Plateau Weight Blues

dllyon5
dllyon5 Posts: 16 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Annually I lose weight quickly at first by eating healthy, counting calories and decent cardio and calisthenics.
Then I hit a plateau and it's always just above my BMI.
How can break that plateau without starving or break down physically.
I'm 52 male 5'-10" 175 lbs. eating about 1500 calories mostly high in protein and fiber. I walk or jog at least 1 hour a day. Always stay above 10,000 steps. I do calisthenics about 3 times a week for 20'.
Not sure what else I can do. Any suggestions?

Replies

  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    How do you measure your food intake? Food scale?
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited January 2016
    You can eat below your BMI without breaking down. Your body gets energy by using your fat stores so that your body processes still have more than your BMI's worth of energy available.

    Having said that, men shouldn't really go below 1500 calories. Perhaps you just need to "keep on keeping on" and you'll eventually lose a bit more.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Based on the Scooby calendar, your TDEE is likely somewhere in the 2200-2500 range. Are you eating or netting 1500? My suggestion would be to eat around 1800-2000. This will allow you to lose weight, albeit more slowly, in a way that lets you eat more, which is more sustainable. Eating at a low calorie level can be problematic when it causes you to feel overly hungry and prone to breaking your diet.
  • chandanista
    chandanista Posts: 986 Member
    How long have you stalled?
  • dllyon5
    dllyon5 Posts: 16 Member
    arditarose wrote: »
    How do you measure your food intake? Food scale?

    I use my app "MyFitnessPal" Barcode reader if possible and enter my servings. Otherwise I estimate using the app database. I try to stay consistent daily.
  • dllyon5
    dllyon5 Posts: 16 Member
    chandanista wrote: »
    How long have you stalled?

    1.5 to 2 weeks
  • dllyon5
    dllyon5 Posts: 16 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Based on the Scooby calendar, your TDEE is likely somewhere in the 2200-2500 range. Are you eating or netting 1500? My suggestion would be to eat around 1800-2000. This will allow you to lose weight, albeit more slowly, in a way that lets you eat more, which is more sustainable. Eating at a low calorie level can be problematic when it causes you to feel overly hungry and prone to breaking your diet.

    Good advice. Thank you
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    dllyon5 wrote: »
    chandanista wrote: »
    How long have you stalled?

    1.5 to 2 weeks

    That is not a plateau by any stretch. If after six weeks or more your weight hasn't changed then you are eating more than you think, not burning as much as you think, or both. It's as simple as that. But two weeks is nothing because of random weight loss variation noise. There really isn't such thing as a plateau. It's called eating at maintenance.

    One important, yet often over looked, aspect of weight loss is educating yourself to the mechanics of it so that you don't lose your mind when you don't lose, per the scales, weight for a few weeks.
  • coryh00
    coryh00 Posts: 55 Member
    Have you tried lowering your protein intake? I didn't realize how little we actually need, and somewhere I read that when your body gets too much protein your liver basically turns it into sugar which can stall weight loss. I'm no expert and cant say if that is actually true or not, but it made sense when I read it. If I'm mistaken then let the flaming from experts begin.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    coryh00 wrote: »
    Have you tried lowering your protein intake? I didn't realize how little we actually need, and somewhere I read that when your body gets too much protein your liver basically turns it into sugar which can stall weight loss. I'm no expert and cant say if that is actually true or not, but it made sense when I read it. If I'm mistaken then let the flaming from experts begin.

    That's not true. No flaming necessary. Excess protein would only stall weight loss if you consumed excess calories.
  • no44s4me
    no44s4me Posts: 73 Member
    I've got very similar stats...I'm 55, 5'11'', currently around 185 for about a year (down from an all-time high of 250). Two things to consider adding....a digital food scale and adding some weight training to your calisthenics. When I was losing a a good clip, I was eating around 1800-1900 AND eating back some exercise calories.
  • dllyon5
    dllyon5 Posts: 16 Member
    Good suggestion on the weight training. Thanks. It's been awhile since hit barbells. I'll have to start off slow
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