How do I break through my plateau?

[trapper124]

First off, let me start with some background. I started dieting and exercising in December of 2011. My weight back then was #270. I am 5'11 and large build. I am now all the way down to #195. I have come a long ways but my goal is #180. For the past month-month and a half, I have been fluctuating between 193 and 198. I need some tips on breaking through this plateau and reaching my goal.

My workouts are 7 days a week:
First, some sort of main muscle group weight training for about 30 minutes
(Every other day I also do an ab workout either during this time or after it)
Second, from 700-1200 calories burned on elliptical.

I eat from 1700-1900 calories per day:
Breakfast = 150 cal - protein shake
Lunch = 450 - Sandwich and small bag of chips
Supper = 900-1200 or so depending on any cheating during the day.
I hardly ever go over 1900 cal though.

Confession: I am in medical school and I live a long ways away from my girlfriend. I got and see her every other weekend. For those two days, I do eat pretty unhealthy. I don't think i'm offsetting much in those two days however I guess I could be wrong.

Supplements: Never took anything besides protein powder until 2.5 weeks ago when I started taking betastax.

Any comments, advice, questions, rants, criticisms, etc. are much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

 

[abitofbliss]

Firstly, congrats! You're doing an amazing job and I envy your effort thus far!

Secondly, I am not sure that my advice would be the best but do you continue to up your your resistance and intensity on the Elliptical? It sounds like you go for a solid hour or so with the amount of calories you burn! I would also suggest cutting out any kind of bread or even the chips to see if it helps you any? Do you have raw veges at all?

I'm sure it's tough but the cheating weekends could be it too. I'm pretty much in the same boat, almost even the same weight and have been between the same 10lbs for months now! It's very frustrating but I hope you find advice that works

 

[ryan_ttl]

I eat from 1700-1900 calories per day:
Breakfast = 150 cal - protein shake
Lunch = 450 - Sandwich and small bag of chips
Supper = 900-1200 or so depending on any cheating during the day.
I hardly ever go over 1900 cal though.

Hey. Have you been eating 1700-1900 calories for most of the time you've been losing weight? Sounds to me like your body has adapted to that calorie budget and it's now sustaining you - not letting you lose pounds. It's not the news anyone wants to hear, but you may need to step up your workout intensity and/or reduce calories a bit more to break through the plateau. Good luck!

 

[thedietplate]

No I don't agree with Ryan, on 1700 - 1900 calories a day you should be able to lose 1-4lb a week it is the 2 days off that is maintaining your plateau. The Diet Plate's maintenance programme is 5 days using the Diet Plate and 2 days relaxing and I have plenty of anecdotal evidence from customers who tell me they do maintain their goal weight following this formula, in fact one of my very first customers 13 years ago has only added 7lbs to her goal weight in all that time and she uses hers Monday - Friday, with Saturday and Sunday off.

It does not take many calories over your BMR to keep you in your weight maintenance zone, after all calories do count so to lose weight try sticking with your 1700- 1900 a day and if you get snacky choose peanuts or a chicken leg rather than bread or pasta as the body does not hold protein in the same way that it does starchy carbohydrates.

So check your portion sizes with something like a diet plate, make sure you stick to it 7 days a week, if you're going to snack choose protein. And rather than cardio at the gym, try muscle building with weights as 1lb of muscle needs 35 calories to keep it in top shape.

Also remember for the same weight, with all that working out you may just be losing inches instead. Visualise this, 1lb of muscle looks like a tennis ball, while 1lb of fat looks like a bag of sugar, therefore you could be leaner but still weight the same - but in all honesty I think it is the two days off the diet which is undermining your good work. Good luck. K

 

[Omega]

I agree that the two days off are probably hindering things... I certainly didnt do that on my big project a few years back and I am not doing it now with the lesser amount that I am dealing with again this year.

