Need help to get over plateau

[mlinkie14]

Last year during my freshmen year of college I decided to start  weight loss journey. I went to the gym everyday, watched what I ate and all of that usual stuff people do to try to lose weight. However I have been at the plateau for a while now. 

Over the Sumer I did the 21 day fix workouts and dropped to 175, but I've gained 10 lbs and have been ay 185 since August. I am a full-time college student and I make sure I go to the gym everyday and I watch what I eat, even though the food here sucks. 

I would love some advice to get over this, I'd love to lose about another 20lbs. 

[Daves_Not_Here]

Welcome @mlinkie14 and kudos to you for managing your health and weight at a young age (versus some of us who, looking back, blundered mindlessly through the years until we finally took an interest and got a clue).

My advice (and this is from someone who is very experienced with making mistakes and doing it wrong) is to get specific and actionable.  For example, replace "watching what I eat" with "assuring that, every day, I eat 500 less calories than I burn".  

When I recently gained a lot of weight, I "watched" what I ate:  I chose "healthy" foods, and "healthy" portions while being active and going to the gym.  Unfortunately, I "watched" all that food go from plate to pie hole and subsequently more southern regions - I simply ate more calories than I burned.  I was only able to turn it around when I took control, logged all my eating, and adjusted my intake to be lower than my requirements.

As to the suckitude of the food, that's immaterial, and could possibly be helpful in your effort to dial back your eating.

Last piece of advice: learn all the ways to lower your appetite so you don't need to use self-control to resist snacking in the face of hunger. 

[Dominique]

Weight loss is usually 80% about nutrition and only 20% about exercising. You should see exercising more as a way to improve your health, fitness and well-being, and less as a way to lose weight.

In order for your overall activity (as opposed to the formal activity you do when going to the gym) to have a marked impact on weight loss, your average daily step count would probably need to be 15-20k or more. Even if you spent 45 minutes everyday on the treadmill at the gym, you wouldn’t get even half that. So focus on what (and how much) you eat. You may want to keep a journal of all that goes through your mouth, if only for 2-3 days. You could then go for low-hanging fruits. For instance, sodas and all other caloric drinks (alcohol, coffee other than black etc.) come to mind. 

[Kalda]

A couple tough-love tips from a fellow female:

1) Log it. Log everything you eat in your fitbit app. BE HONEST. That 1/2 tbsp of butter makes a difference. If you aren't making the food yourself, which I assume you aren't hence the:"even though the food here sucks."  look for restaurant versions of the meals in the database and estimate the portion size. Campus food = restaurant food 95% of the time calorie wise as they probably don't make everything from scratch on site. Logging you get a realistic caloric intake number. Numbers don't lie.

2) Alcohol = Calories. Oh my gosh the amount I drank in my early 20's. It seems obvious, but if you cut back on drinking, you cut back on major empty calories. Some help with this: drink water between drinks (top it with a lime, nobody will know if you feel social pressure to drink). Skip the beer. Familiarize yourself with a good ol' gin/vodka and soda. Mixers that are 0 calories are (obviously) going to add up to less calories.

3) Practice the 1/2 plate of veggies rule. Make sure half your plate is stacked with a mix of different veggies and you're bound to feel more full with less caloric consumption.

Two notes about this point:

a) make sure its something that you enjoy! Don't force yourself to eat broccoli if you hate it, you'll just be miserable.

b) make sure that it isn't slathered in sauce, too much butter, or dressing. Citrus and herbs are your friend for flavour.

4) Manage your stress. For females especially, I find we give in to cravings, get off track with logging, drink more, sleep less, and generally are unhappy whilst stressed. Take some "me" time. That can mean different things to different people, but ALWAYS find the time for yourself. When your body is stressed you release more hormones that can seriously put a dent in your weight loss progress like 'cortisol'. Read up on how that sucker will increase inflammation and mess up your metabolism. Blech.

5) More water. Cannot stress this enough. LOG IT TOO! You can do that in your fitbit app. Hate water? Herbs and citrus I'm telling ya. Keep a bottle on you at all times and keep it on you during the day wherever you go. You'll also be less tempted to buy a latte/pop/high calorie drink, and you'll get the double bonus of saving money.

6) Support. Tell your best friends, family and anyone close to you that you're trying to improve your health and would like to reduce meals out, and increase activity. I found that if I made an exercise-date once a week with each of my girlfriends, my activity level skyrocketed and it was FUN. Gym partner, hiking partner, tennis partner, swimming partner, even mall-walking. I've amassed huge step counts for spending 3 hrs window shopping at malls, and I never miss a sale 😉

I could probably go on... but I'll stop... after this one more tip:  weigh yourself on a WEEKLY basis. As females, we tend to have a knack for getting on this emotional rollercoaster along with our weight, which will not help whatsoever. Learn to listen to your body, and the weight loss will come.

You got this 

[SunsetRunner]

If only we knew then what we know now.....

but, if we did and we were fit and healthy, would we be using a Fitbit and be part of this community?

[SunsetRunner]

@Kalda indeed, that little spoonful might seem insignificant, but it all adds up at the end of the day