How to break plateus

Opening your diary so that we can take a look or giving us some more details might help to get you more specific advice, if you're comfortable doing so.

Otherwise, these are my really general tips. Maybe you'll find some of them useful.

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

Drink plenty of water as that helps wash out all the rubbish and also maybe increase you calories for a day or two then drop down, i sometimes find that helps kick start things again. I also find certain 'times of the month' halt my progress as i get water retention. It does pass tho so dont feel disheartened x

thebrandnewdiva wrote: »

A "Cheat day"or even a day of normal eating breaks plateaus. It's like it tricks the body to restart the process.

How I wish that were true. I have been on a plateau since 6/5/15. I know why... I have given into too many temptations. Alcohol, for example... I eat healthy and exercise regularly but I have been unable to avoid wine this summer. When I drink, I make bad choices and I have a cheat day. Anyways, it is that "cheat day" that has hurt me rather than help me.

xKoalaBearx wrote: »

I hit a plateau around my second month of weight loss as well. I did a "cheat day" and it worked like a charm to break through my plateau. It worked so well that I now have a planned cheat day every Saturday. With weekly cheat days, I reached my dream weight and lost a total of 60 lbs and have been maintaining <knock on wood> for over 3 months now.

The key for me is to not cheat on the other 6 days of the week.

Congrats on the success!

Eat at maintenance for a week or so, let your body rest a bit from the deficit. Then start back up the calorie deficit. That's worked for me on a number of occasions.