Plateau or not? I thought being in your 20s was easy to lose

Hey! I know how you're feeling. I've had these last ~20 pounds to lose for about 4 years. I managed to lose about 10 of them last year by really watching what I ate. I made a weekly schedule (especially including snacks - they're my downfall) and made myself stick to it. By planning out my week in advance and writing down everything I was going to eat, it made it easier to make the right decisions. I definitely fell off the wagon this semester at college with all of the delicious, junky cafeteria foods and fast food places around campus, but hopefully I can get back to where I was before. Aside from my meal planning, I started doing the Power 90 system (the precursor to P90X - there is a P90 and P90M to work up to it). It helped me to have a set 30 minute workout to do everyday, 6 days a week. I knew exactly what I was going to be doing, how long it was going to take, and what kind of results to expect. I hope you find something that works for you!

I am so with you ladies. I am a marathon runner and in a healthy weight range and my body does not want to lose any more weight. I want to see how much faster I can run, weighing less but it is really difficult. I know I am at my set point because my body has stayed within the same 5 pounds for the past year with marathon training. I just eat back what I burn. So far I have lost 2 pounds below my set point with this website but it is SLOW going. Good luck. I am interested to see what others say too.

I have heard, that lowering your calories is almost always the way to break a plateau, I actually think that netting 1200 is still eating too much for me (probably because I don't weigh my food, so there is probably error in my intake.

I try to net more like 1000 to keep the extra calories to make up for measurement error. There is no magic rule that your body will starve if you go below 1000, it depends entirely on your body. I've also heard that some people lose weight better restricting carbs even at the same net calories. I had about a month of not losing weight, I lowered my calorie intake a little and went down to 50% carbs and it seems to be working for me. Experiment and see if any modifications work for you. Make sure you sleep enough and drink enough water and keep trying!

i am the same, but i notice that when i dont get enough rest i dont lose any weight...also make sure you are eating regularly so your body doesnt go into starvation mode and start storing fat. try having apple cider vinegar first thing in the morning to kick start your metabolism and prepare your digestive system and eat brekky straight away sprinkling cinamon on your food helps the metabolism also. just a few things i do to boost the weightloss good luck

I don't think 1200 calories is enough for most people. It tends to be the intake recommended to very obese people to lose weight quickly, because they have so much to lose.

But, for the rest of us, too much of a deficit for too long can really slow your metabolism down, regardless of your age. And to "undo" this can take quite a while, and your metabolism may never be back where it was. There are many things you can try in order to change this-- eat more, eat more often, increase strength training, zig-zag your calories (calorie cycling), don't have such a huge deficit, and, well, be patient. I think further decreasing your calorie intake is not a very good idea.

You might want to open your diary so that we can give you some better advice

I have heard, that lowering your calories is almost always the way to break a plateau, I actually think that netting 1200 is still eating too much for me (probably because I don't weigh my food, so there is probably error in my intake.

Actually it's increasing your calories to break a plateau.. not lowering them. You need to fuel your body.. not deprive it! Esp because OP only has 20 pounds left.. you need to be eating way more then 1200 calories. If you don't already. set your loss at a pound to a pound in a half a week and I think you'll see some changes.

If you ate a lot in the past, but it was bad things.. yea you're going to gain weight. If you eat a lot but of clean healthy foods, then you're going to lose weight.

As far as your exercise goes, I'd switch it up. If all you do is run, you're body is going to get used to that and stop losing weight. I'd try adding in weights, the elliptical, biking etc.. all to confuse your body and let it start losing again.