Already a Plateau? Need help!

Have you been tracking sodium and potassium?

The same thing happened to me and it turned out to be my sodium intake.

I suggest for the next few days knock out thee carbs (ceral, flat bread, etc.) knock out the fruits (carby as well) add in more protein (chicken, shrimp, fish, etc..) and try to knock out ANYTHING that contains sodium.. Women work different than men.. Most of us can not handle anything more than 60g of carbs and fruit has a lot of them.. As my weight lifting friends told me.. (because I lift weights at 271 and steadily lose a pound a day for the past week or so once I figured out how many carbs I can handle) If you are going to try and lose weight and you eat fruit a lot you mine as well enjoy the carbs and just eat a bag of m&ms and enjoy yourself.. You can add the fruit back in slowly once you hit your goal weight but I suggest cutting it out completely and supplementing your vitamins stick to more protein and add weight lifting.. It helps.. believe me.. Also another tip.. Stop weighing yourself and start measuring.. I maintained my weight for almost two weeks but in those two weeks I lost 17 and a half inches from my whole body

1. Eat more. Seriously, try it. But give it a good 3-4 weeks. Your BMR is the least you should be eating so try eating at that first.
2. Stop weighing and take measurements and body fat percentages, a scale is seriously overrated. Many fitness models are in the "overweight" zone for their height, do they LOOK overweight ? not at all. Nice & Solid and toned.
3. Definitely drink more water, at LEAST 8 glasses a day.
4. Pick up weights. Mold your body. The more you pick up weights, the higher amount of calories you burn when youre NOT in the gym.
5. Limit fruits and soft drinks


thats all i can think of for now, whats helped me BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT also, believe it or not, laying low at the gym (doing aerobic cardio exercises LESS) helped bust me through one as well.

It's day 35 and you've lost 9 lbs. but nothing in the last 3 weeks? So you lost 9 lbs. in the first 2 weeks? You're still averaging over a pound a week. Keep going. It's never linear. It comes off in fits and starts. When you lose that much that fast and if you're doing a new exercise routine, the scale will take a while to 'catch up'.

You lost a lot to start out (probably a lot of water weight), and now your body needs to rest. Plataeas are a normal part of weight loss. Do you use MFP on an app at all? The carb/fat/protein ratio shows up on a tab on the apps but it doesn't here. Roughly, you should be about 50-60% carbs, 25-30% fat and the rest protein for where your calories come from. I'm not good with math and could never figure it out with out the app telling me where mine is at.

There are "good" carbs and "bad" carbs. Your fruit is good carbs, so you may want to cut back if you are eating a LOT, but don't cut them out. Here is a great article on WebMD about carbs: http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/carbohydrates

As far as WHY you want to eat back the calories you burn: Your daily calorie intake is figured to give you about a 500 calorie deficit each day. This will allow you to lose weight at a HEALTHY rate. If you burn 500 calories in exercise and do not eat them back, you have created a 1,000 calorie deficit and you will see one of 2 results.

1) you will lose too much weight. It has been proven time and again that those who lose the weight at a slower rate tend to have a higher success rate at keeping it off long term. I'm not sure if this is because of how the body reacts or if it's because typically speaking, if you take longer to lose the weight, you have spent more time developing healthy eating habits which will stay with you.

2) you may start to see a slow down in weight loss. This sometimes happens if your body decides you aren't giving it enough energy (calories) so it stores up whatever it does get and doesn't want to let any go.

I am at goal now but looking back, I had a 12 week period where at the end of the 12 weeks, I weighed the same as at the beginning. I had some small losses but then also small gains. The whole 12 weeks were a wash as far as weight loss is concerned.

Try increasing your activity in small ways through out the day. It can really add up and help you. When you leave your desk for a bathroom break, go to the farthest bathroom you can, rather than the closest one. Use the stairs rather than elevator. If you have an extra minute, turn around and go back down the steps and back up again. Walk to the water fountain at least once an hour. This will increase your water consumption AND your activity level.

Lastly, think about getting a fitbit (www.fitbit.com). The site syncs with this one and it is a great motivational tool to help you increase your activity level little by little. That is what got me off of my plateau. (and no, I don't work for the company or get a kick back, I just think it is an AMAZING little gadget and what it has done for my health is well worth the purchase price)

Whatever you do, don't give up! Good luck