Weight loss slowdown

I've been consistently losing weight in a slow and steady fashion. About 1-1.5 pounds per week. Starting from 170 mid-October of 2006 to being at 148 today.

I am 5'6" and my goal is 139. My average deficit is about 500 calories daily.

Recently, my weight loss has slowed to a crawl. Here is the last two weeks of weights:

Date | KCalo  | Weight
--------------------------------
1/18  | 1441  | 150.2
1/19  | 1604  | 149
1/20  | 1675  | 148.8
1/21  | 1659  | 148.4
1/22  | 1606  | 147.6
1/23  | 1471  | 148.2
1/24  | 1430  | 148.8
1/25  | 1615  | 148
1/26  | 1429  | 147.8
1/27  | 1890  | 148.2
1/28  | 1560  | 148.8
1/29  | 1818  | 148
1/30  | 1676  | 148.4
1/31  |  ????  | 148.4

Any advice for how to shake things up? I'm walking a lot every day, doing 3-5 sessions on the Elliptical (about 60 minutes each) and working with weights on week days (5 days a week).

In terms of my appetite, I almost always feel full or satisfied. I eat a lot of veggies and fruits and oatmeal and I start out each day with a good breakfast that has some protein in it to fill me up.

Thanks for any advice!

---Kayvan

Welcome to the wonderful world of plateaux.  Your body has gotten used to your routine.  Need to shack it up a bit.

Try zig-zagging your calories for a few days.   If you are always eating 1500, then go between 1400-1800. 

Change your exercise routine some.  Do the treadmill, bike, or something other than the elliptical.

Try different weight exercises as well.

You can even up your calories (keeping under your maintenance) for a few days.

Thanks for the reply.

I was eating 1600 calories since the beginning of my weight loss efforts, but with the kind of exercising I'm doing I have built up visible muscle mass and slimmed down a lot, so I think it was too low.

I'm upping the number to 1800 and increasing the intensity of my cardio routines and doing some interval training to shake things up. I'll see how it goes, but it seems promising.

Don't forget that muscle weighs more than fat but takes up less room.  That will partly explain why the scale has leveled off.  Good news!  Muscle burns more calories, so you can eat more.

Hey :)

the closer you get to goal, the slower your loss will be... a couple of things... you will be smaller so you need fewer calories to sustain you so your daily calorie deficit will be smaller...

your muscles weigh more than the adipose tissue it replaces... but also burns a little more cals... but... as you reach towards goal, you really will begin to convert body fat to muscle structure...

this is where the tape measure may begin to show more of the story... meaning you should continue to see toning overall as you tighten up and lose the body fat... and a bit of growth in targeted areas like biceps, abs, etc...

have you started checking out the maintenance forum?  some of the guys there going through the same thing... also in the fitness forum... who can probably relate all this better than me ;)

don't be discouraged!  you are doing all the right things.  trust the process and have patience.  even if you only lose 1 - 2 lbs a month from now on... it won't be too long until you are at goal, fit and trim and carrying a six pac ;)

and i don't mean beer ;)  hah! 

cheers,

ps... can u clue me in on how you got the table to look like a table in your post???

did you copy/paste or manually type it in using the lower case L as a separator?

thx :)

Have you tried HIIT - high intensity interval training on the elliptical and your walking routine? That is where you raise the intensity for a short period - 30sec - 2 minutes to bring your heart rate up and then do a more normal intensity for a longer period to bring it back down. 

 For instance I'll speed up my cadence on the ellitical for 30s to 1 minute to bring my heart rate up to 160 and then slow down to bring it back down to the 140s for 3 minutes or so. 

This might be a way to shake up your metabolism and bust up your plateau. You might also want to play with your weight training - adding weight, doing different machines/movements. After a while your body becomes used to your workout and gets more efficient at burning calories. You might want to try different cardio - running, a spin class, etc. for the same reasons.

HIIT is the in thing in training now so if you do a google search you can find a lot more info on it.

Also, I have read that a lot of plateaus are due to water retention - if you don't drink enough water the body holds on to it. You have to drink water to help flush the fat out.

Good luck - carolyn