Plateau help!!!

alesandramichelle
alesandramichelle Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Okay, so I’m really struggling trying to break a plateau and kicking my *kitten* trying to break it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

First of all, I’m 5’6” 174 lbs eating 1350 calories a day (upped it from 1250 hoping that would help break my plateau) and working out for 2.5 hours a day. My polar fitness tracker with heart rate monitor says I burn anywhere from 1000-1200 depending on what I do. I usually do 30 minutes of incline speed walking on a treadmill followed by 50 minutes of running and then another 30 of incline speed alwaking and then some high rep with low weights (8-15lbs) toning exercises. I drink 144 oz of water a day minimum and usually 130 grams of protein.

I’m a mother to a super active toddler and bust my *kitten* while she takes her nap (the only break I would have) Usually the weight loss is enough motivation to help me push through my exhaustion but working so hard, eating foods I don’t prefer (I was a major foodie) is really bringing my spirits down. What am I doing wrong? And where do I go from here? Any advice or positive words would be wonderful.
Thanks so much for taking the time to whoever reads this :)

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    alesandramichelle wrote: »
    Okay, so I’m really struggling trying to break a plateau and kicking my *kitten* trying to break it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    First of all, I’m 5’6” 174 lbs eating 1350 calories a day (upped it from 1250 hoping that would help break my plateau) and working out for 2.5 hours a day. My polar fitness tracker with heart rate monitor says I burn anywhere from 1000-1200 depending on what I do. I usually do 30 minutes of incline speed walking on a treadmill followed by 50 minutes of running and then another 30 of incline speed alwaking and then some high rep with low weights (8-15lbs) toning exercises. I drink 144 oz of water a day minimum and usually 130 grams of protein.

    I’m a mother to a super active toddler and bust my *kitten* while she takes her nap (the only break I would have) Usually the weight loss is enough motivation to help me push through my exhaustion but working so hard, eating foods I don’t prefer (I was a major foodie) is really bringing my spirits down. What am I doing wrong? And where do I go from here? Any advice or positive words would be wonderful.
    Thanks so much for taking the time to whoever reads this :)

    Are you using a food scale? Are you verifying that the entries you are choosing in the database have the correct calories?

    How much weight have you lost so far, and when did you start?

    How long has it been since you've lost any weight at all?

    Most plateaus either come down to impatience or inaccurate logging, two things we are all susceptible to!
  • alesandramichelle
    alesandramichelle Posts: 5 Member
    Oh yes I’m using a food scale for every single thing. My husband makes fun of me but it gives me lots of security. I make sure to calibrate it every morning as well. I started in May 27th and have lost 25 pounds. The first 3 weeks in July I stopped losing weight and then lost 3 lbs and now have been stuck again for over a week. I make sure to log everything. It’s become and obsession of mine, I drink lots of water, eat lots of protein and fiber as well as intermittent fasting every day.
    Thank you so much for replying 🌹❤️
  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    A week is not a plateau, patience!
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    alesandramichelle wrote: »
    Oh yes I’m using a food scale for every single thing. My husband makes fun of me but it gives me lots of security. I make sure to calibrate it every morning as well. I started in May 27th and have lost 25 pounds. The first 3 weeks in July I stopped losing weight and then lost 3 lbs and now have been stuck again for over a week. I make sure to log everything. It’s become and obsession of mine, I drink lots of water, eat lots of protein and fiber as well as intermittent fasting every day.
    Thank you so much for replying 🌹❤️

    OK, so one week is not a plateau, it is perfectly normal to not lose weight for a week or two. The scale measures the weight of your whole body, not just the fat, and all that other stuff (especially water weight) fluctuates.

    I would add that you are losing weight aggressively fast considering your stats, which puts a tremendous amount of stress on your body and can mess with your hormones, causing weight swings. It's probably in your best interest at this point to slow it down to about a lb a week.

    These threads might be useful:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

    :drinker:
  • quemalosuerte
    quemalosuerte Posts: 242 Member
    I had a 3 week plateau in June where I was 268.8 to the decimal point every day for 24 days. I seriously started picking up random things and re-weighing to make sure my scale wasn’t stuck. It’s frustrating, but the scale is not the only way to measure success. I’ve noticed sometimes that when the scale doesn’t move much, my measurements are changing more (and vice versa).

