Plateau? Lets break it together!

I have reached a plateau since beginning this diet in January - I started at 171 lbs and i am now hovering between 150-152 and i am 5'5".

I definately need some motivation to get over this hump. Who wants to join me???

I have 15 lbs more to go, and I can not wait to rid myself of them.

Let's share our strategies and support - weigh in once a week on fridays and blow our plateaus to shreds!

Anyone Game?

I had to share my small victory tonight...

My biggest battle thus far has been trying to get myself to go and exercise. I've done next to none. I went for the first time on Sunday and wasn't there long, but got a feel for what kind of work out plan I wanted. I weighed myself and mid-day pre-exercise, I was at 136.5 with a body fat percentage (oh the shame...) of 31%!! My BMI is at 22.3 - surely it can't be thaaaat bad?!

Anyway, tonight was the first time I've actually gone and hard core worked out. I was there about an hour (I don't have much endurance yet) but I pushed myself the whole time and did 20 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of free weight lifting and machines, and about 20 minutes of calisthenics. When I finished, the scale logged me at 135.0 lbs and 29% body fat. Hooray! :) A small victory, but it makes me want to go more, so that I can see that number drop and the pounds fall with it! Woo hoo :)

I went for my run today. 30 minutes in I realised the only thing I had to drink today was one cup of coffee! I need to drink more water!!! My run would have gone much better if I had beed hydrated. I had to walk a bit because I got a cramp in my side. But even with walking a little bit I shave 2 minutes off my time. 50 minutes- last time I ran this route it took 52 minutes.

congrats on your victory today hharris

Whoever managed to see 169, I envy you, I can't wait to get out of the 170s! Mind you, I've managed to get back to seeing 171s instead of 174s, so that's keeping me smiling :) Must keep drinking though, I've been slipping back into the whole only 1 or 2 litres of water habit and that's not enough.

Only 2 and a bit weeks til I go away, I hope the plateau is a thing of the past by the time I go!

You guys are doing great. I did well with my eating today, but didn't get a workout in as i worked 14 hours today and i have a cold! Blah!

I am contemplating taking tomorrow off and then starting fresh on friday when i sign up at the gym, but i dont know yet what i will do. I hope to see the scale drop by the weekend - at least back to my low point... Today i was back up at 151. ugh.

hharris - great job with working out. keep  up the great work!

On a good note - i must have worn the right pants to work today because i had at least 6 complements on how skinny/great/healhty/freaking awesome i look.

That was exactly what i needed to get out of this rut and back on track!

I've been in a plateau for a few weeks and it is so *frustrating*.

I started out at 149 a few months ago and I'm down to 130... I'm 5'8".

It took me awhile to get down to 130, but better slowly than never, right?

Anyway I do a lot of cardio and add weight training a few days per week, and I eat really healthy all the time, but I just can't seem to get any more pounds to come off!

Is it possible that 130 is the lowest I can get without losing muscle?

Well I weighed myself this morning and I am down 1 more pound. My vacation starts tomorrow and we head on the road tomorrow night. I am really looking forward to this, I want to surprise myself and drop atleast 5 pounds in the next 2 weeks.

I am fighting really bad chin splints right now, but I keep pushing through until I finish my run.

I am so frustrated!!! If I don't run the weight doesn't come off! I had to cancel my babysitter for my for run today because life got in the way, again. I have to supervise a visit between my friend and her son(court ordered). I need to run. She needs to see her son...

I'll use my elliptical tonight. Its not the same as running though. I like being outside and the elliptical won't get my heart rate up as high as running no matter how hard I try.

Today I will

   Drink water - lots of water

   Walk with my girls - no matter how much they complain

   Do 60 minutes on my elliptical - no less

Hookem87, you're 5'8" and 130?! Wow, that's amazing! I'm a little over that height and my goal weight isn't even that low, I never thought I'd be ABLE to get to it. Congratulations on making it to there at all! What's your goal? You must be very close to it, no wonder you're plateauing, apparently (I've never made it to there and have no first have experience) it gets really hard to take the last pound or two off. The body just doesn't want to let go!

Well, I was good again last night and went to work out again! I managed to finish the whole program on the elliptical :) All 30 minutes plus a 5 minute cool down! I did weights and callisthenics again, and I felt great!

When I weighed myself I was the same, but my body fat percentage was down to 28%! :) That was exciting to see!

Still haven't broken my plateau... In fact, this morning I was almost a full pound heavier, despite having had almost a 1000cal deficit yesterday. =/ I know that I'm pretty sore today, so I'm *hoping* that its just my muscles retaining water to repair, or *hopefully again* that I'm actually gaining some muscle, which would be heavier than the fat its replacing.

Still, I'm trying to stay positive. I know it'll break soon. (It's also TTOM, which never helps with the water bit! hehe)

I haven't broken my plateau yet, either, but I am on the bottom end of it (it was 155-157) right now.  I think I might break through it soon, as I  have been inching slowly down all week, with no upticks. 

We started the massive annual project and this is the third day.  So far, doing  well.  I've worked out each day and I've been sticking to my calorie goal.  It includes six little squares of high quality choc (110 cal) in the afternoon, and I've stuck to JUST those six squares, not 9 or 12.  If I could bust through this plateau DURING this project, that would be a great achievement.

