Plateauing

I feel like I'm kind of hitting a plateau. I have stayed about the same for the past 6 days. I was wondering if anyone else has plateaued and what kind of things they do to help get out of it?

I felt like I plateaued after reaching my first milestone and I knew I had a ton more weight to lose. I still walked but I cut down the walking to 1 hour a day well I wasn't losing weight at all. I had to add more things like dancing. I always wanted to learn how to dance anyway. I'm not sure if it's an option for you but I got an Xbox Kinect and that has Dance Central. Awesome game! Just add something you want to do anyway and watch the scale move down.

Cheers

Thanks, I got zumba for the wii and have just been half way doing it. I agree I think amping up the exercise is going to be key right now. I wish I had a connect. Maybe I could get Just Dance and try that.

Six days is not a plateau. Six weeks is a plateau. Just keep at it & you'll be fine.

Thanks I just want so badly to hit my first goal.

This may not be what you want to hear, but realistically you can't lose 86 lbs without plateauing at least once. The sooner you accept it as a natural part of long-term weight loss, the better off you'll be. I've run into several myself & guess what, none of them lasted forever. I always viewed them as a test; I was being tested to see if I'd really stick to the lifestyle I committed to even if the scale didn't back me up on it.

Of course you want to meet your goals, that's why all of us are here. We are all frustrated & impatient at times. I found that when I let go of the notion of "ok, now I'm finally ready to lose weight so I want it to happen right now" & acknowledged that I can't reach my goal overnight, I was much better off mentally. There were times I had to block out my goal altogether because it was too overwhelming, & instead focus on the dozens of little milestones along the way.

My entire progress has really been a series of 2-5 lb losses. Right now I'm working on losing the last 4.6 lbs of the weight I gained last week on vacation. I'm not even thinking about my goal weight right now. Once I lose that 4.6 (which WILL happen eventually as long as I stay on track), I'll be working on dropping 3.4 more lbs to get me to my next multiple of 5 (80 lbs lost). Then after 5 more I'll celebrate 85 lbs lost. Then after 2 more I'll celebrate hitting the 220s. You get the idea.

Narrow your focus & don't panic. You can do this as long as each & every day, you make food & exercise choices that will get you moving in the right direction. The scale will fluctuate up & down so don't let that discourage you. If you find that it does, stop weighing daily & go to weekly instead. Daily weighins are not an accurate measure of FAT loss, only gravitational weight. From day to day we carry different amounts of fluid in our bodies & other things like digestion can play a role too. It's not a big deal.

You can do this.

I totally agree with Kat. I just recently broke through my first plateau, lasted about 4 weeks...same weight, then I gained a pound!! Thankfully, it only made me more determined to stick with my new lifestyle and finally my weigh in this past Monday, I dropped 7 lbs! Now only 2 more pounds to hit my first goal that I was hoping to meet by January 1, 2012....I'm praying for no more plateaus

I really appreciate all the advice. I definitely am not giving up on this. I just need to get past this roadblock and hopefully it is sooner than later. I am going to take a look at maybe cutting certain foods out and adding new ones in and see if that helps as well. I can't go down in carbs since I am in the induction phase. Someone told me to vary what I do when I workout so going to start doing that. Its nice to have support on here and know that others go through the same thing.