weight loss slowing down

[bee*]

Hi all, after losing just over 30 lbs my weight loss seems to have stalled. Ive been eating healthy every day, with the odd treat as a snack and have been working out 3 days a week and doing 45 mins on the cross trainer and then some weight machines. I still want to lose about another 40 lbs so still have a long way to go. Can anyone give me any tips to get my loss started again!! Its really annoying doing all this and not losing anything for the past few weeks and its making me lose my motivation

 

[Independent Gal]

Hi Bee! I wonder if what has happened is that now that you are 30 lbs slimmer (a GREAT achievement! Way to go!) you are still eating the same number of calories as your diet as you did when you were heavier. The thing is, because you''re slimmer, you''re now burning far fewer calories just ''being'' (breathing, circulating your blood, etc.) and far fewer calories per minute doing cardio because it takes less energy to move a smaller body. A lot of people get into a rut because of this.

E.g., If a 110 pound woman does 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer at a moderate speed, she burns 170 calories. If a 180 pound woman does exactly the same, she burns 280 calories.

But this is also true of just moving around, breathing, etc. So the 110 lb woman only burns about 1300 base calories a day (just existing), while the 180 lb woman burns closer to 2000.

Could this be the problem? Could you try using a tool like ''sparkpeople'' to reevaluate your diet calibrated to your new much slimmer size?

 

[Independent Gal]

Oops! 110 lb = 49 kilos ... 180lb = 82 kilos. Forgot you''re in...is it Ireland?

 

[bee*]

Hey yep Im in Ireland so its usually stones and pounds that we''re in. The scales I use has lbs and kilo''s so Ive been checking both. Ive been using spark people, but never thought of changing my goals or anything so I''ll go on and see what they say. Never even thought of doing that!! Thanks for that!!

 

[Ellen]

Another thing that might help is to mix up/change your workout routine.

But WTG on the weight loss so far!

 

[gailrmv]

Congrats on what you''ve done so far! I agree with the above suggestions and here are a few more:

Add at least 1 extra workout per week
Add more activity into your days i.e. take a walk every day in addition to regular workouts
Change up some of your meals - your body may be in a rut
Similarly, change up your workouts - try the treadmill or bike or take a class

Also, sometimes for me I''ll see nothing for weeks and then BAM - couple pounds come off at once. So that might happen to you. DON''T GIVE UP!!!!

 

[Mara]

Gail is giving you great advice.

You should google Plateau on Spark People. There are tons of articles on it and how to get out of one.

Bottom line is KEEP AT IT. Do not lose your motivation. You could be stuck at a plateau for more weeks or even a month or two.

One other thing that could be happening is that your body is burning fat and replacing it with muscle, which is more dense aka weighs more than a lb of fat does, so the scale may not register any changes but internally your body could be changing. Can you get your body fat measured? You should have had this done when you started so you could have a basis for comparison but I forgot to as well.

A good example of this is for me right now. My lowest weight was 128. I was there for like a split second. But my maintenance weight is about 131ish. Well in the last month I have been up to 132 as more steady and sometimes 133. But I had my BF tested and I LOST another % of BF. So last month at 130ish I was 18% and now I am 132ish at 17%. So it could be the extra muscle pushing my scale up a bit. My body still looks the same, measurements are the same etc. Also people say that they think I look more like 120 lbs than 130lbs. I''m sure it''s because I am carrying a lot of muscle inside. But that is not visible.

So anyway, if you can also keep doing your measurements, that could help show you that there is continuation of *something* happening inside even if the scale is not registering. I can''t stress enough that you should not just use the scale to measure your success. It''s inacurrate even on a good day. I posted previously in the WWT about different things that can make you retain water or look like you gained weight, traveling on a plane for more than 3 hours can add 3-4 lbs on the scale for up to 2 days afterwards or something like that!! Eating a meal out, most likely high in sodium, can make you retain up to 2 lbs of water the next day.

Go by your measurements, body fat, how your clothes are fitting, and scale as a 4th option, kind of like using the HCA to choose a diamond. You don''t solely rely on the HCA, you use measurements, angles, images, etc as well to determine if the stone is one you''d like to buy.

But also I would take up gail''s advice...those are notorious ways to beat plateaus. Make your workouts harder and add in one more. Add another element into your workout, aka more strength training. Anything that ''switches up'' what your body is used to doing will help you break out of the plateau. Also you can start mixing and matching your days. Eat super light on one day and heavy on another keeping the average of the 2 days at where you typically are cals wise. That also keeps your body on it''s toes...it has to work harder to process a heavy day of meals so if you are always eating lightly then it might have started to get ''lazy'' and dropped your metabolism thinking you are not doing as much.

Lastly re: the eating, I have read plateau articles that say both things, some say drop your cals more (aka what independent gal said) and some say up your cals more. Maybe you are not eating enough to sustain your body. I would use spark people''s estimates if you have been previously. You can go in and update your ''current weight'' and then see if it changes your ranges...I did this like once a month when I was losing to be sure I was still within the range and not too low or too high into it.

Anyway, good luck. You just have to stick with it and keep going. Think about not how far you have to go but how far you have actually come. You are halfway there, that is a huge accomplishment in and of itself. Think about how you have lost the 30lbs. That recipe does not just change and stop working...you just have to modify it a bit. And you are so much healthier inside and your body appreciates you for what you are doing. Keep it up and good luck !

 

[surfgirl]

Hey bee...I also recently lost 30 pounds and I have about 10-20 left to lose. I am finding that its more difficult the less you have to lose. You really do need to get your cardio up more frequently so I''d suggest aiming for at least 5-6 days cardio of 50 minutes. If you''re on a treadmill, one way of upping the workout is to increase the incline one full point, every three minutes, working up to a max incline and then going down again every 3 minutes.

I combine this cardio workout with a basic weight watchers "points" eating system, which has changed how I eat. Basically, for me, the culprit was simply eating too much of a good thing, and snaking. Cheese is my downfall, it''s like crack to me! If one could OD on cheese, I''d be dead already

. So I dont keep trigger foods in the house much. I choose to eat them out instead so I can control how much I eat. If you dont have WW where you live, you can go online and do the program online. It''s $12/month and you can log your food daily, keep track of your weight loss, etc. Good luck!

 

[bee*]

thanks for all your help. I decided to do an aerobics class at the gym today and it was great-spanish dancing mixed with aerobics-lots of fun!! So Im going to add that to my workouts weekly. I''ll have to go back in and update spark people to see are my calories still ok. That''s a great idea to mix up my eating on different days. Ive joined ww many many times before (in fact I could probably teach the meetings at this stage

) but this is the first time that Ive actually wanted to do it enough for me so at the moment I find spark people is really good and as Im a student its great that it''s free. Well done on the weight loss surfgirl! Thanks for all the idea''s girls!!

 

[bee*]

Those articles are really good Mara. Just read a couple there and its definitely given me some ideas. Ive been searching on spark people for a while and where do you change your original goal and dates etc. Its probably staring me in the face but I just dont seem to be able to find it!!

 

[kcoursolle]

You might be gaining muscle, have you tried measuring yourself and seeing your progress this way?

 

[Mara]

yeah i like their articles too bee!

go into your spark profile...you have to walk through the profile process again to find the area you need to update. there is a ''current weight'' field. you have to update that from your original entry. and then walk through the whole thing like how often you work out, if you know how many cals you burn, etc. and then it will give you a new range of cals, fat, protein etc to follow. save the profile and then it updates it for you. hope this helps!

 

[bee*]

Thanks for that-found where to go now!!