Stuck at a Plateau

readjust your net goal. Try some intermittent calories to hit your weekly net to shake it up a bit. we all hit plateaus and they require a lot of patience.

How long have you been at your plateau? BTW: a 48 pound loss is awesome!

Open your diary.

Congrats on dropping 48 lbs. There could be a number of reasons for your plateau so, it's hard to say what will kick start you back into a losing streak. I had a similar frustration when I started exercising more last year. The number on the scales didn't seem to budge at all in spite of all my efforts but my measurements changed dramatically.
Muscle takes up less space for the same weight of fat so, I'd start by keeping track of your measurements if you aren't already doing that. It was the only thing that kept me motivated to work out when my frustration was near unbearable.
It might also be a good idea to have a check up to rule out any hormonal imbalances that could be affecting your weight loss efforts.

you have to eat to drop the weight

You've created equality calories in/calories out probably due to a bad value somewhere. I'm not criticizing your ability to track. For example, I stayed the same weight for weeks last June/July. I was trying my hardest to drop pounds! My old HRM was giving me too many calories (almost x2) for doing my run mostly up hill. I was burning 900 calories in 42 min, I thought I was awesome!
It should have been 400 to 450 cal tops
good luck

Might be best to measure vs weigh? Especially if you're finding you're smaller but the number isn't. The scale can lie.
After checking the totals on your diary - you might be over estimating calorie burns and eating at about maintenance - especially if you haven't readjusted since your loss. (amazing job btw!) There are several days you're close to 2000 and personally at 1700ish I gain (I'm 5'4" and 153lbs)... Maybe try re-doing your goals on MFP and see if that helps? Lower by about 100/150 a day and keep it there for a few weeks... readjust as necessary. And as far as elliptical vs MFP, I always go with the lower number but I TRY to only eat half back.
- Good luck!

Unless you can run 6 miles in one hour, your calorie burns on the elliptical are massively over-estimated. I would cut those by two-thirds (ie, from 800 to 300).

First congrats on losing 48 lbs that's fantastic!

I looked over a couple days in your food diary and it doesn't look like you use a digital food scale to weigh your portions. You also use a lot of generic entries. Your hamburger is always exactly 4 ounces at 320 calories? 37 pretzels? a medium apple?

The few I mentioned are just examples to show some things you can improve on with your logging. The apple what's a medium apple? Are they all 72 calories? Or are some larger or smaller?

Your hamburger did you put anything on the burger? how did you cook it?

You have an entry for Potato - mashed homemade .. was this a recipe you created or one you found already in the database? If you didn't create it you don't know what was included in that, my homemade mashed potatoes come in around 300+ per serving, the one you used says 130 calories.

All of these can add up and take away the deficit you think you are. When selecting database entries stay away from generic & homemade. Use a food scale to help ensure accuracy. The elliptical burns seem high as well, all of these little things take away from the deficit. Hope this helps

951heather wrote: »

GiveMeCoffee wrote: »

First congrats on losing 48 lbs that's fantastic!

I looked over a couple days in your food diary and it doesn't look like you use a digital food scale to weigh your portions. You also use a lot of generic entries. Your hamburger is always exactly 4 ounces at 320 calories? 37 pretzels? a medium apple?

The few I mentioned are just examples to show some things you can improve on with your logging. The apple what's a medium apple? Are they all 72 calories? Or are some larger or smaller?

Your hamburger did you put anything on the burger? how did you cook it?

You have an entry for Potato - mashed homemade .. was this a recipe you created or one you found already in the database? If you didn't create it you don't know what was included in that, my homemade mashed potatoes come in around 300+ per serving, the one you used says 130 calories.

All of these can add up and take away the deficit you think you are. When selecting database entries stay away from generic & homemade. Use a food scale to help ensure accuracy. The elliptical burns seem high as well, all of these little things take away from the deficit. Hope this helps

Thanks everyone. It does help. No, I haven't been measuring my food. I have been just "eyeing" it. The hog that I am I noticed I can sure squeeze a lot of food into 1 cup! I will start measuring. I have a regular food scale. I will have to buy a digital one.

Oh I remember how much peanut butter I would fit on a tablespoon. In the beginning I had lots to lose so the errors didn't make a big difference, around 50 lbs lost I realized my weight loss slowed down and it was all due to my logging & portion sizes. The regular one will work until you get a digital but the digitals are more accurate and pretty cheap you can get one for less than $20.

good luck to you if you have any questions I'm happy to try and help