Since June 24, 2008 when I started my weightloss Journey I've lost 34 pounds in all, my weight stalled in between for around one month in the month of August and then after a month it started going down again ( I had to change exercises and include additional one hour biking everyday to break the plateau ) Now since October 28 I'm again stuck up..I'm fluctuating in between 194 lbs to 196 lbs. I go down and then up again, its nearly 35 days and I'm still not able to break down my plateau.

My exercises involve around 40 minutes of brisk walking + 50 minutes of biking on a moderate speed daily & then heavy weight training for 3 days every week i.e. around 90 minutes of cardio daily & 45 minutes of weight training alternate days. I take split routine for body parts involving two body parts every training day.

My Diet is around 1700 - 2000 calories on some days otherwise I maintain around 1800 calories a day, I'm taking approx 100 / 140 gms of protein everyday with a moderate carb intake. Grains like WholeWheat & Rice are staple food in my diet since I'm Veg hence can't take meat/fish in my diets. I take fruits, steamed Vegetables, multivitamins & protein shake in the above diet to ensure that I'm not missing anything important & yes I log my food daily on my computer on fitday software. My water intake is around 2/3 lts everyday.

I tried zigzagging, tried going down on carbs..for a few days ( Can't make low carb a routine diet for more than two days..I start feeling very weak if I try doing that ) tried increasing my intake of calories also but nothing seems to work. I have reread all plateau breaking stories & tricks in the forums and have tried most of them.

Last time I was on plateau I included biking to break it and it worked..I went down from 208 to 194/196 and I'm stuck up again..honestly even when I feel pretty happy with what I've lost so far I'm still little frustrated when the scales do not move...Recently I did HIIT Jogging..which I tried after reading photochick's thread...and I had sore ankles & legs for 4 days and that's something I'm unable to do at the moment. One of my friend in body Building Circuit suggested me to try LIPO6 capsules for one month to break this plateau..he suggested that most of the guys take it to get lean during the cutting phase. I am not sure if it would work but I'm desperate to break my plateau..it simply disturbs me when I do not see any progress even when I 'm working hard on it.

I'm sorry if this post has gone too long..I'm little irritated with my stall at the moment and wanted to share everything before asking your suggestions, all of you guys have touched my life in some or the other way, had it not been 3fc I would have been still living the same unhealthy & unhappy life. Your suggestions and opinions about including any of this stimulant to my diet would be appreciated a lot.

Thanks for reading.

Wow, you've done great so far!!! Congratulations. You must be feeling marvelous.

You say you are eating between 1700 - 2000 calories. I think that right there may be the "reason" for your plateau. As we get smaller, and smaller's certainly what you've gotten , we require less calories to function. And therefore it's going to take less calories consumed in order to get that "calorie deficit" that is needed in order to continue losing weight. I would try bringing those calories down to 1600 cals per day. I'd do it for a good two weeks - consistiently - really, REALLY tracking them, and see how the results are.

Good luck to you. With perserverance, a bit of patience and a tweak here and there, you'll have that scale going downward once again. Keep up the good/hard work.

Lipo6 is just another one of those caffeine pills with a few other things added. I'd say don't waste your money. All those supplements seem to say "When used with a program of food control and exercise." Duh! Drink an extra cup of coffee or tea instead.

I agree with rockinrobin that your calories are probably too high at 1800 average. I would drop to 1600 average and see how that goes. Those 2000 calorie days could be stalling you over and over.

Another possibility is that you're overdoing the exercise. That may seem an odd thing to say, but I'm a believer in moderation--unless your goal is to be an athlete. I'd say 60 minutes of cardio would be plenty.

Good luck! You've done great so far!
Jay

Thanks RockRobin...I start feeling hungry and deprived if I go any less than 1700/1800...also I dont' do it intentionally keeping the fact in mind that I do approx 90 minutes Cardio and on strength training days the entire workout goes up to over 120 minutes I need sufficient calories to fuel me for my workouts ... nevertheless I'll try doing it again and see if that is something I can live up for few weeks.

Thanks Jay...I'm a guy...do you think I should go down further, most of the posts and experts recommend 1800 for the guys. Please share your insight.

How tall are you? If you are male, it's possible that you don't need to go lower in weight... especially if you've been building muscle.

Jay

I'm going to suggest your reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto. It's a bit detaily for most of us who are (so far) just interested in fat burning but in your situation ... I think it'll have wee tips and tweaks you might want to try.

Have you done any reading in the Weight Training threads?
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=80

it may seem weird but you may need to eat more? I know that sounds weird, but with as much of a work out you are doing..you actually may need more calories. Also..instead of straight cardio..try hitts but not necessarily running...you could do the elliptical if your body is hurting from running. For example...do 3 minutes at the highest intensity and then 1 min at a lower intensity. I firmly believe in interval training (like hitts running) however if running isn't working for your body..find other things. Also, if you like biking...how about spinning..that is biking to the EXTREME and will burn more calories. Its usually based on interval training. I think you just need to shake up your cardio and try differnt things.

I don't believe in any weight loss pills...most of them are just caffine based and can cause problems.
good luck!

