Howdy all! I am sorry to add another plateau thread into the mix, but I am desperate for some advice!

So, I haven't lost weight since December. I've been essentially maintaining whilst eating 1200-1600 calories and doing some sort of exercise 6 days a week.

I tried limiting my calories to 1200 in Jan, that lasted for 3 weeks, with no change. At the moment, I'm a month into 1500 calories a day and I've still had no movement. Of course my weight fluctuates (159-156lbs), but I haven't had any downward movement from 156lbs for months, and I am starting to get concerned.

I do go to the gym 6 days a week - 3 days doing weights for 40mins, 3 days of 40-1hr cardio. I don't eat back my exercise calories, and I don't think that 1200 is appropriate for what I am doing. But, my body seems content to not lose on 1500 either.

This past week, my weight dipped down to 155, when I indulged in some chocolate after a particularly emotional day. I did a 5 mile run that morning, and I estimate that I had around 1700-1800 calories. But that loss was reversed two days later when I shot up to 157.

So, what do I do now?

My personal suggestion:

Since you're in your normal BMI range (you're not overweight anymore), losing the rest of the pounds is going to be tricky and it might require changing the composition of your macronutrients, rather than reducing your calories, necessarily.

The other thing I would recommend might be to change up your routine, to try something different than what you've been doing so far.

I have to play with my macronutrients to see a change in the scale. Although, I've been in my own plateau for a while now, I just haven't wanted to do the homework to figure it out. I'm just letting my body get used to this weight.

I'm stuck right now too

Rana, can you please explain what you mean by "changing the composition of your macronutrients?" I feel silly, but don't understand it. And I'll take all the advice I can here

The three macro nutrients are protein, fat, carbs.

Changing typically would mean decreasing carbs while increasing protein and/or fat with the idea being that lowering carbs can lower insulin levels and make fat mobilization easier.

Although in my opinion this is probably a case more of slow body recomp and water retention.

How accurate are you with your calories? Measuring vs eye balling vs weighing?

When you say you're eating 1200-1600 calories a day, that's a big range. Does that mean that you may only eat 1200 one day, then 1600 the next? If you weren't losing on 1200-1300 calories a day, I can guarantee you that you won't lose on 1600 a day. However, with this much variation in your daily diet, I would strongly recommend that you calorie-count what you eat for a week or so. If I had that much fluctuation in my dieting, I know I'd be eating more that I thought. Calorie-counting for a bit may show you if you're stalling in that department.

I initially was only eating 1900 calories or so a day and not losing. I lowered it to 1800 and still didn't see any results. It wasn't until I went down to 1600 a day that I began to see weight drop off. You need to find out what level you'll drop weight at. If it's at, say, 1200 calories a day, you'll know that if you increase that, you'll stall.

tricon7 - sorry, I should have clarified this more clearly. At the end of Dec, beginning of Jan I was eating around 1600 a day. Then I dropped that down to 1200, for 2 and a half weeks where I was extremely tired and gaining (this still baffles me). Mid Feb, I raised the calories up to 1500, where my weight has been pretty consistent.

JohnP - when I began in Aug of last year, I was definitely eyeballing. Now I am measuring.

So, I should focus on more protein, less carbs...?

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

what about following a zigzag for a while?

eg, if you're trying to maintain a 1600 calorie per day,

then try this:

monday - 1600
tuesday - 1300
wednesday - 2000
thursday - 1600
friday - 1500
saturday - 1800
sunday - 1600

you're still getting your 1600cal average per day in for the week but as you can see, your body will never know what to expect. eating 2000 cal will send your metabolism up high then the next day you're only eating 1600 - that gives double impact to the burn. also, because you are getting a couple days every so often where you are eating plenty, your body won't get into "starvation mode" and will be more likely to let go fat reserves because clearly there is enough coming in.

poor thing! i'm basically in the same place, except fluctuating between 150-146... but I understand how frustrating it is when you feel like you're doing everything right but NOTHING is happening. I am in that place where I keep doing the things I am doing because I think they are what will work eventually, but it is quite discouraging. I would love an update if you finally find something that works for you! hang in there!

Yep. Macronutrients are how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates you're consuming in a typical day.

For example, a food can have a combination of these -- chicken breast, for example, will have no carbohydrates, will have about 9 grams of protein per oz, and maybe 1 gram of fat. Green beans (1 cup) will have 5 grams of carbs and 1 gram of protein (yes, vegetables have protein!).

I look at my macros when I get too focused on my calories. It's easy for me to stay within my calories but not lose weight. When I look at WHAT I'm eating (twinkies or veggies?) I find that I lose when I'm eating my veggies and I plateau or gain when I'm the twinkies (I don't really eat twinkies, though, but general "junk").

The closer you get to goal weight, you'll have to find ways to tweak your body and you may end up eating cleaner than ever (less junk).

Oh I feel silly! That totally makes sense, and I've noticed the same thing about myself. For some reason I was thinking it was something way more complicated, thanks for explaining

I don't believe in starvation mode (lean gains has a good entry on this, I read other articles too, but this one explains it well). Its possible that you are either
1.) eating a lot of sodium (mind posting a few of your daily meals?)
2.) underestimating calories
3.) water retention which can due to nutrition - not necessarily sodium in your food, the anne collins website talks about this

Generally, my eating looks something like this:
Breakfast: either oats, or egg whites w/spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms
Morning Tea: coffee with a homemade banana (I make it myself- 2 eggs, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2cup honey, wholemeal SR flour, no butter, pecans and oats)
Lunch: grain bread w/avocado, tomato and tuna
Afternoon snack: if I have it a small granny smith apple or low fat yogurt
Dinner: salmon and stemmed broccoli, carrots, etc

I don't eat a lot of junk, the worst is properly my morning tea of a skim cappuccino and my banana bread... maybe that is a problem...

Rana - do you find tracking macro's harder or easier than tracking calories (do you track both at same time?)... information wise. I find that two sources can quote two different calorie content for some foods...

I do it at the same time and I'm currently using myfitnesspal.com (I used to be on Fitday.com). I do it at the same time as my calories and I like MFP.com for this because it tells me how much of each macro-nutrient I have left (or if I have gone over!). MFP.com lets you breakdown the percentages of each what you want to follow (you have to manually set this option). Right now, MFP.com is set for 40/30/30% because my nutritionist had recommended a different breakdown (50%/25%/25%) and that wasn't helping me lose (in fact, I think it was making me want to eat more!).

As for having different calorie counts... I've been doing this for a while so I have a sense (mostly from my experience at Fitday which I think was pretty accurate) about the foods I'm eating. But if I have doubts, I usually go with the higher calorie count! I also cross-reference with other sites for that same reason.

At the end of the day, you can drive yourself crazy trying to get the EXACT amount, but all of this is really trial and error trying to figure out what works for you at this moment in time (because later it may not work anymore!).

In terms of what you posted was a typical day, I think you're eating pretty healthy, maybe the issues are when you're eating off plan (you mentioned you had a lot of chocolate on a pretty emotional day). I do the same thing -- I eat pretty healthy, but then I go off plan and I retain the water from going off plan for a week! It's never worth it... but I still do it...

I've been trying to find other ways of coping (stress and boredom are my biggest issues) rather than with food. I can't exercise off what I eat when I go outside my plan, because my body chemistry is such that calories in/calories out doesn't work perfectly (have insulin resistance).

Eat at maintenance level for 2-3 days, then go back to dieting. It does the trick for me!