Plateaued

TCaatah
TCaatah Posts: 8
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,
I started using MFP right after Christmas and I've been really pleased with my results. I'm a 6 foot, 22 y/o male and I lost about 20 pounds from then until the about the end of February. Now I've seem to have stopped losing weight. My goal is 170 and now I am about 184. I started off at 204. I run for about an hour every day on the treadmill and that seemed to be working. Now I'm still doing the same things and my weight seems to remain steady for the past month. Do I need to change something up in order to continue to lose weight or should I just continue what I'm doing?
Thanks

Replies

  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,590 MFP Moderator
    have you recalculated your calorie target since you have lost weight?
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    Try messing with your calories in MFP. Change your goal to "lose 2 lbs a week" and then change it back to whatever you had before. It will probably drop the calories that you need to eat to lose even lower than before. MyFitnessPal doesn't recalculate when you lose weight. You have to eat at a bigger deficit the closer you get to your goal.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    You mention your workout but not your diet. Are you tracking calories? Would you be comfortable opening your diary for us to take a look? You can do that by going to Settings > Diary Settings > Public and then Save Changes.

    Assuming you're tracking your calories and have your calorie goal set correctly.

    Are you using a food scale? measuring cups? or eyeballing portions sizes? Food scales are the most accurate measurement of how much you're eating. Measuring cups and especially eyeballing both come with a degree of inaccuracy that can really add up depending on the foods you're eating and the size of your deficit. Some people will find they're eating up to 500 calories more than they thought when they make the switch to measuring their foods.

    Are you eating back any of your earned exercise calories? If so, are you using MFP/machine estimates or a heart rate monitor? MFP expects you to log your exercise and eat back the extra calories you're earning. But, certain MFP and gym machines tend to overestimate certain exercises. If you're already eating back your earned calories you might need to back off to only eating 50-75% of them.

    Are you losing no weight or is it just slower than you'd like? With only about 15 pounds left to lose, you should be aiming for no more than 1 pound per week, and a 1/2 pound per week would be a good loss at this stage. Combining a slow rate of loss with the normal water weight fluctuations people see sometimes leads people to believe they're plateaued when they're actually just losing very slowly.
  • TCaatah
    TCaatah Posts: 8
    Ok thanks. So I had it at lose two pounds per week and it had my calories at 1,660. So I just took it off 2 a week and then changed it back and now it's at 1,620. Does that sound about right?
  • TCaatah
    TCaatah Posts: 8
    Thank you. I changed my settings to public. I like to think that I'm tracking calories pretty closely. I scan and measure everything. As for burned calories, I use the Nike+ running app and I believe that's pretty accurate with measuring calories. And yes I usually use up the calories earned from running.
  • DrJenO
    DrJenO Posts: 404 Member
    I'd tighten up my food tracking and think about setting my goal to 0.5-1lb per week. This close to you goal weight, you are going to have a harder time losing @ a 2lb/week pace. Now that you are at a normal BMI, your body is going to be unwilling to continue the losses that you were able to sustain at a higher BMI.

    Have you thought about strength training? You may have more satisfying results with tracking inches at this point instead of pounds.

    Great job on your loss so far!
  • TCaatah
    TCaatah Posts: 8
    I'd tighten up my food tracking and think about setting my goal to 0.5-1lb per week. This close to you goal weight, you are going to have a harder time losing @ a 2lb/week pace. Now that you are at a normal BMI, your body is going to be unwilling to continue the losses that you were able to sustain at a higher BMI.

    Have you thought about strength training? You may have more satisfying results with tracking inches at this point instead of pounds.

    Great job on your loss so far!

    Thank you!
  • jewdaism
    jewdaism Posts: 8 Member
    When you reach a plateau you need to turn up the intensity somewhere in your plan. If you are really determined to get those last pounds off id suggest incorporating circuit training into your routine. Hi rep moderate weight with low rest in between sets is a great way to burn through the plateau but it will be tough.
  • TCaatah
    TCaatah Posts: 8
    When you reach a plateau you need to turn up the intensity somewhere in your plan. If you are really determined to get those last pounds off id suggest incorporating circuit training into your routine. Hi rep moderate weight with low rest in between sets is a great way to burn through the plateau but it will be tough.

    Cool, thanks. What kind kinds of exercises/equipment do you use?
  • Polarpaly05
    Polarpaly05 Posts: 74 Member
    quoting someone (SezxyStef) from another post because it's very accurate:
    plateau= nice way of saying you are eating at maintenance because you are not logging accurately.

    Be wary of elliptical calorie burns, they are often over stated on machines and monitors alike. Anytime where your whole body is not moving (ie: you're holding onto the railing or supports of the machine), the formula's used for caloric burn are not going to be accurate.

    Edit: I can spell.
  • TCaatah
    TCaatah Posts: 8
    quoting someone (SezxyStef) from another post because it's very accurate:
    plateau= nice way of saying you are eating at maintenance because you are not logging accurately.

    Be wary of elliptical calorie burns, they are often over stated on machines and monitors alike. Anytime where your whole body is not moving (ie: you're holding onto the railing or supports of the machine), the formula's used for caloric burn are not going to be accurate.

    Edit: I can spell.

    I was wondering this recently. Do you think treadmills are more accurate on calories? And what about stationary bikes?
  • Polarpaly05
    Polarpaly05 Posts: 74 Member
    Just in my limited experience, my HRM is within 70 calories of the treadmill tracker at the end of my 30 minute (6 MPH) run. When I run on the elliptical, I generally either ignore the calorie burn or take 75-80% of the number posted.

    I know some folks might be like "wtf, you shouldn't ignore the cardio", but there is often a 150-200 calorie difference between what the machine says and what my HRM says. And the ellipticals at my gym are not the type that have the movable arms, it's just legs with stationary steadying bars you hold onto.
  • jewdaism
    jewdaism Posts: 8 Member
    A good starting point would be hitting major muscle groups legs, chest and back. I usually use machines to circuit train so whatever is available to you at your gym will determine what you can do. You are looking to move the most amount of weight with limited rest to really squeeze out calories. Careful though, intense circuit training can be highly demanding and exhaust you rather quickly.

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