breaking through a plateau?

Eat more. Set your weekly goal to half a pound. Look through the boards for eat more to weigh less. Oh and start lifting heavy =]

You mentioned that you do cardio; what type of cardio? I have read several pieces of material which talks about the benefits of interval training. I enjoy doing it on the treadmill, but interval training can be done on the crossramp, ellipitcal, or stationery bike. Our bodies tends to get used to the exercises we perform quicker than what we think, so changing your routine may help push through your plateau.

Bump ^_^

Eat more. Strength train. Your body is probably getting used to walking, so it's having less of an impact. Don't give it up by any means, but add some HIIT or metabolic conditioning stuff: quick sets of pushups, pullups, squats, box jumps with little to no rest in between. Keep it short and sweet so you go all out.

Awesome advice. We don't want to keep adding hours of cardio. That just trains your body to be more efficient at doing hours of walking or jogging which means it's good at long periods of exercise with less calories burned. The shorter interval training and addition of strength exercises is the ticket.

being you haven't weight trained for some time, you don't need to go to the gym or use weights.. Use your own body weight for eg push ups box, three quarters and then eventually full length... Squats and when you get used to doing them start to use things like bags of sugar in each hand to increase weight... Bicep curls use tins of food or again bags of sugar, triceps again the same thing... The list is endless on what you can do and what you can use, plus makes it a little easier to fit in at home.... Also try changing your breakfast to just protein.... By not fueling the body with carbs in the morning your body will be encouraged to take its energy from the fat you store in stead.... Weights are so important in a work out tho and you must include them some how... You need to build more muscle to burn more fat, also weight bearing exercise will help protect you from bone disorders.... Remember its the muscle of the body that holds up not the skeleton.... So get lifting and you will defo see a result, but remember to also use a tape measure to measure around the tops of your legs, the wides part of the body often the seating area, hip, waist, under bust over bust and tops of arms... you will see a deffo inch loss but not necessary weight loss as muscle weights more than fat....
Also bear in mind you have stopped breast feeding now so the body will be having time out to see what your up to and once it decides your not being stupid it will start to let the weight go again... sometimes you can go six weeks with out any weight loss then bang a huge amount will drop off... Your body is still return to pre pregnancy state which can take up to 18 months to return to normal... Keep up with the good work tho your doing brill

I have lost 77 lbs over the past year. I am currently 135 and 5' 2''. I have been "stuck" here for the last month or so. A google search turned up that to lose weight my calories should be around 1250, so that's what I have myfitnesspal set at. I have not been able to get my weight to budge and I am very frusterated. I am meticulous about counting my calories and my exercise (and usually estimate low on exercise). I generally run/or walk (incline) on the treadmill for about 40 minutes a day and most days take a 2.5 mile walk around our neighborhood at night. I am able to get to the gym once in a while and will put in an hour of cardio there if I can make it. I had no problem losing weight before and the only difference I can really see is that before I was breastfeeding, now I'm down to just once or twice a day, so I know I'm not losing any calories there, but I'm also not eating an excess of calories. Any ideas on what I could be doing to break through this?

You will be getting down to your last bits of stubborn fat soon.
This is the trickiest part to losing weight.
It becomes a game of hormonal balance and smart training.

One of the worst things you can do at this point would be steady state cardio.
Your lean mass is so important and if you look in the mirror and feel that you are just a smaller version of yourself from a year ago, you may need another dietary approach.
I recently started working on this and feel that:
1) A dietary break for 2 weeks is in order.
This will help reset certain hormones that have been pushed out of whack from dieting for long periods of time.
2) Cyclical dieting.
This is where you set MFP to your TDEE.
On lifting days you eat above TDEE to spark muscle growth.
Surplus days are carb heavy days where you get to indulge a little.
Rest days are at a deficit and the emphasis is on healthy fats.
Protein is always paramount at 1g per pound of LBM.

I recently did a post on how to determine your TDEE.
Its on my profile page if you want to give it a go.

PM me if you have any questions.

Lyle McDonald talks about this phase in depth in a book called The Stubborn Fat Solution.
He says "Overweight people have more leptin and are better able to lose fat while maintaining lean mass. Unfortunately the gears switch as the person becomes leaner and the bodies defense mechanisms kick in for survival. These people are the ones losing lean mass faster than fat."

Start weights ASAP.
Drop cardio.
Diet smart.

