Plateau Help?

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  • mazecraze30
    mazecraze30 Posts: 30
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    I guess here is what I am going to do. I am going to get back into the habit of working out again. If I see no results in two weeks ill raise my calorie intake some more or zigzag or try something different.
  • mazecraze30
    mazecraze30 Posts: 30
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    I have those days too. I do not know your personal life situation (i.e. if you have kids) but if I know I am going to have late nights I do early morning exercises (like 5:45 a spin classes) or I do those on days I know I will not workout after work. It is not fun to wake up that early but at least i know my workout is done.

    The life of a college kid for me! So glamorous!
    Spin classes huh? I wish we had those around here. I've seen a lot of positive posts on the web about them!

    Oh I had so much more time in college ha ha ha! Does your college have a gym? Even if it is working on the cardio machines any activity is good and oddly enough it makes me feel better. Some days I leave work (school teacher :S ) with splitting headaches and I make myself go and I feel better after. Even if it means you getting up in the a.m. and going for a walk or jog do it.

    We do have a gym, however I don't live on campus, I live out of town. I know the gym here doesn't have too much, so I usually rely on the good ol' wii when I get the chance. My schedule was crazy this year. Full classes from 8-5pm then sometimes work at night.
  • kparks2
    kparks2 Posts: 121 Member
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    Yeah when I plateaued I looked at other things to try. The zig zag works for me and it may or may not work for you. I also gym it everyday burning at least 800 cals or more (bc I like to eat ha ha) and calorie counting with no carbs or little carbs at night. I also gave up diet sodas and make sure I get my 8 cups of water. Maybe also revisit things you have been eating too??
  • Jspkt2002
    Jspkt2002 Posts: 23
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    i hit a plateau myself for a month eating 1200 a day... I increased by cal intake to 1600 and also have been taking magnesium and b 12 vitamins to boost my metabolism again, now I have lost 4 lbs.
  • kparks2
    kparks2 Posts: 121 Member
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    We do have a gym, however I don't live on campus, I live out of town. I know the gym here doesn't have too much, so I usually rely on the good ol' wii when I get the chance. My schedule was crazy this year. Full classes from 8-5pm then sometimes work at night.
    [/quote]

    I bet...I understand you on the schedule..just fit in fitness even for a half hour. Depending on your financial situation maybe see if there are some cheap gyms you can join in your town...most outside gyms are open from 5a-11p at night
  • warmachinejt
    warmachinejt Posts: 2,167 Member
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    Eat more. That's the solution, trust me. Exercising more will only put you at a greater deficit further starving your body.
  • mazecraze30
    mazecraze30 Posts: 30
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    We do have a gym, however I don't live on campus, I live out of town. I know the gym here doesn't have too much, so I usually rely on the good ol' wii when I get the chance. My schedule was crazy this year. Full classes from 8-5pm then sometimes work at night.

    I bet...I understand you on the schedule..just fit in fitness even for a half hour. Depending on your financial situation maybe see if there are some cheap gyms you can join in your town...most outside gyms are open from 5a-11p at night
    [/quote]

    I looked at gyms. There is only 1, it is waaay out of price range. (I live in the middle of nowhere, the only thing we have is the University).
    Therefore I use my treadmill which shuts down when shaken too much (so I have to walk and not run).
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    Well, I have no idea where you started or how much you weigh, but the closer you get to your ideal weight, the harder it is to lose those pounds. Once you get to be in a healthy weight range you should have a smaller deficit and you should be focusing more on how you look in the mirror and "toning" than just what the number on the scale says. Try upping your calories to have maybe a 200-300 calorie deficit instead of 500 (or whatever it is you have now) ... once I got closer to my goal weight, I upped my calories by a couple hundred and continued to lose weight. Now I am eating a little above maintenance. (trying to bulk a little lol)
  • kparks2
    kparks2 Posts: 121 Member
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    Ahhhhhhhhh yeah living in the middle of no where does not help ha ha. Well again try to fit in some fitness and like the last post said maybe up the cals a bit but try to lower your deficit.
  • Jd1360
    Jd1360 Posts: 170 Member
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    My favorite method is to eat normally for a day or two. Don't count. Go out to dinner and have some drinks. Then go back on restriction, wait a week and see what happens. If not, rinse and repeat! ;D
  • MamaWannaRun
    MamaWannaRun Posts: 273 Member
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    bump...
  • MamaWannaRun
    MamaWannaRun Posts: 273 Member
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    Ok.. found this topic yesterday...
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/501511-great-read-on-plateau-ing

    I found I had cut back my carido and I also got 'stuck'.. added in some new exercises and while the 'pounds' did not drop much more, the INCHES sure did..

