Two month plateau! HELP!

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akammere
akammere Posts: 2
in Health and Weight Loss
I started my journey to a healthier lifestyle back in April. I've lost 20 lbs so far, and I know I shouldn't be complaining BUT for the past 2 months I've been at a standstill. I fluctuate up and down 3 lbs and can't seem to drop more. I am nowhere near where I would like to be as far as weight loss goes and it is somewhat discouraging that I can't lose anymore! I work out 5-6 times a week usually an hour to an hour and a half. I do mostly cardio (treadmill and elliptical) with some strength training added in 2-3 times a week. I consume 1800 calories a day. I am trying to increase my intake of water so I know that could be a factor, that I'm not drinking enough currently.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do differently to try and get the scale to move again? I really appreciate any commentary! Thank you!!

-Ashley

Replies

  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    You're eating too much. You're eating at maintenance. Drop your calories by ~100 cals a day, see what happens in a month.

    Alternately, open your dairy and people give you tailored advice.
  • horndave
    horndave Posts: 565
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    You're eating too much. You're eating at maintenance. Drop your calories by ~100 cals a day, see what happens in a month.

    Alternately, open your dairy and people give you tailored advice.

    This might or might not be true. You can see what a 100 calorie drop would do for you in a month. However, are you weighing everything? Accurate calorie count? Over estimating the amount of calories that you are burning?
  • BramageOMG
    BramageOMG Posts: 319 Member
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    I agree with previous post: Open diary, and feedback would be easier to provide. Weigh / measure food to ensure your food diary is accurate. Track exercise, and make sure you are at a deficit, I will be at 8 weeks tomorrow, and although I see 3 - 5 days slow downs, the drop is consistent and drastic.
  • Trinketona
    Trinketona Posts: 190
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    What it could also be is how you're working out. If you are doing cardio then weight training try those around. Try weight training first then cardio. That worked for me. Shocking the body out of its comfort zone.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    I suspect you're not using a good scale. Your diary entries like '1 banana' and .5 cup blueberries and such. Depending on the size of the banana, it could easily be 80-125 calories. How much is a 1/2 cup blueberries to you? What you pack in the 1/2 cup may be more than official serving 'size'.

    Get a food scale. Weigh everything solid and log in grams. That includes things like bread, because even though the package may say 1 serving = 2 slices, 45g, the weight can be off by 10-20%. That's why my food log often has 1.05 or 1.1 servings listed. Because the units do not always work out as they're supposed to.

    Don't forget to log cooking oils, condiments. And only use 'recipes' if you know that the ingredients, quantities match what you've made. Someone else's bbq chicken could be entirely different from yours.

    As for burn, depending on where you're getting the #s for cardio burn - its likely inflated. Assume perhaps only 50-75% of it is true.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
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    I ran a report on your food diary for the last two months and your sodium levels have been very high a lot of those days. Focus on drinking plenty of water/fluid and keep under your sodium level.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    What it could also be is how you're working out. If you are doing cardio then weight training try those around. Try weight training first then cardio. That worked for me. Shocking the body out of its comfort zone.
    BroScience. Switching your routine will not change anything unless you end up burning a higher # of calories. All things stable, burning 200 calories on the treadmill and then doing SL5x5 will have the exact same affect as doing SL5X5 and then burning 200 calories on the treadmill.

    Electricity shocks the body. A deficit causes weight loss.
  • OllyJ_79
    OllyJ_79 Posts: 126 Member
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    Electricity shocks the body. A deficit causes weight loss.

    Totally agree. The diary shows that most entries are being estimated, therefore likely meaning underestimation of the calories being consumed. Unless you are weighing digitally you are not weighing accurately, its as simple as that.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
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    Are you weighing and measuring everything? Also, finding the correct entry is important as well. There's many that are incorrect so it can throw you off. Generally, if your not losing weight then your not at a Deficit. Maybe try to tighten up on your weighing and measuring and see if that helps.
  • akammere
    akammere Posts: 2
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    Thanks for all the feedback!!! I will definitely try some of your suggestions and see what happens!
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    Not knowing what your height and weight are, I've no idea how many calories you should be eating.

    From looking at a few days of your diary, it seems like there are a lot of Subway and McDonald's entries. I know some people would say that's fine, but to me fast food does not equal weight loss. Some days seem quite high in sodium.

    What I found worked for me was varying my exercise more. Instead of just going to the gym I started adding classes, and ended up doing a variety of boxercise, spinning, step, Zumba, aerobics, fitball (core stability), LBT etc, as well as gym sessions.

    I also increased calories, but that was from 1200 to 1500, so I wouldn't suggest increasing yours, unless you're really tall.

    Oh, I never really weighed many foods and I lost 66lbs. I do weigh more foods now, but found it didn't make a lot of difference if my slice of bread wasn't exactly what it should be!

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