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Plateau broken, but now what???

kmillar1224
kmillar1224 Posts: 91 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Good morning lovely MFP friends,

So, the good news is after 45 days I've managed to break past my plateau by one pound - this after lowering my cals and not doing Turbo Fire for exercise for 2 days. Although I want to jump for joy, I'm putting it off until I am absolutely sure I am past the plateau (meaning that it won't go back up to 159 tomorrow). My question is, if by chance I finally start to see the scale move again should I...

A. Continue to eat less cals (around 1300) and skip the exercise for a while?
B. Keep around 1300 cals, but incorporate Turbo Fire or Insanity again?
C. Up my cals to around 1600 again and continue to exercise the way I was?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have a goal set for myself for October, but I am already 1.5 months behind thanks to the scale not moving and inches not dropping. SOOOO, I don't want to screw up any movement I might NOW be having :0)

Replies

  • graysmom2005
    graysmom2005 Posts: 1,882 Member
    If you are doing Turbofire or Insanity and are just eating 1300, that is not nearly enough. You are netting very, very low....unless you are eating those calories back?? 1300 will slow your metabolism terribly and cause an endless plateau.
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
    Is it your goal to make a scale weight or have a certain body? The exercise will help with the latter but could hinder the former.

    You're not hurting anything at 1300 either way.

    Good luck!
  • kmillar1224
    kmillar1224 Posts: 91 Member
    Hi Graysmom, thanks for the response!!

    Thats what I thought was happening the first time around, so I boosted my cals to 1600 cals, but there still wasn't any movement - that's why I am confused as to what I should do now...lol.
  • kmillar1224
    kmillar1224 Posts: 91 Member
    Hi mcarter,

    To be honest - if I were 200 pounds, but the size I wanted to be I would be happy. So, I guess it's not so much the scale as it is inches, but I wasn't losing any inches either, which I thought was strange.
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,785 Member
    As long as it's working do what your doing right now until it stops again. But I plan to try changing mine up next time I plateau. High calories one day low the next and change my exercise up also. Just to keep my body thinking all is good (which it will be but you have to convince your body of it) If it's not broke don't fix it, so if this is working then keep doing this.
  • myfitnessnmhoy
    myfitnessnmhoy Posts: 2,105 Member
    C. Up my cals to around 1600 again and continue to exercise the way I was?

    Te benefits from heavy exercise are far more important than the number on the scale, and if you want to exercise heavily you need to feed your body to support that exercise.

    I don't know what your budget is for calories each day, but if I were you I'd set my goal to one pound a week, log the exercise, and eat back the calories. That may or may not be a significant increase in calories, and depending on how accurate MFP's estimates are for you it may or may not work. But you'll be fully supporting your body and feeding it well to support some great workouts.

    I've gone through periods when I got impatient and ate less / exercised more to try and speed up my weight loss. It always ended in a plateau where my metabolism had adapted to the lowered intake and I wasn't burning the calories I thought I was, or something. All I really know about the mechanics of that is that I stopped losing weight and didn't enjoy my workouts because I was tired and achey all the time. I started eating more, started feeling better, had a somewhat depressing gain of a pound or two for a week or so, then started losing weight at a reasonable pace again.

    When I eat a little too much, I gain weight but feel good. When I eat too little, I lose weight fast at first then stop losing weight and feel bad (tired, cranky, uninterested in exercise, achey). When I eat just right, I lose weight slowly but steadily (with some herky-jerky sudden loss / brief gain, but overall at a steady pace) and feel good.

    Your mileage may vary, this is based on my personal experiences only and I have no letters after my name to back it up. The only thing I have to back it up is that I've traveled this journey for far more pounds than my MFP ticker shows, I've gone from morbidly obese to obese to merely overweight and 7 pounds from normal - and I've struggled with my weight for 30+ years and learned a few lessons along the way - but most of the lessons I've learned from this site, this year, and the whole weight loss thing is finally working for me without the suffering I usually associated with weight loss.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    So, the good news is after 45 days I've managed to break past my plateau by one pound - this after lowering my cals and not doing Turbo Fire for exercise for 2 days.
    Good to hear.
  • kmillar1224
    kmillar1224 Posts: 91 Member
    Thanks everyone - I really appreciate your responses. You've given me a lot to think about :0)
This discussion has been closed.

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