    There is no reason to make big changes over a couple days “plateau”. Stay course, double check your accuracy (which doesn’t sound like your weak point), and practice patience.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,156 Member
    edited August 2019
    kimny72 wrote: »
    alesandramichelle wrote: »
    Oh yes I’m using a food scale for every single thing. My husband makes fun of me but it gives me lots of security. I make sure to calibrate it every morning as well. I started in May 27th and have lost 25 pounds. The first 3 weeks in July I stopped losing weight and then lost 3 lbs and now have been stuck again for over a week. I make sure to log everything. It’s become and obsession of mine, I drink lots of water, eat lots of protein and fiber as well as intermittent fasting every day.
    Thank you so much for replying 🌹❤️

    OK, so one week is not a plateau, it is perfectly normal to not lose weight for a week or two. The scale measures the weight of your whole body, not just the fat, and all that other stuff (especially water weight) fluctuates.

    I would add that you are losing weight aggressively fast considering your stats, which puts a tremendous amount of stress on your body and can mess with your hormones, causing weight swings. It's probably in your best interest at this point to slow it down to about a lb a week.

    These threads might be useful:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

    :drinker:

    Endorsed.

    Also, to put a sharper point on it: Losing too fast, exercising huge amounts, and all of that on top of a busy, stressful life can lead to higher-than-typical water weight retention that will mask fat loss on the scale, and create what look like plateaus even while fat loss is happening. Slow down, calm down.

    I hope you're eating back at least some of those exercise calories, because otherwise you're putting a tremendous stress on your body, and creating unnecessarily large health risks.

    Give this some thought, especially category #1 there (follow the links about stress, exercise, large deficit . . . .):

    https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/why-am-i-not-losing-weight/

    I'm sorry if this sounds harsh. Try to think of me as your anxious old internet granny (I'm old enough) who just wants to see you achieve your goals while staying healthy and strong: I truly do care.

    Also, I started around your weight (183) and height (5'5") back in 2015 (at age 59-60, while hypothyroid, and doing much less exercise than you are), lost around 50 pounds in less than a year, and have stayed at a healthy weight since . . . so it's just narrowly possible that I might have some knowledge (who knows? ;) ).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,156 Member
    st
    cerillo_encendido wrote: »
    @alesandramichelle You are to be commended for taking things serious! Awesome job! Plateaus are tricky because they can be accredited to either your body getting used to your workouts or also getting used to your diet. In your case it may be both. For one it looks like your protein intake is lower than where it needs to be. I have included a link that you can visit that has a macronutrient calculator that can help you determine your macros properly. Your carb and fat intake make a huge impact on your weight loss progress.

    Also, if you are burning 1000-1200 calories a day,(awesome work btw, very intense!) i wouldn’t be surprised if you are actually under-eating, causing your body to enter a starvation-like mode where it refuses to burn any extra fat. So many people (I’m NOT saying you) forget how our body is designed. They think that the less they eat the more weight they’ll lose. At first yes, but only to a certain point. That’s one of the dreaded plateaus one can hit. I hit a plateau recently where i wasn’t able to lose a few extra pounds to reach my goal weight. Rather than switch up my workout routine i significantly cut my fat intake and increased my protein intake and right away noticed the benefits.

    If after a few weeks of tweaking your diet you don’t see any more progress, then it’s time to adjust your workout routine. I always say: “Your kitchen is closer than your gym.” Hope any of this helps!

    Check out this macro calculator!
    https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/macronutrients_calculator.htm

    No to this, pretty much all of it.

    Bodies do not "get used to workouts" and burn fewer calories while doing the same thing (except in so far as it requires fewer calories to move a lighter body as you lose weight). If that were true, it would violate basic laws of physics.

    Bodies also do not "get used to a diet". Sure, you can undereat, get fatigued, move less in daily life, start phoning in the workout intensity, and burn fewer calories: That's exhaustion and underfueling. It's also a bad plan.

    Carb, fat and protein intake don't have a major impact on weight loss, especially in the short run: Calories do. (In the long run, poor nutrition could reduce energy level and lead you to be less active in daily life, so you burn fewer calories; or could make you feel hungry and make it difficult to stick to a calorie goal. )

    "Starvation mode" where your body refuses to burn fat because you're doing too much, or eating too little, is a myth. If it were true, no one would ever starve to death (sadly, many people do so daily, worldwide), or they'd be fat when they died (they aren't, though abdominal distention occurs in some case of malnutrition, while the rest of the body looks skeletal).

    NopeNopeNope.

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