Immom -  you are a mom.  We don't always get me-time.  As long as you try your best to get in the workouts, you can't ask anymore of yourself.  I have 3 kids too.  My youngest was sick last night.  I could have been on my treadmill.  Instead I was holding her.  She needed to be held.   As hard as it is, don't beat yourself up too much when life gets in the way. 

I did NOT join my co-workers for Mcdonalds today.  I ate my super healthy chicken/zucchini dish.  Woo hoo.  I do have self-control.  somtimes. 

msmeg- Isn't it great when people notice your achievements like that? It's so motivating and makes it so much easier to resist that cookie or chips hahaha. Congratulations!

princess a- my goal weight is 125. I am so close but these last 5 pounds are quite stubborn! haha

I was also wondering, if anyone knows a lot about metabolism...

-I wanna lose 5 more pounds, but I can't lower my calorie intake any further without undereating, and my body has gotten used to my 1200 calorie/day intake... so how do I rev up my metabolism to get the last few pounds off?

Thanks in advance for any help :]

hook - Muscle will burn calories much faster than fat, I know that - so doing some weight lifting might help speed up the old metabolism :)

Hookem - more exercise or even cycling or "zig zagging" your calories would probably help. There's lots of forums and websites out there about it.

I made it to the gym this afternoon and signed up for a membership. I am so excited - they have some awesome equipment - all brand new as the gym just opened up in october.  I get one free session and orientation with a trainer so i am pretty excited about that. My appointment is for 1pm tomorrow afternoon. I hope to get in a good workout (im sure it won't be more than about 15 minutes of actual working out once they show you how to use the machines), but i plan to do a bunch of cardio once i'm done with him.

All the cardio equipment is great - each treadmill/bike/eliptical has its own personal tv with cable so you can watch whatever you want! I'm pretty excited about that too.

I'm teetering back towards my low point - was at 150.8 today... hopefully tomorrow shows 149.8 again so i can hopefully get a loss over the weekend.

Immom - don't be so hard on yourself, 60 minutes is a fine substitute for running. Running can be super hard on your joints anyway, so a break from it is good for you.

Cbrad - good luck on your trip! Shin splints are terrible i remember having those in high school... ouch!

no exercise today beside regular mom stuff. Just got home from the ER. Apparently, when a 7 1/2 year old holds an arm and a leg  of a 4 year old and an almost 6 year old holds the other side, when they try to lift the 4 year old up, her elbow will dislocate. She was only in pain if she tried to move it. Dr. just went twist really quick and it popped back in. After x-rays(to see if there was any other damage) my little Lexis was her goofy self again. I'm tired and gonna crash. I'm going to try and get back on track tomorrow.

Well, I decided to forego the gym last night as I was really sore from having worked out 2 days in a row (having come from nothing at all) and including weight training in both days. Turned out giving myself a day to heal was a good choice! I was down to 133.0 this morning =) (I've been floating between 133 and 134 for the past 4 or 5 days.)

 Also, I have a sister who is 16 months younger than me but who has always been taller and slimmer (which is good for her :D I'm not weird about it - we're just built differently). This morning, I mentioned that I still hadn't bought fitting pants, so she offered to let me try on a pair of hers... some 4's from Old Navy. They fit!!! So she let me keep them because she said they'd always been awkwardly short on her. On her birthday and everything! :) I'd better go get her something extra nice ;) It was a huge self esteem builder knowing that I could wear pants her size :) (Even though she's 2 inches taller than I am) I just never thought I'd ever be as small as she is!

immom - Yikes, i've never dislocated anything, but that sounds painful. I'm glad to hear that your daughter is allright and feeling better :)

ah, the a dislocated elbow. .  .  I am waiting to experience that ER run.  Or the broken bone one.  My 5 year old is going to be my first to break a bone.  We are sure she will, just not sure when.  In the last month we have been to ER twice for Lego's up the nose (1 each for the 5 and 2 year old) and an almost run after a fall off a 15 ft. slide.  Aren't kids great.  I am sure you burned plenty of "high blood pressure, stress" calories during the trip.

Weigh in this morning 171.  Still no movement.  One week left of work and then I can really focus on working out. 

I'm up .5 - 162

I hoped but didn't expect a loss. I work today. I will be unloading an order. It will take 6-7 hours to get it done. I'm not worried about no exercise today. boxes range in size from 5lbs-well not sure really(Takes everything I've got to lift over my head and put on a shelf). I like working Friday because this is what I get  to do. As long as my food choices are good then I should be ok. Well till later anyway. My kids go to their dad's today before I'm off work. I'll go watch my son's soccer game. My girlfriends are going to want to go out tonight. Couple drinks won't hurt. I need time out with the girls.

Have a good day guys!

For the first time in 3 weeks I am below 231! It's a 1lb loss but it's what I needed to help keep me motivated. I hope my plateau is over and that I am on my way to more weight loss.

All the best to you!

Hi!  I have been in what I like to think is the longest plateau on record....I've been hovering the 130 mark since December...I do see under 130 on occasion, which gets me excited, but then the weekend rolls around or whatever, and it hops right back up to 130 (more at totm).  I'm down from 150 so I should be happy, but all I want to do is get rid of these last 5 lbs. GRRR...it is the most frustrating thing!  My hope is that if I continue to exercise and eat well, the eventually my body will follow.  Being patient is not one of my strongest traits.  Geez, eating healthy is not an easy task...(I splurged on BK yesterday...my fave...hmmm...guess that doesn't aid in breaking the plateau.)