stagnant... please help

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Ok, so I have been doing approx. 45 min on the elliptical Mon - Fri. followed by a 3mile walk. The elliptical is et on gluteal 2 which has a resistance of approx. 8 and the walk is almost a jog. Haven't lost any weight in about a month. Thinking about adding a cross fit routine in there..... any thoughts??? I am really stuck and plateaued at 200 lbs!!!

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  • jessicahill530
    jessicahill530 Posts: 65 Member
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    Are you counting calories? And more importantly, weighing and measuring? Exercise is only a part of weight loss, what you eat is arguably more important. If you have been staying within your calorie goals, maybe try adding some weight training to your routine. Good luck!
  • Project_Jodie
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    I have just started turbo fire - I have never sweated so much in 30 mins in my entire life!

    Loving it! Pushes you harder and it's quite fun! :)
  • PinkCoconut
    PinkCoconut Posts: 655 Member
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    How long have you been doing that routine without switching things up? It's amazing how quickly our body's adapt to our workouts so it's really important to switch things up every couple of weeks. Try adding more intensity or something new altogether.

    I also agree about looking at what you're eating. May be time to start tweaking your daily eats, are you on track when it comes to not just your calories but also your fats, proteins and carbs? I busted through a nasty plateau by tracking my food and realizing I was WAY low on my fats and proteins. I just added some healthy ones and BOOM! plateau over!

    Feel free to friend me! :)
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    Are you counting calories? And more importantly, weighing and measuring? Exercise is only a part of weight loss, what you eat is arguably more important. If you have been staying within your calorie goals, maybe try adding some weight training to your routine. Good luck!

    This ^^

    Plus, if you're not eating back exercise calories, you should be. If you are, and you're using burn numbers from either your cardio machines or MFP, it's likely these are overestimates and so eating them all bck isn't great. I know, sounds like you're f'd if you do and f'd if you don't but thankfully, there is a good middle ground. When you track your exercise, plan to eat back 50-70% of what you earn. So say MFP tells you that you earn 500 from your walk, it's probably more like 250-350 calories. Or you can invest in a good HRM (like Polar) with a chest strap to give you a more accurate burn estimate.

    Although fitness is very often tied in to weight loss, the two are mostly exclusive. If you eat the right amount of calories, you can get your deficit from exercise if you do enough BUT what happens if you keep eating that much and stop working out. IMHO, it's better to regular your intake and then eat back whatever you happen to earn. Don't rely on exercise for your calorie deficit to lose weight.

    Good luck!

    P.S. How long have you been stagnant? A lot of people think because they go a weigh-in or two with no change that they've plateaued but a plateau is actually more like 4-6 week. A week or two could just be fluctuations from sodium intake, hormones, changes in workout, etc.