12-Week Plateau
I've only plateaued once before, and that time I responded by going on informal Aktins and eating nothing but meat and cheese for a month. I lost 4 lbs, then gained 8, then fell off the wagon completely.
I plateaued around mid-September. My weight started bouncing around the same 3 lbs. I'm a calorie-counter who doesn't eat starches. I was doing 1200 cal a day, which has worked for me in the past. However, I'm older now and bodies change.
After 6 weeks in the plateau zone, I figured I'd better change things up. I started doing kettlebells twice a week with an RKC trainer - fun, I love it, so glad I did it. I also started walking 10-15 miles at a time once a week (the only time I can do that). I'm working on getting into weight training and I plan to do it 3x a week once I get started. I also do yoga 1-2x a week. Written out, it sounds like I'm really active, but when I'm not working out, I'm sitting, so it's not really a lot of activity in the scheme of things.
About 10 days ago, I upped my calories to 1350 on rest days and 1500 on training days. I think that years of yoyo dieting at 800-1200 calories a day has messed me up and I need to give my body something to work with. I plan to continue to raise the calories in small increments to see what happens, especially once I get serious about weight training.
This week, I started paying attention to macros. I upped my protein a LOT, which is hard because I'm used to eating mainly veggies (a necessity for a 1200-cal diet). Now I'm trying the Leigh Peele thing and trying to think of my food in grams instead of calories - although I'm still struggling with that and am not meeting the carb numbers.
Lastly, I'd gotten lazy about weighing and measuring. I weighed my main meals -- but not every little nibble or taste. I fixed that.
Not all of these changes were made at once, but it's been 6 weeks since I started them. Two days ago, my weight on the scale fell 1.5 lbs below the lowest of the plateau weight. It stayed there another day and today there was another small drop. I will be completely NOT SURPRISED if I bounce back into the plateau zone tomorrow. But hopefully, the number on the scale indicates that something I'm doing is working. Hopefully, because if what I'm doing now doesn't work, I'm about out of ideas.
I am trying to focus on NSVs. They exist. I've lost about 1.5" from my waist, my jeans are a little baggy in the thighs and seat, and I'm definitely stronger and fitter from the exercise. When I poke my arm, thigh, or sides, my finger hits some hard stuff beneath the blubber. Still - the scale matters to me. I really want it to plummet. NSVs are wonderful, but they're slow and I still have about 40 lbs of fat to lose.
That's my plateau story. I've read a lot of other plateau stories here that helped me stay motivated during previous mini-plateaus, so I thought I'd share mine in hopes someone else might find it helpful.
I'm open to hearing anyone's thoughts.
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