weight loss plateau



M

Magesh Ruthrapa

Guest
Hi all

I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started going
to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in 3 months.

But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a year
now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is 25%.After
reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of reducing my bf%
to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.

I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my bf%? Is
it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?

But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any suggestions
will be greatly appreciated.

thanks
 
On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, Magesh Ruthrapathy wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in
> 3 months.
>
> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
> year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
> 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
> reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>
> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my bf%?
> Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>
> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks

You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in two
months. Which is a lot. Considering that you don't lose only fat when dieting.
 
On 1 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, [email protected] (Magesh Ruthrapathy) wrote:

>Hi all
>
>I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
>going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in
>3 months.
>
>But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
>year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
>25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
>reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>
>I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my bf%?
>Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>
>But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
>suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

First of all I would not rely on the Tanita scale for accurate body fat measurement. IF you have
access to skin calipers then I would use them instead.

Secondly if you are not losing any more fat then you need to create a caloric deficit. This means
you need to either decrease your caloric intake, increase your caloric output (exercise) or both.
Make sure you get adequate protein (about a gram per pound of body weight). And every couple weeks
have a day where you consume calories in excess of maintenance with high quality carbs, fat.

Figure out how many calories you are now taking and reduce that by 10%. Increase your cardio an
extra hour per week. After a week reevaluate. If you are having progress then continue. If not then
reduce calories another 10% and increase cardio. You can track your progress at www.fitday.com

Finally try not to lose more than a couple pounds a week to reduce the muscle loss.

Good luck.

Roger
>
>thanks
 
"Magesh Ruthrapathy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi all
>
> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in
> 3 months.
>
> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
> year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
> 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
> reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>
> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my bf%?
> Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>
> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>
> thanks

Tanita's are not accurate. Find yourself someone who does caliper tests, and go from there.
Plateau's suck, but the closer you get to goal, the slower the weight comes off. A two lb loss per
week requires a 1000 calorie deficit per day. That's alot of calories. You need to figure out how
many calories you're eating now (try www.fitday.com) and start dropping those numbers down until you
start seeing a loss again. Try cutting about 200 per day to start with and give it a week or two to
see how that goes. If you lose too fast, you'll be losing more muscle and less fat, so slow and
steady is the best way to go. If you are a female, 15% bodyfat is more difficult to achieve than if
you are male, but doable. For me (I'm female) what broke my plateau was taking 2 weeks off from
dieting and exercise. When I came back to "plan", I had lost 3 lbs. Go figure...
 
On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:05:38 +0000, "Jose Yimpho" <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, Magesh Ruthrapathy wrote:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
>> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in 3
>> months.
>>
>> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
>> year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
>> 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
>> reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>>
>> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my bf%?
>> Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>>
>> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
>> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> thanks
>
>You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in
>two months.

It is not that unreasonable. Assuming 16 pounds over 9 weeks that would be under 2 pounds of fat per
week. Certainly doable especially since the final target percentage would not be that low. Of course
as you approach single digit body fat percentage it gets more and more difficult to avoid losing
muscle along with the fat since there is not that much fat to lose and you body tenaciously holds
onto it. But getting down to 15% for a guy is usually attainable without that much effort.

Which is a lot. Considering that you
>don't lose only fat when dieting.

If you do it right you can lose about 2 pounds of fat for every
1/4-1/2 lb muscle loss.

Roger
 
My weight-loss graph looked like a ski-slope -- steep at the beginning, then leveling off gradually
over the months until I stopped losing. There were a couple of flatter spots and mini-moguls along
the way. I never had a goal, just a way of eating. My end-point weight was about 30lbs more than
anyone would have asked me to do, and about 20lbs beyond when my doctor first asked me "how much
more weight are you planning to lose?". I've been stable, on basically the same eating pattern, for
about 4 years now. The exercise is similar, but got more vigorous as I got (back) in shape, to what
I was doing at the beginning. bj

"determined" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:3Ps8a.320890$be.301275@rwcrnsc53...
> Plateau's suck, but the closer you get to goal, the slower the weight comes off. A two lb loss
> per week requires a 1000
calorie
> deficit per day. That's alot of calories. You need to figure out how
many
> calories you're eating now (try www.fitday.com) and start dropping those numbers down until you
> start seeing a loss again. Try cutting about 200
per
> day to start with and give it a week or two to see how that goes. If you lose too fast, you'll be
> losing more muscle and less fat, so slow and
steady
> is the best way to go. If you are a female, 15% bodyfat is more difficult to achieve than if you
> are male, but doable. For me (I'm female) what
broke
> my plateau was taking 2 weeks off from dieting and exercise. When I came back to "plan", I had
> lost 3 lbs. Go figure...
 
On Sun, 02 Mar 2003 04:47:27 +0000, Roger wrote:

> On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:05:38 +0000, "Jose Yimpho" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, Magesh Ruthrapathy wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
>>> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in
>>> 3 months.
>>>
>>> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
>>> year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
>>> 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
>>> reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>>>
>>> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my
>>> bf%? Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>>>
>>> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
>>> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> thanks
>>
>>You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in
>>two months.
>
> It is not that unreasonable. Assuming 16 pounds over 9 weeks that would be under 2 pounds of fat
> per week. Certainly doable especially since the final target percentage would not be that low. Of
> course as you approach single digit body fat percentage it gets more and more difficult to avoid
> losing muscle along with the fat since there is not that much fat to lose and you body tenaciously
> holds onto it. But getting down to 15% for a guy is usually attainable without that much effort.
>

Whoops... I assumed that the poster was a female, being 5'5. I can't tell from the name.

