Breaking a plateau
 

I have lost about 30 pounds and have more to go, but the scale seems stuck. I'm exercising and eating under 1000 calories. Suggestions for breaking thru this plateau are much appreciated.

Wrong forum, but unless you're very short and very old (and a female) eating under 1000 calories a day is not healthy.

This link will help: FitDay Discussion Boards - Threads Tagged with plateau

Hi Rosie,
I don't know how much weight you want to lose, but I can tell you from my experience and many other's here on the forums, that plateauing at 30lbs is really common. Basically your body is trying to get used to its new shape and metabolism. Here is a suggestion that worked for me (actually my diet doc recommended this):

Now is a good time to recalculate your daily calorie requirement (it will be substantially lower with your new bod). Most of us find that FitDay over estimates the requirement (especially for women - which I am assuming your are) so pick an activity level lower than what your really think is correct and use the lowest calculation.

Once you have that information, up your daily calories to just below your "maintence" level for a few weeks to allow your body to get used to the new you. Try to make sure that you continue whatever exercise routine you have adopted and maybe - if possible - add a little more.

After a week or 2 return to your reduced calorie plan.

Some people do have a little trouble with this. For one, if you have been really good about maintaining your calorie deficit, allowing yourself to eat more can be a scary. Secondly, some people rather than continuing with the great eating habits they have developed just adding a little more food, see this as an opportunity to return to the old bad habits - don't be one of those people.

The biggest benefit to this is that some day you will be at your chosen weight and you will have to maintain that weight, believe me, maintaining can be as hard as losing. So consider this a practice run.

Other's will probably have other suggestions, but as I said earlier, this worked for me and gave me a little break for the strict regiment.

You really should eat more calories, your body will go into starvation mode and it i sharder to get past a plateau. I hit a plateau it seems everytime I lose 5 lbs. what has worked for me the last 2 plateau's was to increase my calories to maintance for a week and work out harder, I then started losing lbs again.

Thanks For the input Pam. I took your advice and now Im down 39 pounds. I've got another 30 to go and hoping to accomplish that by my son's college graduation in early May. Going from size 18 to 8.
Nice work on your side girl :)

Hi there,
1000 calories very much in the "starvation" zone. I'd be willing to bet that your body is lowering its metabolism so hard that you're feeling pretty flat everyday.

I'm currently dealing with my 30lbs plateau too and my program tells me that it is quite normal. The thing to do is to change up your workout profile and also your nutrition profile to keep things stirring.

Cheers.

rosiecris,
I agree with what everyone is saying, 1000 calories per day is not healthy, you're eating way too less and maybe that's why you're not losing weight anymore: your body is trying to hold on to whatever you're giving it. Try a different approach, maybe do the 6 days diet thing: diet for 6 day per week and then eat as you normally would, this way maybe you can trick your metabolism into speeding up.
Also, a tip I like to give all my friends: don't weigh yourself often because it's not good for your motivation, to control your weight either just weigh in only once a week or use a Quantum scale (it does not display a number, just records it and tells you your progress).

Good luck and try to stay optimistic!