I hit a plateau, how can I get past it??

Hello,

I've been calorie counting since October and I have thus far lost 70lbs. but now I'm not losing anymore.  I must admit I've become a lot more leniant now then I was in the beginning.  My metabolism has also picked up quite a bit and I'm hungry every few hours or so.  I switch up my exercise routine everyday I workout 3-4 days/week for 45 min.  Is their something I can do to get out of this plateau?? please help me

I am the queen of plateau's.  I'll lose 2 pounds, and then be stuck for months... lose 2 stuck for months.. this is the crappy pattern for me...

For you, try cycling your calories.  like 1800 Monday, 1500 Tuesday, 1700 Wednesday, 1400 Thursday, You get the picture (adjust for what you eat usually, but do not go below 1200 ever!) Also, sometimes drastically changing your workout routine can help too.  Maybe start running if you don't already, and weight training is really good too! 

Good Luck!

I hit a plateau in March and did not lose anything that month.  I just rode it out an came back to lose 12 pounds in the last 6 weeks.

You can try to eat every 2 hours and it may be just what you need. 

Meagang,

First of all, congratulations!  70 lbs is a huge deal!   Secondly, following dove's advice. Cycle your calories.  As long as you are 500 calories short at the end of the week it's the same thing.  Thirdly, if you are working out on the same days every week and for the same amount of time then your body has probably gotten used to it.  You need to constantly shock your body. Which is why cycling your calories is a good suggestion.  Therefore you cycling your work outs should work.  At least once a week, preferrably on a different day every week, hit your body with an hour or ! hr and 15 minute work out.  and then shorten another day to 30 minutes.  You also might want to consider changing the intensity of your work out.  For example,  if you normally run on the elliptical try running hills or a cardio medley and increase the level of difficulty. 

Well, that's all I have to say.  I hope you continue to have success in your weight loss journey but there is no doubt you should definitley be proud of what you have already achieved!

Hey meagang - I can totally feel your pain.  After losing 55 pounds, I was stuck for a good 3-4 weeks.  After being totally frustrated, last week I ate at my maintenance calories for 2 days and took a break from working out.  I then dropped back down to normal calories and picked up the workouts to 4-5 days a week and tried to increase my intensity a little.  I have dropped 2 pounds this week and I hope that the plateau is officially over!

It seems like after losing so much weight - congrats on your 70 pounds! - our bodies are like, hold it! and they need to catch up.  That's what makes sense in my head, anyway.   I think I've gotten more lax on counting exactly, too because it seems like I know what I'm doing.  But this week I've been a little more diligent and really paying attention to not just getting through my workouts, but pushing a little harder and eating a little better. 

Good luck to you - you'll make it through.  Unfortunately, we'll probably have to go through this again sometime so we need strategies to deal with it.