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Ask Fitness: I'm 10lbs away from my goal and I have been stuck at this weight for 2 years, how do I get past the plateau? : Fitness

This is a reddit for fitness tips and exercises.

If you're looking to get in better shape check here and post anything you find, please.

I'm 5'4, and about 127-130lbs (my fluctuations).

I lost about 30lbs rather rapidly about 3 years ago, but it's these last 10lbs that are stubbornly refusing to GTFO.

I'm eating between 900-1100 calories per day (same as when I lost the large chunk of weight) but I seem to get stuck anytime I go below 127lbs.

Anytime I cheat even a little bit on my calorie limit, I gain alot of weight back rather fast. Edit: I should clarify.

You guys are absolutely right, it's not the number that matters, it's how you feel.

For me it's more of the extra fat that I'm still carrying around in some parts.

Since I cannot spot reduce, I'm trying to figure out a decent way to reduce the weight overall and maintain it. I have to admit, when I first started losing weight, all I had to do was reduce my caloric intake and the pounds just melted off.

After awhile I added running a few miles a week to the schedule and that helped as well, until I reached my plateau.

I guess I am still using that same weight loss plan at my current state, but my body is too used to it and refuses to budge.

So am looking for any diet/exercise suggestions to get over this last hurdle, as I hear this is the hardest.

Any suggestions? And thanks to everyone who has replied, this is an awesome group!

Why do you need to be 120lbs?

Is this about the number or is there some aspect to your physique you're not happy with?

I couldn't agree with what I'm assuming is your philosophy more.

Weight is an atrocious judge of body type and physical condition.

As a personal trainer I strongly discourage weight goals because it's just a meaningless number.

You might as well try to lessen your phone number. The only people that should be worried about how much they weigh is high level athletes in sports that weight has some type of physics-based effect on performance.

You guessed correctly.

With three women in the house (wife & three daughters), I fight the stupid pursuit of numbers all the time. You might as well try to lessen your phone number. This is awesome.

:)

I assumed he was a jockey.

:)

Weight is a crappy judge of the shape you're in.

Stop weighing yourself and just be healthy.

I'm 6 foot 1 and 210 lbs, which is technically very "overweight" but I row 200,000 meters a week and run a 4:30 mile.

Weight is just the force you're putting on this planet.

It means nothing other than that. Edit: You're not eating enough calories.

You NEED to eat more. Also, muscle weighs a lot more (I think twice as much as) than fat.

So if you're building muscle you're going to weigh more than if you were just all fat even if you're a lot thinner.

But I row 200,000 meters a week Fuck.

200,000?! Really?

That's like 3 10k a day..

You must use much money on food :P

Yes, I am an expensive human to feed between that and lifting.

I'm not sure of my calorie count per day but I spend most of my day eating or thinking about eating lol. Generally, Monday, Wed, Friday I do around 50k of just steady state.

Pull hard but low stroke rate.

Tues, Thurs, Sat are go fast days with shorter workouts.

Sunday I either rest or do an extra low rate workout.

What do you do for a living?

College student, so I have a certain amount of free time on my hands.

I'm majoring in chemical engineering and physics though so sleep gets sacrificed often unfortunately.

For money I do personal training and coach swimming (but would rather have an internship this summer =/).

That's still a pretty impressive routine for a college student.

My hats off to you.

Depending on your pace, a 10k is 650+ Cal, so you're probably looking at 2k Cal just in rowing, or a pound of fat every other day.

Okay, from your edits - you want to lose some fat here and there.

Got it. Lift heavy things.

Put together a good weightlifting regimen and start working it if you're not already.

Upper body, back, abs, legs.

Make sure you include squats and swiss ball work. Also start a cardio regimen.

Since you're down to a few lbs of fat, mix it up - aerobics, walking, rowing, biking, swimming.

Keep your body off guard so it doesn't get into a rut and get all efficient on your ass. Building muscle will tighten things up and reduce the appearance of the fat you have.

Then it's just a matter of keeping calories burned higher than calories eaten.

(This will be tricky as you start working out - start a food log.

I love fitday.com because it's easy to use) I almost forgot - work on doing 100 pushups...

You know, I haven't tried weights yet.