I have lost 77 lbs over the past year. I am currently 135 and 5' 2''. I have been "stuck" here for the last month or so. A google search turned up that to lose weight my calories should be around 1250, so that's what I have myfitnesspal set at. I have not been able to get my weight to budge and I am very frusterated. I am meticulous about counting my calories and my exercise (and usually estimate low on exercise). I generally run/or walk (incline) on the treadmill for about 40 minutes a day and most days take a 2.5 mile walk around our neighborhood at night. I am able to get to the gym once in a while and will put in an hour of cardio there if I can make it. I had no problem losing weight before and the only difference I can really see is that before I was breastfeeding, now I'm down to just once or twice a day, so I know I'm not losing any calories there, but I'm also not eating an excess of calories. Any ideas on what I could be doing to break through this?

Change up your routine your body has adjusted to it. IMO start lifting some weights, I know most girls are scared of this cause they think they will get all huge or something but your body doesn't have the hormones to be big. Here is a quote from my friends blog that I love

while strength training you are obviously expending energy to do the work, just like you would with Cardio. However, the difference lies in your rest day. While Cardio workouts(eg. running) will improve your cardiovascular endurance, strength training on the other hand results in the controlled destruction of muscle tissue. Since the body's reaction to this is to rebuild the muscles stronger than they were before, they need energy to rebuild, which happens when we rest. Looking for the most efficient way to rebuild, the body looks for the closest energy source to use, that is the fat surrounding those muscles! By incorporating a nutritious diet with strength training, fat will be dispensed of faster, strength will increase and your body's biochemistry will improve as it would not with mere calisthenics, further improving various aspects of your wellbeing.

IDK what your diet is like but cut something out for a bit like dairy, cheese, cream ext. Humans aren't meant to consume dairy past the age of 2 years old that part of the digestive system is supposed to be shut off at that point.

Let me start this by saying I am NOT a licenced dietician, but I speak to them daily. I have been reading an enormous amount of information from well respected sources - Currently: Exercise Nutrition - A Manual for Professionals 5th ed (just out) that covers things like exercise specific requirements for protein, carbs, fat, supplements, timing of ingestion, yada yada. It's a bit heady if you are not in the field or medically based. Talks about REE(resting energy expenditure) values, VOmax, and RMRs.

That said, back to your question:

First - plateaus occur in part because you have reached a steady state between glycogen synthesis and glycogen burned. Sort of like the MPB (muscle protein balance) = MPS (muscle protein sythesis) - MPB (muscle protein burned) reaches a balance.

Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle - and when utilized releases water. When you diet you are dropping glycogen from stored locations. When you burn it, you release the water with it. You lose weight.

When your body reaches a plateau, it has reached equalibrium between multiple things, but glycogen burned and restored is one of them and probably the biggest component to not losing more weight.

Eliminating other factors - muscle building, fluid retention, etc....the simplist way to continue to drop is lower your calories or up your exercise time or intensity.

EATING MORE TO LOSE MORE is NOT the answer.

First off, our bodies may be burning fuel, but food is not like Gasoline. Pour a little on and boom. Your metabolic rate explodes. If this is true, I'm going to be the first to lose weight at the buffet diet plan. The bottom line is that your metabolic rate does increase when you eat...but NOT THAT MUCH. I don't care if you eat pure protein and complex carbs...you'll still collect more calories than your "increased burn" from a slightly higher BMR (base metabolic rate).

The number of calories you have to decrease varies depending on your body composition. Heavily muscled individuals have a higher RMR(resting metabolic rate) and if you are muscle building you might stay at a plateau because you are replacing fat with heavier muscle.

In any event, lowering your calorie count - carbs or fat if possible - if you are not exercising too much - by 100 to 200 cals per day or increase the intensity or duration of your workout. Do a different workout...because your body may have become trained and more efficient at what you are doing so it burns less calories doing it. Example would be a runner that averages 100 miles a week won't burn nearly the calories I would because they are more efficient at that exercise..so burn less.

Lastly, as you lose weight remember that the same exercise does NOT burn the same amount of calories. It burns less because you are lighter. So you really have to change things around.

EATING MORE is not the answer - UNLESS: You are not taking in enough carbs to cover your activity and you fatigue too soon. Even then, eating more food isn't the answer - eating a higher number of grams of good carbs are. The fat in your diet shold be heart healthy (as much as possible). This is common with women atheletes that are trying to maintain lean body mass, but exercise a lot. If you exercise under 90 minutes and haven't restricted your calories too much it should not be an issue. You can intake good carb replacement without a ton of calories with supplements or the right foods.

PM me if you have specific questions. Best of Luck.












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