Hi Everyone,

First off, let me say how much respect I have for all of you who have worked so hard to be healthier and lose weight and have kept if off....I hope to be the same way soon!

Ok, now for the question/suggestion part; I am a 25 y/o stay at home mom of an almost 2 year old boy. I have lost 16 lbs up to this point, it's taken me about 2.5 months to do so. I started out weighing 190.5 and now I am 174 lbs and I am 5'3 with a medium build (w/ a extra large bust). I have been eating anywhere from 1400 to 1800 cals per day and I usually fluctuate my caloric intake to keep my metabolism up. I don't eat snacky type foods at all.....it's all lean protein, low fat dairy, whole grain carbs, veggies & fruit. Once a week I eat a dessert type food, but I do figure it into my calories per day. I exercise every weekday (so, 5X times per week). My exercise consists of 45 min. of cardio, sometimes speed walking and other days Tae Bo videos, so I burn anywhere from 400 to 800 cals per day w/ exercise. Here's my problem......for the last 4 weeks, I have been at a total stand still -not losing, not gaining, just staying the same. I have no idea why I am maintaing if I have a calorie deficit of at least 900 cals per day with eating less and exercise combined. Any suggestions of what I might do to get the weight off again? I know right now I could afford to drink a few more glasses of water per day, but that's all I can come up with.

Thanks for any words of wisdom or knowledge you can give!
Melanie

Hey there, MelD! Welcome to Maintainers -- stick around and keep posting -- you don't need to be at goal to post here, ya know.

A few thoughts on your plateau:
First of all, forget all the calculators that purport to tell you how many calories you need per day and how many you're burning and what kind of deficit you're creating. They're all averages AND they're all going to give you different numbers. Many of us here at Maintainers find them to be (often grossly) inaccurate. It can be incredibly frustrating to be expecting to lose or feel that you've EARNED 'X' pounds off per week and it doesn't happen. You start to feel like a failure or just throw in the towel since 'I did everything right and it doesn't work'.

Your body will lose at its own pace -- it doesn't care what some formula says that it should theoretically lose. Some weeks you might lose five pounds - some weeks zero. During the year that I was losing weight, I had a 17 pound month and a four pound month, back to back, without changing anything that I was doing.

I talked to a researcher who said that plateuas are frequently a result of cells being emptied out of fat and being filled with WATER. Until your body dumps the water, your weight will remain the same, although in reality you've lost the fat ... it just isn't showing up on the scale yet.

So ... patience!!! This is for the rest of your life, so what's the hurry? The weight WILL come off and you WILL reach your goal -- so what if it happens this month or not until next year?

In addition to patience, I do have a suggestion for a change that you can make -- add some resistance training to your exercise routine! From what you described, your exercise is all cardio, which is great for calorie burning and a key component to any exercise program But now it's time to build some muscle, both to boost your metabolism and to look lean and tight and defined when you reach your goal.

You see, muscle is the calorie burner in your body. Every pound of muscle that you have burns something like 20-25 calories per day. When you diet without doing weight/resistance training to maintain your muscle mass, studies show that up to half of the weight that you lose is muscle. Net result? Your metabolism slows down because you're burning fewer calories with your reduced muscle mass. And a slower metabolism can cause a weight loss stall.

The only way to increase your metabolism is to add some muscle with resistance training. But you won't get bulky, I promise! Muscle is about 1/3 the size of fat, so losing fat and gaining muscle will give you a much smaller, tighter body. Check out this picture of five pounds of fat vs. five pounds of muscle and you'll see the difference.

Have you ever lifted weights? Do you belong to a gym? Have any strength training videos and dumbbells at home? Hop on over to the Ladies Who Lift forum and check out the stickys there for some great ideas about starting with weights.

Stayed tuned and I'll bet you get some more good ideas from the gang.

Thanks, Meg! Very great wisdom, I appreciate it. I guess I just wanted to know if I was doing something wrong or needed to change something, but your "patience" remark hit home.......that is something I need to get better at. Also, I very much have wanted to lift weights, but I don't belong to a gym (the memberships are to pricey for our means) and the only time I have to exercise is during my son's nap each day, so I figure cardio is pretty important to fit into the small amount of time I have......I have also been told that with Tae Bo you are doing cardio and resistance training at the same time and I have noticed my muscles are more firm after doing it. I do, however, have 8 lb weights sitting in my garage. If I can figure out what exercises to do with them, I am sure I could do it 3 X per week after the baby goes to sleep at night. Anyone have a good starting weight training plan I could do with 8 lb weights? I am all ears!

Krista has a page about resistance training with household items. My daughter does squats with a backpack full of books.
www.stumptuous.com
Click on "Iron".

MelD (got to keep you separate from that other Mel ), if you're willing to add a pair of 5s and 10s to your DB collection, I promise that tonight or tomorrow I'll post two complete DB workouts for you that I've done for clients.

I'm not all that familar with Tae Bo -- does it use some kind of resistance, like resistance bands or weights? Otherwise, it counts as cardio (but awesome cardio!)

Good for you for fitting your exercise in around nap times and bed times! That, my dear, is dedication!