I assumed none of my work with weights would show until I had reduced the fat but if it actually helps the weight-loss instead of just building muscle, I'm definitely going to add that in there.

And food log, yes, must start that again.

Thanks philoj!

How about you stop measuring success in pounds and switch to body fat percentage.

You have some number in your head that's ideal.

But your bathroom scale doesn't differentiate between pounds of fat vs pounds of muscle.

Do you have access to a rowing machine?

(I constantly recommend rowing in here, people are probably starting to hate me lol) Also, whenever I hit a plateau I change something drastic in my workout plan.

For example, my deadlift+squat stopped increasing so I changed from two muscle groups per day to one muscle group per day.

It's been like that for a month and my gains have stopped again so I'm taking a 3 day rest this weekend and then changing back to two muscle groups per day.

The body reacts well to large changes in your workouts.

Maybe if you always run you can do some e-bike or swimming (or rowing =)). Edit: During the off-season I use deadlift, squat, 2k test and 60 min tests to chart my progress.

I do worry about weight in season but that's just to make boats.

During the off season it's something I don't bother with. Good luck with losing that last little bit.

If you ever need anything feel free to PM me and I can give you my screenname or email address.

I wish I had a rowing machine, but the treadmill and elliptical are taking up space instead.

But I definitely agree, I'm going to have to change things up a bit as I hardly break a sweat anymore on either machine.

Thanks for the advice, I will keep you on speeddial :)

Http://www.concept2.com/

Since you only use weird units I don'r know if that's heavy or not, but have you considered that you reached your natural weight? Without having any proof, it seems like most people have a natural weight that's fairly easy to keep.

(or hard to deviate from) Me for example have been stable at around 76kg for 3 years (probably longer, but I've only measured for 3) and I eat whatever I want.

That calorie count seems really low.

I'm roughly your height and weight, and I consume double that... You say you've never done any work with weights, so I'd recommend you put some resistance training into your workouts.

Muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, so you burn more calories.

And as others have already mentioned, don't stress too much about the weight.

If you're strength-training, your weight may not drop but you'll look leaner, since muscle is more compact .

Two things to try: 1.

CrossFit. I'm not some CrossFit kool-aid drinker, but I thought I was in pretty good shape until I walked into a CrossFit class.

I went from good to great in about three months. Intermittent fasting.

Keep eating like you're eating now (you could even add 200-300 calories per day), but take 24-hour breaks (eat dinner one night, then only drink water until dinner the next night) twice per week (not in a row).

So I do Monday and Friday.

This system works great for me, and I have added muscle while doing it.

Can you explain the logic/biology/chemistry/whatever behind this?

I've never heard of doing this before.

What I really dont understand is how you're managing to add muscle during this.

Your body releases increased amounts of human growth hormone while fasting.

24 hours is not long enough to send the body into starvation mode.

Starvation mode happens when you've depleted the carbohydrate stores in your body and you start metabolizing protein (muscle) instead, which isn't what you want.

Fasting for 24 hours takes a load off your systems and lets everything rest.

I still workout regularly.

Brad Pilon, the originator of this eating approach, says that lifting weights is essential to this diet being successful. There's much more detail about the physiology in Brad's book.

It's available for $40.

Well worth the price. Disclaimer: I am not a health care professional, I'm just some guy.

I am not affiliated with Brad Pilon in any way, I just use and recommend what works for me.

I've been trying to bulk lately and am alarmed by what happens to my gut when i increase my calorie-intake beyond whats normal for me (but without the increased calories, my gains slow to a crawl).

Is this method useful for watching my belly while attempting to bulk?

Yes. It works great for that purpose.

Thanks alot, I'll pick this book up and give it a read.

Not to mention the human body was not designed for continuous 3 meals a day nutritional input.

The idea of eating square meals every day is a relatively new concept in human history.

You should always eat and eat enough to support a good workout. build muscle and cut back on the fat that way. i'd ask a professional, not reddit.

The same standard advice that has yet to work so far.

You don't and you can't.

Your body is programmed to stick around a certain weight.

You can't change millions of years of evolution. I'd recommend lifting weights.

You can't really change your weight permanently but you can change your density.

Nothing beats swimming.




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