Six week plateau...BUSTED! Yay!

zig zagging calories really worked for me and I did it the simple way staying at 1200 calories for a few days then up to 1400-1500 for a day , then back again. I am small framed and although I KNOW it's not advisable I would also do a jump start of about 800 calories a day, then 1000, then bounce back up. I changed up my exercising in simple little ways like adding dance steps or changing the incline/speed on the treadmill. I have had to re-set my goal weight LOWER twice now and have met both goals so I am extremely happy with the results and will re-set that goal at least once more!

Question-When everyone is "upping" their calories-eating back their exercise calories-what is everyone eating?? Another salad? anther piece of chicken? a bag of brocolli? By the time I exercise -it is evening and I can nevergauge how many calories I will burn until I am done exercising. So at 7:00 at night-what should I eat??

First...pick a number that is usually under what you burn on exercise days. For example, I average 300-400 calories strength training every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday...so I pick 200-250 calories and add it to my target for that day before I even begin. This gives me a goal number to spread into my days meals. For example, a 1oz serving of cashews is 160 calories, and a string cheese is about 60...so at lunch time I'll toss one of each in (see the trend, small volume, high calorie!), and it helps. I will also add a mint oreo or two to my pre and post workout protien shakes for an extra 70-140 calories. Little things go a long way to fill the gaps. I can comfortably feed myself on 1500 calories, and some days with my current zig zag routine, and exercise, I'm needing to eat almost 3000 calories lol. I most certainly don't eat twice the volume in food though...I simply up the caloric content of the food I'm eating.

As for what you can eat when you're stuck late in the evening with calories to make up? Some people say anything, and I tend to agree from experience. But, at the same time...I try to limit those things to low carb, NO processed sugar, protien or fiber based snacks. Things like cottage cheese, lean meat, etc.

Cris

What do I eat when I eat back my calories?

Well. Sometimes it may mean I can have a larger piece of fish or another piece of chicken with dinner (if I know I'm going to work out). I may have a protein shake. Or I'll have a snack "meal" - where I'll have cottage cheese, almonds, some fruit and maybe a snack that I want - like bagels. It really depends on if I decide to eat my exercise calories BEFORE I exercise or after. Sometimes if I have something going on, I will eat them before I even workout. It's nice to be able to enjoy a nice dinner and even have a little extra.

These replys are so helpful. I started in March and lost 8 # now have been up and down currently up 4 pounds after being away for 3 days. . I exercise every other day and try for 1200 calories, Is that too few ? I do eat back my exercise calories. Thanks

There's so many variables it's impossible to say if it's too few or not. How do you log your calories (optimistic, or conservatively?), how do you log your exercise calories (if you're using the exercises given on the site...they're pretty optimistic)? How tall are you, what's your total loss goal? If you're 5'11", 1200 is probably going to be too few regardless of what the 'accepted minimum' is. If you're 4'11" on the other hand...you could probably get away with less. If you have a substantial amount to lose (25lbs+), you can usually get away with fewer calories for awhile...but really the only one who can safely make those determinations is you.

I know that wasn't very helpful...but to be honest...there's SO many opinions on this site, and they're all based on almost no information given by the person posting the question. It's not that any of them are 'wrong'...it's that unless someone has ALL the specifics...any advice is going to be very generalized, and thus open to interpretation and flawed.

One other thing to mention is that how MANY calories you're eating is far less relevant than what KIND of calories you're eating. Whole, clean foods will always give the best results. If you're eating 1200 calories of twinkies and McDonalds (even the 'healthy' choices)...no power in the world is going to help you lose weight.

Cris

After a 3 wk plateau, I'm upping my net cals to 1400 for a few days to see what will happen. I burn 300-600 cals/day from exercise, and after doing a report of my net cals for the last 30 days, I'm well below 1200 most days. I'm hoping this will help me keep moving forward on this journey since it can be a bit depressing working so hard every day and not seeing any movement on the scale for so long!

I've been contemplating changing up my calories as well. I've actually been on a 6 month plateau! Initially I was on the weight watcher plan and lost 30 pounds there. After not losing anything with their new plan I figured I'd give calorie counting a try but unfortunately its leaving me at the same place. I'm 5'2" (151) and my net calorie goal is 1200. I've been keeping to that and eating my exercise calories ( I work out 5 days a week running alternating with boot camp), however, with 25 pounds to go nothing is coming off. Ironically after I ran a 5k I gained 2lbs the next day! It's kind of scary but hearing everyone's advice I'm thinking of trying to either up my calories for a couple weeks or decrease my goal from 1lb a week to .5 a week. Any advice would be appreciated...how much should I up my net calorie total?

Thanks:)

Does anyone find that their results reflect activity and food of a week or so ago rather than this week. My hubby went away for a week returning last Saturday, whilst on my own I ran or walked every single day and ate really healthily so I was upset to find it hadn't budged anything. So maybe today's loss is the result of that week

Yes! That is exactly what seems to happen to me. It can be quite demoralizing when I don't think it through (and it's so easy to "forget" those times when I have a major cheat-fest and don't gain).

Credit card eating!