Anyone hit a plateau and got out of it?

AH2013 · February 2012

I've used the search function.......before I get told off

but just wanted some varied opinions on how to get out of a plateau from those who have actually managed it successfully.

I've lost 27lbs so far but since the beginning of December I've lost 2lbs and I think they were just water weight. I've upped my cals and tried doing less cardio and more weights, more varied exercise. I've lowered my carbs...upped my protein (which I find difficult some days to reach being a vegetarian) I've lowered my cals & even tried zigzagging and cannot seem to shift anything. I'm noticing nothing on the tape measure either really. I've been doing NRoLFW for the last 3 weeks also.

Even over Christmas and New Year with all the rubbish I ate, I didn't seem to put on any weight (which I am NOT complaining about)I thought that once I started eating better and got back into an exercise regime that the weight/inches would move....nothing is going to budge that scale. I'm trying to stay positive but each time I get on the scale it doesn't move from this 1lb range...

I hear people saying to stop worrying about what the scale reads, but when you have another 40 odd lbs to go, it does matter! If I was 20lbs over I wouldn't mind. I'm currently set to lose 1lb per week (1430 cals per day plus exercise cals) as when I was doing 1540 cals per day (as per katch-mcardle reading) I was losing nothing either.

I'd love to hear from anyone on a tried and tested method that THEY have done so that I can get some idea of how to push myself out of this as I think I'm getting so frustrated after reading so much that I've confused myself and got a little off-track.

Thanks!!

dinosnopro · February 2012

I would say drop to 1200 for a week or two and see if that works. weight loss is very simple, cals in have to be less than cals out. Don't get caught up in all that carb no carb, fat vs. low fat, magic bullet B.S.

HonkyTonks · February 2012

You should consider Intermittent Fasting. It might help you break your plateau. Good luck!

mncardiojunkie · February 2012

I just read an article on this on another fitness board that I belong to. I have to refresh my memory because I've been down this road many times and I forget what happens when you change lifestyles.

I cannot site the article because the person that posted it didn't have any citations to it. However once upon a time, I saw it with citations from a couple of weight loss doctors.

The tricks to plateau is to not weight yourself for six weeks. (I don't know why, but in the article it states that weighing yourself is counter productive because for true weight to set in your body for females it's six weeks.)

Take something out of your diet, but don't deprive yourself. Make one change that you can live with. (Presently mine is taking out diet sodas due to the sodium in them).

Change your workout every couple of months.

If you must have some sort of measurement, track your measurements.

AH2013 · February 2012

I would say drop to 1200 for a week or two and see if that works. weight loss is very simple, cals in have to be less than cals out. Don't get caught up in all that carb no carb, fat vs. low fat, magic bullet B.S.

Thanks, I've done the dropping to 1200 cals things and it did nothing for me....I've been told that it was eating only 1200 that got me into this plateau in the first place......who knows.

Thanks for your advice though!!

AH2013 · February 2012

Thank you ladies!! I'll look into intermittent fasting as I know nothing about it really.

I'd love to not weight myself for 6 weeks, I think I may give that a go. I was thinking the other day of just giving my scales to my friend and telling her not to let me have them for a while. My husband tried hiding them but I found them!!! :blushing:

klyssamoore · February 2012

Let me know if anything works for you - I've been fluctuating between the same 3 pounds since the beginning of January and NOTHING seems to be working for me.

lillybug11 · February 2012

I'm in the exact same position as you right now,
I've lost 9kilos since nov28 and I've hit plateau!
I've tried everything that you have and more and nothing
Works. My friend advised me that I just got
To let it run it's course. It's super hard seen as I wanna
Lose 16kilos more b4 June as I'm getting married
In Nov and I wanna get my dream dress.
I'm soo frustrated too at the moment!

helenoftroy1 · February 2012

I got out of my plateau this week after three months!!
I had a bout of food poisoning so couldn't eat anything for two days and that seemed to kick start it all. It was like my body was playing games with me and then suddenly the tables were reversed. I wouldn't recommend getting food poisoning however....

it worked for me, and I stopped drinking, went back to eating what I was at the beginning sticking rigidly to 1200cals, logging EVERYTHING!!!! Ate very basic and I think for me my portion sizes had maybe got too big again and so I measured.

