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Stuck in a weight loss plateau

Hello I am struggling so much right now it’s taking a toll on my mental health. So I started my weight loss journey in the end of December and ive lost almost 2 stone. I was loosing every week but 4 weeks ago I stopped loosing. I usually weigh myself every two weeks and haven’t lost anything for a month. I also did the egg diet in the end of febuary and lost nothing on that so I completely stopped and went back to a calorie deficit and I was loosing again but it’s completely stopped for 4 weeks. What I’ve changed is I’ve started exercising last month and that’s about it I’m still on a calorie deficit. Still eating most of the same foods I ate when I was loosing everything’s balanced so I’m not sure why I’ve stopped. I was researching what you can do to get out of a plateau and it says lower carbs do more excerise and increase protein. But I’m already doing that and nothings changing. I’m so emotional I’ve just been crying about it because I don’t wanna stop my journey I still have 40 pounds I wanna loose till I’m at my goal weight. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I can do?

Reply 1

JaseyB

What height weight age and sex are you ? How many calories a day are you consuming and roughly how long and how often are you exercising and what types of exercise are you doing ?

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post by JaseyB

What height weight age and sex are you ? How many calories a day are you consuming and roughly how long and how often are you exercising and what types of exercise are you doing ?

I’m female, 19, 5’3 and 145lb atm. I’ve been consuming 1200 because that’s what MyFitnessPal suggested.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

I’m female, 19, 5’3 and 145lb atm. I’ve been consuming 1200 because that’s what MyFitnessPal suggested.

I excerise around 4 times a week and do a couple of videos from YouTube so I have weights which I lift and then stomach and leg excerises then 20 min cardio.

Reply 4

Anonymous #2

Hey I just wanted to say - with every weight loss program this will happen. It is completely natural to hit a stump in your journey, but that is nothing to worry about. This could be due to a lot of factors including water weight, muscle gain, hormones, lack of sleep, stress etc.

Secondly, depending on the type of exercise you are doing, you could have potentially started to gain muscle whilst simultaneously loosing fat, so whilst the weight isn’t changing, the muscle to fat ratio is, especially if you’re lifting weights.

Thirdly, I would suggest increasing your daily calories for two reasons mainly: 1) a sustainable diet is the best form of diet - trends like the egg diet are actually more detrimental to weight loss 2) if you are doing lots of exercise but not giving your body enough calories to function, you a) won’t build muscle, which will help you look slimmer and more shapely and b) won’t loose any fat. Cutting your calories too low can actually be counter-productive. This is because when you are in such a large calorie deficit (especially considering you are doing cardio as well as weights) you’re body will go into a sort of ‘starvation mode’ in which it reduces your metabolism to preserve energy, so you will burn less calories (basal metabolic rate) per day naturally.

Also, don’t necessarily trust MyFitnessPal for everything - I got very focused on loosing weight and calorie goals and it did a lot of damage to my health (and I’m not saying that this will happen for you or anyone else on the app, it was just a personal experience). 1200 is a very large calorie deficit and for someone your age as active as you are, it is not healthy over long periods and it is not sustainable. Instead I would suggest using a couple different calculators online to work out a rough idea of the calories you should be consuming in a day for sustainable weight loss.

Also I recommend just switching things up! The same things aren’t going to work forever, so by changing what you are doing could be really helpful - eg. Start weight training, try different types of cardio, changing your food plan, changing your calorie goal. Small things could help get you back on track :smile:

Good luck with the rest of your journey, I hope this helps a little bit xx

Reply 5

Anonymous #3

Original post by Anonymous

I’m female, 19, 5’3 and 145lb atm. I’ve been consuming 1200 because that’s what MyFitnessPal suggested.

Upping your intake for a bit ay actually help.

Reply 6

JaseyB

Original post by Anonymous

I’m female, 19, 5’3 and 145lb atm. I’ve been consuming 1200 because that’s what MyFitnessPal suggested.

As the 2 above posters have said you could try increasing your calories slightly, I know it sounds counter productive but because you are quite active 1200 is probably too few, try increasing by around 200 for a whilst and see what happens.