Welcome to the forum, Steve. Hope you've fully recovered from that crash - sounds nasty!

A fitness consultant, eh? As someone just starting to get into exercise (apart from lots of walking) I'm sure I'll be back with questions...lots...

Great to have you here!

Hi Ellie and Amy... thanks for the warm welcome. And please, by all means, feel free to bounce ideas and questions off me. That's why I sign up to communities like this.

Best to you!

I will not be able to give you body temperature, but I can give you resting and max heart rate during treadmill walk, if it helps.

Not really. Low waking temperature can be indicative of something going that would impact nervous system output, thyroid, metabolic rate, etc. Not a fantastic test... but a first stage test nonetheless. You don't have a thermometer?

ETA: When's the last time you took a break. As in brought cals up towards maintenance, reduced the volume of exercise, etc?

Also, do you truly believe that you're at 1400ish calories all the time?

Ok I will get waking temperature from tomorrow.
Last 2 days I did not do exercise.I was not calculating calories, so I cannot tell you. But, now I am replacing some of my meat by beans. So, my carbs will increase and proteins will come down.
Usually, we go out to eat on Friday morning, so no cal counting today.
I will do some research about waking temperature, the concept is new to me.
Thanks a lot.

Are you working your way into vegetarianism or something?

If anything, I'd be focusing on reducing carbs and increasing protein. I'm not an anti-carb guy... but typically when someone's struggling with a plateau, the first thing I'll do is make sure protein is sufficient (in the tune of 1 gram per pound of goal weight). I'll also experiment with lower carb approaches to rule out things like insulin resistance.

You didn't answer when the last time you at maintenance was? Unless your answer was that you don't count calories every single Friday... is that correct? If so... 2 questions, one which I already asked:

1. Do you really believe that you consume 1400 calories per day on average throughout this entire plateau period?

2. When's the last time you took a good 1-2 weeks of eating maintenance?

With the temperature bit...

A 97.8-98.2 waking temperature is indicative of a 100% 'normal' metabolic rate and every 1 degree below that is roughly a 10% drop from normal. It's questionable how accurate this is - I wouldn't use it as a diagnostic tool necessarily. But I would use it as strong support to dig deeper with a good endo and blood paneling.

Low blood pressure can be indicative of similar things.

Hi Steve,
Pl refer to my sample meal on 3/29/12. I eat lot of chicken/ fish eggs, protein powder and also lots of veges. No rice, potato or any other grains.
I got fed up with this. So, slowly I am replacing some of my protein by beans.
My thyroid is good, in fact all my readings are good according to doctor.
I know, most of the days I do not eat 1400 calories, I must be eating 1200 or so. Started maintains diary.

If I can be frank... if you're truly eating between 1200-1400 calories per day all of the time... and I do mean all of the time... you'd be losing unless there's something going on with health.

Metabolic rate doesn't vary that much between populations and/or in response to dieting. And your body can't create or maintain energy/fat without sufficient energy coming in the door. And if it did create or maintain energy while in a considerable energy shortage, your body would hold the keys to our world's energy crisis.

Joking in a way... but hopefully you get where I'm coming from.

So something is "off" have it be your true, long term calorie intake or your health. If you're dead set on the accuracy of your long term reporting... then my only advice is to get more blood work done... see a different endo... or something along those lines.

I don't know how else to troubleshoot your problem.

I mean, maybe as a step you could bring calories up to maintenance for a couple of weeks and reduce exercise.... give your body a break. Then start dieting again and see if that works any sort of magic.

My current trainer felt exactly same. He put me on 1700 cal diet from 1 st dec to feb 3 rd. But, I just maintained my weight at that time. During that time my measurements went down by 5.75".
Then he told me to do 17 day diet, and my weight decreased by 2lb. And my doc tells me all my blood work nos are good.
So, finally my trainer told me forget about scale, and keep on working 3 days a week.
I know during this time my waist 1 has decreased by .75" and naval waist
Decreased by 1.75." arm reduced by .75". Shoulders reduced by 1.25".
Feb 29 till today my weight is fluctuating 158 to 159.
I have not done measurements from Feb 29.
I think, I should not do any postmortem as nobody really knows what's happening inside the body. Logic of physics does not apply to body for sure.
I also know for sure, my muscles are developing, my body is becoming more flexible. The yoga poses, which I could not do for many years, are becoming possible.
So, I have decided to be happy and concentrate at positive side.
Thank you for your advice, I really appreciate your concern.

I missed this post... my apologies. We would quibble over "the logic of physics not applying to the body." It most certainly does. It's not as straightforward as many people like to make it out. But energy balance still remains the underlying principle regulating the direction our tissue mass is heading in.

That said, I always like to tell my clients to focus on performance goals more so than the numbers of weight. Form tends to follow function... so if function is improving, typically speaking, especially when you're being sensible with your nutrition, form follows suit.

So good on you for redirecting some of your focus.

Has anything changed since we last communicated?

Went missing when you welcomed me. Here's a late thanks!