Weight loss stalled - How to kick start

[cassgate]

Hi,

After some advice. Have been on a diet since June. Needed to lose a stone. Have lost 9-10lbs so far however I have been swinging between 9st 7 and 9st 6lbs for about 3 weeks now. I am logging all calories on mfp and am sticking to 1200 cals monday to friday and about 1500 cals at the weekend. I exercise 5 days a week either shred, ripped or BFBM and I dont eat any extra cals on those days. Really dont know what to do now. Dont want to reduce cal intake further as I dont think I could sustain it. I have heard that increasing cal intake for a short time say a week or so and then reducing back down again can shock the metabolism back into life but I dont know if its just an old wifes tail or not. Anyone have any thoughts.

Thanks

Sarah

You should try intermittent fasting, basically a couple of days a week where you eat no more than 500 cals which most people do in one meal. Worked for me in same situation as you and am now 9st 2

I agree with the fasting or the increase. Just changing things seems to make a difference. When I was losing weight if I stalled, I found both effective for moving the scales.

Watching with interest. I have stalled at 11 st 2lbs. Like you, I am on 1200 calories per day, logging everything on mfp.

Why does this happen? I worked out that my body uses about 1400 calories, even if I did nothing (basal metabolic rate?) and needs 1700 to maintain this weight. Surely, by eating no more than 1200, there should be no option but to lose weight.

I'm stumped too. I guess the calorie requirements aren't as static as perhaps we think they are?
I found that if I just didn't eat one day, or if I indulged myself, I would drop more the following week. I also noticed that my weight loss took on a very definite pattern, I would lose a pound or two, then lose part of a pound, then gain a pound or stay flat, then the third week, loose two or three pounds. ( I was doing WW). It didn't seem to matter that my routine was always the same, my weight loss wasn't.

Then every once in a while I would either eat too little/overexercise (I once walked for two hours at the gym because I was watching "the Princess Bride.") or if I would go have a really high calorie dinner, the weight pattern would break.

But it would resume the stair stepping pretty quickly.

Sounds crazy but the best thing to do when you plateau is too eat 300-400 more calories for 2-3 days then go back down to your normal diet calories.

Eating more for a few days allows the body to realise you are not starving it, it doesn't have to preserve fat and when you revert back to Low calories you should lose weight again.

I would not fast. There is no way you should eat 500 calories for a day or two. It really isn't healthy.

Google Gillian from 30 day shred, she gives good advice about upping your calories to break a plateau

So hard to make yourself go over the allowed calorie limit. Am scared I will blow it completely and gain a stone overnight!

If you normally eat 1400 calories a day, try eating 1900 for 2-3 days. That's still 100 under the daily allowance for a female and as I said it takes 3500 extra calories to gain 1 pound!