What to do when you plateau in weight loss??

[mama2cntrykids]

I exercise 6X/week and over the last 6 weeks, I've lost 10-11 lbs. It seems that I'm stuck there. My two thoughts would be to A. Lower my calorie intake--which is hard to do because it's already pretty low (1200-1400) or B. Exercise twice per day or with more intensity--I use Jillian DVDs and she's pretty intense as it is:001_huh:. I've also added in jogging on the days that I do the Jillian dvd that has more weight resistance.

 

What else do I do?? I still have another 8-9 lbs or so to lose before I hit my goal. I'm really tired of being chubby but I really don't want my life to revolve around getting into better shape and honestly, some days, that's what it feels like. I'm sick of watching every.single.thing I eat too. I feel really down about it sometimes:glare:.

 

Thanks for listening!

[Renee in NC]

Are you sure your weight goal is realistic?

 

And, if you do one of those options and do manage to lose that other 9 pounds, what will happen when you either increase your calories or drop the other workout? Won't you just gain the 9 pounds back?

 

I would simply keep doing what you are doing and see where you go. You may lose more weight, you may not. It has been my experience when I "push" to lose weight I end up gaining it back because I can't keep up the extra forever.

[6packofun]

My suggestion? UP the intensity of your cardio *and* UP your calorie intake. Your calories are pretty low for someone who is working out 6x a week, IMO.

 

There are many athletes who also swear by a low-intensity "rest" week every 6-8 weeks or so to give their bodies a break. When they get back to higher intensity the next week, they get results just as one does when they first begin an exercise regimen, kwim? Kind of a jumpstart.

[Ferdie]

I wouldn't lower your calories any further because your body will go into starvation mode and you will start burning muscle instead of fat. Also you need fuel to get through the day and work outs.

 

Here are a few ideas.

-Try upping your water intake to 8+ glasses a day. Your metabolism will increase to heat the water.

-Try switching to low-glycemic carbs like brown rice, oatmeal, and whole grains for a few weeks. Skip the white stuff, (rice and flour). Also when I was in extreme weight loss mode I limited myself to two non-veggie carbs a day and ate both before dinner. I ate lean protein and lots of veggies for dinner.

-Try tracking your food for a week. Write down everything single thing that goes into your mouth including, licks and tastes. I am always stunned how much side snacking I do.

 

You are at the hard point right now, but I promise if you keep it up you will love the results. For inspiration Oxygen or Shape magazine are great. Also, Body for Life book by Bill Phillips is inspiring, (which you can find at the library). They also have on website and the difference between the 8 week to 12 week pics are amazing.

 

Lastly, enjoy a treat at the end of each day to reward yourself for staying with it - 100 calorie frozen treat, SF FF pudding blend with FF milk and FF cottage cheese or a square of dark chocolate are my favorites.

 

Just keep swimming.

 

ETA - the goal of weight loss should be to burn fat and build muscle. The problem with intense cardio is that is can do the opposite - burn muscle. Since muscle burns more calories than fat you want to build up muscle to increase your metabolism. If you add any exercise at all I would add weight training. I promise, promise that you won't bulk up. I am not familar with Jillian so you might already be doing that.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Ferdie

[shusband]

I think b/c I naturally vary the speed and distance. When I do the elliptical, it's much more steady. I also think having days of rest helps.

 

Summer

[Annie]

I know that a lot of people swear by a "re feed" day. It's basically one day a week where you eat your maintenance number of calories, or even very slightly over, instead of the number of calories you eat when trying to lose weight. It's a good reminder to your body that you're not starving.

 

I certainly wouldn't drop your calories more, especially given how much you're working out. I would probably even consider upping them a little bit, or at least staying on the 1400 end of the 12-1400 range.

