How do you deal with the Plateau?

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mandy_godfree
mandy_godfree Posts: 71 Member
in Motivation and Support
I'm still in deficit, I keep trying to step up the swimming training and in the last 4 weeks I've lost 0.3lbs, last month I lost 1lb. I try to stick between 1200 - 1500 calories and in fairness am pretty good and sticking to it. I've been sticking to this since I started MFP again last year and have lost a total of 30.4lbs over 11 months. Anyone been through the plateau? How long does it last for and what did you do to shift it. I don't want to eat any less because I don't want to go into starvation mode and I need enough energy for the training. Ultimately fitness is more important to me than weight loss but I would like to lose another 10lbs. I know some would say "a loss is a loss" but losing under 1 1/2lb in 8 weeks is actually quite demoralising.

Replies

  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
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    I make sure my logging is on point. Chances are I've been eyeballing instead of weighing my food out.
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    I'm currently on a 3 month plateau. I've been gaining and losing the same 5-10 pounds and it is demoralizing. However, I know exactly why I'm plateued. I'm eating more and moving less. I don't log everyday. When I do I often go over. I'm less motivated to exercise now that the weather has warmed up. I'm going to guess you aren't losing much for similar reasons. You are eating too much or not moving around enough throughout your day. Figure out which one of those you want to change and you will get through your plateau. Now if I could only listen to my own advice and get that scale moving again.
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
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    I was told shake it up. If you're doing more cardio with and do more weights. Sometimes increasing your caloric consumption will kickstart things and move you from a plateau. change it up and see what works
  • Vevvie
    Vevvie Posts: 12 Member
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    I was on a one-month plateau, after losing 40-45 pounds, and only hiking for exercise. When I started strength training, I was able to break through the plateau in the first week - 2 weeks.
  • mandy_godfree
    mandy_godfree Posts: 71 Member
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    I've found this article from MFP. I think it's quite useful. It gives some really good information about why you plateau even though you're not doing anything different to when you were losing. I think what hit home to me is that the smaller you, takes less energy to move around and so may need to recalculate in the goals section. I've done this, and the calorie limit for me has been brought down by nearly two hundred calories per day. That should be fairly easy to cut out. All I need to do is cut out my one daily latte and I'll hit the new goal. I'll let you know how I get on.
    http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/10-tips-to-overcome-a-weight-loss-plateau/
  • Tapout112009
    Tapout112009 Posts: 109 Member
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    I've lost a total of 60 pounds and I've been thru 2 big ones. One last a monthb and one was 3 weeks. First one I worked out alot harder and broke thru. 2nd one I switched my macros and went on the keto. But back to reg diet now. Switch it up. Change ur macros around a little might help as well. Push thru it will change
  • CMB1979
    CMB1979 Posts: 588 Member
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    Luna3386 wrote: »
    I make sure my logging is on point. Chances are I've been eyeballing instead of weighing my food out.

    This.

    If you're at a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight. If you've already lost weight, you should adjust your calorie intake to match your new metabolism. Lower your cals by 50-100 per day (a week at a time) until you start to lose again. Water retention is another possibility.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,140 Member
    edited July 2017
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    I didn't experience a plateau when I was losing weight.

    Perhaps one of the reasons was because I stuck to my diet like glue and never took any so-called "cheat days".

    I entered my information into MFP.
    I selected sedentary as my activity level.
    I chose to lose 0.5 kg/week.
    MFP gave me the number of calories I needed to eat ... so I ate those calories.

    When I exercised, I ate half my exercise calories back.

    I weighed everything I ate so that I was sure about how much I was eating.


    I also broke the weight loss process into segments. The first segment was 16 weeks. Then I took a 1-month break while I travelled. Although I stopped logging my food for that month, I exercised even more so I ended up only gaining a kilogram or two.

    The second segment was another 16 weeks ... and I reached my goal.


    BTW - there is no starvation mode ... at least, not in the sense you're thinking of it. Think about people who are really in starvation mode ... people in concentration camps or in parts of the world where they don't have food. They're not holding onto their weight ... they're skeletal.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    CMB1979 wrote: »
    Luna3386 wrote: »
    I make sure my logging is on point. Chances are I've been eyeballing instead of weighing my food out.

    This.

    If you're at a calorie deficit, you'll lose weight. If you've already lost weight, you should adjust your calorie intake to match your new metabolism. Lower your cals by 50-100 per day (a week at a time) until you start to lose again. Water retention is another possibility.

    this should only be done if the person has enough calories to lower. if they are already at 1200 they cant lower them any lower.they can increase exercise. The link above should help though.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    mandy_godfree wrote: »
    I'm still in deficit, I keep trying to step up the swimming training and in the last 4 weeks I've lost 0.3lbs, last month I lost 1lb. I try to stick between 1200 - 1500 calories and in fairness am pretty good and sticking to it. I've been sticking to this since I started MFP again last year and have lost a total of 30.4lbs

    I think you need to pick the calorie number that mfp gives you because this is a huge spread of 300 calories and you sound like you're doing a great job of maintenance. Try a spread of 1200-1400 and see if that creates a deficit. I try to stay within 100 cal of the mfp number and if I'm over consistently I do maintenance (or plateau, depending on how you look at it).

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