Have you hit the weight loss plateau?

[SunsetRunner]

How do you get over the plateau? The Fitbit has been a great motivator for me. Last February, I started my journey to better health. So far, I've shed 54 lbs. Great news! I had to buy all new clothes. I'm off all my prescription drugs. My arthritis is much improved.

But ... I still have 28 or so lbs to go. And I seem to have leveled out. Weight loss now is painfully slow.

How do you get past the plateau? I've done two things.

1. I've increased my exercise. I'm still walking close to 10,000 steps/day but I just joined a gym.
2. I've started measuring all my food again. This led to the discovery that I am guilty of portion creep.

The good news (or bad news, depending on how you look at it) is that weight loss is all a matter of simple mathematics. To loose weight, you either have to consume fewer calories or burn more calories.

Any other suggestions to help me stay on track?

[wtksk8r]

Two years ago I was in the middle of my 50 pound loss and in a 3 week plateau.  Then I broke my fibula which led to getting off the plateau.  I would not recommend breaking a bone but I think what changed was my routine.  I was certainly much less active with the walking cast.  The food mix and schedule changed while the calorie intake was not much different.  

[SunsetRunner]

Interesting that breaking your fibula got you off your plateau. It will certainly break up your routine. I have a similar story. Last April, when I was about 20 lbs into my weight loss journey, I tripped and fractured my knee cap. Lucky for me, it was fractured the cleanest way possible so it did not have to be immobilized. In the past, surgery or an injury would have been a free pass to sit on the couch and eat all I wanted. This time, I was determined to stay on track. After bugging my doctor with tons of questions and challenges, he reluctantly agreed to a goal of 5,000 steps/day for 3 weeks. The whole thing taught me an important lesson -- You may not be able to control what happens to you. But you sure can control how you react.

[wtksk8r]

Indeed.  One plate, 6 screws on the plate, one across the break, and 2 long screws to hold my ankle in place since I tore all the ligaments there.  No weight on the foot for 6 months.  I suppose the crutches helped my activity level.  There was a loss of about 5 pounds in the first couple of weeks - probably stress related.  But then the weight loss continued through the next 6 months as well.  

[OlsBean]

I'm now at target weight and have been for over a year but over the couple years I was on my weight loss journey I plateaued  several times and one of those was for almost 3 months. I found that making adjustments to my diet finally got things moving again, I think at the time when I drilled down I found that I was consuming too much sugar in the form of dried fruit at the time.

It's also worth keeping in mind that as you lose weight, you actually need fewer calories as your BMR decreases.

[ashleighjane]

I've been in a plateau for about 4 months now! I dropped from almost 20 stone to just over 15 stone between December last year, and August of this year. Now I can't seem to get below 15! Mostly because I snack too much when I get home from work in the evening.

I'm hoping that using a fitbit again will motivate me to get these extra steps in and get out of this plateau! 😛

[WendyB]

Do you do the same exercise everyday? If so Change it up and do something different.

What about food. Do you eat the same things daily? Again chnage it up.

I have heard some people will eat a Bigger meal earlier. Like if Dinner is your biggest meal eat a Bigger meal at Lunch or Breakfast

[ashleighjane]

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@WendyB wrote:

Do you do the same exercise everyday? If so Change it up and do something different.

What about food. Do you eat the same things daily? Again chnage it up.

I have heard some people will eat a Bigger meal earlier. Like if Dinner is your biggest meal eat a Bigger meal at Lunch or Breakfast

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"Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dine like a Pauper" 😉

Eating a bigger meal earlier sounds like a really good idea.  I might give it ago! 🙂

Saying that, I'd probably just end up still having a big meal at dinner time 

[Carena]

6 months of weight loss for me and 26 KG's lighter and I also in the past 3-4 weeks have reached a plateau much to my discuss as I'd been loosing 1kg a week and thought I have a MAGIC FORMULA that worked for me. Curse curse and double curse the plateau. Was feeling very much down about it all when my friends in the New Zealand forum said I'd hit a plateau.  Now I have a answer, I've upped my exercise and now started to jog some and walk some and doing hill walks  so I elevate my heart and breathing and then let it recover during the walk and repeat and so on. Until recently, this wasn't much of a idea as my recovery was way to long and trying to do any jogging was nearly killing me. LOL. 

