I have hit the dreaded plateau - looking for suggestions

Food wise; try cycling your carb intake low to middle to high then start back over, doing this over a week. Excerise wise; try doing HIIT (High Intensty Interval Training) whether its on a bike, treadmill, running, elyptical trainer, whatever, just go all out for short burst every minute or two. You don't have to over do it either. Just push the heart rate every few minutes for as long as your comfortable. These things have helped me.

Have you tried to incorporate weight training into your routine?

I hot a small plateau a few months ago and learned that every like 3 months you should have a week off, where you eat at maintenance and dont workout. It will help with you metabolism. When i did that I lost 4 pounds just like that. It was hard to do but worth it. Also make sure you are getting plenty of water atleast 12 cups a day imo.

I looked at your diary and your sodium is WAY to high, and yes some not so good stuff in there. I know my body responces to carbs and sugar treats to weight gain soooo fast! I have to limit those because I cant lose weight at all when I have them. You know your body can not tell the difference between a spoon full of sugar and white flour. So be more natural with LOTS of vegi's.

Joined Jan 2011
Posts: 1,324
Fri 04/08/11 11:18 AMSo I have had some requests to post this and I hope that it will benefit you all. To get started out right you need to be set at a 1lb/week fat loss for this to work right. Why 1lb/wk loss? Simple wiggle room, you are going to shed more so do not stress about it, its not the end of the world as you know it. (for those whom have lots to shed 60+ pounds of more we can push it a little further same practice but slightly different application) So here are the basics using me as an example: I am set at a 1lb/week loss and for me that is 1940 cals/day, this gives me a 500 cal deficit to start with before workouts. So remember that mfp set me up with that deficit to start with for the beginners whom do not quite have a handle on that.

Here is the cal breakdown for maintenance/loss/max:

2440 maintenance/1940 loss/max deficit of 800 is 1640 cals.

So on days 1 and 2 I go max deficit of 1640 cals I do this through food and exercise as I like to eat I usually do it by not eating back 300 of my workout cals (for those with a lot to shed you can do that for 500 cals)

On day 3 I go to maintenance level of 2440 cals. I do this to prevent starvation mode from taking effect and it keeps my metabolic rate at its peak and the exercise helps me to do that as well as crank it up a few notches.

And repeat, of course the closer I get the lower the amount I can push it so once I am say 5 pounds away I will more than likely have to go to 0.5 lb/week loss for my wiggle room. You will have to play with the deficit to get it set right for you, we all respond somewhat differently but as a general rule a long lasting deficit will drop metabolic rate on you which is why I used to encourage a cheat day or cheat meal every few weeks. I am doing this method to speed up my fat loss somewhat. By zig zagging my cals my body can not lower my metabolic rate on me. Now also keep in mind that as you shed fat the numbers will change so reset it every 2nd week or when results start to slow down. I dropped 27 pounds so far and I train/eat with purpose so should you, train for fat loss using the most time effective workouts like High intensity interval training and metabolic resistance training, we do not need to spend 6 days a week in the gym to shed fat quickly and easily.
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Eating lean protein, I eat like 10oz of meat for dinner!
Eat greek yogurt!
Eat raw almonds unsalted (these are great for a snack and lots of calories)
If you are going to have any breads have 100% whole wheat.
Eat brown rice, I buy the birds eye that you can find frozen and you just microwave
fresh fruit!
Frozen vegi's never canned!
I make the same things for all my meals all the time so when I shop each week I tend to buy the same stuff. I make homemade taco, pizza, and cookies!

Also plan out your meal maybe the night before or in the morning so you are strict on knowing what you will eat.

I dont eat my calories back per say, I eat like 1290 (that little above my BMR) on days I dont workout, and 1500-1600 on days I do (which is pretty much eating them back)

I am not a runner so I know training for it does involve alot of running. Maybe you should try running on some inclines. That will help you training and be harder. Are you running at the gym? I would say you need to for sure add in some strength training. Cardio is Cardio its great for the heart but doesnt really build muscles.

Did you know that having more muscles burns more calories just by sitting on the couch?

Also search for posts from stroutman81. He has alot of great advice!!!!!!

Oh yes and adding in beans is great way for more calories too. Buy a bag boil them yourself and then add them to your meals!

Tim, when it comes to exercise, for the first 8 months of my journey/plan I only cardio, d.......meainging, I was too fat to exercise, so I would just use the treadmill..........finally, lost about 70 lbs ,and thought I d lift some weights, just a few
I was kinda embarrased at the gym, but people didnt even look, lol, and it was ALL IN MY HEAD, so I would just use some free weights and then about 9 months later, I started using the bi/tri weight machines, the ones that you use to build up your bicepts and tricepts, then I d use the leg machines and got pretty good.........then gradually increased the weights

now Im doing Core, more lunges, planks, sit ups, and not as much cardio, and believe it or not, its paying off.........yoga is killing me, lol, for one hour I sweat like a pig, but I feel so good the next day, all my muscles ache, but I know its paying off

Im at 212 lbs, lost about 145 so far and all my muscles are tighter now, very little loose skin. Im bulking up and really feel good, as well as now I dont take ANY meds,
read my bio, it lets you know how I have done this and what I went thru..........you seem focused, just noticed that you were like me, I was buying low cal, low fat and little did I know that all that low cal was just loaded with TONS of sodium and salt

Add me as a friend, if I can help you.........again, Im not a professional or a nutriotionist, mine is trial and error, but thank goodness its finally paying off on this darn plateau business............best wishes, Lloyd

If you really want to push through to the next level, crossfit and paleo diet are bound to have an impact. If you can find a local crossfit gym, that will whoop your a*s into shape no problem. You'll spend the same amount of time running/working out, but it will be much more intense and challenging. And there's all sort so theories out there on diet etc. For me, paleo diet has worked well. If all the carbs you're eating aren't veggies...i would say that the carbs would be your culprit. Hope that's helpful.

Great advice !!! Bump