I'm high as a kite today, it feels like I have lost 40lbs at once rather than just one measly pound!!

Good luck

AH2013 · February 2012

I've been told to read this to help the pounds shift, not to starve yourself but do it this way.

http://2alamen.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/burn-the-fat-feed-the-muscle-tom-venuto.pdf

It's long but I'm printing each chapter as I go along!

japruzze · February 2012

Plateaus are frustrating. I never recommend fasting as a solution to anything. For me, its never good. If you are being true to yourself with your calorie intake and exercises, and you can't see to budge the scale your body is telling you something. Not sure what as mine dosen't speak any language I understand!

Things I've tried that have worked in the past...

1. I had to eat more (!) and exercise less (!). I did this for a week and found that after holding still on the scale for 2 weeks I dropped 2.4 lbs. I then went back to my usual routine and continued losing (for a while).
2. Add more protein, less carbs. I went from 40/30/30 (carbs/protein/fat) to 30/40/30 with the same calories and exercise and again after a week, I lost. I stayed with that for a few weeks and then went back to my usual routine.

The only other suggestion is to not focus on the scale. I try not to let it rule my life. I like set weekly goals that I can achieve. Some repeat every week others are week specific. This weeks goals are...

1. Log my food intake EVERYDAY including the weekend (I tend to drop off on the weekend and it kills me).
2. Get on the treadmill 5 days for a total of 5 hours and hand weights to 2 30-mintue sessions.
3. Only eat 1 bread/pasta/rice/crackers/cereal/etc a day.
4. Do my weight routine 3 times this week.

Simple, attainable and not scale related.

Hope it helps you find something that works for you!

psuLemon · February 2012

Even over Christmas and New Year with all the rubbish I ate, I didn't seem to put on any weight (which I am NOT complaining about)I thought that once I started eating better and got back into an exercise regime that the weight/inches would move....nothing is going to budge that scale. I'm trying to stay positive but each time I get on the scale it doesn't move from this 1lb range...

Lets put this in perspective. You ate a ton of calories over a week and didn't gain any weight. This leads me to questions, how much did you increase your calories to and for how long? You may have not done it for long enough or gone high enough? Also, the calculations might have been low by the method you use. If I follow MFP, my calories would be around 2250 calories. I used Katch McArdle after my first plateau and found out I should have been eating at 2600. So I did that and lost 16 lbs and 3% body fat. Then I decided to bulk up, so I ate a surplus until I got to 203 lbs again. I then switch workout programs to P90X2 and now eat between 3000-3200 calories and lost another 3 lbs. I am working on cutting fat and building a little muscle (body recomposition) so I can get down to 6-8% body fat. Do me a favor, if you can use the BMR tool on this site as well as the link below, then we can start to dive into your problems. Also, what is your weekly workout routine and do you have your diary public?

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

EmmaEmerald84 · February 2012

Why not too much diet soda?

psuLemon · February 2012

Why not too much diet soda?

Besides the fact it can dehydrate you, aspertene has been shown to increase hunger and it's still sodium based.

LoraF83 · February 2012

I hit a plateau for a couple of weeks and got myself out of it by adding an extra super-intense cardio routine three days a week (on top of my normal 7-8 workouts per week). It kick started my body again, and I was down a pound by the following week. I have been losing 1-1.5 lbs per week since then (this was before I started on MFP).

Good luck! Keep focused and you can do it!

carolann_22 · February 2012

The first time I lost 135 pounds, I hit a plateau right around 50 pounds lost (for three months!) - I was doing WW, logging religiously - it just stopped working. I then moved to low carb and after a month the scale started moving again, and moved for the remainder of my weightloss. I also shifted my workouts from 15 minutes strength/50 minutes cardio each day to 30 minutes strength/30 minutes cardio right at the time I started eating more protein, no idea which tactic worked more, but the two together busted that plateau right up.

melsinct · February 2012

I have been through two lengthy plateaus. The first was an easy fix, the second, not so much.

