Tips for breaking weight loss plateau?

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ethosian72
ethosian72 Posts: 2 Member
edited May 2019 in Motivation and Support
Quick blurb: I have been working on losing weight and increasing fitness. A healthy lean clean diet (everything that passes my lips gets tracked) and I am hiking, running, walking more. I track exercise via my Fitbit and calories, water etc via MFP. I play with the calorie intake and I can vary from 1300 -1800 cal/day depending on exercise (steps average 10-12k plus elevations). At best, I may lose a pound a month. That’s with weighing foods on a scale, measuring cups for foods, etc. I would love some tips on helping me slough off this last 10 pounds, dear lord, I may die of old age before it comes off.

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  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,028 Member
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    The last 10lbs requires time, patience and accuracy. A 250cal deficit can easily get wiped out if you're not careful. Measurements can help you see changes as can using a weight tracker like Libra or Happy Scale to see the downward trend.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
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    it's recommended to lose at a rate of 0.5 for the last few pound so you're not off the mark there.

    i highly recommend using a food scale on all foods and carefully carefully choosing entries from the database.
  • laceygaywilson
    laceygaywilson Posts: 330 Member
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    ethosian72 wrote: »
    Quick blurb: I have been working on losing weight and increasing fitness. A healthy lean clean diet (everything that passes my lips gets tracked) and I am hiking, running, walking more. I track exercise via my Fitbit and calories, water etc via MFP. I play with the calorie intake and I can vary from 1300 -1800 cal/day depending on exercise (steps average 10-12k plus elevations). At best, I may lose a pound a month. That’s with weighing foods on a scale, measuring cups for foods, etc. I would love some tips on helping me slough off this last 10 pounds, dear lord, I may die of old age before it comes off.

    YOU ARE THERE!!!! When I got within 10lbs of my goal weight I changed my goals!!! Run 3 miles in 30 mins and bike 5 in 30 and 90 mins hot yoga!!! When I changed my goals and started a new push that scale got right in line!!! Now each week I'm shaving at least .5-1lbs!!! The scale is only part of the process!! Burn more than you consume and slay those goals you'll see the scale change!!!
  • laceygaywilson
    laceygaywilson Posts: 330 Member
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    Oh and now I'm within 4lbs of my goal and I ran 3 miles in 33 Monday!!! Soooooooo close!!!!
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,474 Member
    edited May 2019
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    If you’re losing 1lb per month, there is no plateau to break. Don’t mess with success. Instead of changing your program, which is working, change your mind. Try to apply some patience.

    Don’t let your brain wreck you. If you are in fact losing, it’s not a plateau. That is just a fact. Don’t be tricked into thinking there is some kind of shortcut you can take. Don’t be tricked into thinking something magical will happen when you hit your goal weight.

    You’re close enough to start putting how you are living ahead of wracking up sizable losses. Can you live like you are currently living long term? When you get to goal you will likely want to stay there. Embrace the process, and the scale will take care of itself. Good luck.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,013 Member
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    The last ten pounds are usually vanity pounds and the body realllllllllllly wants to hold on to that.

    Slow and steady, and everything else everyone said above.

    It took me nine months to lose the last 15. I would have chewed off an arm if I had tried to eat at that 1300 level.

    Set your Goal to, "Lose 1/2 pound per week," and trust the process. I agree that at this point it's more important to set other fitness goals.

    Congrats on getting this far. Keep it going.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Watch the video in this thread. It shows why you want to use your scale rather than your measuring cups.


    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1
  • miakelaa
    miakelaa Posts: 43 Member
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    I would also stop adjusting calories when you exercise, unless your Fitbit calculates your total calories burned for the day. I noticed that I started losing more weight when I started eating around 500 calories lower than my total daily calorie burn, rather than adjusting for my exercise calories alone. This helps me a lot.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited May 2019
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    ethosian72 wrote: »
    Quick blurb: I have been working on losing weight and increasing fitness. A healthy lean clean diet (everything that passes my lips gets tracked) and I am hiking, running, walking more. I track exercise via my Fitbit and calories, water etc via MFP. I play with the calorie intake and I can vary from 1300 -1800 cal/day depending on exercise (steps average 10-12k plus elevations). At best, I may lose a pound a month. That’s with weighing foods on a scale, measuring cups for foods, etc. I would love some tips on helping me slough off this last 10 pounds, dear lord, I may die of old age before it comes off.

    With that many steps, and therefore potential distance which means calorie burn - have you ever confirmed the distance is correct?

    I small inaccuracy could add up.

    Walk a known distance (1/2 - 1 mile) at avg daily pace - not grocery store shuffle, not exercise pace - right in the middle, maybe 2mph.
    Confirm the distance is correct.

    Loss rate should really be slow at the end, if you want to beat the odds of the majority failing in maintenance to keep it off.

    1/2 lb weekly would be reasonable, so the difference might be inaccuracy.

    I'll mention too - that on some of that walking type exercise, if the Fitbit is slipping into HR mode for estimating calorie burn - inflated burn just occurred. There is an aerobic HR range where calculated calorie burn is the only a decent estimate for - either end of that range is inflated.
    And walking and just barely going into the range is inflated, like maybe the 100-110 HR range.
    Step-based would be better if distance is good estimate, but the Fitbit auto-decides what will be used.

    Are the other exercise calories coming from Fitbit too, or manual logging?
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    ethosian72 wrote: »
    Quick blurb: I have been working on losing weight and increasing fitness. A healthy lean clean diet (everything that passes my lips gets tracked) and I am hiking, running, walking more. I track exercise via my Fitbit and calories, water etc via MFP. I play with the calorie intake and I can vary from 1300 -1800 cal/day depending on exercise (steps average 10-12k plus elevations). At best, I may lose a pound a month. That’s with weighing foods on a scale, measuring cups for foods, etc. I would love some tips on helping me slough off this last 10 pounds, dear lord, I may die of old age before it comes off.

    Once you get down to the last 10, you have no wiggle room and you seem to notice the water weight fluctuations more. I lost my last 10 about that 1 lb per month pace. Now is a great time to start thinking about how you are going to maintain, what sort of goals you will have to keep you on the right path, and start to put them into practice. You won't get rewarded for your good choices by seeing the scale go down, so what will keep you going then?

    This post might help too:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10662287/the-goal-is-the-process/p1

    Hang in there!

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