Plateau - What works best to break it?

dxtra30
dxtra30 Posts: 498 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Besides being on a calorie deficit how to do you break a plateau? Is it by mixing up your exercise routines? Eating better foods?
I’ve been on the same routine for about 2-3 weeks now doing this every day
-Strength Training (30min -1hour)
-HIIT Training (30min)
-Jump Rope (30min)
Any info / suggestions would be great. TIA!

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member

    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.
  • ssmshastry
    ssmshastry Posts: 3 Member
    Please try IF - Intermittent Fasting.
  • crosbylee
    crosbylee Posts: 3,455 Member
    Persistence.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    2-3 weeks isn't enough time to determine success or failure. Give it 4-6 weeks.

    Other than that, what helps? Using a food scale to weigh your food. Logging consistently and accurately. Moving more, eating less.
  • lauraebenavides
    lauraebenavides Posts: 14 Member
    Are you eating at a deficit or are you meeting your calorie intake? Never eat less than 1200/day as it could mess up your metabolism. Also you might be lossing fat while gaining muscle. Are you drinking enough water?
  • dxtra30
    dxtra30 Posts: 498 Member
    edited March 2016
    Thank you all for the suggestions this helps.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    3 weeks no weight loss and I drop my calories.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    I always look back 3 weeks...

    I take the average daily calories I ate for those 21 days. Sure, I was aiming for 1500 calories, but how many did I actually average? It usually ends up being higher if I am being honest. So let's say I averaged 1700 instead. My TDEE is 1950 right now. So 1959 - 1700 = 250. 250x21 days divided by 3500 = 1.5 lbs I should have lost over 21 days. If I actually lost .5 or something, or nothing, here's what I do.

    1) Accurate with my logging. I spend the next week being really conscious of weighing EVERYTHING on my food scale. I might start overcounting things like fast food hamburgers as 1.1 or 1.2 to be more accurate in case they don't match their calorie counts.
    2) Accurate with my exercise calories. Does walking 3 miles really slow really burn 280 calories? I don't think so MFP. Or did my Garmin just say I burned 404 calories on my run? I'll take 90% of that instead.

    If after another 1-2 weeks of this, the math is still not adding up, I cut calories.
  • Optimistical1
    Optimistical1 Posts: 210 Member
    Beautiful changes happen when you experiment with intermittent fasting. Check out Leangains. I'm now five months in and it's the best lifestyle change I've ever made.

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