Breaking a plateau

I've been on the program for 2 months and have been doing great. In the last 7 days I have hit a plateau and my body is refusing to lose weight. I've been consistent on the diet, working out harder than ever. Does anyone know a good way, diet or workout or both, to break a stubborn plateau?

Have you started eating more, yet? - you said in a recent thread that you were not hitting your calorie goal lately.

For the last 3 days I'm still finding myself 400 to 500 calories short and having a yogurt with fruit and some popcorn to get closer. I finished last night with 1450 calories when my limit is 1984. I was stuffed and didn't want to eat more right before bed.

What about some more calorie dense food - nuts, for instance. Popcorn is going to be the complete opposite of calorie dense (unless it's dunked in butter.... mmmm... butter popcorn...)

The most effective way I found to break a plateau (and it needs to be three or four weeks rather than 7 days to count as a plateau) is to get your full energy needs for a day or two.

Reason being that over the long-term, your body will adapt to a lower-calorie intake and become more efficient at using the available energy.  If you've been running too high a deficit this happens sooner rather than later.  The ideal deficit is somewhere around 700 cals a day between what you need and what you take in.

If your target is 1900-2000 make sure you get that from now on.  And plan a day soon where you get the full 2700-3000 (I'm guessing) that you technically need to maintain your weight.

I was stuck for awhile, eating more broke it for me. One day I splurged, had pizza etc.. probably had 4,000 calories for the day !

The next day I had lost two pounds and it stayed off...

Original Post by gi-jane:

The most effective way I found to break a plateau (and it needs to be three or four weeks rather than 7 days to count as a plateau) is to get your full energy needs for a day or two.

Would you suggest this for me as well then?  I've been really good trying to keep be count below 1400 but once or twice a week I MAY go 200 Cal over.  Even still, I've been at the same weight for two weeks now and it's frustrating.  I guess it couldn't hurt...

Works fairly universally.  But you can't p**s around with an extra 200 cals you need to go for the Full Monty as the post before yours suggested.   If you need 2200 cals a day to maintain your weight then make sure you get the whole lot, and possibly a few more.

Resist the temptation to weigh yourself the very next day as there's usually some fluid retention afterwards.  But within a couple of days you should know if it has been effective.  Another really good sign is that the next day you feel ravenously hungry....

Yeah, this may be an extreme example, but I was stuck at the same weight for a while, and then went on vacation for a few weeks, skipped the gym, and ate anything and everything for a few weeks as well...and somehow LOST about 6-10 pounds. I was fairly shocked.

Again, that's probably an extreme example, but I was very happy :) Just another supporter of the"go all out and eat a lot" philosophy.

I think you're right and I believe I'm going to try it this weekend. I could use a meal of anything I want, as much as I want. I'm thinking that my body has adapted to the diet and I need to jolt my system. I've read in several websites that once or twice a month it's a good thing to have a big cheat meal where you eat your favorite food as much as you want. It's suppose to keep your body guessing. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the input.

i got the flu then the plateau relinquished.