Dear Jay

I'm 5' 7" and hence my ideal weight with the kind of frame I have would be around 158/164 lbs...and I do have fair amount of fat around my belly, love handles, my cheeks and neck. Trust me I do need to lose another 30lbs of fat to look lean and in shape. Since I've already tried going up in calories and zig zagging I'll consider what you said..will reduce my calorie intake to around 1500 for next one week and see if that works..

Dear SusanB

Thanks for the suggestion...that's an amazing book which my friend gifted to me 4 months back..and just after that I started weight training...I'm trying to do what Tom has emphasized upon..eating 6 times a day having 3 small meals and 3 snacks. Weight training is in, cardio is in..I fairly eat clean..though I can't go down on carbs (my intake is around 150-200 gms ) most of them comes from whole grains in forms of wholewheat Bread & Rice & Oats.

I've been following a lot of bodybuilding related threads at the Weight Training Area, I'll try posting my schedule over there and see if experts can recommend something to change it

Dear GatorgalstuckinGA

I'm keen on doing HIIT, I'm still doing steady state cardio till I recover from the soreness I got from my first attempt, what you've said makes lot of sense though..I'll try doing HIIT on my BIKE..(its not a stationary bike so I have to be careful).. I did tried going up on my calories but that didn't worked..though I didn't gained I didn't lose either so I think I'll go further down to 1500 cals now and see if that helps me.

I have given up the idea to take LIPO6 after your suggestions, now I have two more questions.

Is it advisable to do morning cardio after having a cup of black coffee ? I'm assuming that should give me the metabolic boost ..or I'm wrong here ?

I'm also planning to lower my cardio to 30/45 minutes, do you think that's enough ? Most of the posters here suggest 45 -60 minutes cardio, can I still lose weight if all I do is steady state cardio for 30/45 minutes ?

Hm. Everything I would normally suggest, you've tried. Here are my thoughts on what's left.

I would skip the pills. Like Hydroxycut and all the rest, all they are, are caffeine pills with some added herbs. Nothing that will work any miracles.

And at the level you're working out, I wouldn't drop calories. I didn't drop to 1600 until I'd gotten into the 170s and I'm 3" shorter than you are and wasn't working out nearly as much. (not that my experience is gospel, but I just think given your height, current weight, and level of exertion, eating 1500 calories will just make you hungry and miserable)

Have you considered that you might be overtraining? I'm normally reluctant to suggest that, because most people who say they're working out "a lot" really aren't. But it sounds like you might be, at 2 hours + of fairly intense exercise every day.

I also second the suggestion that you try HIIT again, doing something else than running. I do mine on the elliptical, but it would work on the bike as well. A 30 min HIIT cardio session would probably be more effective than 90 mins of ss-cardio at this point. See the thing about doing lots of ss-cardio is that when you do anything on a regular basis your body becomes more efficient at it - and when your body becomes more efficient, you burn fewer calories. Seems sorta counterproductive to become more efficient when it comes to that kinda thing, right?

Even so, 30-45 mins of ss-cardio should be sufficient. Although I'll caution that if you switch things up a lot, you may gain a few pounds back at first. I wouldn't worry about that and just try to power through it for several weeks if you can.

Also the coffee before you workout really doesn't have much effect. Studies I've read have shown that a dose of caffeine before working out CAN help boost your stamina and endurance ... the first few times. After that, your body becomes accustomed to the caffeine burst and it doesn't help any.

Honestly I think your body just needs a bit of a rest. That's my totally not-professional but lots of experience with stalls opinion.

.

rinku, do you know what your body fat percentage is? That also might have something to do with it.

Jay

This may sound odd- but biking may not be for you. When I do a lot of biking, I don't lose weight. I do, however, lose inches. Have you tried checking your measurements? I was exercising and losing weight consistently, then switched to biking for a couple weeks. As soon as I started biking, my weight loss totally stalled. Once I started the elliptical again, my weight started going down again. I was working just as hard, if not harder (judging by PRE and HR) I just didn't seem to lose weight. But then, hmm, my backend was starting to look different!

I also have a good friend that was training for an intense bike ride, and didn't lose any weight at all (this is a 100 mile mountain race with INTENSE training) It seems like biking doesn't always work for everyone as far as losing pounds goes...

You might wanna try a bike trainer stand? Or - even better - a spin class...

Dear Photochick,

Your suggestions as usual comes on time & with words of wisdom Thanks for all the knowledge & time you share on this board

I tried going up on calories however it didn't worked for me, the only thing I'm planning to try out now is going down on calories as Jay suggested, now REST is something I didn't counted in..I' get very less sleep say around 5 hours, with my work & personal life's schedule I can't sleep more than this much at least for now, though after reading your suggestion I'd try taking a few days break from everything and see if that can help me.

HIIT yes...I'd see if I can manage two sessions of it on elliptical in this week..I 'll weigh in now on Saturday to see its results and if this doesn't works..then I'm going on break for few days next week.

Dear Jay,

Honestly I don't have an idea about my body fat percent, though the pinch test reveals of lot of fat around my waist line I have not got it done using any kind of LBM calculating device. My Gym doesn't have it..looks like I gotta force them to bring it.

Dear Southlake,

Biking helped me to break my first plateau in September, I was stalled in between mid of August till Mid of September and then I started going down once the biking become a part of my routine so I believe that's not the cause for it.

Dear Gina,

Thanks...not Bike trainer Stand but I guess I'll have to start riding the bike uphills as you do...