plateau and eating too little

so i have been doing well up until now i am 5ft 7 i started off weighing 180 and i now weigh 143 this has taken about 6 months but of course just 13 pounds away from my target weight of 130 and i have come to a standstill. I usually eat between 1200 - 1400 cals a day drink 2 litres of water eat healthy etc. Exercise wise i brisk walk for 30 mins a day, 25 mins of crunches, lunges, stability ball etc and also try to fit in 30 mins on my rowing machine which can burn anything upto 700 cals. i also do weight training 3 times a week. I wondered if maybe i was eating too little? The problem is i struggle to eat what i do now which is crazy considering i got overweight in the first place by eating too much. I also feel guilty at the thought of eating more which is starting to worry me. I really do feel full all the time. Has anyone else had this problem at all and how did you manage to break through your plateau should i maybe increase my water consuption? any help would really be appreciated

Yes you should be eating more. If you are burning 700 cals from exercise (plus the ~1700+ you are burning if you were sedentary), your deficit is too high, hence the plateau. Especially on days you row, you'll need to eating closer to 1700, I'd guess.

What does your weight training routine look like?

My GF and I have hit plateaus and debated about the zig-zag concept. We are giving it a shot. It took a lot of thought as, like you, we felt that "over eating" was not going to be easy or make sense. The way I finally got sold was by doing a little math.

If I over eat by 500-700 calories for a day or two too zig zag, that would be less than a pound of fat. Less by more than half. My scale goes up and down by pounds anyway during this plateau.. so I wont even notice. If on the other hand it shocks the system and I end up losing on the following week its all good.

I guess my point is that doing one or two days of calories over maintenance will not hurt. We aimed for 500 over and when done felt sick from all of the food. Protein is a great choice to take you over the mark. We did a protein shake and a big meal out to bust our intake. Was kinda nice eating without the worry, but it will take me time to get used to the concept. IMO, I would do your cheat day on a day that you don't work out to make sure you actually bust your maintenance level.

Hope this helps. Congrats on your weight loss.

If you're recognising the warning signs that your desire for a healthy diet and lifestyle are creeping towards 'slightly obsessive' with accompanying guilt trips,  then I would say now is a good time to try to maintain your current weight for a while.   You should be able to maintain it on a higher level... easily 2000 cals+ .... if you're doing a lot of exercise.  143lbs for someone 5'7" is perfectly healthy so well done. 

Ironically, eating more often has the effect of getting weight-loss restarted.  But, in your case, I think it would have the added bonus of removing the fear factor and letting you relax around food again.   Currently you're frightened about going back to square one and, unfortunately, crash dieting will make that more rather than less likely.   Add in some high-calorie, low bulk foods to your regular diet.... oils, avocados, nuts, seeds, oily fish etc.   Just small amounts spaced throughout the day would be enough to bump up your intake without making you feel too full.

Once you are comfortable that you're maintaining your weight on 2000+ then you should look again at your 130lbs goal and work out whether it's reasonable or achieveable.  Some bodies (and people) are naturally much happier at BMI 22 or 23 than 20 

thanks for the answers guys yes i really do need to get out of this fear of eating more i dont even allow myself a cheat day right now. I thought maybe if i eat at maintanence calories for a week or 2 i may be able to overcome the fact that eating more does not mean i am going to gain it all back and will help me feel a little more comfortable around food without the guilt. I would be more than happy to stay at this weight except i am apple shaped which means all my fat clings to my stomach and i still have some there as i know this will probably be the last place i am going to lose it unfortunately. I think i could also do with upping my weight training as i only do about 6 different exercises per session though i do try and use the heaviest weights and go for 12 reps and 3 sets.

re the weight/strength training

You might also consider shaking that up...less weight, supersets and a pace that keeps you breathing hard but not so hard that you can't speak, i.e. a fat-burning pace.  You have to be very vigilant with form still - no throwing "light" weights around, just pick up the pace and not much rest between sets.  As you said, some variety in the exercises would be good also. 

I do  more of this kind of training and lift "heavy" and slow once every second or third week. 

It seems like our bodies get used to stuff and we need to shake them up with variety...not unlike our brains :)!

Good luck!

Well, others know more than me, that's for sure.

However, in my case, when I plateau, I let my body accept the new set point by eating well and exercising as usual. Not cutting back, not overdoing it. Once I see a trend of a week or so of no loss, no gain, I kick it up a bit by exercising more. I then immediately lose a couple pounds. Once I maintain that for a week or two and it has reset again, I do the same thing.

Hope that makes sense.

Sue

Just a quick word of warning...if you do up your cals, you may put on a little weight initially.  DON'T PANIC!!!!  The same happened to me when I upped my cals (was on about 1300/day, I'm 5'7 too).  When my metabolism kicked back into gear, the weight dropped off me, plus a few extra pounds :o)  Keep with it and Good Luck!

it sounds like a good idea to maybe not step on the scale then for a few weeks lol which is going to be hard i was thinking maybe i could also try not dropping my calories below 1450 which is my bmr like i have been doing and try to switch things around a little while exercise wise to see if that helps. It really encourages me to hear other people going through the same thing and managing to break this horrible plateau