Have you ever raised your calories/upped workouts to break a plateau?

abarriere · April 2015

Hi All,

I have been seeing a personal trainer for almost 4 months now. I want to lose about 50-60 lbs total (or whatever amount needed to get to a healthy body fat percentage). In the past 4 months I have lost 17 lbs, and have made really great strides in my physical fitness -gone from a fair to almost poor VO2 max to good/ almost excellent, and have continued to improve in my weight training.

I took a test back in January to determine my RMR and that is at 1756. The trainer initially set my calories at 1925. I Lift twice a week with the trainer and spend the other 3 workouts doing various heart rate zone workouts that she makes up (intervals, steady state, pyramid, etc). Over the month of April I have stalled a bit, so I was thinking she was going to lower my calories. Instead she raised them to 2100 for the next 3 weeks to a month and said she is going to really challenge me even more in my workouts and see if that pushes me to start losing again.

Does anyone have any experience with raising your calories and pushing your workouts to break a plateau? It seems counter-intuitive, but so far she hasn't given me any bad advice, so I am going to do what she says.

Any personal experience or tips would be great.

Thanks!

AllanMisner · April 2015

Yes. But I would preface that with one thing about the quality of the food and getting the right macros based on your needs. Food is a fuel and building materials. So, yes, up your activity to match and make sure you have the protein needed to build muscle mass. I’d also avoid looking at the scale, and instead focus on body fat percentage or body measurements (neck, chest, stomach, waist, hips, upper arms and upper legs).

abarriere · April 2015

Thanks Allan, I was hoping you would reply. Right now i am on a 25% protein, 40% carbs, 35% fat macro set up. I sometimes don't hit them perfectly, but it averages out. My diary should be open, so any ideas for protein are always welcome.

Also, I haven't been timing any of my food, is that something i should start looking into? I hear about post workout snacks and all that, but not sure what i should be eating and when.

abarriere · April 2015

Also, i forgot to mention that I am trying to not look at the scale as progress, but it's such a habit! I will mention that I am wearing a pencil skirt today that I haven't worn since before the baby, which is almost 2 years ago! So i know that I am seeing a drop, just not in pounds at the moment.

jemhh · April 2015

I have in that I have taken a maintenance break or reverse dieted for awhile in order to give my body a break from losing. Generally when I've done that, I am able to go back to losing at either a faster rate at the same deficit or at my original loss rate at a smaller deficit.

leggup · April 2015

I have not done this. Here's why.

I am eating 1,600 calories, net, which usually means 1,900 calories eaten and 300 calories burned off per day. My maintenance calories are 2,000. Since I am netting 1,600 calories (400 calories under maintenance), I'm losing weight.

There are 3 ways that I could "plateau." 1. I am not actually burning 300 calories. My workouts no longer cause me massive burns. 2. I am eating more calories than I was before, through a logging error. 3. My body has become more efficient/isn't hauling around as many lbs anymore, so my maintenance has dropped from 2,000 calories to lower.

Let's say that it was a little of all three (usually is). If I up my workouts at the gym, I'm probably still going to overestimate my burn. If I up my food and I was already underestimating it, I'm going to underestimate more. This won't help my weight loss.

The only circumstance in which upping food and exercise makes sense is for a bulk (adding muscle, therefore also adding weight). Since your goal is to lose 60 lbs, this does not sound in line with your goals. Use MFP and see what numbers it gives you. Every few lbs I lose, I recalculate my goal. For every 5 lbs I lose, it takes away 10-20 calories.

abarriere · April 2015

Thanks british broccoli, my BMR is 1756, so I don't think she has put me in maintenance at 2100 calories. I do see what you are saying though. I am always worried about under reporting calories eaten and over reporting calories burned.

I need to ask my trainer next time i see her, but i think her thought process is now that i am burning more calories in my workouts (she constantly is pushing me further and further) and i am doing really well getting in better shape, she wants me to focus more on the getting in better shape rather than just dropping pounds. If she lowers my deficit a bit then maybe i will be able to continue to improve on the challenging workouts, burn more, and weightloss will be a by product of that. I see merit in both methods. I am definitely more used to your method, which is what prompted me to post.

I guess i will see what happens in a few weeks!

Juspex · April 2015

Food timing should be steady through the whole day. Starting from breakfast you should eat approximately every 2 1/2 - 4 hours. Eat smaller meals. 4-6 meals a day ( 2 bigger and 4 "snacks"). Point is that you won't get hungry and when you eat, you shouldn't feel yourself too full (like your stomach would explode). When you eat smaller meals and keep the meals 2 1/2 - 4 hours away from each other your body should "relax" and begin to trust that it won't have to storage fat 'cause it gets energy within the regular times.

