Help please I'm stuck at a plateau

Ok you're gonna hate my answer, but you are absolutely NOT eating enough. I have been educating myself bc i was in a similar situation- i was working out 6 days a week 60 minutes or more at max heart rate for the majority of the workout- 4 days of those were HIIT- I know you know what that is-what i learned was when you work out hard, your body will need a snack after- 30 minutes max- of the workout- It can be up to half the cals you burned or as low as 150 cals, but if you skip, your body panics and then hours later it will crave a quick carb or quick sugar fix which is always bad news for our diet and mental health, this is true for both men and women. So instead of eating more, i decided to use a heart rate monitor ( not perfect but works great for me) and drop my workouts to 40 - 45 minutes max- 6 times a week max heart rate at 150-164 and doubled my water- 2 liters minimum a day- this past week i lost 2.6 after being stuck for weeks- i weigh and measure everything. Oh and drop strength training just for a bit-to once a week max- bc the lactic acid buildup will impact your water retention, and jack the scale, which will mess with your mind, and cause you to make unnecessary changes- by dropping to 1 day it will remove that as a possible reason for your plateau. Last resort- print your entries from the MFP and go to a nutritionist with them in hand the first visit- she can analyze them and help you tweak safely. Hope this helps!

O2BNWA wrote: »

Ok you're gonna hate my answer, but you are absolutely NOT eating enough. I have been educating myself bc i was in a similar situation- i was working out 6 days a week 60 minutes or more at max heart rate for the majority of the workout- 4 days of those were HIIT- I know you know what that is-what i learned was when you work out hard, your body will need a snack after- 30 minutes max- of the workout- It can be up to half the cals you burned or as low as 150 cals, but if you skip, your body panics and then hours later it will crave a quick carb or quick sugar fix which is always bad news for our diet and mental health, this is true for both men and women. So instead of eating more, i decided to use a heart rate monitor ( not perfect but works great for me) and drop my workouts to 40 - 45 minutes max- 6 times a week max heart rate at 150-164 and doubled my water- 2 liters minimum a day- this past week i lost 2.6 after being stuck for weeks- i weigh and measure everything. Oh and drop strength training just for a bit-to once a week max- bc the lactic acid buildup will impact your water retention, and jack the scale, which will mess with your mind, and cause you to make unnecessary changes- by dropping to 1 day it will remove that as a possible reason for your plateau. Last resort- print your entries from the MFP and go to a nutritionist with them in hand the first visit- she can analyze them and help you tweak safely. Hope this helps!

I can't say what I want to say nicely so, with that said, this is a crock. Don't take this advice please. Lol...

shortthiing wrote: »

I have polycystic ovarian syndrome my Dr kind of treats me as he would a diabetic patient. I have to watch my carb intake. Now this app has me at 1200 calories but I try to do 1000. I can't eat that much. Only nothing is changing. I have been doing insanity for 5 weeks and before that I did cize for 4 weeks and before that I did hop hop abs for 4 weeks. In the beginning I lost like 4 lbs. Since then nothing No inches either. I'm a bit frustrated. I know the pcos makes it harder but any advice? Also looking for a low carb protien powder but the ones I found taste horrible.

Try zig zagging? http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm I don't think you're eating enough at 1000, at all. You should eat 1200 at least, net. Eat back exercise calories too. Sometimes if you eat too little, you may gain or plateau, from my personal experience. Eating more for a week, then going back down, or zig zagging/calorie cycling can help. This basically means you'd eat like this:

Sunday 1050
Monday 1300
Tuesday 1200
Wednesday 1050
Thursday 1100
Friday 1300
Saturday 1400

Still averaging 1200 calories per day.

shortthiing wrote: »

I have polycystic ovarian syndrome my Dr kind of treats me as he would a diabetic patient. I have to watch my carb intake. Now this app has me at 1200 calories but I try to do 1000. I can't eat that much. Only nothing is changing. I have been doing insanity for 5 weeks and before that I did cize for 4 weeks and before that I did hop hop abs for 4 weeks. In the beginning I lost like 4 lbs. Since then nothing No inches either. I'm a bit frustrated. I know the pcos makes it harder but any advice? Also looking for a low carb protien powder but the ones I found taste horrible.

I suggest you get a food scale and weigh all your food. Even with a medical issue, if you were really eating 1,000 calories you would be losing weight.

O2BNWA wrote: »

Ok you're gonna hate my answer, but you are absolutely NOT eating enough. I have been educating myself bc i was in a similar situation- i was working out 6 days a week 60 minutes or more at max heart rate for the majority of the workout- 4 days of those were HIIT- I know you know what that is-what i learned was when you work out hard, your body will need a snack after- 30 minutes max- of the workout- It can be up to half the cals you burned or as low as 150 cals, but if you skip, your body panics and then hours later it will crave a quick carb or quick sugar fix which is always bad news for our diet and mental health, this is true for both men and women. So instead of eating more, i decided to use a heart rate monitor ( not perfect but works great for me) and drop my workouts to 40 - 45 minutes max- 6 times a week max heart rate at 150-164 and doubled my water- 2 liters minimum a day- this past week i lost 2.6 after being stuck for weeks- i weigh and measure everything. Oh and drop strength training just for a bit-to once a week max- bc the lactic acid buildup will impact your water retention, and jack the scale, which will mess with your mind, and cause you to make unnecessary changes- by dropping to 1 day it will remove that as a possible reason for your plateau. Last resort- print your entries from the MFP and go to a nutritionist with them in hand the first visit- she can analyze them and help you tweak safely. Hope this helps!

This is highly inaccurate information.

What type of cardiovascular exercise are you doing, and what is the duration of that type exercise each day?
Also, what percent of your carb intake and what type of carbohydrates are you providing yourself daily?

Although I agree with the others that you could be more accurate in your logging, I can't see that you should be off so much that you aren't losing weight. It seems like you have been at it for 2 months and did lose 4 lbs initially. Those may not be the results you want, but you are doing the right things. I suggest keep at but tighten up your logging a little.

tincanonastring wrote: »

You're going to have to tighten up the logging a bit. Use USDA entries for your whole foods whenever possible and make sure you're inputting everything, including sauces, marinades, and condiments.

Also, you should be netting no less than 1200 calories on a daily basis. Please don't eat 850-900 for extended periods of time. It's dangerous.

I plugged your stats (5'0", 155lbs, female, 31) into the scooby calculalator (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) and it gave me a sedentary (desk job with little exercise) TDEE of ~1750. With a couple hours per week of light exercise, you should be able to eat around 1500-1600 calories a day and still lose at a decent clip.

I obsessively check everyone of these websites when any of you link them. I don't know if I am secretly hoping one of them will tell me to eat 4000 calories of chocolate a day, or what It is interesting to me how much they vary though.