    Long story short, you BODY has no incentive to change and it will work hard to remain the same. Change it up! Shake it up and let us know how it goes!
  • stroken96
    stroken96 Posts: 436 Member
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    bump to read more
  • jillthemom
    jillthemom Posts: 31 Member
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    I can only tell you my experience......when I started off I was also doing 1200 per day, but I was also eating back my exercise calories . I lost quite a few pounds initially, but then I plateaued. It drove me nuts. I upped my exercise, tried to eat better, tried to est less...but it wasn't working. I then increased my calories to 1500 and continued to eat my exercise calories. I then started losing against slowly. I upper my calories again to 1600 and I started losing like crazy. In fact, I am well past my first couple of goals!
  • kparks2
    kparks2 Posts: 121 Member
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    I can only tell you my experience......when I started off I was also doing 1200 per day, but I was also eating back my exercise calories . I lost quite a few pounds initially, but then I plateaued. It drove me nuts. I upped my exercise, tried to eat better, tried to est less...but it wasn't working. I then increased my calories to 1500 and continued to eat my exercise calories. I then started losing against slowly. I upper my calories again to 1600 and I started losing like crazy. In fact, I am well past my first couple of goals!

    I find that so funny and so many people have said that method works. I have decreased my cals (well the site has) and I upped my activity and push myself harder at the gym and I have lost weight better that way. But I do the zig zag method
  • lambertj
    lambertj Posts: 675 Member
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    I can only tell you my experience......when I started off I was also doing 1200 per day, but I was also eating back my exercise calories . I lost quite a few pounds initially, but then I plateaued. It drove me nuts. I upped my exercise, tried to eat better, tried to est less...but it wasn't working. I then increased my calories to 1500 and continued to eat my exercise calories. I then started losing against slowly. I upper my calories again to 1600 and I started losing like crazy. In fact, I am well past my first couple of goals!

    I find that so funny and so many people have said that method works. I have decreased my cals (well the site has) and I upped my activity and push myself harder at the gym and I have lost weight better that way. But I do the zig zag method

    You most likely will have an initial gain when you increase your calories because your body has gotten used to eating so few calories and you have slowed your metabolism. But within 6 weeks your body will realize it is not starving and will let go of the weight. I ate at 1200 for months and was stuck losing and gaining the same 3 pounds. it was by accident on vacation that I ate more and came home to first an initial gain of 3 pounds but within 7 days a loss of those 3 pounds plus two more. I then increased again and gained 2 but now on week 6 I have lost those two plus 2 more. We certainly didn't find ourselves over weight because we ate 1700 calories, it is because we ate far more than that and didn't move our bodies.
  • calroseangelo
    calroseangelo Posts: 144
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    This is where I've been lately too. I'm so glad to have read this. My goal is 1546 a day which is 20% of my TDEE. My problem is that I have a hard time eating that much! Normally I net around 1200, just because I can't eat more! And if I do I tend to make the wrong choices...in any case I'm going to try to up my calories and hope it works. Getting tired of being around the same few numbers...
  • mazecraze30
    mazecraze30 Posts: 30
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    UPDATE:
    This morning my Plateau broke. I was flickering at 143.5. I have come to the conclusion it was because of lack of exercise. I still raised my calorie intake to 1300.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    I think this has happened to me.

    I started on 20th January 2012 at 268lbs and set myself a calorie goal of 1800 per day, but would usually come in around 100 - 150 calories under. Everything was going great and I had gotten down to 235lbs by the 22nd April. But since then I haven't lost.

    Just done my weekly weigh-in tonight and again stayed at 235lbs. I don't do lot of exercise as my job is pretty active but I do not eat back the calories I burn.

    I have deceided tonight to go back to basics and look at what I was eating when I started MFP. Going to try that for a couple of weeks and see what happens.
  • kparks2
    kparks2 Posts: 121 Member
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    UPDATE:
    This morning my Plateau broke. I was flickering at 143.5. I have come to the conclusion it was because of lack of exercise. I still raised my calorie intake to 1300.

    Sounds awesome! Glad that worked! Keep it up and you can do it! :)

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