1st plateau: Started MFP and was just using the app, not the forums, so I was pretty uninformed. I wanted to lose weight now, quickly, immediately! I set MFP for a 2/lb week loss and ate 1200 calories a day. I felt sluggish, but that is dieting, right? WRONG. I plateaued for almost 2 months, started reading the boards and finally it clicked...I wasn't fueling my body properly. I still had 15 pounds left to lose and I upped my calories to 1400 and change (0.5 lb/week loss) and the weight started moving off again. Easy enough to explain: you don't fuel your body properly, it won't let the pounds go.

2nd plateau: My goal is 145 and I hit 147 in September. And stayed there. October? 147. November? 147. I zig zagged, I lowered calories, increased cardio, nothing was working. Still 147. I upped my calories to maintenance from Thanksgiving through New Year's, gained 2 pounds due to holiday indulgences, and got back on track right after New Year's. I went back to what I was doing prior that stopped working (the 0.5/lb week loss) and added one more day of strength training (pilates using the tower machine). By February I not only lost my holiday weight but I finally got below 147. I am not sure what broke the second plateau...was it just time? Was it the extra day of strength training? I really am not sure.

Bottom line, sometimes the reasons for plateaus are obvious (like my first one) and other times it seems like they just appear to test our commitment. As long as you hang on and power through, you can and will eventually break it.

mncardiojunkie · February 2012

I would say drop to 1200 for a week or two and see if that works. weight loss is very simple, cals in have to be less than cals out. Don't get caught up in all that carb no carb, fat vs. low fat, magic bullet B.S.

Thanks, I've done the dropping to 1200 cals things and it did nothing for me....I've been told that it was eating only 1200 that got me into this plateau in the first place......who knows.

Thanks for your advice though!!

I would agree with this statement. After a fitness assessment today I was told that I wasn't eating enough.

Try this, eat all of your carbs in the morning and try to stick to mostly sugar free, grain free foods in the evening. It''s about chemistry. During the day your body can fuel off the carbs and at night keep it to leafy greens and protein. I was just told this. Another thing I was told was to eat a bunch of smaller meals. My trainer at the health club is convinced that I just don't eat enough through out the day. So if you're running at a million miles an hour during the day, then consider that your body is like a car and you'll need to fuel up.

Then (off the car example) If you don't fuel up then your body will start conserving nutrients that are stored in fat cells. Hummmm.....I would say that you're right. Particularly after going to the personal trainer at the health club, starving yourself put you in this plateau.

AH2013 · February 2012

Even over Christmas and New Year with all the rubbish I ate, I didn't seem to put on any weight (which I am NOT complaining about)I thought that once I started eating better and got back into an exercise regime that the weight/inches would move....nothing is going to budge that scale. I'm trying to stay positive but each time I get on the scale it doesn't move from this 1lb range...

Lets put this in perspective. You ate a ton of calories over a week and didn't gain any weight. This leads me to questions, how much did you increase your calories to and for how long? You may have not done it for long enough or gone high enough? Also, the calculations might have been low by the method you use. If I follow MFP, my calories would be around 2250 calories. I used Katch McArdle after my first plateau and found out I should have been eating at 2600. So I did that and lost 16 lbs and 3% body fat. Then I decided to bulk up, so I ate a surplus until I got to 203 lbs again. I then switch workout programs to P90X2 and now eat between 3000-3200 calories and lost another 3 lbs. I am working on cutting fat and building a little muscle (body recomposition) so I can get down to 6-8% body fat. Do me a favor, if you can use the BMR tool on this site as well as the link below, then we can start to dive into your problems. Also, what is your weekly workout routine and do you have your diary public?