You can check portion sizes really easy with your hand... The really good thing about using your hand is that an average woman's hand tends to give about the right size portion for a woman and an average man's hand gives the portion size for a man... LOL it even stops us overfeeding children - which is a major problem sometimes producing tubby kids... We all know that kids have smaller hands...

One way to tell if you’re eating correct food portion sizes is to use your hands and fists as a guide to measurement. Your stomach is about the size of your two fists put together, though this can vary, so that you probably shouldn’t eat more than two fists of food at any meal. In general, portions of veggies are two fists, portions of meat are one palm, portions of cereals and breads are one fist, and portions of fruit are a half to a full fist. Light dairy products and peanut butter are about palm size.

I tend towards the attitude that the best form of exercise is something that you enjoy... I love the cardio side of things and the ST stuff leaves me cold - so I did almost all my exercise as cardio (and still do) - so I think that you will be fine to do whatever exercise you like - but the big thing is to do it and keep doing it...

I am not saying that cardio will give as good toning as ST - but you do certainly still lose weight with it in the long term.

 

[thedietplate]

Something else for you to try.

First change the amount of eating the calories frequently and also add veggie juice recipes to it. It will surely give you a breakthrough in plateau.

Have you tried a hot stone deep muscle massage? Massage gets the lymphatic system working really well and the benefits of massage are well documented. Recently I hit a plateau too and have been going for a back massage once a week - it is incredible! It soothes away aches and pains and seems to get everything working in harmony I feel like my digestive system which was getting sluggish has had a kick start and I have lost 3lbs in weight during the last 3 weeks so I am very pleased.
K
thedietplate

 

[thedietplate]

Try skipping breakfast completely, then loosening up on your post-morning feeding.
Can you handle the morning hunger pangs?
An empty stomach won't kill you. Though your mother might disagree!!
Once you learn to get used to an empty stomach, the rest is easy and you can eat whatever you want. Some folks say.
Conditioning!

Sorry - skipping breakfast is rubbish advice.

Choose a 200 calorie portion of cereal such as porridge oats, weetabix, shredded wheat or malted wheaties - do not let the corn syrup, sugar loaded non-food cereals near your stomach. If you don't like cereals then choose 2 boiled eggs and 1 slice of wholemeal toast - avoid bread made with corn syrup. You can also add tinned tomatoes on 2 rounds of wholemeal toast, add lots of ground black pepper its is lovely.

Also eat 2 pieces of fruit, 1 banana and 1 pear (energy and low GI).

Lunch, choose 300 - 400 calories and 2 more pieces of fruit. Free Veggie soup if you want it, up to the blue band on the calorie bowl.

Dinner, Anything you like as long as you serve it on The Diet Plate find on amazon and don't let the food slip over the lines, or you will end up in your weight maintenance zone. You can eat more fruit if you wish after dinner and if you make a pan of free vegetable soup too which will help you get used to the smaller portion sizes.

If you skip breakfast and starve yourself your body will not kick start its metabolism, within weeks you will not be able to eat as much food because your body will have lowered its energy requirements by lowering your BMR to suit the amount of calories coming in. This means that, when you do eat more the food will be stored as fat for energy in a starvation situation.

If you do the above and maybe walk briskly for 40 minutes per day, every day the weight will fall off you.

There is no quick fix to weight loss, yes there are plenty of drugs on the market that will ruin your liver, increase heart rates and give you psychological issues but there is no substitute for a healthy lifestyle where you kick in to touch all the bad stuff and eat good clean food which you have prepared yourself so you know what is in it.

Did you know that the female human body needs just 2 ounces of protein at a day to do all the muscle repair work it needs and a man needs 5 ounces. So what happens to the rest of that 10 ounce steak? Quite simply it over loads your kidneys and liver trying to process it, adds to your weight and mostly goes down the loo in one way or another.

Studies have shown if we eat a little less than we need, around 1900 - 2000 calories a day then we will be all the healthier for it and live longer - its a choice - we choose to ignore the obvious.

Please don't skip breakfast - that is the worst advice.