Hit another plateau... need a critique and some advice...

Okay... so I have lost 22lbs and 12 inches since January 5th. I now weigh 205lbs. I have been stuck at this weight for 2-3 weeks. I was doing a cardio kickboxing routine... daily, but the weather is nice, and i got bored in front of the TV... so I am now walking 3 miles a day, and doing a strength training, and yoga routine twice a week. I walk at a pretty good rate... I can finish the three miles in about 45 minutes.

I am trying to keep my caloric intake down to 1500, but my average has been about 1600. Some days are better than others. I should note, that I am still counting calories, but not entering them here. I just have a little note book that I keep...and only update my weight and check calories on here. The daily logging... was too time consuming. Now.. I just write it once and have my dietitian check it.

Any suggestions? Is this something I am just going to have to wait out? I can not reduce any further... although... I have considered it. My activity level... is too high. I would really be hungry all the time. CC has my intake at 1750 for weight loss... so I think 1500 is good. My husband thinks I am not burning enough calories... not counting what is on the burn meter... I am routinge logging 700 additional calories a day burned from my pedometer...

Any suggestions? Just wanted to know what you all think..before I go see my dietitian on Tuesday.

Wow -- congratulation on losing 22 lbs since January!! My first thought is that the plateau is your body getting used to the new weight. It is not at all unusual, and first thing to do is to be patient.

I've had three month-long plateaus since September, with an average of 1 lb per week weight loss - the scale drops quickly and then my body takes a month to get used to it!!!

That said, let me go do some calculations and see if there's something to tweak. How tall are you?

Hi Less In 08,

Just wanted to share - I too hit a plateau & was advised by a former trainer that I'd gotten to a point where my body had accustomed itself to my routines.  Kind of like, "ok here we go, we're going to work out again."  It was as though my body had figured out what I was doing & adapted to it.  He said that my body had acclimated itself to my work out routine.

That said, I changed my routine.  I started out with a slight adjustment from running a mile to incorporating a jog on an incline.  Every day, I'd make another difference in how I ran.  It was either a full out run, sprints or jogs, a same pace trot, a jog up an incline with a full run thereafter or a run up an incline with a full run after.  Either way, I've been trying to change how I hit the treadmill.

It's only been a month & I have noticed a difference, a slight weight loss is back on the books.  This isn't guaranteed because I'm sure that everyone's different & food intake has to be considered, but it seems to be working for me at this moment & I'm going to stick to it for a while.

I only wanted to share because I hit a plateau a little more than a month ago & can relate to the frustration.  I've only joined this site a few days ago because I was only logging in my eating habits on paper.  A friend from work turned me on to this site & I've been on ever since.

Hope this was some help, good luck!

50-5-50

i'm inclined to think two things:

1) your body has adjusted to your routine, so it's not burning as much as you do it.

2) you are not eating enough.  how many calories do you burn/day without the walking, yoga, or strength training?

You said in other posts that you were 32 yo and 5'4".

So, the tools on the site say that you burn about 2600 calories per day, and a BMR calculator has you at 1700 BMR. You should try eating a bit more -- at least 1700, maybe 1800.  See if that helps.

the reason i started walking 3mi instead of my cardio kickboxing... is because well, I was bored, wanted to be outside...and did not think it was working as well. so i hope that change will help. as for the calories... eating more? Maybe... but, why? if i burn 2600 just breathing...add in the 600-700 i burn in my daily routine... and I eat 1500-1600, that would put me negative...right? Am I too negative... is that the point?

if the stats that alevin provided are correct, then you definitely want to eat more.  you want to keep your deficit between 500 - 1000 calories a day.  currently it's about 1700 calories (2600+700-1600).

Lessin08, the amount that you burn just breathing is 1700.  You should eat that as a minimum, especially since your weight loss has stalled when you've been eating less.

The 2600 calories includes your exercise. I swagged your activity level as "moderately active".  For more precision, put your stats into this site and mark your activity level as sedentary. Then use the activity log to calculate the number of calories you burn from exercise.

hi less.

i know it might seem scary to increase your calories....but by all means....that is exactly what you need to do. i recently increased my calories from 1200-1300 to 1800-1900 and i am losing again. i workout alot too and i'm telling you, if you don't give your body enough gas (calories) you're not going to lose weight as efficiently as if you were properly fueling.

good luck. ur doing great.

You are doing great, lessin08!  I was glad to hear from you over the weekend to know you are still working on it.  Me too.  I would give each change you make about a week before you further tweak your plan. Within a week you will know if the change has worked.  Good luck to you!  I know you will break your stall soon.

Karen

Awesome work so far.  You must feel pretty good to have done what you have.  Maybe there is more than one reason for this plateau.  You should try a multi-pronged approach. 

1) For one week only eat that which you can count DOWN TO THE CALORIE.  As you know, everyone misses on their calorie count, and most of us are way underestimating the calories we take in.  Count everything... so if you can't count it don't eat it - this means everything from not eating toast with margarine (because you can't count the margarine exactly)... not drinking milk unless you measure it out exactly... the whole nine yeards. 

2) Take your calorie intake down to 1500 exactly and break it into 6 - 8 meals a day.  This is just to keep you from getting hungry - you would not expect to get any real "burn benefit" after one week but what the heck...

3) Take your heart rate during exercise (if you don't already) to at least 80% of max.  You can get tables on the internet to figure out what your "80% of max" is... try this one: http://www.bodyforlife2.com/max_heart_rate.ht m

4) Sleep 8 hours every night - to promote healing.  You  are working out hard right now... which means you are in a state of injury all the time.  Not "OUCH!" injury (I hope), but at 205 and doing what you do there is going to be a lot of muscle and joint swelling... that can trasnlate to 6 - 10 pounds of retained fluid.

I have to agree with those saying to try eating more rather than trying to eat less or stick to 1500 exactly. Try eating more like 1700-1800 for 1-2 weeks and see if it helps.