[abbeyej]

You might try keeping your calories at about the same point but doing a shake-up of the kinds of foods you're eating. Have you been eating more or less on the same pattern each day? What can you do differently that's still very healthy, but gives your body something a little different. For instance, if you've been eating oatmeal with dried fruit every morning, go for plain yogurt and fresh fruit. If your lunch is a big salad and some grilled chicken each day, consider using *different* veggies for your salad and topping it with garbanzos instead of chicken. If you eat a fair amount of whole wheat, try replacing it with whole grain rice and corn (or other grain) products for a few days. If you've been doing smoothies, try a different recipe. Just vary up your routine without radically changing the overall number of calories (and without switching to less healthy options).

 

Are you getting plenty of fiber and drinking lots and lots of water?

 

If you've been doing the same workout most of the time, try varying it up more. Not necessarily more *time*, but something a little different.

 

And just stick to it! Sometimes there are plateaus that last a few weeks and are followed by an *apparently* sudden loss of several pounds at once. You just have to stick with your good, healthy choices till that happens, discouraging as it may seem.

[Denisemomof4]

you've done a good job losing weight already. I'd recommend you throw that scale away and assume you've lost the rest of the weight when your clothes tell you so. This is how I lost weight after my last kid.

 

I'm down 10 pounds now and stress is keeping it coming off nicely. If it doesn't continue and I get discouraged, I'll have dh lock the scale in his car. The scale was my parents. I knew I was at the right weight when I fit into all my old jeans again. Not having a scale was the best thing I ever did, and i'm not sure why I took my parents., Oh well...

 

Allow yourself a treat once in awhile! If you keep depriving, you're going to blow it! I used to diet all week and eat normally on the weekends, with treats, to maintain my weight after a weighloss.

[mama2cntrykids]

Are you sure your weight goal is realistic?

 

And, if you do one of those options and do manage to lose that other 9 pounds, what will happen when you either increase your calories or drop the other workout? Won't you just gain the 9 pounds back?

 

I would simply keep doing what you are doing and see where you go. You may lose more weight, you may not. It has been my experience when I "push" to lose weight I end up gaining it back because I can't keep up the extra forever.

 

*I* think they're realistic:001_smile:. Right now I'm at 138-9-ish. I'm only 5'1", so loosing another 8 lbs or so would put me on the high end of weight for my height (from what I've read). I'm a pear shape, so I keep all of my "fat" on my bottom half and it's just icky, lol. I've been thinking of dropping jogging or just jog once or twice/week. It's really beginning to hurt my shins and ankles (I have bad ankles to start with). I know what you mean about not being able to keep up the "extra" forever. That's part of the reason I'm thinking of lower my jogging. Thanks!

 

My suggestion? UP the intensity of your cardio *and* UP your calorie intake. Your calories are pretty low for someone who is working out 6x a week, IMO.

 

There are many athletes who also swear by a low-intensity "rest" week every 6-8 weeks or so to give their bodies a break. When they get back to higher intensity the next week, they get results just as one does when they first begin an exercise regimen, kwim? Kind of a jumpstart.

Hmmm...is there anyother cardio tougher than Jillian Michael's? I'm not being snarky, I truly don't know, lol! I will try the week break after another couple of weeks and see how it goes. It can't really hurt as long as I keep eating right.

 

I wouldn't lower your calories any further because your body will go into starvation mode and you will start burning muscle instead of fat. Also you need fuel to get through the day and work outs.

 

Here are a few ideas.

-Try upping your water intake to 8+ glasses a day. Your metabolism will increase to heat the water.

-Try switching to low-glycemic carbs like brown rice, oatmeal, and whole grains for a few weeks. Skip the white stuff, (rice and flour). Also when I was in extreme weight loss mode I limited myself to two non-veggie carbs a day and ate both before dinner. I ate lean protein and lots of veggies for dinner.

-Try tracking your food for a week. Write down everything single thing that goes into your mouth including, licks and tastes. I am always stunned how much side snacking I do.

 

You are at the hard point right now, but I promise if you keep it up you will love the results. For inspiration Oxygen or Shape magazine are great. Also, Body for Life book by Bill Phillips is inspiring, (which you can find at the library). They also have on website and the difference between the 8 week to 12 week pics are amazing.

