Any suggestions on breaking weight loss plateau?

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Hi Everyone,

Im 5'3. Used to weigh 133.5. Trying to achieve goal of 120lbs. But my weight has been fluctuating between 127.2 to 129lbs. Yesterday it was 127.2 and today its 128.2 again. (I weigh myself as soon as I wake up). Any suggestions on how to break this weight plateau would be awesome. I work out in the gyn around 4 days a week. 10min cardio and 45min(upper body or lower).

Reduced carbs quite a lot but i cheat on weekends upto 2000 calories.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    How long has this fluctuation been going on? How are you measuring your calories eaten?
  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    Its been 2 weeks. This week will be the 3rd. But weekends i usually let go of my diet control :D. Maybe that could be the reason why.
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
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    pearlheidi wrote: »
    Its been 2 weeks. This week will be the 3rd. But weekends i usually let go of my diet control :D. Maybe that could be the reason why.

    ya think?? you can easily undo the good you are doing during the week if you are way over on the weekends.
  • Talan79
    Talan79 Posts: 782 Member
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    What are your calories like on weekdays?
    I'm 5"2, was 124, got down to 117 doing 1450, and lifting mixed with cardio.
    I agree with Muscleflex79, a cheat day can throw off your deficit. I keep an excel sheet so that I can track calories in and out.
    If your goal is weight loss, keep the lifting but up your cardio. I'd incorporate some HITT into that.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    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.
  • philimyri
    philimyri Posts: 16 Member
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    Try HIIT or Plyometric Workouts.
  • matty86suk
    matty86suk Posts: 26 Member
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    Jogging, 30 min x3 a week
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    Thank you for your suggestions :). I do only 10min of cardios everyday and alternate upper and lower body weights . Weekends my calories goes upto 1500 to maybe 2000 if I'm drinking .
    Talan79 wrote: »
    What are your calories like on weekdays?
    I'm 5"2, was 124, got down to 117 doing 1450, and lifting mixed with cardio.
    I agree with Muscleflex79, a cheat day can throw off your deficit. I keep an excel sheet so that I can track calories in and out.
    If your goal is weight loss, keep the lifting but up your cardio. I'd incorporate some HITT into that.

  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    pearlheidi wrote: »
    Its been 2 weeks. This week will be the 3rd. But weekends i usually let go of my diet control :D. Maybe that could be the reason why.

    ya think?? you can easily undo the good you are doing during the week if you are way over on the weekends.
    thinking of doing intermittent fasting. Read good reviews about it :smile:


  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    philimyri wrote: »
    Try HIIT or Plyometric Workouts.

    Sure. Thanks :smile:
  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    matty86suk wrote: »
    Jogging, 30 min x3 a week

    Thanks :smiley:
  • Talan79
    Talan79 Posts: 782 Member
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    If you already aren't, get a digital scale. Very helpful in tracking correctly. I used to log Fuji apple, it would say 80 calories. After getting a scale, if I cut out the core and entered Fuji apple by ounce, it would be 120 calories. It can really help you tighten up your logging.
  • strong_curves
    strong_curves Posts: 2,229 Member
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    pearlheidi wrote: »
    matty86suk wrote: »
    Jogging, 30 min x3 a week

    Thanks :smiley:

    That's not going to really help you lose weight especially if you don't have your eating under control. Like others have already pointed out start tracking your intake better.
  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    I shall order one right away :smile: .. Thanks :smile:
    quote="Talan79;35547838"]If you already aren't, get a digital scale. Very helpful in tracking correctly. I used to log Fuji apple, it would say 80 calories. After getting a scale, if I cut out the core and entered Fuji apple by ounce, it would be 120 calories. It can really help you tighten up your logging. [/quote]

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,583 Member
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    pearlheidi wrote: »
    Weekends my calories goes upto 1500 to maybe 2000 if I'm drinking .

    Log the weekends, too, even if you have to estimate. Pick database entries similar to what you ate, and use estimated portion sizes, if necessary. Look at the database entries, and don't pick the lowball ones. Use ones on the higher side instead.

    That will give you at least some hope of estimating the impact of your weekends. It's easy to consume substantially more than you think, calorically, especially if alcohol is involved. (I'm not demonizing alcohol, BTW - I drink it myself. ;) ).
  • pearlheidi
    pearlheidi Posts: 59 Member
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    He he he. Alcohol is difficult to avoid on weekends and my friends are of no help either :wink:

    I've started 16:8 intermittent fasting today. Planning to incorporate HIIT as well. What time of the day do u weigh yourself? I weigh as soon as i wake up. I was 127. Then i had black coffee with a tsp of raw honey. I checked my weight again and it was 127.4 . Not that I'm a scale addict. Just wanted to understand how the body changes.

    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pearlheidi wrote: »
    Weekends my calories goes upto 1500 to maybe 2000 if I'm drinking .

    Log the weekends, too, even if you have to estimate. Pick database entries similar to what you ate, and use estimated portion sizes, if necessary. Look at the database entries, and don't pick the lowball ones. Use ones on the higher side instead.

    That will give you at least some hope of estimating the impact of your weekends. It's easy to consume substantially more than you think, calorically, especially if alcohol is involved. (I'm not demonizing alcohol, BTW - I drink it myself. ;) ).

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,583 Member
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    pearlheidi wrote: »
    He he he. Alcohol is difficult to avoid on weekends and my friends are of no help either :wink:

    I've started 16:8 intermittent fasting today. Planning to incorporate HIIT as well. What time of the day do u weigh yourself? I weigh as soon as i wake up. I was 127. Then i had black coffee with a tsp of raw honey. I checked my weight again and it was 127.4 . Not that I'm a scale addict. Just wanted to understand how the body changes.

    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    pearlheidi wrote: »
    Weekends my calories goes upto 1500 to maybe 2000 if I'm drinking .

    Log the weekends, too, even if you have to estimate. Pick database entries similar to what you ate, and use estimated portion sizes, if necessary. Look at the database entries, and don't pick the lowball ones. Use ones on the higher side instead.

    That will give you at least some hope of estimating the impact of your weekends. It's easy to consume substantially more than you think, calorically, especially if alcohol is involved. (I'm not demonizing alcohol, BTW - I drink it myself. ;) ).

    I weigh daily, first thing in the morning. Sounds like your coffee with honey weighed about 0.4lb. ;-)

    I like knowing why my weight fluctuates, too, but I rarely bother with weighing through the course of a day - I'm more interested in the day to day effects, which for me tend to be about meal timing (physically heavy food late + higher weight in the AM, of course), carbs well above my normal consumption, extra salt, or a workout activity that requires more muscle repair, sleeping extra long (so lower weight because of relative dehydration) - water weight, in other words. (I'm old enough that time of month is not an issue.)

    For me, about the only case when I weigh during the day, is when I exercise outdoors in hot weather for a long-ish period of time. Then, I'll sometimes weigh before & after exercise, to evaluate whether my during-exercise hydration is adequate.