snkms1984

Alright, so here goes. 26 yr old female, 152 lbs. I have been attempting to lose weight since January 1, 2011. The first week, I lost 4 pounds. Second week, I lost about 1.5 pounds. Since that second week, I have literally only lost about 0.3 pounds. Many, many weeks with no change. Other weeks my weight would go up by 0.2 or 0.4 and then go back down the next week. I have been working out twice a day. In the morning before work, I have been using the Jillian Michael's 30-day shred video and after work, I am either running (45+ minutes on M,W,F,Sat) or using the elliptical for 45 minutes (Tues, Thurs). I had been eating about 1200 calories a day, but then my husband was convinced I wasn't eating enough, so I upped my calories to about 1400 - 1500 a day and it did not do any good. So, here I am, asking for help.

I used this website to calculate my BMR(RMR) and it came out to 2285 a day. Then deducted 800 calories for a deficit, so down to 1485 calories/day, which seems pretty reasonable to me. However, I have been following that plan already with no success. The calories that I burn during exercise (400-800/day), I have not been eating. Should I be? I don't even know how to begin eating 2,000 calories a day because it is soooo much food.

Any advice that anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated, as I am incredibly frustrated. Thank you!

ReconMarineMom

How tall are you? Unless you are under 5'4" then 152lbs seems like an ideal weight. How much are you trying to lose? If you only have like 10-20lbs to lose than you are not going to lose much per week. Granted I am DEFINITELY not an expert, but that just comes from the research I have been doing. Try focusing more on FEELING good rather than your actual body weight.

snkms1984

Only 5'3". I would like to be down to 135, out of the "overweight" BMI range. Also my body fat percentage is 30%, which is far too high, and needs to get down to 22-23%, in my opinion.

And while not having a lot of weight to lose will certainly mean I am not going to lose 5 pounds a week, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't lose anything in 3 months....

MAIN80

Hi,
I think you need to change up something to break this plateau. I would either really intensify my exercise routine burn a lot more calories or rest from the exercise for a week and really reduce my calorie intake. I have done 1000 calorie per day for a week with no exercise and it seems to work. I am no expert though, but you can give it a try. The point is to make a change so your body will react.
Others play around with their Prot/Carb/Fat mix, you can try increasing your protein for a while to see how that makes your body react.
Also you don't mention how much water you are drinking, be sure to really drink A LOT of it.
Hang in there!

almeeker

I'm going to second the "protein and water" advice. All that working out is bound to break down your muscles, but if you don't feed them they don't have the opportunity to build and as we all know the more lean muscle you carry, the more efficient you are at burning fat. For a week you might try going grain-free and boosting your protein to 35-40%.

Also if you are doing the same workouts day in and day out, that might need some change as well. I would recommend that you cut to one solid full body workout daily (5-6 days/week), but go for 60 minutes. This means you need to bring on a good full body sweat and you need to be feeling some pain (a tiny bit) the next day. If you aren't doing both of those things, it's not enough to gain any ground. You might try Bob Harper's Cardio Rev Up.

On the water the recommendation I always give out is 64 oz baseline and an additional 8oz for every additional 10 lbs you want to lose.

Kathy13118

I go by the WW advice: if you're not losing at the present level of calories (points, in the WW case), take the level down a notch or so. Try it and see what the effect is. Then take it down a little bit more and when you see some weight loss, keeping all other things equal (don't change your exercise routine, for example), stay at that level for awhile and watch your progress.

It's kind of like adjusting the heat on the stove when you're cooking some recipe for the first time.

snkms1984

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and help me out. I have actually increased my calorie intake, to about 1400, plus eating all of the calories I am burning during exercise, which means I am eating more like 1900 calories, burning 500 of that off during exercise.
I am happy to say that seems to be working. I have dropped 1.4 lbs in 2 weeks, yay! Part of what I think is also helping is the addition of some strength/weight training into my workout routine.
Thanks again everyone!

MAIN80

Great! Congratulations on finding a way to break your plateau! Every body works differently and if you found something that is working for you then keep at it!
Cheers!

rainbowsrock

See a doctor or endocrinologist to have your thyroid checked because it affects your metabolism, especially since you regularily exercise and watch what you eat.