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

I thoroughly agree. When I lost the first 25ish pounds I was eating 1200 a day, sometimes not even eating my exercise cals back and I know that it has contributed to this plateau. It's scary to start eating more but everyone I speak to, almost, and every article I read suggests that this is what I should try and probably vary my exercise a litttle. I do cross trainer 5 days a week and NRoLFW 3 days and have 2 days off. I only do these two exercises as I have a bone disorder that prevents me doing any impact sports....however, I live in the sun and should swim a little more or bike at least to mix it up a bit. My diary is open to friends, but not public. I'll send you a friend request even if you only accept it to look at my diary I would be most grateful!! Thanks!!

cocomatoho · February 2012

Maybe you could try reboosting your metabolism. If you still want to keep your calorie intake the same, try changing the TIMES that you eat. Try breaking it up into 6 different settings. That way you're never putting much in at a time. Plus, it's constantly keeping your digestive tract moving and working. Also, COLD ice water boosts the metabolism. Maybe you could try this for a few weeks and see if this helps. I wish you luck!

runnercheryl · February 2012

I've lost 27lbs so far but since the beginning of December I've lost 2lbs and I think they were just water weight. I've upped my cals and tried doing less cardio and more weights, more varied exercise. I've lowered my carbs...upped my protein (which I find difficult some days to reach being a vegetarian) I've lowered my cals & even tried zigzagging and cannot seem to shift anything. I'm noticing nothing on the tape measure either really. I've been doing NRoLFW for the last 3 weeks also.

I think that's your problem. The beginning of December wasn't all that long ago, and you've tried so many different things to start losing weight again - you can't have given any of them long enough to have an effect. Your body's probably in a state of confusion because the way you eat is changing every few weeks.

AH2013 · February 2012

Do me a favor, if you can use the BMR tool on this site as well as the link below, then we can start to dive into your problems.
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr

Okay, so my BMR with MFP says 1,546. From that website the Harris-Benedict reading was 1,622 and the Katch-McCardle was 1,637. According to the outcome I should be eating 2,164 cals per day...holy crap! That's quite scary for me.

I've been zigzagging (freedieting.com) and yesterday went for the fat loss section instead of the extreme fat loss section. It's a lot more calories than I'm eating at present but I'm prepared to give it a go.

castadiva · February 2012

Bump! Having a similar issue and interested to see what is suggested.

pinksparklefairy · February 2012

Start a new high-intensity workout you have not done before - your body gets used to doing the same thing and becomes more efficient. Don't forget your body naturally programmed to retain as much fat as possible so you can survive the food supplies run out, so you have to keep changing exercise and the amount of calories you eat.

Try to take some long walks when you have some time - 3-hour hikes at the weekend, ideally in a hilly location

reduce carbs and increase protein

psuLemon · February 2012

Maybe you could try reboosting your metabolism. If you still want to keep your calorie intake the same, try changing the TIMES that you eat. Try breaking it up into 6 different settings. That way you're never putting much in at a time. Plus, it's constantly keeping your digestive tract moving and working. Also, COLD ice water boosts the metabolism. Maybe you could try this for a few weeks and see if this helps. I wish you luck!

There is only one thing that will actually change your metabolism and that is increasing lean muscle mass. And there have been several recent studies that suggest whether you eat one meal or ten meals, your body burns the same amount of calories metabolizing them.

psuLemon · February 2012

Do me a favor, if you can use the BMR tool on this site as well as the link below, then we can start to dive into your problems.
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr

Okay, so my BMR with MFP says 1,546. From that website the Harris-Benedict reading was 1,622 and the Katch-McCardle was 1,637. According to the outcome I should be eating 2,164 cals per day...holy crap! That's quite scary for me.

I've been zigzagging (freedieting.com) and yesterday went for the fat loss section instead of the extreme fat loss section. It's a lot more calories than I'm eating at present but I'm prepared to give it a go.

You can do zigzagging, but to be honest, I would suggest just eating more. I honestly don't think zigzagging will provide much benefit since over a weeks time, your body will still burn the same amount of calories digesting food. I did look at your diary and it appears you are pretty high in carbs (about 60%) and fairly low on protein (20%). I would suggest two things for you. First, bump your calories to 2150. Eat this amount every day, even days you don't work out. You do this to feed your body to repair itself and you are looking at weight loss over a week as opposed to daily. With this approach, you do not eat back exercise calories; it's the approach I take as well an use on everyone else I work with... heck, I don't even track exercise. Next, go into your settings and set your carbs at 40%, protein at 40% and fat at 20%. Monitor that for a month, if you still don't lose weight, then you need to increase your calories by 200. If you start to lose again, then you maintain. If you gain more than 5 lbs, then you decrease by 200.

