Need guidance, hit a plateau

juje17
juje17 Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I have been at it since October, reduced to 1200 calories and doing HIIT workouts 4 to 6 days per week, plus walking or stationary bike 5 days per week. My average daily burn is 225. Tracking on my iWatch, which reports my daily Move is 640Cal. I am very excited as I’ve lost 20lbs to date and use MFP religiously. However with all that I’ve been stuck at my current weight for 2 weeks. Plateaus aren’t fun! And I have a few questions...

1. Has my body adapted to the HIIT workouts?
2. Do I just need to increase my daily burn?
3. If I just keep on my current plan, will the weight eventually budge? I’m okay to to lose at a slower pace.

Thanx!

Replies

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Two weeks is not a plateau.

    1200 calories is low, especially for the amount of exercise you are doing. Are you eating back at least some of your exercise calories?

    Is your deficit (looks like you're aiming for 2 lb per week, 1000 cal a day deficit?) appropriate to the amount of weight you have to lose?

    There could be several explanations for what you're seeing. Given that you've been at this for 3-4 months and have lost a decent chunk of weight in that time, you may want to consider taking a diet break (this isn't a free for all, it's eating at maintenance calories for a couple of weeks to bring hormones etc that get out of whack with a prolonged deficit back in line), more about that here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

    Also, work your way through this handy flowchart:

    nnnaq5rggu08.jpg
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    1. No
    2. Hard no. You're at 1200 calories already; you should absolutely not be going below that, and MFP intends you to eat back ALL exercise calories assuming they are calculated accurately. You should not be using exercise to create a larger deficit. You should only increase your exercise if it helps you meet other fitness goals, and you should be aware that increasing exercise will likely lead to water retention as part of the normal muscle repair process, which can mask fat loss on the scale.
    3. Hard to say, given only the information you posted.

    First, two weeks is not a plateau. The scale is not going to go down every week. This is normal.

    If you have been losing weight at a pace of just over a pound a week, that is probably a reasonable pace, depending on your stats. If you don't have a lot to lose, that pace may even be too fast. How much weight are you trying to lose, and what pace of loss did you select?

    You don't mention a food scale; are you using one consistently for all of your food?
  • juje17
    juje17 Posts: 2 Member
    Thank you both for your input and detailed information
This discussion has been closed.

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