diet plateau

Question
Hi!  I am looking for a little bit of help.  I am a 26 yr old female, who has been trying to loose weight.  Last May i was about 235 now am am about 193.  So far, so good.  The problem is, I have been stuck since about August.  I would like to loose around another 40,  I eat well about 90% of the time and exercise about 30-45 mins a day combo of hand wieghts and aerobics.  Last week I started in w/ 45 mins of yoga in the morn.  I have definately seen more toning and muscle over the past few months, but the scale hasn't budged.  I know it's not all about the scale, but I would like to see the numbers drop some more.  Any advice would be appreiciated.  Thanks!

Answer
Nancy,
Sometimes there is not much you can do about plateaus. They are a natural part of weight loss.  And yes, you are right in that it is not always about the scale!  Since you are building muscle, you are probably losing fat and inches but gaining some muscle, which tends to make the scale stick.  That is why using other methods to track your progress, such as body measurements, in addition to the scale is a good idea.  But just seeing your clothes fit better tells you that you are losing inches, which means fat!! If you are losing inches but gaining some muscle you just have to be patient with the pounds! They WILL eventually start to come off again.

As far as your eating, since I don't know anything about your intake it is hard for me to know if this has anything to do with your plateau!  But I can tell you that many people start off good and than as time goes by their portion sizes start to creep up ever so slowly and that can cause a plateau.  So look to see if you are eating the amounts you were at the beginning!!  It doen't take much to hault the weight loss. Keep a food diary for yourself for a few weeks to see what your food intake actually looks like and if you see any problems!

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water too!  It is perfect that you added something new to your exercise routine, because doing the same routine and not changing it up can cause a plateau.  You need to make sure you are using all of your different muscles.

If you are interested in having me look a little deeper into your eating plan, I do have services available that can help with that.  One service I have is completing a computerized nutritional assessment on a 3-day food diary you would keep and providing you with the results and recommendations from myself. It would uncover your actual calorie intake, fat intake, carbs, protein, etc... I can also develop individualized weight loss menus if you were interested.  You can check out my web site at www.Nutrifocus.net or email me at [email protected] if you have any questions about my services or are interested in any of them.

Just keep in mind how far you have come and the GREAT job you have done.  The most important part of plateaus is that you fight through them and NOT give up!!!
Thanks,
Kim Tessmer, RD LD
www.Nutrifocus.net  

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