>
> Which is a lot. Considering that you
>>don't lose only fat when dieting.
>
> If you do it right you can lose about 2 pounds of fat for every
> 1/4-1/2 lb muscle loss.

I would think that's being very very optimistic. But yes, possible.

>
> Roger
 
Roger <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:05:38 +0000, "Jose Yimpho" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, Magesh Ruthrapathy wrote:
> >
> >> Hi all
> >>
> >> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
> >> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs in
> >> 3 months.
> >>
> >> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost a
> >> year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat is
> >> 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal of
> >> reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
> >>
> >> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my
> >> bf%? Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
> >>
> >> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
> >> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
> >>
> >> thanks
> >
> >You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in two
> >months.
>
> It is not that unreasonable. Assuming 16 pounds over 9 weeks that would be under 2 pounds of fat
> per week. Certainly doable especially since the final target percentage would not be that low. Of
> course as you approach single digit body fat percentage it gets more and more difficult to avoid
> losing muscle along with the fat since there is not that much fat to lose and you body tenaciously
> holds onto it. But getting down to 15% for a guy is usually attainable without that much effort.
>
>
> Which is a lot. Considering that you
> >don't lose only fat when dieting.
>
> If you do it right you can lose about 2 pounds of fat for every
> 1/4-1/2 lb muscle loss.
>
> Roger

How to do it right?

my current schedule is 2000cal/day( around 100gms from proteinn) 3 days weight lifting 3 days
cardio(45 mts each)

What should I change to be on the right track? should I reduce calories and increase cardio?
 
On Sun, 02 Mar 2003 04:34:38 +0000, James Goldman wrote:

> In misc.fitness.weights James Goldman <[email protected]> wrote:
>> In misc.fitness.weights Jose Yimpho <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in two
>>> months. Which is a lot. Considering that you don't lose only fat when dieting.
>>
>> Uh, at 160 pounds with 25% bf, 10% of the fat would be 4 lbs, not 16.
>
> D'oh! I just saw ... the OP *does* want to lose 16 lbs. It was your wierd phrasing that
> threw me off.
>
> Duh. I sofa king we todd did.

Whoops... yeah, I kinda mangled that sentence. Sorry.
 
On 2 Mar 2003 07:35:55 -0800, [email protected] (Magesh Ruthrapathy) wrote:

>Roger <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>> On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:05:38 +0000, "Jose Yimpho" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> >On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 18:38:52 -0800, Magesh Ruthrapathy wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hi all
>> >>
>> >> I hit weight loss plateau. When I started last Jan, I was 182lbs(my height is 5'5"). I started
>> >> going to Gym and made some diet changes.By March I came down to 160lbs, an impressive 22 lbs
>> >> in 3 months.
>> >>
>> >> But, ever since my weight wouldnt go down. I havent changed my diet and exercise.It is almost
>> >> a year now but I still weight 160lbs.I got a tanita Body fat scale and found that my bodyfat
>> >> is 25%.After reading a lot of articles on body fat , now I feel that I should be having a goal
>> >> of reducing my bf% to 15% rather than concentrating on reducing my weight.
>> >>
>> >> I am doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times.What should I do to reduce my
>> >> bf%? Is it a realistic goal to target bf=15% in 2 months?
>> >>
>> >> But right now , I am in a situation where neither my bf% nor my weight is going down.Any
>> >> suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
>> >>
>> >> thanks
>> >
>> >You want to lose 10% of your bodyfat in two months? That would be 16 pound of *pure* fat in two
>> >months.
>>
>> It is not that unreasonable. Assuming 16 pounds over 9 weeks that would be under 2 pounds of fat
>> per week. Certainly doable especially since the final target percentage would not be that low. Of
>> course as you approach single digit body fat percentage it gets more and more difficult to avoid
>> losing muscle along with the fat since there is not that much fat to lose and you body
>> tenaciously holds onto it. But getting down to 15% for a guy is usually attainable without that
>> much effort.
>>
>>
>> Which is a lot. Considering that you
>> >don't lose only fat when dieting.
>>
>> If you do it right you can lose about 2 pounds of fat for every
>> 1/4-1/2 lb muscle loss.
>>
>> Roger
>
>How to do it right?

Eat enough calories to lose no more than two pounds per week.
>
>my current schedule is 2000cal/day( around 100gms from proteinn)

If you weigh 160 pounds then 2000 calories may not be enough to lose fat. But everyone is different
so you have to experiment. If you are not losing on 2000 then cut to 1800.

Try that for a couple weeks to see if you lose 1-2 lbs per week and then keep it there. If you
don't get results then cut to 1650 or so. Try that for a couple weeks.

Most people find that 10-12 times their body weight in calories will work to lose down to 15% body
fat. If you want to get to single digits you may have to drop below 10 times body weight in
calories but your hunger may prevent you from achieving the goal without the use of pharmacologic
agents which have their own share of potential problems.

100 grams of protein may not be enough if you weigh 160 pounds. I would shoot for a minimum of 130
but to try to get 150-160. It is especially important in order to preserve muscle to get enough
protein when you are on a hypocaloric diet. Aim for 0.8 grams per pound minimum.

>3 days weight lifting 3 days cardio(45 mts each)

Sounds good to me.
>
>What should I change to be on the right track? should I reduce calories and increase cardio?

Try reducing calories first. Increasing cardio any more than you do may accelerate muscle loss.

Good luck.

Roger
 
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