You don't have to belong to a gym to do weight training. I think that when you're just learning, a good video is the way to go, because you need to learn form, not just "exercises." I am a big fan of Kathy Smith's Lift Weights to Lose Weight series because her routines are efficient and well-designed, and she's a stickler for form. If you want to go the do-it-yourself route, check out www.stumptuous.com/html, she has LOTS of tips and instructions for doing workouts at home, some quite innovative.

Hi MelD
I'd definitely add some resistance training to your exercise. As you lose weight, unless you are actively trying to build muscle, anywhere from 25-60% of your scale weighloss is muscle loss That muscle burns calories, so you are losing part of your body that keeps your metabolism humming along.

When I first started weight training, I used my coffee table as a weight bench, had 5, 8 and 10 pound dumbbells, and empty milk jugs that I filled with water. You can buy resistance bands at Walmart or just about anywhere else for less than $10.00. They make a great addition to a home workout.

Mel

I definitely agree with Finniegrrl's recommendations about the Stumptous site and weight lifting videos.

Here are two full body DB workouts for you to try at home, with some links to exercise demos. Pick a weight that lets you do 12-15 reps but that challenges you. Don't be afraid to increase your weights as you get stronger!

DB Workout #1

Legs
Alternating lunges
Stiff legged deadlifts
Plie squats

Back
One arm row

Chest
DB press

Shoulders
Front raises
Side raises

Bi’s
Curls

Tri’s
Lying extensions


DB Workout #2

Legs
Squats
Reverse lunges
Step ups on a bench

Back
Pullovers (ExRx.net calls it a chest exercise but I've always heard it referred to as a back exercise and that's what I use it for)

Chest
Pec flyes

Shoulders
Overhead press
Upright rows

Bi’s
Hammer curls

Tri’s
Overhead extensions

Hi Meg,

These look like awesome workouts! Thanks for taking your time to post those for me, I SO appreciate it. Off the top of your head, do you know an estimate of how long one of these workouts should take? I am only asking because I want to be able to add it to my existing cardio workout. Also, how would you rotate these and how many times per week would you recommend I do them? I was thinking every other day I could switch off between the 2, is that reasonable (so, 3 or 4 X per week)? I truly appreciate your willingness to help me

Take Care,
Mel

P.S. I lost 1.5 lbs this week, not that it's a big loss, but I have been noticing I don't feel as flabby, so I am hoping it was 1.5 lbs of mostly fat - yeh! Almost to the 20 lb mark

Hi,

I am a newbie here, but I saw your post and wanted to respond. I had exactly the same problem. I was doing the elliptical trainer 3-4 times a week for an hour, and weights 2-3 times a week. My trainer told me to “scramble” my exercise. I did ONLY weights for 1 week, then ONLY 20 minutes of cardio the next. The third week was a mix of 20 minutes cardio and weights. By the Fourth week you should be back up to 40 minutes cardio and weight 2-3 times a week. She told me that our bodies get used to the level of exercise we do, and if it is predictable your metabolism slows down to account for it. To that end, she suggested “mixing it up” regularly. i.e. 40 speed walking one day, maybe 20 of Elliptical the next, maybe weights and a bike ride the next. Mixing up the amounts of time spent on each exercise was as important as changing exercise. She also reminded me to keep working harder, and when lifting to keep adding weight or reps to make the workouts more challenging. Hope this helps. It did for me.

unionchick

I did the first weight routine today and it kicked bootie! I did 3 sets X 12 reps for each exercise, although I had to do make shift exercises for the one's when you are lying on a bench as I don't have one. It took me about 40 minutes. Thanks again, Meg.

Unionchick - Good advice! I will definitley keep mixing it up in order to keep my metabolism guessing.

So glad you like the workout, MelD! Do you have a coffee table or something like that to use as a homemade bench?

I was going to say that each workout should take about 30-40 minutes, and it sounds like that's pretty much how long it took for you. Three times a week should be plenty to start, since they're both full body workouts. You can alternate them on the days that you do weights -- just be sure to leave a day between weight workouts for muscle recovery. So you could workout M-W-F or T-Th-S or whatever suits your schedule.

Congrats on the scale going down and I know that weights are going to be a great addition to your exercise routine. Be sure to come back and let us know how it's going!!

I would just like to say that you can use a stability ball as a bench for the exercises Meg has suggested too. If you don't already have one you can get them at Walmart and they are not terribly expensive and very light to move around. I just luv doing crunches on it too.

I use a body ball for my weights. I think it ran around $9 at Wal*Mart IIRC. I also use one for modified pushups, crunches, etc. It seems to really help strengthen the back as well.

Now I use it for a chair at the computer until my son decides to make his appearance into the world...since he's now on his third day overdue. ::sigh::

Hey Ladies,

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually have one of those balls already (from my pregnancy a few years back) but because it was deflated in the garage I didn't even think about it as an option! Thanks so much for refreshing my memory - that should work really well!

Blessings,
Melanie

P.S. Meg - I think I may have overdone the leg portion of the workout - it's going on day 3 and I am just able to start moving my legs like a normal person - ha ha ! Yesterday I could barely get up stairs or into the car because my muscles were SO sore & going to the bathroom was a bit of a challenge - I will be lucky if I can do my cardio today. I'm such a dork, I always do things gung ho, but now I know I need to take this one step at a time!