I have plateaued and I need some advice!

[Venus_Blue]

Hi there guys, I started my weight loss journey about 3 years ago (October 2009) and I'm down from my original 198lbs to 127.4, so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself, I did it all through calorie counting (1200 a day) and occasional bouts of exercise. Over the past year I haven't been calorie counting as religiously as I did in the beginning but I know that for the most part I've always averaged on about 1000-1400 calories a day, barring special occasions!
However now I'm nearing my 115lb goal my weight loss has seriously slowed down and so it's back to carrying my food diary and a pen around, I've been back on this properly for about two months with regular weight ins and I've started a pretty good exercise regime, but I'm now only really losing about 1lb every fortnight, if not I maintain. Where I'm now a relatively healthy weight for my height (5'1) I'm not hoping for the 2-3lb weekly loss I had in the beginning, but I'm really aiming for about 1lb a week, and I'm wondering if this is because my body has metabolised and gotten used to the low calorie intake, as it's been roughly the same for the past 3 years.
Ideally I want to have hit my goal at about July, and so my question is this; if I keep up my exercise regime, but slowly bump my calories up to 1600-2000ish every day, keep that up for a month or so, and THEN drop my calories back down to about 1000-1200, will this kickstart my weight loss again? Or if I'm completely wrong about this, what can I do to push past this plateau? Thanks in advance for any advice, and sorry for the essay of a post xx.

 

[goodthingsinsmallpackages]

I'm not really sure as I didn't plateau but I'm 5ft exactly and I if I don't exercise then 1200 calories is only 250 calories below my maintenance calories which would put me at 0.5lbs loss a week or 1lb a fortnight.

Some people plateau if they don't eat enough calories (advised at 1200 minimum net, so eating back all exercise calories if you're only eating 1200 a day)

I think for your height and weight now then 1lb a fortnight is very very normal, you may find you struggle to lose more at this point whatever you do.

When I was losing my last stone some weeks I was losing 1lb, some 0.3lbs and some nothing at all. It took me 7 months to lose the last stone with eating 1200 a day. I lost the first 4.5 in 4 months! That was on a vlcd though.

 

[Venus_Blue]

Blimey you've done amazingly! I never eat back my exercise calories, but I'll try to start doing that and see if it makes a difference. I do struggle to meet my 1200 allowance sometimes, and on average I burn off about 600 calories every day - the idea of eating what is technically 1800 every day seems insane to me .

 

[goodthingsinsmallpackages]

Thank you, it was all worth it.

I would suggest trying to up calories or at least eat back the majority of your exercise calories.

I love the days I can eat more now but was terrified when I first started doing it.

You may gain the first week as your body will want to hold on to the extra you're giving it but after a couple weeks it should start to shift again.

My weight now fluctuates between 112lbs and 115lbs, usually at 113lbs. I don't want to keep changing my stats so I have put it as the average lol.

I think I am more obsessive now I'm maintaing than I was losing as when I was losing it was easy. I haven't gained yet but it's always in the back of my mind. As long as I stay at or below my goal weight I'm ok

 

[Venus_Blue]

I weighed in today at 125.6 so I don't know what happened there that gave me a 1.8lb loss in a week, but yesterday was the first day I ate back my E.C. so maybe someone's trying to tell me something . I'm going to try and up my daily allowance to about 1400 and definitely eat back my calories, if I burn off 600 a day as usual on 1400 I'll at least try and eat back up to 1200, I suppose in retrospect I was only surviving on 600 a day and even I realise that's no good. Thanks so much for your advice.

 

[goodthingsinsmallpackages]

No worries. I'm glad it's moving for you again.

If you're anything like me (being a shorty) keeping it at 1200 should be fine as long as you eat back most of those exerice calories

 

[tome]

As you get nearer your target weight it is going to get harder to lose the weight. Maybe try calorie cycling,but your current weight loss is reasonable.