your body time.
  • IsaacHudson
    IsaacHudson Posts: 33 Member
    If you aren't losing weight, you aren't in calorie deficit.

    Remember that losing weight decreases your metabolic rate (not referring to starvation response, more that there isn't as much of you) so you might need to recalculate your calorie goals.

    I've noticed a problem with MFP that it doesn't update your goal as your weight changes, unless you actually re-enter your goal weight. I'm not sure if it's been fixed since I noticed it, but you might want to try that.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    With your diary closed to us it is really, really difficult to give personalized advice.

    How long has it been since you've seen a drop on the scale?
    What is your calorie goal?
    Are you weighing your foods or guesstimating portion sizes?
    How often are you exercising and when did you start?
    Are you eating back exercise calories? If so are you using a heart rate monitor or MFP/machine estimates?
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    There is too little information to have much of an idea at all.

    Is it probable that you found a deficit that drops 15 lbs in one month that has very suddenly stopped working at all because you are not in a deficit anymore? Probably not, lol. So your deficit was probably a real deficit last month, yes.

    Now, maybe more exercise has made you hungrier, etc, but it would help if you gave your stats, including before last month and what the diet is (calories and exercise -wise), and also include what you think could have possibly changed at all in the last month.

    Have you taken measurements? That always helps, too.
  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    Um, if I understand your OP properly and looking at your join date....you have only been at this a month.

    If that ia true, you aren't in a plateau.
  • marigolddd
    marigolddd Posts: 10 Member
    I shed 15 lbs on the first month of dieting and working out, which I understand is mostly (or maybe entirely) water weight. After the first month I've been stuck not losing even a tiny bit of weight. The scale isn't budging and I'm not losing inches. I've stuck to the diet and exercise, but I'm still only 15 lbs down.

    15 pounds in one month ! That's more than 3 pounds in a week. Are you ina VLCD ( very low calorie diet)?
    If your calorie intake is good, you can beat plateau with HIIT. At least that's what has always worked for me.:smile:
    But HIIT really needs a lot of stamina..............so you need to have look at your diet. I used to have glass of 2 % milk and banana before my workout and used to wonder if it is worth it as I was adding nearly 400 calories to my diet just to burn 300 calories.And I could do that only for 4 or 5 days a week. But I lost 1 kg per week. I got terrified and cut down on HIIT. But my cholesterol level went down drastically.:smile:
  • projectjamaica
    projectjamaica Posts: 30
    Um, if I understand your OP properly and looking at your join date....you have only been at this a month.

    If that ia true, you aren't in a plateau.

    No I started the diet before, the last week of September, and joined MFP after.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Um, if I understand your OP properly and looking at your join date....you have only been at this a month.

    If that ia true, you aren't in a plateau.

    No I started the diet before, the last week of September, and joined MFP after.

    A plateau is generally defined as 4-6 weeks without a loss. How long has it been since you've seen a drop on the scale? A week or two without a loss are well within the normal fluctuations you're going to see while dieting.

    Questions above would still be useful if you want more specific advice.

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