PLATEAU, no thanks!

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Everyday I have calories left over. And I have lost 3 pounds in 6 days. If I keep having left over calories does it mean that I will soon hit a brick wall and be stuck ?

How can I fix this ?

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  • tracyb1227
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    Very good question. I would like to know the answer to this too!!
  • likechip
    likechip Posts: 13 Member
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    I lost 25 lbs in January. Since then I haven't been able to lose much weight and I haven't changed what I was doing. All this week though I stepped up my game and lost a little bit more. Sorry I can't be of any help D:
  • taliyai
    taliyai Posts: 38
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    Everyday I have calories left over. And I have lost 3 pounds in 6 days. If I keep having left over calories does it mean that I will soon hit a brick wall and be stuck ?

    How can I fix this ?

    How many calories each day do you have left over? What is your normal net calorie goal?
    If you are consistently eating WAY less than your goal, it could put you into starvation mode. Your body needs fuel to exercise! When it doesn't have fuel, it will start eating MUSCLE. You will soon become "Skinny fat." The kind of fat skinny people are... when they aren't toned and you can tell they could be in better shape :)
  • Newfiedan
    Newfiedan Posts: 1,517 Member
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    Cycle the calories up and down it will keep the body guessing just stick withing goals and no less than 1200 net on any given day and you should do just fine.
  • mistigoodwin
    mistigoodwin Posts: 411 Member
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    I think it will eventually have an effect on losing. I've been under calories almost everyday for the last 2.5 months, lost 18lbs so far, but I have been stuck for 3 weeks. Seems like no matter what I do, I can't lose. Maybe, HOPEFULLY I will start losing again. Good Luck! It's actually hard for me to eat 1200 calories a day.....seems like too much for me.
  • smichmoo
    smichmoo Posts: 3
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    If you aren't exercising, you will almost certainly plateau.

    You burn a certain number of calories, but with the weight you lose, that number decreases. Therefore, to see the same results you are also going to have to increase the amount of calories you burn each day to keep losing the weight at a constant speed.

    3500 calories = 1 pound. So you need a deficit of 500 calories each day to lose 1 lb a week. What you eat has to be 500 calories less than what you burn by existing, plus what you burn by exercising. But you will burn less and less by existing as your weight decreases. So if you keep eating the same amount of calories, your deficit will decrease and decrease until it's reached equilibrium, and you won't lose anymore weight.

    You'll lose weight fast and then you'll lose it slower, as you start to slim down. But by then you will be motivated to keep going. Diet doesn't really work without exercise. At least, not for long.
  • blakejohn
    blakejohn Posts: 1,129 Member
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    your body is always trying to balance I have calories left over everyday, I watch the food I'm eating but to break through any Plateau I change the intensity of my workouts or rest times sometimes I'll take a week off of working-out

    Good luck
  • auntiebabs
    auntiebabs Posts: 1,754 Member
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    Everyone is different, hard to say...

    I found what I did it naturally and was concerned about, was *zig zagging* my calories. I saw a few posts about it and it made me feel better

    After 2-3 1200cal days. I needed a 1400-1500 cal day in there and went for it. Otherwise I would have never stuck with this.

    It's worked for me so far. I try and keep a range in mind instead of a specific number the top end of my range is # of calories needed to maintain my GOAL WEIGHT the bottom is 1200.

    Now that I've lost over 10% of my body weight I've stepped down to 1/2 per week so I should be shooting for between 1400 - 1600 cal (so freakin' weird after being on 1200 for 6 months, really hard to add them back) but still had quite a few 1200 cal days in the mix.
  • Newfiedan
    Newfiedan Posts: 1,517 Member
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    I think it will eventually have an effect on losing. I've been under calories almost everyday for the last 2.5 months, lost 18lbs so far, but I have been stuck for 3 weeks. Seems like no matter what I do, I can't lose. Maybe, HOPEFULLY I will start losing again. Good Luck! It's actually hard for me to eat 1200 calories a day.....seems like too much for me.
    go after caloric dense foods, almonds, nuts, etc to make up the difference you need to hit that goal.