This plateau is driving me nuts.

What do you do for exercise? It sounds like you lost weight, but lost a lot of muscle mass too, therefore the unhappiness and little change in measurements....
How tall are you?

Weights will help. Add more weights to your program. Careful of overdoing the cardio. Keep your muscle. You will need the calories. Keep the body guessing. Change up your program every week. Do not get stuck in rut doing the same routines. The body quickly adapts.

I think you just need to be patient, I've had my fair share of plateaus and would agree that its not always about watching calories, our bodies get happy at certain weights. What I find is that a change of exercise routine really can kick start a loss again, also for me when I lowered my carbs by a little that also helped.
You will start losing weight again, hopefully sooner rather than later. My longest plateau was 6 weeks

Eat more!! Bump up your calories, bring down your carbs and sugar a little, get a lot of good fats... if you're over exercising - stop.

ComingUntrue wrote: »

Eat more!! Bump up your calories, bring down your carbs and sugar a little, get a lot of good fats... if you're over exercising - stop.

Why would she bring down carbs and sugar?

OP, as most people said, you need to up your calories. Check out all the links provided, and get a plan that is totally tailored to you. And remember it does take awhile for results to show, so be as consistent as you can.
Continue weighing and measuring everything and it will come!

Also, once the weight starts to come off, remember to redo your plan every 10lbs so that it's very accurate to your current stats!

Good luck!

Till__I__Collapse wrote: »

Weights will help. Add more weights to your program. Careful of overdoing the cardio. Keep your muscle. You will need the calories. Keep the body guessing. Change up your program every week. Do not get stuck in rut doing the same routines. The body quickly adapts.

This!!!!!!

missiontofitness wrote: »

eldamiano wrote: »

missiontofitness wrote: »

eldamiano wrote: »

News... it isnt a 'plateau'. It is you. You aren't losing weight because you arent eating at a calorie deficit, not because of some magical plateau.

I don't appreciate the snark. I clearly stated in the OP I have lowered my calories again because I am maintaining at where I am at. I understand what a calorie deficit is. Hence me attempting to create one.

Not wrong though am I?

I stated that fact in my original post. You repeated what I said.

hey sweetie, ignore this person, trust me they are full of useless information.
I started a Thread and they kept saying, im eating too much (when im clearly eating less than recommended) either way!
Im stuck on a plateau too for 5 months too.. im heavier than you though, i have decided to go back and do what i first did when losing weight, within this first 3 days i have lost 0.5lb. i feel good thinking even doing what i use is going to work for me again (walking 4x a week for 1 hour).
Maybe look at what you changed 5 months ago and perhaps try just doing what you did at the beginning of weight loss to change it up a bit

Good Luck xx

People are saying to up your calories, which always sounds counter intuitive. It helps when someone explained a little better to me what they really meant. Its not just about eating more.

You need a deficit of 500 calories to lose one pound a week. That does not matter if you are eating 1200 and buring 1700, or eating 2000 and burning 2500. Both have a deficit of 500 calories and will generally cause you to lose about a pound a week. BUT - eating 2000 calories you will be MUCH happier in general, it will be much easier to stick to long term, and you will have the ENERGY to do the work needed to burn 2500 calories. Remember FOOD=CALORIES=ENERGY.

My trainer had my slowly increase my calories about 100 at a time, every few weeks. I use a fitbit for my "burn" number (underestimated as it doesnt include weight lifting, but good for an estimate). I noticed that every time I bumped up my calories in eating, my activity almost naturally increase 100-200 calories on average a day. Basically I was bopping all over the place - not just working out a little harder (FUEL!) but walking faster all day long, squirming if I had to sit too long etc.

So increasing my calories caused me to (both deliberately and unconsciously) increase my activitys/calories burned. And eating more meant I had more energy and better mood. Win all the way around.

Your goal should be to eat the most you can, while still losing weight. Most people concentrate way too hard on lowering their calories eaten to make the deficit, but just additional movements, a few short walks, etc can increase the calories out enough that you can eat more in general. And of course building muscle will let you eat more as well Less noticable at first but after a year of weight training, you could be able to eat 200 more calories a day - random guess - while not changing much else about your activity. A 125 pound woman with 100 pounds of muscle can eat more than a 125 pound woman with 90 pounds of muscle and keep her weight the same. I want to be that person

Dont just increase calories and change nothing else. Start weight training, and resolve to be more "active" all day - if you have a desk job, set a timer to get up and walk 5 min per hour. Every time you go to the bathroom, take the long way. Walk your dog 5 minutes longer. Do pushups every time you go to the bathroom. Do squats while cooking dinner. Fidget in your seat. DANCE around the house with music blaring while you clean. Its fun, and pretty easy, especially if you get to eat more and have enough energy you dont want to stop!

Oh, and just my observation, but my tends to let go of weight easier when I maintain my 500 calorie deficit at the high end rather than the low end. I.e. I lose weight more easily when I eat 2000 and burn 2500 rather than eating 1200 and burning 1700. Completely anecdotal of course, but I dont stall as much, and I have much more control.

Also, starting at a higher number like this, you have somewhere to go if you do plateau. If you get "stuck" lower your calories by 100 every few weeks - once it starts moving again, keep it there, and eventually move back up. If you start at the bottom, there really is no where to go when you get stuck.