Then just eat the amount of macros you need according to your goal.

Eating like this myself. Never feel hungry, losing weight and maintaining muscle mass.

hope this helped and sry if my english sucks.

Juspex · April 2015

After workouts I eat proteins to help build muscles/maintaing it. ( protein supplements)

Juspex · April 2015

PH. I don't feel like it

what's your suggestion then?

Juspex · April 2015

Oh*

AllanMisner · April 2015

abarriere wrote: »

Thanks Allan, I was hoping you would reply. Right now i am on a 25% protein, 40% carbs, 35% fat macro set up. I sometimes don't hit them perfectly, but it averages out. My diary should be open, so any ideas for protein are always welcome.

Also, I haven't been timing any of my food, is that something i should start looking into? I hear about post workout snacks and all that, but not sure what i should be eating and when.

I’m certified in personal training, not a dietitian. So these are just from my personal experience and just to give you some thoughts to research on your own.

You eat more carbs than I do. Do you know the sugar grams? It looks like you’re hitting the protein just fine for the activity you’re doing. If the sugars are more than 25% of your carbs, I would shift the make up of carbs away from sugar and maybe up the fat some (see what this does to your energy levels and tweak as needed). BTW, you have a very good looking diary (at least for the few days I looked back on).

Nutrient timing is seldom needed in beginning to intermediate trainees. By that time you factor in digestion time, etc. there is so little benefit that it probably wouldn’t give you any noticeable results. The only time this isn’t true is when you’re trying to eat at a significant deficit or manage through a severe metabolic syndrome (such as controlling glucose when a diabetic). Timing nutrition while on a significant deficit can give you the surge of energy you need to get through a workout, and then cut back when your energy output is lower. Since you’re not in that deficit range, I can’t see a real reason to do any nutrient timing.

abarriere · April 2015

OK, cool, I will check on the sugar recommendation. Back in January when I started, I was on a 30% protein, 30% carbs, 40% fat macro set up. I took that through the end of february, when the trainer changed it to what I am on now. I stalled out in February as well. So far I tend to lose great every other month and then I hit a month of little to no weightloss. Not sure if my body is just adjusting to whatever i am on, so I need a little shake up or what the reasoning is. I know 4 months is not really a trend, it's just weird that it has happened like that. I have continued to see other results though, so I am still very happy with the progress.

Thanks for the diary compliment. One of my major changes is that I rarely eat out anymore and I feel like that has made the biggest difference.

AllanMisner · April 2015

Yes, it is called homeostasis. The body is always looking to level out and run steady. We have to push it off that table to get it down to the next level.

Sounds like you’re doing great!

leggup · April 2015

abarriere wrote: »

Thanks british broccoli, my BMR is 1756, so I don't think she has put me in maintenance at 2100 calories. I do see what you are saying though. I am always worried about under reporting calories eaten and over reporting calories burned.

I need to ask my trainer next time i see her, but i think her thought process is now that i am burning more calories in my workouts (she constantly is pushing me further and further) and i am doing really well getting in better shape, she wants me to focus more on the getting in better shape rather than just dropping pounds. If she lowers my deficit a bit then maybe i will be able to continue to improve on the challenging workouts, burn more, and weightloss will be a by product of that. I see merit in both methods. I am definitely more used to your method, which is what prompted me to post.

I guess i will see what happens in a few weeks!

The closer I get to my goal, the more I got to eat, is another point I forgot to mention. At first, I was aiming to lose 2 lbs/week. Later, as it cut me down 10 calories at a time, I switched to 1.5 lbs/week, which bumped up my calories. I'm now down to losing .5 lbs/week, which is very sustainable since I only have a couple more lbs to lose. It's a way to transition into maintenance.

Getting in better shape is a great goal. I suggest working with her to create more definitive fitness goalposts, like improving your mile time, doing a pull up, whatever is important to you. Good luck in your workouts!

barbecuesauce · April 2015

I did not do it to break a plateau, but when I upped my calories and became more active in my day-to-day life, I started losing more quickly than I had before.

jemhh · April 2015

barbecuesauce wrote: »

I did not do it to break a plateau, but when I upped my calories and became more active in my day-to-day life, I started losing more quickly than I had before.

Thank you for saying this. This is something that I think every time I read a post that says "I'm eating 1200 calories and exercising 3-5 times a week and not losing." Eating too few calories and adding exercise is a recipe for being too tired/wiped out to do much else in your everyday life.

Have you ever raised your calories/upped workouts to break a plateau?

Replies

Categories