Hi Everyone~
The people at the South Beach Diet forum told me to check this forum out to help with my question. I have been trying to change the way I eat for a long time. I have now decided to go to south beach. I am a active person in that I walk at least 1 mile a day and sometimes up to 4 miles. But for the last month I have been hovering between 202-199. I feel like I should bump up my exercise but not sure what I should do for exercise? Anythoughts??

Thanks,
Menzy

Try something different for your exercise. You should change your routine every few months or so, as your body adapts to what you are doing and so that exercise becomes less efficient than it was when you first started doing it.

You could continue your walks, but add some speed intervals to it. Walk 2 minutes, then really brisk walk for 1 minute, then walk slower for 2 - like that.
Also - consider strength training if you don't do it currently. You can do body weight exercises, or just get a resistance band to start.

High intensity interval training is usually very effective for busting through plateaus. Also, playing around with your calories and in general adding variety to your exercise routine are other great ways to shock your body out of it's comfort zone and get you losing again.

Fiberlover's suggestion of strength training is a good idea, regardless of stalled weight loss, since it brings about countless benefits.

Two things:

1 - your body will get used to whatever you do and accomodate to it, if you continue doing the same thing. So a walk that would burn more calories when you first started, will not burn as many as you continue on because your body adjusts for it. It becomes a "habituatual motion" so to speak.

2 - you need to get your heart rate up to burn calories. For people who are out of shape when they first start walking, just walking alone is enough to raise their heart rates. As you get in better shape, you won't be able to get your heart rate high enough by just walking. You'll need to increase the intensity.

I am a big fan of the New Rules of Lifting for Women program - it's a book by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove. It's a great introduction to weight lifting for women and really helps break through some of the myths about weights. It also gives you alternatives for doing the program at home vs. at a gym if you don't want to join a gym.

.

When I hit the plateau for about 3 & half weeks I had to change my exercises..I started doing my cardio in the morning and weight training in the evening 3 times a week. I even started riding a cycle for about 40 minutes daily and the weight started coming down again.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Menzy