Plateau

[daedme]

I recently (about 6 months ago) started dieting and exercising and everything was going great and I lost about 65 pounds over 4 months. I was 320 and I am currently 254. I realize now that the weight loss happened so quickly because I was eating an insanely low amount of calories.

The problem started about 2 months ago when I literally just stopped losing weight, completely. After reading the forums I am getting the idea that it must be my calorie intake. What I am really interested in is if anyone else has experienced this and if so, how long will it take to correct itself? I read Steve's posts alot and I think he mentioned the "starvation mode" in people needing to lose more than 50 pounds and I agree with his assessment but I simply cannot think of a reason I would hit such a wall.

I am tracking everything, and I mean every last calorie, to make sure I am not simply slacking off. When I started I was eating 800 calories and exercising on top of that tiny amount. I have gradually increased my calories over this two month plateau and I am currently eating about 1500 (1100-1200 after exercise) a day but I am still not seeing the scale move. Should I expect this plateau to last months more or will this self correct itself at some point?

I am willing to increase my calories even more if I need to but it is a slippery slope hah.

 

[KaraCooks]

I am tracking everything, and I mean every last calorie, to make sure I am not simply slacking off. When I started I was eating 800 calories and exercising on top of that tiny amount. I have gradually increased my calories over this two month plateau and I am currently eating about 1500 (1100-1200 after exercise) a day but I am still not seeing the scale move. Should I expect this plateau to last months more or will this self correct itself at some point?

Well, keep in mind that your maintenance calories at your starting weight should have been around 4800. You dropped that to 800 a day (less than 1/5th of what you were eating before), plus exercise - and you've been doing that for 4 months.

Then you raised your calories to DOUBLE what you've been eating for the last 4 months.

Think about how your body must be reacting.

Now, ideally to lose weight at a healthy and sustainable rate, you should be eating around 2500 calories a day of healthy foods. Plus exercise.

I suspect if you were to go up to 2500 calories immediately, you'd probably put on a few pounds as your body readapted. And yes, it's going to take some time for your body to recover from the metabolic slowdown you caused by such severe calorie restriction. But you're far better off raising your calorie intake, raising your metabolism, and letting your body catch up than you are freaking out about adding on some weight or "plateauing". Assuming, of course that your weight loss is about being healthy and not just a number on a scale.

 

[daedme]

Well, keep in mind that your maintenance calories at your starting weight should have been around 4800. You dropped that to 800 a day (less than 1/5th of what you were eating before), plus exercise - and you've been doing that for 4 months.

Then you raised your calories to DOUBLE what you've been eating for the last 4 months.

Think about how your body must be reacting.

Now, ideally to lose weight at a healthy and sustainable rate, you should be eating around 2500 calories a day of healthy foods. Plus exercise.

I suspect if you were to go up to 2500 calories immediately, you'd probably put on a few pounds as your body readapted. And yes, it's going to take some time for your body to recover from the metabolic slowdown you caused by such severe calorie restriction. But you're far better off raising your calorie intake, raising your metabolism, and letting your body catch up than you are freaking out about adding on some weight or "plateauing". Assuming, of course that your weight loss is about being healthy and not just a number on a scale.

Thanks for the reply. To clarify I did raise from 800 to 1500 over a period of two months. I just got to that number recently.

To be honest it ultimately is about a number on the scale for me . Health is a priority but I am doing this to lose the weight. I do not mind taking the time to fix my metabolism since I am aware that I have probably done damage to myself. If repairing it means I need to be eating 2500 calories to get weight loss going again then that is certainly what I will do .

I guess I will just keep slowly increasing the calories and see where it goes.