[Bonita Applebaum]

I guess you can say I've plateaued...

The past month I have weighed-in between 198lbs and 203lbs. The scale is not budging and I'm starting to lose it. As a result, I've started letting certain foods "slip by". A beer here, four-cheese pasta there, it's a bad look. I've been excercising consistently but I think I need to up my workouts or make some changes to it or something!

Please help me get over this rough period! Any suggestions would help! I.e.: eating or excercising.

[kelly315]

what kind of plan are you on, and what other plans have you tried? Maybe switching it up a little bit, changing the type of diet your on will help you find the best way for you to lose.

[Bonita Applebaum]

Hmmm, plan? Let's see:

I usually work out between 4-5 days out of the week. This could be anything from spinning to yoga to cardio machines to stregnth training.

My eating habits have started to suck since I started my new job. We eat out a lot but I try to bring breakfast and lunch. My meals usually are usually healthy (oatmeal,Kashi breakfast bars, turkey burgers, salads, veggies and water). But since the scale has been acting funny, I've lost my motivation and allowed myself to partake the wrong kinds of food.

[horsey]

Have you tried weight training? Muscle revs up the metabolism and burns fat... or do you just do cardio? You can try cutting the carbs a bit more too. If you are going to have a beer at least make it an Ultra, only what 80-90 calories and less carbs then others. And counting calories? Maybe you are eating more then you think? Cut back even 100 or so, only eat 1/2 a bun, watch the "extras" and watch the breakfast bars and quick food.

[Lovely]

Originally Posted by Bonita Applebaum

But since the scale has been acting funny, I've lost my motivation and allowed myself to partake the wrong kinds of food.

So the scale is acting funny... do you think that allowing your eating habits to slip back to where they used to be will change that?

You've come to that cross road. Where motivation dips & we're left with two choices. Continue to to decline with our motivation until we end up having to start over completely again having regained our weight & then some. Or choosing to rise above... even though motivation has failed us (as it ALWAYS will).

Stop relying on motivation. And it's great to want to jazz things up. In fact that's the first suggestion when confronted with a plateau. So, let's try to jazz things up.

Do you eat the same thing every day? Try something new every couple of days. Your body won't be used to it, and you'll have more food in your arsenal.

Seems like your exercise is already mixed up to a good degree. But maybe they're not as intense as your body needs them to be now? Try increasing something. Time... or intensity. Perhaps 5-6 days would be a good increase.

Remember to keep on doing the things that work, too. Like drinking all your water for the day, and keeping track of your food. And no matter what, keep exercising!

You'll move past this plateau. Give it time.

[PhotoChick]

My eating habits have started to suck since I started my new job.
...
But since the scale has been acting funny,

Hm. My superior detecting skills found a clue.

I would suspect that's a huge part of your problem right there.

.

[Bonita Applebaum]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm not a big fan of the scale so I'm going to start weighing myself less and just focus on how my body feels.

I also need to restart my willpower. I shouldn't be using my new job as an excuse (even if it is). I need to take responsbility for my actions. I do believe I'm gonna start spinning more often because I was seeing better results when I was doing that regularly. I'll also continue with the stregnth training.

[JayEll]

Hey Bonita!

It's the food. Concentrate on the food.

Jay

[Tomato]

I would suggest that you get and read Bill Phillips's book Body for Life, and start following the proposed pattern of exercise. He suggests exercising 6 days a week, it is always strength training one day and cardio the next day. Lots of people have had absolutely amazing results with it and he also suggests what to eat. As much as wonderful yoga is, it is not going to do much for your weight loss.

I think you may have to cut the eating out, or at least reduce it to a 1x a week frequency. You can be eating a lot more calories than you think you are.

[Lori Bell]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I always though a plateau was when your weight loss stalled/stopped when you were consuming the same amount of calories as when it was losing...If you add more calories and stop losing, isn't that called maintaintenance?

[Thighs Be Gone]

Bonita, exercising is good but the VAST majority of weight loss happens on your plate. I would say to figure out what your calories should be each day (you can find that on internet or ask here) and start tracking your calories in a food journal. I would commit to begin walking at least 5-6 days a week for 30 minutes at a brisk pace.

[PhotoChick]

exercising is good but the VAST majority of weight loss happens on your plate.

I've seen this sentiment a lot lately and I'm not entirely sure I agree with it.

No disrespect meant or anything, it's just that I know that for me, no matter what I eat, if I don't exercise, I don't lose.

I think that at a certain point, your body becomes used to reduced calories and you have to start adding motion and movement in there to continue losing.

Also there is the element that when you lose through diet only, you lose lean muscle mass AND fat. If you exercise while dieting, you don't lose lean muscle and you raise your metabolism, which helps boost weight loss.

I honestly believe that diet and exercise are 100% intertwined when it comes to weight loss - and that both are equally important.

.

[Thighs Be Gone]

PhotoChick, that is an interesting perspective and not one I completely disagree with. I do agree they are intertwined.

I guess I hear from many of those around me about all the workouts they are doing and how they aren't seeing any results. Not surprisingly, these are the same women I see nibbling every time I am around them and usually with something not so great--fast food during playdates at Mcdonalds, school cafeteria food when they meet their children for lunch, etc. There is even a local gym that charge $350 a month for trainers to workout with you 5 and 6 days a week! It is a minimum FIVE months to sign-up. My friend that signed back in August is finishing up her time with him now. I think she has lost FOUR pounds! OMG--for that kind of commitment time wise and money wise????? WTH?

I began my journey in early June and lost 20 pounds. I didn't start exercising until my kids started school in late August. At that point, I started journaling my calories in addition to speedwalking. The results have been satisfying to me. I have now moved onto running.


In the end, you can go to Spinning classes daily and lift daily and not lose weight if you are sabotaging yourself. One slice of chocolate cake has 500 calories for instance. But, yes again I agree that calorie intake and exercise are best intertwined. I can say for myself that once I was well into taking care of my body nutritionally, exercising seemed like the most rational next step. Those that try it by exercise alone, are likely to be off to a slow start if they do not change their nutrition.

[kelly315]

maybe if you tried adding up everything you ate for a couple days, you'd find that even with the exercise, you're at maintenance level.

[Pandora123a]

Bonita,

You know what the problem is, you have changed what you are doing for the worse.

Of course exercise is important, but even more important is to get back on plan.

It is completely possible to lose weight and eat out. You just have to make good choices. For me that means bypassing the bread, sometimes having appetizers as my entree (they are often more interesting) and not having dessert. If I have a larger entree I try to split it with someone, or to take half home. (Using the microwave "defrost" function to reheat has proved to make leftovers really delicious.)

You can get back on track, if you choose to.