It is just early days yet as I have just started this new plan this week, but I'm excited and looking forward to rewarding results again.

[Carena]

Oh and CarolB - your determination to continue with the walking even with the knee cap issue is amazing. You go girl.  For most it would have been an abupt STOP and feel sorry and eat more and put the weight back on but you worked through it and hastled your doctors to get started with the walking. Totally awesome and inspirational for us all.   For sure you need to watch the portion creep but you are on to that already. I also weigh and measure everything I eat and drink. Watch the drinks - they can pile on the calories.

You are right I believe with the simple mathematics - so if you don't wish to up the steps, then up the activity level with the exercise. The gym might be exactly what you need. Well done and good luck.

[SunsetRunner]

When I hit a wall I allow myself to take a diet break as well as a deload week with weight training. Sometimes your body needs a rest from the lack of calories and hard exercise. I will eat at my maintaince caloric intake for a week or so and go very ligth in the gym. After I get back to diet and training and it seems to do the trick/

[Stephenray]

Carol, the key to getting over the plateau are as follows:

(1) Be sure to eat more than three "meals" per day. Essentially you'll break things down to small portions and eat throughout the day so you never let yourself feel hungry but also never get a full or bloated feeling. If you feel full, you've eaten too much at once. By splitting up what you eat each day into smaller, more manageable meals, you're speeding up your metabolism AND assuring you don't overeat. (Let me know if you'd like an example of what a person would eat in a day)

(2) Be mindful of the type of exercise you do and the results you want. Keep in mind that you may be losing the fat you want to lose but are gaining muscle at the same time. This tends to happen more frequently as we get closer to our weight loss goal, especially if the weight goal we've set for ourselves is unrealistic. If you haven't already, try to track using measurements, body fat percentage, etc. rather than only your weight. 

(3) Remember that the calorie equation has now changed. Rather than explaining the process with glycogen and how you've come to the plateau, I'll just get to the point on this one. Increasing your exercise won't help a whole lot if you're only doing cardiovascular workouts. It's possible, but you'll also want to gain a little muscle too. I'm not telling you to go be a bodybuilder by any means or get huge biceps, but you will want to do some muscle training. Why? Your metabolism slows down as you lose muscle. Fortunately the opposite is true, meaning you will burn more calories each day by having some muscle on you. The amount extra burned may not be much according to some sources, but we all know that every little bit counts.

(4) Increase your calories burned vs calories consumed. Do this by cutting more calories, packing more activity into your day, or a little of both. Even something as small as decreasing your daily calorie intake by a couple hundred calories can help or adding in an extra 15-30 minutes of exercise a day can help. Better yet, do both!

Also remember to make whatever you do be a sustainable part of your life. Hitting your goal is one point, but if you can't do it for the rest of your life...you risk putting on more weight than you've already lost or even the beginning of health problems. Be sure you are consuming at least 1200 calories and are getting all the vitamins and nutrients (in their pure form, over the counter supplements help but are not as good for your body as if you got it from eating a healthy diet) you need. If you need help finding a way, try to talk to your doctor and/or a nutritionist. 

[Stephenray]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

When I hit a wall I allow myself to take a diet break as well as a deload week with weight training. Sometimes your body needs a rest from the lack of calories and hard exercise. I will eat at my maintaince caloric intake for a week or so and go very ligth in the gym. After I get back to diet and training and it seems to do the trick/

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Great point as well. Everybody needs to remember that staying below a daily calorie intake is not always necessary. We can occasionally go to an Outback, Olive Garden, or other nice restaurant and eat like gluttons as long as we pay the consequence for it later. The consequence, in that case, is a slightly increased workout regimen when you return to your diet to make up for the extra calories consumed. That break is sometimes what we all need to relax and feel refreshed. Just be careful to know when to cut yourself off, as some never come back from that "week of deloading" as you put it.

