Can I Overcome This Weight Loss Plateau?

If you've damaged your metabolism then you ARE going to gain weight when you go back to a healthy level of eating. It's impossible not to and you're going to have to mentally accept that it will happen until your metabolism levels out again.

You have to eat a healthy amount of food, otherwise your metabolism will never recover and stabilize.

If you are exercising, then you are exchanging body fat for muscle mass. This is a good thing, but will be misleading when you ONLY assess your success by body weight alone. Building muscle mass will mean a weight gain or apparent tapering of weight loss.

Also, doing these extreme changes to you diet will mess up your metabolism in the long run, not to mention they are not sustainable.

Also, can the moderators pls remove these spam postings.

So the thought that you can destroy your metabolism through calorie restriction is a myth. It is true that when you restrict calories your metabolism will "slow down" but to almost an unmeasurable amount, aggregated over time. The weight you lost is more likely water weight. When you begin to restrict calories your body burns glutamine, insulin, body fat, and muscle. The toughest of the four to get rid of is body fat. So you quickly got rid of glutamine and insulin (also called water weight) and now you are beginning to get into burning actual fat.

The good news is you are primed to lose the fat...the bad news is it is going to take some work. You need to begin to eat whole foods. Veggies, fruit, lean meat, eggs etc etc etc. You also need to do some sort of resistance training, which will also fire up you metabolism. Drink a ton of water (I drink 1+ gallons per day). Most importantly is you need to see this as a total life change, not a quick fix. Trust me...I understand. I am 5'8" and used to be 205 lbs. Now I am 165lbs and 7% body fat. You have to change the way you live your life, and the way you approach food and exercise or you will never keep the weight off. Good luck!

I am wondering...have you ever thought about probiotics? If you look up probiotics and weight loss, you should see that there is a lot of info and studies showing a positive effect with them. I can say honestly that our family has seen a huge benefit to taking Vidazorb (they have really helped our little boy with his food allergies and Eczema) and we all love them so much. I hope this info helps you with your plateau!

Tealilly, it sounds to me that you are going through some tough emotions trying to figure out what is hte best way for you to lose weight.

Your brain is telling you that if you eat under 1000 calories you will shock your body into a famine state and it will start to hang on to fat stores, but your emotions are telling you that the extra calories might make you put weight on. It also sounds as though this is really important to you and you feel like you can't risk putting on weight again.

To put this into perspective, weight loss plateau's are VERY common - most people who try to lose weight will experience one at some point and they are not always a sign that things are going wrong.

Sometimes people can experience weight loss plateau's when they are doing weight training because they are putting on muscle mass, while also losing fat and unless you check the body fat levels as opposed to your total weight - it can look like a weight loss plateau.

You might also find this information handy http://membersonly.savvy-fat-burning-food.com/members/fatburningfood/faq/VIEW/00000004/00000004.html

My best advise to you is to consult a dietitian about what level of food intake is right for you, and a personal trainer about some resistance based exercise routines. You might also think about doing some meditation or relaxation exercises as stress can quite often stop weight loss.

Have a think about also how you view food - and how you view your own body. From a psychological point of view, these are important.

Like Jenny said, if you are consuming under 1000 calories a day your body goes into starvation mode and preserves fat stores...this is probably the reason you have hit a plateau. It is not safe to consume under 1200 calories a day without seeing a nutritionist first, especially if you live an active lifestyle.

If you believe you have slowed down your metabolism here are some tips to speed it up: Spicy foods raise your metabolism, but watch out for salty foods which make you retain water. Your metabolism is higher after a meal. Try eating many small meals instead of three large ones. Max your metabolism with muscle. Muscle is 10 times more efficient than fat at burning calories.

Best of luck!

I used to assume I had a "slow metabolism" because it was so hard to lose weight, so I spent a long time trying to lose weight by eating 1,200 calories a day. I was hungry all the time and even though I lost weight quickly I eventually plateaued and gave in to overwhelming cravings and gained the weight back. Now I eat a much more reasonable 2,000 calories per day and have been losing about a pound a week for the past 16 weeks. I'm 5'6" and have gone from 165 to 146. Just six pounds to go until I reach my goal! I feel much better physically, and it's nice to know that my "metabolism" is just fine!

In order to lose weight and lead an overall healthy lifestyle, you absolutely have to give your body what it needs. There are 4 components you should address: nutrition, exercise, stress management, and healthy sleep. In my book, "How To Eat Fried Chicken and Be Thin Too," I provide the necessary tools you need to make the changes that will help you reach your goals. Keep in mind that your body needs at least 1200 calories per day just to have enough fuel for your bodily processes, not even considering exercise. When you consume less than 1000 calories per day, your body will likely pull calcium from your bones in order to keep the correct calcium balance in your blood stream, thus putting you at risk for osteoporosis. Also, you will begin to break down your muscle in order to use protein for energy. In addition, who can be happy eating just 1000 calories per day...you are probably cranky and feel bad every day. If you make an overall healthy lifestyle change you will reach your goals and improve your quality of life.

Plateau's are a normal part of the losing weight process, even though they can be frustrating. You have to stay the healthy course, even if it doesn't look like you're losing any weight. While I lost my 33 pounds, I hit a plateau every week and a half or two weeks. It would stay at the same weight for a week and a half, but as I got closer to goal, the plateau lasted three weeks. It was painful emotionally and scary-I kept thinking what if this was it? What if I can't lose any more? But the losing always resumed. I think plateaus are a way for the body to adjust to your new caloric intake (I did WW, so the points adjusted down every 10 pounds). At least that's my theory. I've read other people's stories in which their plateaus lasted a couple of months, so hang in there, the losing will resume!