Advice?: Maintained weight for a over month after consistently losing 2lb per week for 4 months

[inspag]

I've been working out 4 days a week consistently since the beginning of Oct 2018. From Oct - Feb I was losing 2 lb per week but have plateaued and maintained for the last month. It's frustrating to see but I understand that this happens when your body becomes used to your diet and habits. A month before I plateaued I did a very dirty keto (avoided obvious carbs like pasta and breads). I learned that I was eating around 50-60 carbs per day, too high for keto, too low for a good diet. It seems my body was more in a starvation mode and was refusing to lose weight. Since then I have followed a calorie deficit diet and try to stick to my macros. I've also started intensifying my workouts. Yet I'm past a month and still no weight loss. My fit bit app tells me I burn at least 3600 calories each day. I'm curious what I am doing wrong? 

I lift for 30-35 min (moderate - high intensity) and cardio for 30 min (high intensity). Male 6'1'' 245lbs

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

It’s not so much that "your body becomes used to your diet and habits". It has more to do with the facts that: 1) four months of uninterrupted weight loss is quite long, and 2) two pounds per week is quite a lot. Metabolic adaptation takes place, as a mechanism to prevent you from losing further. It’s explained quite well in the Losing All Your Weight At Once video, which advocates doing it in phases, alternating phases of active weight loss and phases of maintenance.

[inspag]

That video was very helpful. He mentioned taking a break around 10% body weight lost. I calculated mine and I reached 14% so it seems that it's a good time for me to be maintaining. 

Thanks for the reply!

[Dominique]

I think you indeed meet several of the criteria warranting a longer diet break. Viewing this well deserved pause as something positive (maintenance) rather than negative (plateau, stall) should be motivating. 

[JimC_99]

I have begun to enter a maintenance period after about a year of reduction - I have increased my calories by about 300 per two week intervals, and have been leveling off.  My long term goal is another 40lbs, but a break over the summer for 2 to 3 months seems prudent right now.....