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Plateauing hard...

delane4357
delane4357 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, my name is Anna. After years of being an overweight child and failing on diets, I decided to change my life on May 22nd, 2015. I was 216 pounds at age 18 and in one year of dieting and occasional exercise (walking on sidewalk, dancing, etc) I'm down to 165. I've been 165-168 since February and I joined a gym to hopefully break my plateau. I've been going 5-6 days, doing personal training 2 days a week and treadmill/elliptical the other days of the week, making sure I get my 30 minutes. However, the scale has not budged. I was eating 1,100 calories a day, but decided to up my calories thinking I may not have been eating enough. I also drink 3,000 ml of water a day. I guess what I'm asking for here is any tips of what to do diet wise or anything else I can do at the gym to help. I'd really like to be 150-155 by my 20th birthday (August 7th) and my goal weight of 135 by Christmas. Thank you guys! :)

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Good job on the weight loss! How tall are you?
  • delane4357
    delane4357 Posts: 5 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    Good job on the weight loss! How tall are you?

    I'm 5'7"!
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
    edited May 2016
    Time to take some of your exercise past 30 minutes. When on treadmill or elliptical go further or go faster. Challenge yourself.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Congrats on your loss! You are really close to your goal, and the closer you get, the tighter your logging has to be. There's not much room for error and your rate of loss will slow down. I suggest that you review the sticky threads and tips about accurate weighing and logging to see what you can fine tune.
  • 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.
  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,396 Member
    Have you updated your stats (weight) on mfp to set an updated goal?
  • delane4357
    delane4357 Posts: 5 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

    I use measuring cups and spoons for most things but not a scale for meats. I should definitely do that!
  • delane4357
    delane4357 Posts: 5 Member
    MonkeyMel21 wrote: »
    Have you updated your stats (weight) on mfp to set an updated goal?

    Yes, for my weight and my new active lifestyle it says I should eat 1,480 calories a day but that just seems like so much so I've been having 1,300 a day (not including what I burn at the gym)
  • 12Sarah2015
    12Sarah2015 Posts: 1,117 Member
    Im 146. I do one Hr min exercise per day
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    delane4357 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

    I use measuring cups and spoons for most things but not a scale for meats. I should definitely do that!
    delane4357 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

    I use measuring cups and spoons for most things but not a scale for meats. I should definitely do that!

    once you use the scale you will be shocked at what a portion really is. I used measuring cups at first too and once I started using a scale the weight started to budge. I was just recently in a 6 month plateau,I dont know why as I was weighing everything and having no cheat meals but it happened,so for me I lowered my carbs a bit and started eating more fruits,veggies and healthy fats(still while being in a deficit),I lost the water weight I carried around for that amount of time and now Im losing slowly, but still losing. I still weigh everything.

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