Start : 286 (12/31)
Goal : 230

January - 278 - 17 workout hours
February - 271 - 13 workout hours
March - 263 - 21 workout hours
April - 259 - 18 workout hours


5/5 : 255, was not able to hit the gym because of illness
5/11 : 254 - 4.5 workout hours

I officially hit a plateau so looking for some advice. I've been lurking on this thread for a while but didn't start recording my progress until about half way through the diet change. I didn't weigh myself at my heaviest last year, but I was likely up to 245-250.

I started doing cardio and strength training regularly last summer. Felt a lot stronger and clothes were fitting "a bit" better but no huge improvements. Maybe dropped 10 lbs in 6 months.

Near the end of the year, I read "Bigger, Leaner, Stronger" at the suggestion of someone on this very board, and that book clicked with me. Got a proper smart scale, food scale, and downloaded MyFitnessPal. My first weigh-in on the smart scale had me at ~230.

I've continued with the strength training, following the BLS Program pretty faithfully (not that different from Starting Strength and Strong Lifts 5x5 for those not familiar with it). At the same time, I really started to focus on running an aggressive calorie deficit (25%). For me, that's about 2000 calories a day that I can consume. Even though the weekends aren't always great, I am staying under that on average.

My original goal was to be down to 220 for a family cruise we took in February. It was actually some old pics of me on a previous vacation that inspired this change in the first place. Couldn't believe how out of shape I looked. Anyway, I hit that goal just in time for the trip. Through a mixture of IF, staying off the beer, and eating reasonably clean on the cruise, I managed not to gain a ton of that weight back (2 lbs total I think).

My goal after the trip was to get down to 200 for the Summer. I dropped another 10 lbs pretty quickly after the trip, but have been hovering in that 210-ish range for a while. I'm doing morning cardio ~5-6 day/week and working out 4-5 days/week. As I mentioned, I'm still averaging under 2,000 calories per day, so I can't quite figure out why the weight loss has stagnated. I've read stories about your metabolism "adjusting" for your caloric deficit, but studies seem to show that the effect is fairly minimal at the levels I'm operating at.

What do you think a good strategy will be to get rid of those next 10 lbs? Stay the course or try something different?

I've been charting my TDEE with a spreadsheet (from Reddit but found here as well), and it shows my TDEE staying pretty steady based on calories in and weight, so that doesn't seem to be the issue.

Don't the TDEE calculators adjust based on how much weight you are losing? If you aren't losing weight it won't adjust. I've used them before but not recently and didn't really understand all the moving parts so I may have the wrong idea.

When you say you do cardio every morning how intense is it? I would focus on really pushing your heart rate during cardio and see what that does for you.

well I was losing weight for the past 4 months or so. The plateau has been a couple weeks.

I kind of overlooked an obvious strategy to try and plow through the plateau...IMF!

I'm going to try an 16/8 for a couple weeks to see if that can knock me out of this funk.

I'll report back.

I ran my first 5K yesterday and finished! Super pumped.

Plateauing weight-wise and have been all week. I think pushing my body with finishing up training for the 5K has just left it really exhausted so I'm going to give the plateau another week before freaking out.

Start : 233.4

January - 229.9 - 10 runs, 78.9 miles, 11:31 pace (5:07 marathon pace)
February - 224.8 - 14 runs, 77.6 miles, 11:25 pace (5:04)
March - 219.4 - 16 runs, 86.1 miles, 10:52 pace (4:50)
April - 214.6 - 10 runs, 55.9 miles, 11:43 pace (5:12)

5/6 - 211.1 - 1 run, 3.1 miles, 9:25 pace (Chuck Norris 5k - 29:10)
5/13 - 213.7 - 1 run, 4 miles, 10:25 pace
5/20 - 214.8 - 3 runs, 14 miles, 11:09 pace (4:57)

Been slacking the last few weeks. I got pretty sick the last month of April/ first month of May which caused me to lose around 8 pounds from 214 -> 206 (not in a good way) and I fell a little off the wagon the last few weeks both in terms of running and diet. Time to get back on the grind.

Haven't check in in just over a month. 185.8 today. I've been on the road for work the past 3 weeks, so I'm pretty damn happy that I maintained.

A trip to NOLA this weekend and I should be home free.

Stupid two week plateau is finally broken!!!! 215.7 on the scales this morning.

jopatura said:

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Stupid two week plateau is finally broken!!!! 215.7 on the scales this morning.

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congrats. Plateaus suck!

Officially snuck past the 25 lb mark today!

Start : 286 (12/31)
Goal : 230

January - 278 - 17 workout hours
February - 271 - 13 workout hours
March - 263 - 21 workout hours
April - 259 - 18 workout hours


5/5 : 255, was not able to hit the gym because of illness
5/11 : 254 - 4.5 workout hours
5/18 : 254 - 3 workout hours
5/25 : 247 - 5 workout hours

I noticed that my weight loss will slow for a couple of weeks and then one week I will lose alot of weight.