 

Lastly, enjoy a treat at the end of each day to reward yourself for staying with it - 100 calorie frozen treat, SF FF pudding blend with FF milk and FF cottage cheese or a square of dark chocolate are my favorites.

 

Just keep swimming.

 

ETA - the goal of weight loss should be to burn fat and build muscle. The problem with intense cardio is that is can do the opposite - burn muscle. Since muscle burns more calories than fat you want to build up muscle to increase your metabolism. If you add any exercise at all I would add weight training. I promise, promise that you won't bulk up. I am not familar with Jillian so you might already be doing that.

Thank you for all of your suggestions!! You know, thinking about what I've been eating lately...well, I've been slacking on the healthy choices part. I need to stick closer to that and it'll probably help. I'm trying to do whole wheat/grains everything. My last step is whole wheat flour.

 

I think b/c I naturally vary the speed and distance. When I do the elliptical, it's much more steady. I also think having days of rest helps.

 

Summer

Yes, I agree with the rest days!

 

I know that a lot of people swear by a "re feed" day. It's basically one day a week where you eat your maintenance number of calories, or even very slightly over, instead of the number of calories you eat when trying to lose weight. It's a good reminder to your body that you're not starving.

 

I certainly wouldn't drop your calories more, especially given how much you're working out. I would probably even consider upping them a little bit, or at least staying on the 1400 end of the 12-1400 range.

No, I will not drop my calories, lol. I certainly don't want to go into starvation mode;).

 

You might try keeping your calories at about the same point but doing a shake-up of the kinds of foods you're eating. Have you been eating more or less on the same pattern each day? What can you do differently that's still very healthy, but gives your body something a little different. For instance, if you've been eating oatmeal with dried fruit every morning, go for plain yogurt and fresh fruit. If your lunch is a big salad and some grilled chicken each day, consider using *different* veggies for your salad and topping it with garbanzos instead of chicken. If you eat a fair amount of whole wheat, try replacing it with whole grain rice and corn (or other grain) products for a few days. If you've been doing smoothies, try a different recipe. Just vary up your routine without radically changing the overall number of calories (and without switching to less healthy options).

 

Are you getting plenty of fiber and drinking lots and lots of water?

 

If you've been doing the same workout most of the time, try varying it up more. Not necessarily more *time*, but something a little different.

 

And just stick to it! Sometimes there are plateaus that last a few weeks and are followed by an *apparently* sudden loss of several pounds at once. You just have to stick with your good, healthy choices till that happens, discouraging as it may seem.

I will try varying my foods. I really need more ideas because I'm *so* un-creative, lol! I'm drinking at least 8 glasses of H2O already. The fiber I could up! Thanks for the encouragement!

 

you've done a good job losing weight already. I'd recommend you throw that scale away and assume you've lost the rest of the weight when your clothes tell you so. This is how I lost weight after my last kid.

 

I'm down 10 pounds now and stress is keeping it coming off nicely. If it doesn't continue and I get discouraged, I'll have dh lock the scale in his car. The scale was my parents. I knew I was at the right weight when I fit into all my old jeans again. Not having a scale was the best thing I ever did, and i'm not sure why I took my parents., Oh well...

 

Allow yourself a treat once in awhile! If you keep depriving, you're going to blow it! I used to diet all week and eat normally on the weekends, with treats, to maintain my weight after a weighloss.

Throw the scale away...:001_huh:...:lol:?! That was my deer in the head-lights look;). That's basically what my mom is doing. She's exercising everyday and eating healthy, but NOT weighing herself. Just strickly going by how her jeans fit. I'm just not sure I can take that leap of faith!

[Mergath]

Everyone else has had some really good ideas. I agree that you should up your calorie intake. With the amount you're burning, your body might be going into starvation mode. You could try eating a couple ounces of cheese or a small glass of milk each day, if you aren't already. Calcium has been shown to boost weight loss.

