Stuck at the same weight for a month

I hear your frustration and i completely empathize! Although I only had 20 pounds to lose, I did plateau for what seemed in my mind as forever, somewhere in the middle of it.

I retweaked everything, calories, goals, etc. made sure I reset my HRM to my current weight every 5 pounds, etc. Ate back at least 90% of my exercise calories......

The one thing that seemed to break it for me was over a few weeks I changed up my cardio workouts. About every 3rd day I would double my calories burned ( and I always ate them back as well). So for 2 days in a row I would burn around 300, then on day 3.... I would burn 500-600. I guess it worked like a shock to my system because I broke the plateau and kept losing.

Everyone will find their own trick, this was just an Example and what worked for me.

Best of Luck, be persistant and it will work out .

One thing to think about-even when you use a HRM to get your calorie burn it's giving you the total burn. That includes calories in your TDEE that you would have burned just sitting around. My TDEE (not BMR) divided into the minutes of the day works out to about 1.1 calories, so I always subtract that amount before I log, e.g. if I worked out for 30 minutes and my HRM says I burned 254 calories, I'll record 221 calories (254-33). The way MFP is set up you'll usually still have a deficit even if you don't do this and record the total burn unless you are exercising for hours each day, but it's something to think about.

Another idea is to pick one option regarding diet (eating more/less, zig-zagging, whatever) and sticking to it for at least a couple weeks. Especially if you've been eating too little it takes a while for your body to adjust. Changing every week may not be giving it enough time to see if it works.

Hang in there- it will happen.

ive been in a plateau for 3 weeks at 208....i have gotten discouraged too and am getting out of the mindset, slowly, that it is not always about the scale....i have lost 6 in. from each thigh (12 in all) since july....i am increasing my intensity in my cardio and burning about 200-300 more calories than i normally do....i normally burn between 600-800 cals on weight training/cardio days, cardio days i burn about 700 and something....now i am striving for 1000-1100....i do jillian michaels' 30 ds and i am on my fifth day....im hoping this helps me too.....it was time to incorporate something different inmy workout.....all i can tell you is dont give up....we are all going to hit our down times when the scale doesnt move....but if you are feeling healthy, good, and noticing a difference elsewhere than you know you are on the right track......you will hit your groove again, good luck=)

I know how you feel! I made my goal and have reset it. Now I am only a few pounds away from my re-adjusted goal. I've been lacking motivation and eating way over my calorie limit and am no way as strict as I used to be. All I can say is, now my focus is on toning up and exercising. I'm beginning to be less and less concerned about the food and more and more into the exercise. I hit many plateau's on my way down. Each time I just kept sticking to it... and eventually it came off.

I hate it when this happens. I think you have tried some good things to encourage your body to let go of the weight. Maybe mix up the type of diet you are on for a few weeks? If you are just counting calories, try the Atkins Diet too. The different food types may help jump start things.

I don't know how many calories you're eating per day, but I've learned that every time I hit a big long plateau like this I've increased my calories. (Scary, I know!) But every time I do it the pounds start dropping off again. I'd say try that for a few days and see how it works out for you, if it doesn't you could always go back to what you were doing before. Good luck!

Thanks I needed all this advice since I've been at the same weight most of the summer after losing every week since February. Definitely not giving up because I feel so healthy.

I'm in kinda the same position. I'm eating 1300 calories a day (plus most of my exercise cals) and I'm exercising 5 days a week (1 x zumba, 3 x body combat and 1 x body pump) and the scales just aren't reflecting it. It's so frustrating and I'm having to use all my willpower to keep going and not give up. I'm feeling a lot better though since I started exercising and I'm thinking about just ditching the scales for a while.

I know it makes a long day, but body pump isn't a great burn because it isn't pure cardio... I normally try o do at least half an hour of cardio after. My gym does have body combat, but at inconvenient times for me, so not sure what s typical burn from that is.

Can we see your food log? I understand that some people are rather skittish about this but we may see something that will help.

Do you eat close to the calorie goal that MFP gives you each day? (within about 100) Some people will eat hundreds of calories below their calorie goal thinking that they will speed their fat loss only to find that they cause their body to slow or even stop losing fat.

Hi I am just now coming out of a 2 month plateau. I am posting the address of my blog here not for you to read my experience but for the 2 really good links to articles that really helped me to 1. understand why we have plateaus and when we do and 2. what to do to get out of them http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/KeriA/view/plateaus-revisited-132685 .

I so can relate to the frustration. Just briefly we typically slow down and hit a plateau at about 10% of our original weight. It looks like you lost more than the 10% to me. So you are ahead right there. The thing that is happening is that your body is made to keep you at what it determine is your regular weight. You need to know and work with that concept. It fights weight gain and loss. As you get further from your original weight it sees as your regular weight it fights harder and harder. If you do not recognize this you can really get stuck in that plateau. This article/weight loss site actually says to maintain for 2 months when you hit a plateau, eat a bit more and slowly cut back on exercise. This is so your body will recognize that your new weight is your new regular weight and it won't fight you so hard. This information is really important once you reach your goal weight. Remember this then to maintain for at least 2 months so your body will help you maintain your goal weight. Even losing more will mess this up.

However there are some that have gotten out of plateaus faster. I basically felt I had maintained for 2 months already. The first website helps you know what to do when you are out of the plateau and the second article helps you determine what to do when you are in one. It is different depending on what you did to lose your weight. If you did it by a high calorie deficit you may need to up your calories. If you did it by high cardio you need to maybe lower cardio and up weight training. Yes if you were heavy on weight training and low on cardio then switch it up. Switching it up doesn't mean more of the same unless you never really reached the peak of that type of wethod. Such as you do alot of cardio but you haven't done any intervals of more intense cardio then this could switch it up for you. It has a great chart to help figure out when you have pushed one type of strategy to its limit and you need to switch your focus elsewhere.

So many people told me that they got out of their plateaus by upping their calories. Usually many of them had their calories set pretty low. Since that wasn't my case I wasn't sure this was what would work for me. I did up them a bit though. I realized I was really heavy on cardio but had just recently started to intensify it and didn't want to stop what I was doing. Also realize that you need to try something for more than a week to see if it is working. 2 weeks plus a day or 2 is more like it. You probably don't want to hear that though. If you have been on 1200 net calories or less for most of the time you have lost then you definitely need to raise the calories to get out of this plateau. So good luck and don't give up. Water, sleep and tracking inches is really good advice. I lost alot of inches while in my plateau and now know I can maintain when I reach my goal weight. I have learned alot. It isn't that bad really. What is bad is to gain or give up. So kudos for trying a few things - you may have done the right things but just didn't give them enough time to work.