Since I have been stuck at the same weight, give or take 3 pounds, for the past month I have been looking feverishly at articles and getting opinions on how to get over this plateau. First of all, I thought it was weird that this is the very first weight plateau I have ever had. I have never had trouble consistently losing before but for some reason or another, I stalled this time around.
I am taking the suggestion of a very dear MyFitnessPal friend (you know who you are Amy!) and I am going to calorie zig zag. Never heard of it? Go to freedieting and check out their calorie calculator. It shows you how to zig zag your calories so you are eating the same number of calories each week, but different amounts each day. Here is my calorie zig zag that I am going to follow over the next 3 weeks:
Monday 1166
Tuesday 1458
Wednesday 1603
Thursday 1458
Friday 1312
Saturday 1749
Sunday 1458
I have been eating around 1200 calories each day for the past 2+ months. I dropped a quick 13 pounds by simply eating better but I seem to have plateau’d. With zig zagging, you enter your exercise level for the week, I selected 5x per week of intense exercise, then it pops you out a schedule. If you read up on what they consider exercise, they think a 20 minute walk or a light jog is your exercise for the day. Which it is for many people, just not this girl. When I run my heart rate goes sky high due to a minor heart issue and some asthma, so I burn crazy calories. So I didn’t feel like I was stretching by selecting the intense exercise option. My calorie level is set around 1458 calories, which I eat at 3 days each week, then the other days jump around. I did move my highest calorie day to my long run day so I’ll feel that evens out and I’ll be better fueled up for long runs. I should add that they have already added exercise calories into your zig zag so they suggest you don’t eat them back. So now you get why I moved my long run day to my high calorie day.
I am going to try this through the last day of January. Hopefully between now and then you hear me singing the praises for zig zagging and dropping lots of weight! With 12-17 pounds left to lose I hope that these next 10 pounds will come off just as easily as the first 13 did!
Have you busted through a plateau before? What did you do that helped you along?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting concept. Makes sense. When I was tracking calories I could go some days on very little with high exercise and then be famished and overshoot my calories the next day. I actually find I’m not hungry on a long run day. The day after is when it hits me.
Now that you say that I think that typically happens to me too. Maybe I should adjust accordingly. Thanks for that reminder!
Kudos to you for tracking so closely! I am crap at that. I have the one day a week cheat day thing and that was good. Sadly I’m in the habit now of cheating/treating every day.
When initially lost weight, it was weight training. I took off an additional 10 lbs when I started running.
I do track my calories pretty closely, or else I can easily gain the 13 pounds I JUST took off, it has happened before so I am always careful.
I run pretty consistently but I have never seen a big drop when I run like some people, I wish I would though!
Hmmm, I had never heard of that concept before. After I read your blog, I had this in my emails, and thought it was a pretty funny topic -
http://www.runnersworld.com/fun/resolved-eat-damn-cookie?cm_mmc=NL-Nutrition-_-1163310-_-01102013-_-Stop-Worrying-And-Eat-the-Cookie
With your marathon training underway, you might find you won’t need to worry about the plateau. I even start to gain weight when I train, because I am so darn hungry, but near the end I lose the weight and then some more. Good luck with your plan though… good for you for keeping track of it all!
That is a great article! I know I have been rigid with my calorie intake over the past few months, but that is what led me to drop 13 pounds. I don’t want the weight to start going the other direction at all! I know that when my really long mileage comes up I’ll be starving but then I’ll probably drop from all the running! You are right though, I need to take things slowly and wait to see what happens with training.
Just wondering – where do you go for long runs (maybe over 15)? I usually run the towpath in Waterville and wondered where else would be a good place to rack up some miles.
I live in Perrysburg and I always head for Side Cut Metropark, there are a lot of grassy trails in the park that I run on. I have not had issues in the past with snow cover back there, but that is where I choose to spend my long runs. Also because there is a bathroom that is always open and a drinking fountain for when I need to refuel!
I used to do that a lot, about every 6 months for a month, and had good luck. I did it with WW points and not calories specifically, but same concept behind it. will be interesting to see if you do this and how it works
I was down a pound 2 days ago, and up 1 pound today…I’m going to give it a few more weeks to even out.