For the first fifty pounds, I focused on cutting my caloric intake and trying to exercise at least 30 minutes 5 days a week. I didn’t follow a strict diet and I would splurge whenever I had room in my daily count. I let MyFitnessPal be my very rough estimate for calories in v. calories out. – I spent a lot of time on the elliptical and strength trained 3 days a week – full body each day.
As I drew close to the fifty pound mark, it was clear to me that my body was plateauing. I couldn’t sustain the diet I was consuming, no matter how much time I seemed to add to my workout. During this time, I really started to reign in my diet. I cut down my sweets to once a week. I had two to three splurges in a week (within reason). I started running for the first time in my life and I started using training sessions with a personal trainer twice a week. This really helped me to stave off a plateau.
Just as I approached the 100lbs mark, my body started to plateau again. I really had to start eating cleanly and had to lower my calorie intake quite a bit. To begin, I roughly took the goal weight I wanted to hit first (I was at 350 and wanted to hit 300) and added a 0 behind it as my calorie consumption (3000). When my goal became 250… I had 2500 calories (and didn’t eat back exercise calories). Now, I am taking in about 1350 calories daily and burning anywhere from 200-800 calories a day, depending on if it’s a strength day or a cardio day.
I am just starting to convert to Paleo myself. – One thing that I found to really help me with plateaus (which you have likely tried) is: up the water intake, completely change the type of exercise you are doing so that you body isn’t in a routine/using muscle memory to complete actions (less taxing when it has your routine down pat!), using caloric cycling (eating the same total calories at the end of the week, but changing the amount each day), OR having a splurge day that lets your body know it isn’t in a rut and it’s all going to be okay. 🙂
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