AH2013 · February 2012

Do me a favor, if you can use the BMR tool on this site as well as the link below, then we can start to dive into your problems.
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr

Okay, so my BMR with MFP says 1,546. From that website the Harris-Benedict reading was 1,622 and the Katch-McCardle was 1,637. According to the outcome I should be eating 2,164 cals per day...holy crap! That's quite scary for me.

I've been zigzagging (freedieting.com) and yesterday went for the fat loss section instead of the extreme fat loss section. It's a lot more calories than I'm eating at present but I'm prepared to give it a go.

You can do zigzagging, but to be honest, I would suggest just eating more. I honestly don't think zigzagging will provide much benefit since over a weeks time, your body will still burn the same amount of calories digesting food. I did look at your diary and it appears you are pretty high in carbs (about 60%) and fairly low on protein (20%). I would suggest two things for you. First, bump your calories to 2150. Eat this amount every day, even days you don't work out. You do this to feed your body to repair itself and you are looking at weight loss over a week as opposed to daily. With this approach, you do not eat back exercise calories; it's the approach I take as well an use on everyone else I work with... heck, I don't even track exercise. Next, go into your settings and set your carbs at 40%, protein at 40% and fat at 20%. Monitor that for a month, if you still don't lose weight, then you need to increase your calories by 200. If you start to lose again, then you maintain. If you gain more than 5 lbs, then you decrease by 200.

You've said exactly what I've been reading!!! It's easy to get a bit lost though...I shall try your suggestion and see how that goes. It's scary for me to eat that much but I'll give it a go. I actually had my macros set to 45 carbs 25 protein and 30 fat but I'll change to what you said. As a veggie I find it hard to get my protein quota in but will make more of an effort. I really, really appreciate you taking this time out to help!!!!! Thanks so much!

HonkyTonks · February 2012

Maybe you could try reboosting your metabolism. If you still want to keep your calorie intake the same, try changing the TIMES that you eat. Try breaking it up into 6 different settings. That way you're never putting much in at a time. Plus, it's constantly keeping your digestive tract moving and working. Also, COLD ice water boosts the metabolism. Maybe you could try this for a few weeks and see if this helps. I wish you luck!

There is only one thing that will actually change your metabolism and that is increasing lean muscle mass. And there have been several recent studies that suggest whether you eat one meal or ten meals, your body burns the same amount of calories metabolizing them.

Thank you! I hate the 6 meals a day thing that continues to be repeated like fact. Meal frequency is irrelevant. Your metabolism is impacted by your current weight and lean muscle mass, not the food or frequency you eat at.

wftiger · February 2012

Resistance training. Build more muscle to help you get past it. Can be as easy as doing more flights of stairs. Make sure your protein is adequate. For women that is 20grams 4 times a day. Need protein to build muscle.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics · February 2012

I did maintenance for a few weeks and let my body recover from being in "diet mode" for months-- then I dropped back down to a deficit and started losing again.

ctime · February 2012

At this point you need to mix up your food intake so your body and fat react properly to diet and exercise. Right now your body is saying "hold up, wait a minute, don't lose any fat". People have maintained body fat on 500kcal a day. The trick is to force the body to release fat by increasing leptin sensitivity and making your body switch back to regular fat burning mode. Once your body detects (through hormones, like leptin) that a significant weightloss has occured (1-5% of body fat lets say), it will try to react by conserving calories and slowing metabolism at all levels. This is the plateau. But there are work arounds..

The vegetarian thing is going to make things more difficult unless you are willing to basically just eat salad greens. The body wants to gain fat, especially when eating anything with lots of sugar and carbs. I would carb load one day (stay away from sugar and fructose, I'm talking about just eat a giant potato or a burrito) and then switch back to low carb/high fat/high protein. Stay away from any sugar that doesn't come with tons of fiber (or all together). My theory about fructose and fruit was that humans have evolved to store fructose as fat as much as possible while the going was good (ie. summer harvest) because winter was probably going to be a starvation. In that sense, fruit is healthy, but when trying to lose weight, I'd get rid of any sugar/fructose and go easy on the carbs.

Anyone hit a plateau and got out of it?

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