How do you get past a plateau??

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calroseangelo
calroseangelo Posts: 144
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been around the same weight for a while now and I just can't seem to get the scale to move! I work out everyday and burn about 400 calories each day. I have just started trying to eat more although I have a hard time eating back all of those calories I burn. I'm not sure what else I can do! Can anyone help me out??
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Replies

  • AFluffyNyamma
    AFluffyNyamma Posts: 99 Member
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    What time of day do you exercise and do you mix up your exercise routine?
  • jakay_f
    jakay_f Posts: 28
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    zigzag calories
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    I normally exercise in the afternoon and I do 45 min of zumba one day, then 20 minutes of zumba, weights, and ab exercises the next day. I just switch back and forth. I just started doing that this weekend and into this week.
  • samra2012
    samra2012 Posts: 715
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    zigzag calories
    ????? what it means???:huh:
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,358 Member
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    zigzag calories

    This! Basically what this means is, try lowering your calories about 100-200 calories less then you normally eat, then going up 100-200 more then you eat, then go back down to how much you normally eat. Also, you said you work out every day, your muscles need a break time to time, and to much of anything isn't good for us.

    How many calories a day are you in taking? If you aren't taking in as much as your body needs, your body stops losing weight, because our body goes into starvation mode and when that happens our metabolism slows down. So if the zigzag doesn't work, try upping your limit. Your ticker says you have only lost 11lbs, that's not a lot of a loss to hit a plateau unless you aren't that over weight.
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    zigzag calories

    This! Basically what this means is, try lowering your calories about 100-200 calories less then you normally eat, then going up 100-200 more then you eat, then go back down to how much you normally eat. Also, you said you work out every day, your muscles need a break time to time, and to much of anything isn't good for us.

    How many calories a day are you in taking? If you aren't taking in as much as your body needs, your body stops losing weight, because our body goes into starvation mode and when that happens our metabolism slows down. So if the zigzag doesn't work, try upping your limit. Your ticker says you have only lost 11lbs, that's not a lot of a loss to hit a plateau unless you aren't that over weight.

    I want to lose another 30 lbs...I don't know if that would be considered way overweight. I just recently upped my calories...my goal is set at 1626. Today I netted around 1300. Like I said, I burned 450 today so I actually ate around 1700 calories. Does zigzagging work?
  • AFluffyNyamma
    AFluffyNyamma Posts: 99 Member
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    I want to lose another 30 lbs...I don't know if that would be considered way overweight. I just recently upped my calories...my goal is set at 1626. Today I netted around 1300. Like I said, I burned 450 today so I actually ate around 1700 calories. Does zigzagging work?

    Indeed Zigzagging does work. You have to get your metabolism woken up. It might take a while but the key is always to throw your body off any sort of routine, because it will adjust exercise wise and eating wise
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,358 Member
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    zigzag calories

    This! Basically what this means is, try lowering your calories about 100-200 calories less then you normally eat, then going up 100-200 more then you eat, then go back down to how much you normally eat. Also, you said you work out every day, your muscles need a break time to time, and to much of anything isn't good for us.

    How many calories a day are you in taking? If you aren't taking in as much as your body needs, your body stops losing weight, because our body goes into starvation mode and when that happens our metabolism slows down. So if the zigzag doesn't work, try upping your limit. Your ticker says you have only lost 11lbs, that's not a lot of a loss to hit a plateau unless you aren't that over weight.

    I want to lose another 30 lbs...I don't know if that would be considered way overweight. I just recently upped my calories...my goal is set at 1626. Today I netted around 1300. Like I said, I burned 450 today so I actually ate around 1700 calories. Does zigzagging work?

