The Dreaded Plateau

[mmis29]

I am stuck in plateau h*ll, and am just feeling so frustrated with myself.

I am 33 and have been exercising for nearly 10 years. When I first started exercising and started eating healthy, I lost 40 lbs in about 6 months.

I feel like I have hit the ultimate plateau. I still work out 6 days a week, now sometimes twice a day. I still eat healthy. Granted I am older now, but I am gaining weight and I just don't understand how can the pounds be creeping back on. I have tried so many methods of working out (heavy weights, light weight/high rep, tons of cardio, etc), and I honestly don't see how my diet can improve much without feeling totally starved all day, which I am not willing to do. I need energy to chase my little guy around!

Any other VFers end up in a situation like this? Were you able to finally break the dreaded plateau? If so, how? Please share your experiences with me! I would so appreciate reading your stories.

[Sandi M]

Maybe cut back a little on the exercise time?

I have never found that working out more than 4-5 times a week makes any difference. The sheer quantity of food I eat has more to do with it for me, and when I work out a LOT, I get really hungry and eat more.

Sandi

[wookiemouse]

Cut back on the exercise and increase your food intake. I plateaud when I was eating 1400 cals a day. Bumped it up to 1875 and I've been steadily dropping now.

[rose181]

I agree with the others, less exercise time. For me the more I workout, the more I eat . Healthy food or not I gain weight because of increased calories. Now, I'm actually trying to gain weight and have gained 5 pounds in 2 months with this method. However, I know every person's body is different. GL!

[Fitstick]

For me it is all about the diet. I can exercise til the cows come home but the scale won't budge until I watch my intake (beverages included!!). Not sure what else to tell you....

[jaburke66]

Man, we get stuck and un-stuck differently, don't we? I'm 45 and lost 70 lbs (actually 80, but regained some and re-lost several times!) and got totally stuck for months. Tried all kinds of stuff - more exercise, less, diet changes, etc. I have finally started losing again (only about 5 lbs but about a whole dress size) recently when I started seriously cranking my workouts up. B/c it's working, I'm kind of in manic mode right now (90 min+ workouts 6 days a week). I started doing Horizontal Conditioning about a month ago, will f/u with more cardio, and then yoga for cool down. What I'm doing now has totally compacted my body, and I am hoping the scale will catch up, but 5 lbs is a great start since the scale would not budge except up. I feel super fit right now though (still gotta lose at least 15 more). I *really* want this weight off, so I will keep plugging until it stops working. Then...I dunno...

[horsemom2]

After I accepted my neverending plateau, I have lost a few pounds without even trying. I just eat mostly healthy and muve how I feel like muving and let Mother Nature do the rest.

Barb S

[mmis29]

Thanks everyone for your responses. It sure is amazing how differently everyone responds to diet and exercise changes, but one thing I definitely have not tried is cutting back on the exercise or possibly even eating a bit more. Neither of these things ever even crossed my mind. I have a few more ideas for experimenting until I figure out what works for me.

Barb, I can't wait to check out your blog...the title of it alone has me hooked!

Thanks again everyone.

Marianne

[athompson10]

I plateau'd for 7-8 weeks last year in the middle of getting fit and eating better. It was really frustrating, because I was losing weight slowly but steadily and upping my fitness level, then BLAM! I hit a wall and stayed stagnant.

What got me on track again was my food. For a week, I measured or weighed everything I ate, instead of eyeballing and thinking, yeah, that's about a cup of cereal. I found that I was eating 300-400 more calories than I thought. Getting more honest/accurate with my food got me off the plateau. Even then, I think it took two weeks after I started monitoring my food before the scale moved in the right direction.

YMMV. Some VFers are much more into intuitive eating instead of calorie counting, but my relationship with food and my hunger cues are so messed up, I need the rigidity and objectivity of calorie counting.

(Don't think this violates the anti-diet talk, but I will delete if it does)

[wookiemouse]

Just another thought....maybe you don't need to lose more weight, this is where your body wants to be at?

I had a goal number set in my mind for a long time (my pre-pregnancy weight, which is 15 lbs less than I am now). But I wasn't lifting weights back then, just mild cardio. I gave up on that number when I realized I'm actually 3 sizes SMALLER now than I was at that lower weight. I'm not worried about plateaus anymore...maybe the number *I* think I should be at isn't the number my BODY wants to be at, KWIM? If you eat healthy, keep your portions in control and get daily exercise, your weight should technically take care of itself.