[justamouse]

I exercise 6X/week and over the last 6 weeks, I've lost 10-11 lbs. It seems that I'm stuck there. My two thoughts would be to A. Lower my calorie intake--which is hard to do because it's already pretty low (1200-1400) or B. Exercise twice per day or with more intensity--I use Jillian DVDs and she's pretty intense as it is:001_huh:. I've also added in jogging on the days that I do the Jillian dvd that has more weight resistance.

 

What else do I do?? I still have another 8-9 lbs or so to lose before I hit my goal. I'm really tired of being chubby but I really don't want my life to revolve around getting into better shape and honestly, some days, that's what it feels like. I'm sick of watching every.single.thing I eat too. I feel really down about it sometimes:glare:.

 

Thanks for listening!

 

I'm betting your body is going into starvation mode and holding on to those extra few pounds for life. Up your eating like another poster said. Sounds counterproductive, but it's the truth. Spread it out over all of the day so you're eating all the time. Little bits of good food all the time. A hard boiled egg, a carrot, you know. I would also rest every other day, add in weight lifting (more muscle burns more fat) and walk instead of the cardio. Weights are much better for your joints and build bone strength too.

 

And, I love a pear shape.

 

There was this girl at the mall. Totally adorable, totally pear shaped and she had guys drooling over her. Her junk (in the trunk) was all tight and bouncy and when she walked every guy was mesmerized. She also had these cute rump dimples. But total pear. It's a beautiful body shape, don't disparage yourself.

[abbeyej]

...

I will try varying my foods. I really need more ideas because I'm *so* un-creative, lol! I'm drinking at least 8 glasses of H2O already. The fiber I could up! Thanks for the encouragement!...

 

For *me* 8 glasses a day isn't nearly enough if I want to lose weight. And if you're exercising that much, it's *really* not enough. Drink, drink, drink!!! ;)

 

As to food ideas, what *are* you eating right now?

[mama2cntrykids]

I'm betting your body is going into starvation mode and holding on to those extra few pounds for life. Up your eating like another poster said. Sounds counterproductive, but it's the truth. Spread it out over all of the day so you're eating all the time. Little bits of good food all the time. A hard boiled egg, a carrot, you know. I would also rest every other day, add in weight lifting (more muscle burns more fat) and walk instead of the cardio. Weights are much better for your joints and build bone strength too.

 

And, I love a pear shape.

 

There was this girl at the mall. Totally adorable, totally pear shaped and she had guys drooling over her. Her junk (in the trunk) was all tight and bouncy and when she walked every guy was mesmerized. She also had these cute rump dimples. But total pear. It's a beautiful body shape, don't disparage yourself.

:lol:You just had me rollin'...not *at you* just at the image of the guys:lol:! I've always *hated* my pear shape. I'd much rather be top heavy:tongue_smilie:. I will up my intake a little (with healthy foods, lol) and see what happens. Thanks for your insight to the pear shape. I may have to reconsider how I view myself.

 

For *me* 8 glasses a day isn't nearly enough if I want to lose weight. And if you're exercising that much, it's *really* not enough. Drink, drink, drink!!! ;)

 

As to food ideas, what *are* you eating right now?

Really...more? That, I can do! Well as for foods. More breakfast, I will have something quick like peanut butter toast. For lunch usually a salad with either turkey or a hard boiled egg and a little sunflower seeds, a little cheese, chopped carrot, and a smidge of ranch dressing (like a teaspoon or so). For dinner, I have whatever I'm making my family but a small portion. I may change that to a salad so I'm eating greens twice per day. For snacks, either an egg, a couple pieces of deli turkey, or a handfull of sunflower seeds. I've been snacking more lately though, so I really need to get that in check...really, lol.

 

Everyone else has had some really good ideas. I agree that you should up your calorie intake. With the amount you're burning, your body might be going into starvation mode. You could try eating a couple ounces of cheese or a small glass of milk each day, if you aren't already. Calcium has been shown to boost weight loss.

Calcium boosts weight loss, huh...I didn't know that. I learn something new from this board all.the.time!