Am I on a plateau?

For the past 3 weeks I've only been losing 1 lb per week, but my daily net calories after exercise has averaged a 1 calorie deficit per day (around 1200 calories). My recommended caloric intake to maintain my current weight of 170lbs (I'm 5'2) is about 2250 calories per day. A 1,000 calorie deficit per day equals a 7,000 calorie deficit per week. This should result in losing 2 lbs per week, but I'm only losing 1. Does this mean I'm hitting a plateau? If I eat my entire recommended caloric intake of 2250 for a couple weeks, would that reset my set point? I exercised everr single day last week and still only lost 1 lb. I can't exercise anymore than that.

Mon. Dec 12, 12:32pm

My first question is, where did you get the recommended caloric intake number? Unless it was from a nutritionist who did specific measurements on you to test your body composition, metabolism, etc., it's probably not entirely accurate.

A 1200 calorie diet, for a woman, is a pretty average diet intake, and should allow sustained weight loss at 1 or 2 lbs per week, depending on your metabolism, and where the calories came from (they're not all created equally) and how much you exercise. As long as you're constantly losing weight, I would say you're not at a plateau, your body is just processing food differently than you expect it to.

Check your food intake. Is it mostly carbohydrates? If so, they are the easiest for your body to turn to fat, so try substituting more proteins and healthy fats.

Are you exercising? If you increase your cardio, you'll burn more calories (even if it's just taking a longer walk). If you add some weight training and build muscle mass, you may not lose weight right away but your metabolism will increase - and your body fat will decrease as a result.

Also, are you doing strength training? If you are, you may be losing 2lbs of fat, but gaining 1lb of muscle, each week, or something similar to that. That's a good thing b/c muscle doesn't take up nearly as much room as fat, and every pound of muscle burns about 25 calories per day, so if you gain 4lbs of muscle, that's an extra 100 calories you burn every day, just sitting around doing nothing. So, over time, you'll be losing fat weight just by having the muscle weight!

Look into what you're doing and try to figure out what your body is telling you. As long as you're losing, you're not hitting a plateau. A pound a week is 52lbs a year - and that's a HUGE amount of space!!!

Monday, December 12, 2005, 12:50 PM

OP here...Yes I do 15-20 minutes of strength training about 3 times a week and I'm walking, doing aerobics, and or eliptical at least 3 times a week. I've thought about whether or not I'm putting on a lot of muscle, is it possible that I could put on 1lb of muscle every week with the amount of strength training and exercise I'm doing? Obviously it's hard for all of you to say for sure without knowing how much weight and reps I'm doing.
As for the type of calories, I'm eating more protein these days and watching my carbs.

I just feel like I'm only getting 1/2 the results I should be based on my activity level and diet. Yes I see progress, but not fast enough for the amount of work I'm putting into it.

Monday, December 12, 2005, 2:15 PM

This may sound weird

Try upping your calories to 1500/day for a week - see if you lose more. You may actually be eating too few calories and causing your body to hold onto weight. I was stuck at 159 for the longest time -- as soon as I upped my cals (and my protein to about 20% of my intake) I started dropping weight quickly. Also, the quality of the foods you eat matters - fat takes almost no energy to digest, while complex carbs and proteins take much more energy to digest.

Monday, December 12, 2005, 3:52 PM

If you're still losing, you're not on a plateau. A plateau is when you don't lose for several months in a row - not just two weeks or a short amount of time like that. And losing 1 pound a week is excellent - the slower you lose the weight, the more likely you will be to be able to keep it off.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 11:01 AM

Ok, to the 2nd poster - I would like to know where you got your info from? A 1200 calorie diet for women is not an average, most professionals recommend a 1500 - 1600 calorie balanced diet and even then it is based on each individual . And FYI while increasing your cardio will burn more calories it is strength training which will keep your metabolism moving throughout the day.
To the original poster - If you do the same routine try switching it up, add some small things in, change the order you do things. It could be your body just getting used to your routine and you need to change it to challenge your muscles. You can try increasing your calories but if your eating 1200 a day now I would only increase it by 200-300 more a day and see if that will jump start your body. I sometimes go through plateaus and stay there for a month or two but then suddenly boom 5 pounds is gone. As long as you aren't gaining I really wouldn't worry too much. Keep in mind if you are strength training you could still be losing fat but gaining muscle which is a good thing. So even though you don't see the scale going down you might be able to tell the difference in your clothes.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 11:15 AM

I'm the 2nd poster... I didn't say 1200 calories was an average intake for a woman, I said it was an average DIET intake for a woman. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear. Additionally, to quote myself, "If you add some weight training and build muscle mass, you may not lose weight right away but your metabolism will increase - and your body fat will decrease as a result."

Please don't be so harsh in your responses, especially when you haven't even read the posts!

After reading the remainder of your post to the OP, it appears as though you DID read my post, and insulted me by misquoting me, and then spitting back EXACTLY the same thing that I already said about muscle mass/weight gain!! Why be so petty?

Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 2:04 PM

For the OP

My guess would be that you're not eating enough. Our bodies get pretty testy if we restrict calories too much, especially if we ramp up the exercise. Many suggest not having more than a 500cal/day deficit to lose weight efficiently.

Try using a heart rate monitor or www.caloriesperhour.com to estimate the calories you're burning during workouts. Maybe add half of the calories you burn back into the 1200/day baseline you're using and see what happens?

Also, make sure you're getting enough healthy fat in your diet. That can slow you down considerably as well.

(for what it's worth, I've maintained an 80# loss for over 2 years now)

Link

Tuesday, December 13, 2005, 3:30 PM

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