4 week long plateau

Embrace the plateau! Maintaining your weight is way better than gaining weight.

It is always a problem with expenditure vs. intake of one sort or another. Ways to beat it include: trimming your plan, doing more cardio without increased eating, or you can try a fasting day here or there.

And, here's a dumb question: are you actually overweight?

It took me just over 3 years to lose 140 lbs. by eating healthy and exercising. After losing my first 50 lbs. with Weight Watchers, I got stuck on an 18-month plateau. That's not a typo - I was on a plateau for 1.5 YEARS!!! Talk about frustrating and demoralizing! I always gave up when I reached a plateau and I always gained the weight back plus more. Not this time. The idea of giving up didn't occur to me this time around. That was the key to my success. Then I joined a gym to increase my exercise and hired a trainer who changed my life.

She reviewed my Weight Watchers food diary and pointed out that I was not only eating way too many calories per day, I was eating way too many "empty" calories. I cancelled Weight Watchers, she put me on 1,500 calories a day, and had me sign up to MyFitnessPal - which I still use daily. As time went on, she also increased my workouts. The first month I worked with her, I lost 14 lbs. by just making small changes to my food - this after 1.5 years stuck on the scale. I couldn't believe it! Within the next 12 months of working with her, I lost another 90 lbs. Plateaus are normal but if they last too long, you have to review what you're doing: eating empty calories or healthy foods, how many calories a day are you consuming, are you drinking enough water, and are you exercising regularly.

The one thing I was grateful for was that I didn't give up during the 1.5 years in a plateau so that when I met my trainer, I could continue my journey instead of starting all over again. There's nothing more self defeating than having to start all over again with losing weight you've already lost. By the way, I was 54 at the time and in menopause. Everybody told me for years that you can't lose weight once you reach your 50s and menopause. Boy, were they wrong! It's all about the food.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Exercise-wise, start lifting weights if you don't already. If you only use a treadmill, change to solid ground. In your cardio sessions, add in push ups, jumping jacks, squats, sit-ups, anything. Be creative here.

Eating: cut out all rice, white bread, white pasta, soda, and juices with added, non-natural sugars. Only eat whole wheat bread or pasta. Trim off all fat from meats and don't add salt. Don't cook with a lot of oil. No more fried food! I add a splash of oil to the pan and half cup of water and let the meat cook in that. Remove all skin from chicken. Every single meal should have greens. I have a bowl of salad and have thick greens on my plate such as zucchini, squash, green beans, etc. Finally, drink over 64 oz of water per day.

I haven't plateaued since I began exercising in October. I've gone from 276 lbs to 231 lbs.