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MyFitnessPal Community

Plateau: Advice needed!

Finney88

I've been stuck hovering around the same 2 lb margin (132-133.6) for over a month now. Help! Why can't I break this? I'm eating 1200 cal, a day (sometimes, but rarely, it's over), and walking/running at least 30 minutes a day as well as free weights. Some days I walk for over an hour.

I have an important event Oct. 15 and at the rate I was going I should've hit my goal by then. But 8 lbs by then seems almost impossible with this month+ long plateau.

I'd love all advice please! Thanks!

Replies

melsinct

You probably need to increase your calories as you don't have much to lose. When I was 10-15 pounds from goal, I plateaued for two months. The only thing that broke it was setting MFP to lose 0.5 pounds/week which gave me an additional 500 calories because I had MFP set to lose 1-2 pounds a week. Generally, it is very difficult to lose weight quickly the closer you get to goal.

AggieCass09

since you are getting closer to your goal weight, your body cannot maintain such a deficit in calories and it is holding on to everything you give it. Increase your calories to break the plateau.

I've been on a nine month plateau and just broke it this way

good luck!

kendrafallon

I only just broke my own month long plateau, but for me it was lowering my calorie intake to 1200/day and increasing the amount of exercise I was doing.

There are plenty of threads on the forums about breaking a plateau; try what's been suggested, but bear in mind you will have to be patient and give it at least a week or 2 to see results.

Good luck!!

Finney88

Any time I seem to add calories though I automatically start gaining and I really (obviously) don't want to do that!

kendrafallon

Any time I seem to add calories though I automatically start gaining and I really (obviously) don't want to do that!

So maybe it's the type of calories you're adding?

AggieCass09

Any time I seem to add calories though I automatically start gaining and I really (obviously) don't want to do that!

its probably because you have been losing muscle and your body is fixing yourself. this is exactly what happened to me, but the scale goes the other way in a few weeks

Gorger

Increase your diet to 55% protein. You can change your protein settings here.
It's the new logic behind battleing cancer. 55% protein, the rest fruit and vegetable carbs. No man made carbs. I did that for the last couple days and lost 2 pounds. Good luck.

angief_01

I had that same problem! I changed from working out in the evening to getting up at the butt crack of dawn & working out and also decreased my carb intake. Oh and I started taking the One A Day Womens Metabolism Booster vitamins! It helped me get over that plateau!!! Best of luck to you!!!

wendybird2

Because of water fluctuations within your body, you can't really tell if you're gaining *fat* weight (versus water weight or just the weight of food in your stomach) by watching the scale change over the course of a few days. Although I weigh myself daily, I go off my average weight for the past 10 days to see if I'm gaining or losing. I graph it in an excel spreadsheet, (sorry, getting technical here!) and even then, the line graphing my 10-day average fluctuates like a wave over the course of a month. However, I can tell I'm losing because the overall trend line is down, even though, say my weight today is higher than it was 2 weeks ago. This is because I'm in my "upper weight" time of the month (you can guess when that is), and it's still somewhat lower than my highest weight average from last month.

Sorry if this was confusing. But so close to goal you will NOT lose weight in a linear fashion, and expecting your body to do that, and by restricting calories, you will just be frustrated and miserable. remember that you are mostly water, and your weight is like a wave. Try making an excel spreadsheet of your own 10-day averages and you'll see what I mean