184.1 yesterday. Drove from dfw to Nola last night. Just ate 7lbs of crawfish at in laws. I'll gladly take any increase on the scales that appears.

Been off the wagon big time. Lost 10 lbs fast and easy at the beginning of the year and then got derailed and now it's all back.

Strategy is in place to get back on track for good. Now it's time to execute.

5/27: 194.6

Have been travelling, so happy still making progress.

Diggity said:

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I officially hit a plateau so looking for some advice. I've been lurking on this thread for a while but didn't start recording my progress until about half way through the diet change. I didn't weigh myself at my heaviest last year, but I was likely up to 245-250.

I started doing cardio and strength training regularly last summer. Felt a lot stronger and clothes were fitting "a bit" better but no huge improvements. Maybe dropped 10 lbs in 6 months.

Near the end of the year, I read "Bigger, Leaner, Stronger" at the suggestion of someone on this very board, and that book clicked with me. Got a proper smart scale, food scale, and downloaded MyFitnessPal. My first weigh-in on the smart scale had me at ~230.

I've continued with the strength training, following the BLS Program pretty faithfully (not that different from Starting Strength and Strong Lifts 5x5 for those not familiar with it). At the same time, I really started to focus on running an aggressive calorie deficit (25%). For me, that's about 2000 calories a day that I can consume. Even though the weekends aren't always great, I am staying under that on average.

My original goal was to be down to 220 for a family cruise we took in February. It was actually some old pics of me on a previous vacation that inspired this change in the first place. Couldn't believe how out of shape I looked. Anyway, I hit that goal just in time for the trip. Through a mixture of IF, staying off the beer, and eating reasonably clean on the cruise, I managed not to gain a ton of that weight back (2 lbs total I think).

My goal after the trip was to get down to 200 for the Summer. I dropped another 10 lbs pretty quickly after the trip, but have been hovering in that 210-ish range for a while. I'm doing morning cardio ~5-6 day/week and working out 4-5 days/week. As I mentioned, I'm still averaging under 2,000 calories per day, so I can't quite figure out why the weight loss has stagnated. I've read stories about your metabolism "adjusting" for your caloric deficit, but studies seem to show that the effect is fairly minimal at the levels I'm operating at.

What do you think a good strategy will be to get rid of those next 10 lbs? Stay the course or try something different?

---

Ashwagandha. 10 lbs from now, maybe you'll stop calling me an idiot. Either way, hope it works for you. I've lost 15 lbs and 2.5 inches off my waist in the past year, 170 down to 155. Lost nothing the prior 6 months. Also taking moringa with it. It's not magic or some amphetamine; you combine it with your hard work.

can't help it

214.0 pounds on the nose. Erased my small Memorial Day gain.

Still aiming for 211 by mid-June. It'll be close.

Getting back at it. New lows coming soon.

Bounced up a bit this weekend (drank beer the last couple of nights after packing/moving). 186 this AM but I'm not concerned about the gain from 184.

However, got my blood work back from last week's annual. Liver enzymes previously well over the high end of normal and they're now right in the middle of the normal range.

B/w losing weight from food and cutting back on alcohol, I'm really happy to see those #'s back to normal.

I'm still waiting for them to enter my lipid panel. I'll report back once that is online.

My first goal was to weigh at least 211.5 or lower by my birthday on Monday. I weighed in at 211.2 this morning!!!

Now I'm going to Vegas for a week on Monday and probably erasing that but I saw the number I wanted at least!

AWESOME JOB!!!!

Gordon McKernan said:

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• Eat and drink less.... I have always worked out a lot. I just have a unhealthy relationship with food and routinely binge eat at night. Also drinking too much. Not going to get super strict with a meal plan but my main strategy is to stop drinking in non-social settings. Stop late night binge eating when i am not even hungry. I do need to get back into running again as I haven't ran much in the last two months.

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I did good in January and then up until the last month or so I had stayed pretty steady in the high 190's.

Overall throughout the year I have drank significantly less than I was in 2018. For the most part, only in social situations and then instead of having ~10 beers maybe i'll only have 5.... My late night binge eating was pretty bad for a while which was keeping the weight on. The last month+ I have basically stopped all after dinner eating and the weight has been dropping quite fast.

Unfortunately one of the main contributors to me eating less is I picked up dipping again. I hadn't dipped for over 5 yrs (5 yrs ago I also weighed 175-180), but thought I could get away with doing it here and there but it has crept back into a full-blown thing again. Once the kids are asleep I put my nightly dip in until I go to bed rather than raid the pantry...

So, the weight loss is nice, but now I have another bad habit I'll have to eventually deal with again.

Down to 193.

6/17: 198.8 Put on a few lbs from work travel the past few weeks.