[PastaLuver14]

I think mostly everyone hits a plateau. It's normal. My plateau was 180 and was stuck there for quite some time. What changed after that is I took a college PE class at my college. Her workouts were awesome. With that plus running I started to loose more weight. Then the dogs came in...now I am at a good solid weight.

Maybe you have read these articles,maybe not. Here are some stuff on plateau's:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek23.htm

http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/9-steps-to-eliminating-a-plateau.html

http://www.livestrongfitness.com/blog/avoiding-training-plateaus/

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for all the hints! And thanks for the links to the articles, PastaLuver! I'm happy to report another 2 lb loss. And I saw my doctor last Friday. Tests show I have lost body fat and gained significant muscle. I joined a gym a while ago. Evidently it is working.

Thanks again, everyone!

[Stephenray]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
Thanks for all the hints! And thanks for the links to the articles, PastaLuver! I'm happy to report another 2 lb loss. And I saw my doctor last Friday. Tests show I have lost body fat and gained significant muscle. I joined a gym a while ago. Evidently it is working.

Thanks again, everyone!

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I'm glad to hear it! Something told me you were doing better than you thought. Keep in mind weight/fat loss will go along slowly and your weight goal may not ever be what's right for you. Don't forget you'll need to have at least a 3,500 calorie deficit to lose one pound of fat. Also important is that you focus on what's healthy rather than the number you dreamed up. Keep up the hard work and make sure you're eating right! We know you can do it!. 

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks, Stephenray!

[BCDeb]

There are other things that profoundly affect metabolism - have you had your hormones checked - Thyroid  T3, T4, and TSH? HAve you every checked your other hormone levels. I find my patients frequently have issues there also as when they are overweight they become estrogen dominant, Another factor for many people is systemic yeast. Taking probiotics daily can be a great help with that. Just a couple of ideas for you. Keep on the path - you have done so well so far. 

[StefK]

@ Stephenray: "Be sure to eat more than three "meals" per day."

It is interesting to read peoples' different approaches. I would say eat less meals per day! Fasting is good and normal for human beings and if you go back in time when humans were still gatherers then you would find that we did not eat 5 meals per day.

I follow the 5:2 Fasting diet where you eat normal within your daily calorie needs for five days a week and for two non-consecutive days women stay under 500 cal and men under 600cal. (I personally eat nothing during those days and consume a dinner of 500 cal. This give my system a rest for 24 hours)

See here for more information:

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/

The philosphy is to give your body a rest from permanent digesting by fasting 2 days a week. The body can then concentrate on repair and maintenance stead of having to deal permanently with food.

There are different approaches that go with it:

a) 16:8: you eat all your daily food within a time period of 8 hours and give you body a rest from digesting for 16 hours

b) instead of 5:2 you can do 4:3 to shake and speed things up from time to time. Here you fast for 3 days a week (non consecutive)

At th end of the day you will have to find a diet that you can stick to. I have lost 6 kg in the last 7 weeks and it is a easy lifestyle where I do not feel deprived at all. I can eat anything (!) I want on those five days just not too much.

Low carb diets for instance are not for me as I love my pasta and rice. I can not eat if for some time but there would be no wy for me to keep this up.

So...apologies for the long blurb, but perhaps you might want to consider to shake things up by skipping a meal from time to time?

Stef.

[KSS2]

You might also need to think about intensity. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) helps to improve fitness in shorter timeframes. If your knee is up to it try adding some short runs into your walks, say between lamposts or trees, or add some sprints if you already jog. You can do the same on a bike (road or even a stationery spin bike) - check out Fast Exercise by Dr Michael Mosley fro the UK - lots of science to back it up too, always a good thing. Also Lifesprints is the same principle from Australia.

You are doing great. Good work.