    Zigzagging does work, it's been the best plateau breaker I've found yet.
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    Sounds like that's the way to go! I will give it a shot for a week or so and see what happens.
  • dup32
    dup32 Posts: 68
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    I'll tell you what worked for me is balancing the times I eat. Instead of 3 meals and snacks , I went to 6 small snack/meals to keep things leveded off...(metabolism)
    I also watch my carbs much closer and work hard to get no less than 6 hours of some type of workout in....
    This shook things up things drastically and ended a 2 year stalemate! things are moving again and have lost 12 pounds in 5 weeks...
    Maybe this could help you too...
  • casseyleinen
    casseyleinen Posts: 48
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    :flowerforyou: Change up workout routine, drink lots of water and maybe cut back a lil bit on carbs if possible. oh and up your protien! Best of luck!!
  • cshearer25
    cshearer25 Posts: 1
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    I agree with the zigzag. I hit a plateau when I got down to the last few pounds that I wanted to lose. They say that your metabolism adjusts after about 3 days. so if you go into starvation mode because you arent eating enough calories then by doing the zigzag, your body doesnt really have time to 'adjust' to the new calorie intake which then causes your metabolism to go back up. I would also vary the cardio you do versus the strength training. In the long run you need strength training for toning and building muscle...muscle will then burn more calories. but you also need the cardio to burn more calories. dont do the same cardio and strength training as your body does adjust and get used to an exercise. i do a combo of hot yoga, barre method, spinning, jump roping and running throughout the week. i dont think it really matters when you exercise...also try to eat AFTER you exercise, especially protein which is what your body needs after exercise. if you are strength training its really important to eat a protein. I usually eat a plain greek yougart or hard boiled egg. good luck!!
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    Just eat maintenance for a week or 2 then resume the diet.

    Here...this may help!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    I'll tell you what worked for me is balancing the times I eat. Instead of 3 meals and snacks , I went to 6 small snack/meals to keep things leveded off...(metabolism)
    I also watch my carbs much closer and work hard to get no less than 6 hours of some type of workout in....
    This shook things up things drastically and ended a 2 year stalemate! things are moving again and have lost 12 pounds in 5 weeks...
    Maybe this could help you too...

    6 hours a week I'm guessing?? There's no way I could do that in a day! I have 3 little kids!! Haha. I do have snacks throughout the day...a morning snack and afternoon snack. I'm trying to eat more fruits and veggies in my meals. Trying to cut out as much sugar as I can except for the natural sugar in fruits. Also, watching my sodium.
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    Just eat maintenance for a week or 2 then resume the diet.

    Here...this may help!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

    Is maintenance just my BMR?
  • steinbok
    steinbok Posts: 82
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    Consider what you are consuming each day and see where you can eliminate or cut back on. Start with breads, pastas, and processed carbs. I recently lost 20# (172-152) doing this in 2 months.
  • dup32
    dup32 Posts: 68
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    yep! your right... 6 hours in a week... HA HA sorry about that...
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    Consider what you are consuming each day and see where you can eliminate or cut back on. Start with breads, pastas, and processed carbs. I recently lost 20# (172-152) doing this in 2 months.

    That sounds like a good idea too. I will look at my diary and see what I can cut out.
  • jomiley23
    jomiley23 Posts: 76
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    Bump this, because I regularly plateau.

    I'll go three weeks at the same weight, then bust through 4lbs in one week. I went to reports in the tabs at the top and made myself a spreadsheet to see if I could see a correlation between my eating, exercise and weight loss, and there wasn't really anything definitive, although it's probably an unintentional zigzagging....meaning I get discouraged, eat what I want for a day or two, then on Monday of that fourth week, feeling guilty and having gained a couple of pounds from overindulgence, I kick it into high gear, but I always end up lower than I started.

    Maybe if I zigzagged with intention, I could keep the plateau from happening in the first place.

    Worth a shot.
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,358 Member
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    Just eat maintenance for a week or 2 then resume the diet.

    Here...this may help!
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/538381-in-place-of-a-road-map

    Is maintenance just my BMR?

    Some people have a hard time losing weight with eating back their calories. I am one of them, I hardly ever eat back my workout calories, I am at a point now that I'm not stressing the scale so much, so I did eat most my workout calories back today. Sometimes I do, but hardly ever do I, when I'm focused on the scale, I eat right at what my bmr is and no more. I've done that for 116lbs.

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