Weight loss plateau

busymum1

I'm interested in others experience of this..

I've been on a real get fit drive for the last 16-17 weeks now and it's working really well from a fitness point of view. I can now run 5k ( still pretty slowly) twice a week, swim a mile 3 times a week and 2-3 weight sessions in the gym per week. I'm really happy with my progress and feel so much better.

To be honest I wasn't really looking for weight loss, I just wanted to get back to pre-children levels of strength and fitness. However I would like to get my body fat percentage down around 25% currently at about 30%. My BMI is 24 it would be nice to get back to 22-23ish.

I've been religiously tracking everything I've eaten over the same time on myfitnesspal as well as calories burned through exercise, weight and measurements. I've been taking about 1400-1500 net calories per day, some days slightly less and some days slightly more but over the week it averages out. I eat a pretty clean diet and find a higher protien intake seems to suit me better so it's normally pretty low carb anyway.

I have lost weight since I started about 6kgs in 16-17 weeks but it seems to be in an odd pattern. I thought roughly calories in calories out and I should expect a steady loss of .5kgs per week. I seem to plateau for a few weeks and then lose again over the next few weeks or so and then plateau again.

Now it's not bothering me as I'm in this for the long haul and my fitness etc is the priority and physically I look much slimmer and everyone seems to have noticed it. If I was 'dieting' to lose weight then it could get pretty disheartening.

The plateaus seem to occur after times when I've been eating less 1400 ish calories and working harder and if I eat a bit more for the following few days then I seem to start to lose again. Days of lean and days of plenty and patience seems to be working for me.

My cycle certainly seems to have something to do with it and I'm also hypothyroid so maybe that makes it slower to get past these 'set points'.

Anyone else notice this?

marathonic

xxpuddinxx wrote: »

Hi,

Perhaps you are not getting in the right nurtrition you need? I am an independent herbalife distributor now after losing weight myself on the programme. I feel fantastic, more energy and generally in better health simply because my body is getting what it needs!! I had a fairly 'good' diet or so i thought but was lacking so much goodness in my diet!!
(We now have a new sports range out too with athletes improving their performance by 10% +)

If you are interested in getting in the right nutrition and leading a healthier life whilst losing weight naturallt at the same time, I can tell you some more about the products.

Jen

I completely 100% disagree with this sales pitch. I'm sure you have a lot of friends that are progressing the same way that you are aspiring to. Do you really think they're using the supplements that are being pushed here (the odd one may be but food is all you need).

The plateau's are to be expected but just stick with it, you seem to be on the right track.

Some weeks when you weigh yourself and haven't lost weight, it's simply water retention or muscle gain and YOU WILL HAVE LOST FAT and inches of the body measurements.

With water retention and muscle gain in mind, I'd only worry if you gain weight two weeks in a row. If that happens, you need to look into what's wrong with your strategy.

Make sure to weigh yourself first thing in the morning, after the toilet and wearing the same amount of clothes - there can be quite a large variation in your weight throughout the day (after all, a litre of water weighs 1KG).

Br1an

Body fat measuring is probably a good way to monitor your progress. Be wary of measuring on some of the smaller machines as they are influenced by the amount of fluid in your body and that can vary for many reasons.
The cheapest and most accurate is with a body callipers but be careful that the person doing it is accurate. It should really be taken 3 times on the same site and by the same person as people measure differently.
You could then set a realistic goal to try and lose a half a percent per week for example.
I would look on a plateau as a positive as you now know exactly what to take in to maintain your present weight. To try and lose more body fat you have to adjust 1 of 2 variables food intake or exercise more. It sounds like you are doing enough exercise so food intake is prob the way to go. Be careful though too much food reduction and the proportion of muscle to fat lost will increase. You are only looking at a small change in your nutrition.
Weight loss is a marathon and not a sprint. You have the right attitude so stick with it !