Plateau for 5 weeks now, please help

[pg13girl]

Hi all,

I will try to keep this brief; since January 2019 I have been dieting and exercising and so far have lost 69lbs. For the last 5 weeks though I have completely stalled and my weight is just not moving anymore.

I workout 5 days a week as well as maintain 10-12k steps a day and I consume 1200-1500 calories a day and I’m just at a loss. I’m not sure what more to do and I feel so close to my goal but it’s soul destroying that nothing is coming off anymore. 
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @pg13girl and welcome to the forums. I’m so glad you wrote! Plateaus can be discouraging but please keep these facts in mind:

• You’ve lost a significant amount of weight! Celebrate that!
• Your metabolism needs to stabilize at different points. A plateau may signify that your body is adapting to a new set point. Your metabolism needs time to adjust. Be patient.
• Remember - with all your activity, you are building muscle mass, which weighs more than fat. Your body make up is shifting.

You can try these tips to break thru:

• Track all the food you’re consuming. Go back to 1200 cal/day for a while. I get lazy (comfortable?) with my diet and often, in a plateau, the amount of food I consume creeps up. Going back to tracking helps me rein it in.
• Shake up your exercise. Try changing what you’re doing, and when. You can Google this for more ideas.  
• Finally, another thing that helps me is occasional intermittent fasting. After dinner (around 5:30), I fast until 7:30 am. You can Google the pros and cons of this, too.

 Bottom line - What you’re going thru is normal. Celebrate the healthier weight. Track your food and shake up your work out routine. You will get thru this! Please write again to let us know how you’re doing and what worked or didn’t work for you. This will help the rest of us who are also struggling with a plateau. 

[FoCoHiker]

I had a similar experience - doing well with water, eating and exercising.  I tracked everything because I'm a data nerd and then over time my weight loss flat lined for a few weeks.  I kept the same routine and worked harder, the data didn't move and neither did the weight.  I did have a target weight to achieve, after reading, digging deep with the soul, I learned the number wasn't important any more but how well I was feeling did.  I felt great!  I bought a smart scale Weight Guru which identifies where  your weight is being held s o oo o sweet!  Then I learned about muscle confusion!  I changed my routine without not working out, I ran instead of weight lifting, I biked instead of doing 21-Day Fix workouts, I walked 5K instead of Yoga.  By doing so I got outside more which makes me more happy in general, I learned which muscle groups I had been working out and the ones I had not been.  Mix it up! Stay active! Don't worry about the number!

[Jen_S1990]

First off - losing 69 lbs is a great accomplishment.  Congratulations!

If you're not tracking fat/protein/carbs, try tracking them, see if changing those percentages makes any difference.  Also, something else I heard, it's important to get enough iron in your diet when you're trying to lose weight.  Not sure if there are studies, but anecdotally, females especially, seem to stall at weight loss if their iron consumption is inadequate.

Good Luck!