Weightloss stalling

[Elmo230885]

I've been taking it steady since September and have been losing about 2lb per week. Some weeks it's been a little more and over Christmas I had two weeks where I maintained but didn't lose any weight. I've been happy with my progress and it feels sustainable. I fit clothing better and feel like I look better. I do, however, have more to loose.

In the last 3-4 weeks I've hardly lost anything. I've been tracking calories and have upped my exercise but I seem to be stuck.

Any tips on kickstarting my weightloss again?

As you get lighter, your body needs fewer calories to function and burns fewer calories from exercise too. My fitness tracker logs that I only burn 2/3 of the calories I burned at my heaviest (2 stone heavier).

2lbs a week since September is a great loss, but I would expect it to slow down now.

Apparently it’s completely normal to plateau for a while, although I understand the frustration. From what I read, if you’ve been exercising, your leaner muscles and lower body weight will mean your body is more efficient at burning energy, so unfortunately you need to drop the calories slightly, or do more exercise to achieve the same rate of loss.

I’ve found this myself recently, so I’ve been upping my efforts at the gym both in time and resistance levels and the weight is on the move again. There’s also some research on metabolism-boosting foods such as green tea, also upping your protein and increasing water.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies.

You are right I'm definitely frustrated at the moment. I have slipped a bit with the amount of water I'm drinking so I need to get that back up.

I'll have a look at my diet and reduce it a bit more. I'm a bit scared that reducing too much isn't sustainable and terrified that I'll pile weight back on if I start eating more.

How many calories are you aiming for each day?

How far off your target are you? What’s a typical day’s eating?

I wouldn’t necessarily go lower on calories if it doesn’t seem sustainable but instead look to build in exercise that will change how your body looks. When I had a pt I lost almost nothing (I was already fairly slim) but went down more than a dress size and looked the best I ever have. I miss her. You could think about measuring rather than weighing.

Generally between 1200 and 1600 each day. ( some days it's been less, occasionally a little more ).

Exercise- I do yoga at home 4/5 times per week ( a short session ). Boxercise weekly with one or two cardio/Hiit/etc workouts at home via YouTube on top. I completed C25K before Xmas but between the slippy pavements, storms etc I've not been able to run where I am safely for a few weeks so I swapped running for the home workouts. I'm hoping to start running again soon.

I'm not sure what my target weight is I was hoping to just see the numbers go down and I have been noting changes to my body.

Don't go too low on calories, just check what your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is at your current rate (that's the calories you'd need to stay the same weight if you did absolutely nothing all day, just sat on the sofa or lay in bed). Don't go under that - you definitely need to eat slightly more than your BMR if you're exercising even when trying to lise 2lb per week - but use it as a starting point to think about what you want to do.

Additionally I've found changing when I eat very useful - if my weight loss stalled I could change my intermittent fasting hours about (for example I prefer eating my first meal at lunchtime and main meal in the evening, but every so often switching for a few days or a week to eating my first meal at 10am and main meal as a late lunch) and see it start again without reducing the amount I ate.

Similarly changing the sorts of food helped if I'd got into a rut - no matter whether I changed from porridge oats to fried eggs for my first meal of the day or vice versa, if I'd got into a fixed habit for a number of months completely changing that helped without needing to actually reduce amount eaten.

Good luck!

www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ There are lots of BMR calculators online but this is one. You need to eat slightly over your BMR unless you're catatonic!

Thankyou all for the advice. I think I'm just having a bit of a down day today.

Back on it tomorrow x

Weightloss plateaus are a totally normal, but frustrating, part of losing weight. This article is an interesting read, it explains why plateaus are essential to sustainable weightloss:

www.secondnature.io/guides/mind/motivation/weight-loss-plateaus-explained?campaignid=1672324033&adgroupid=135525453760&adid=580225069890&gclid=CjwKCAiAx8KQBhAGEiwAD3EiP-ycr-jjY3lEpZIM4SFWCnTmhnc6fhGjNE7hEigmxJLF1VAl342jchoCZ2cQAvD_BwE

Here’s a link to a guide on how to break through a weightloss plateau from the same source

www.secondnature.io/guides/mind/motivation/overcome-weight-loss-plateau

Thanks 😊

I have read the articles about weightless stalling and it does seem like I've hot one-off the setting points.
I thought I'd give intermittent fasting a chance, as suggested by a PP. It seems to be help a little over 1kg has come off this week.
Looking at the pattern it seems that my losses slow around the time of ovulation (I have cramps and nausea at that time, but have zero symptoms during my.period bizarrely).
I'm going to continue intermittent fasti g until next Sunday. Then we are on holiday for a week so I'm not calorie counting, I'll just nit be a porky pig face and be happy we'll be doing lots of swimming, walking etc

Thank you all for the advice