For 24 days, I had been stagnating between 157-159, with my absolute lowest on any of those days (or ever, since I started losing weight) being 157 on the dot. I started to get frustrated since it is now midway through February, and I hadn't even achieved my "beginning of the month" weight goal of 156. And while eating 1200 a day has certainly been doable for me, I'll be honest and say it hasn't been a cakewalk. I've learned what foods keep me full the longest and now gravitate toward those, but 1200 has helped me become reacquainted with the feeling of true, biological hunger as opposed to just emotional or boredom eating. Overall I think this is a good thing, but it was starting to make me feel extra bitter whenever I'd be going to bed hungry and know I most likely would still be within that 3 pound range in the morning.
I read so many pieces of anecdotal evidence on not just this sub, but also r/loseit and r/CICO on how people were able to break through a plateau by eating at maintenance for a few days, or even a few weeks, to restart their weight loss. For some stupid reason, while I believed this would work for everyone else, I was hesitant to try it because somehow I thought it just couldn't possibly work for me! It didn't help that I wasn't really able to find much in the way of scientific, evidence-based information on the topic either. For anyone interested this video by Stephanie Buttermore, who I love, was the best thing I was able to find in that regard, that didn't seem like it was just basically saying "well, time to give up on weight loss, this is your new set point!" The video was actually what convinced me to try it. I figured, the absolute worst case scenario would be that I've somehow miscalculated my maintenance calories and ultimately gain less than a pound of true (as opposed to water) weight, while being able to eliminate this as a useful possible tool for future weight loss.
I used a TDEE calculator to determine that my maintenance calories, as a mostly sedentary 5'1 woman, are about 1800/day. Out of paranoia I decided to go with 1700/day just to be safe, and for 2 days that was what I ate. I was surprised by how easy it was to get in an extra 500 calories a day. I did not weigh myself for those 2 days or the day immediately following, when I switched back to 1200.
On "day 4" (second day of being back to 1200) I weighed in at 157. I was a little disappointed but it wasn't the worst outcome; at least it was at the bottom of the "stuck" range.
Then today, I stepped on the scale again with low expectations, and literally did a double take when it said 154.7. I'm shook guys! If you are stuck, 2 days of maintenance, or close to it, might be worth a try. I'm excited to see now if my weight will "stabilize" around 154-155 when I weigh in tomorrow, and also to use this technique again the next time I get "stuck". I'm wondering if it will work as well when I'm at a lower weight.
I read so many pieces of anecdotal evidence on not just this sub, but also r/loseit and r/CICO on how people were able to break through a plateau by eating at maintenance for a few days, or even a few weeks, to restart their weight loss. For some stupid reason, while I believed this would work for everyone else, I was hesitant to try it because somehow I thought it just couldn't possibly work for me! It didn't help that I wasn't really able to find much in the way of scientific, evidence-based information on the topic either. For anyone interested this video by Stephanie Buttermore, who I love, was the best thing I was able to find in that regard, that didn't seem like it was just basically saying "well, time to give up on weight loss, this is your new set point!" The video was actually what convinced me to try it. I figured, the absolute worst case scenario would be that I've somehow miscalculated my maintenance calories and ultimately gain less than a pound of true (as opposed to water) weight, while being able to eliminate this as a useful possible tool for future weight loss.
I used a TDEE calculator to determine that my maintenance calories, as a mostly sedentary 5'1 woman, are about 1800/day. Out of paranoia I decided to go with 1700/day just to be safe, and for 2 days that was what I ate. I was surprised by how easy it was to get in an extra 500 calories a day. I did not weigh myself for those 2 days or the day immediately following, when I switched back to 1200.
On "day 4" (second day of being back to 1200) I weighed in at 157. I was a little disappointed but it wasn't the worst outcome; at least it was at the bottom of the "stuck" range.
Then today, I stepped on the scale again with low expectations, and literally did a double take when it said 154.7. I'm shook guys! If you are stuck, 2 days of maintenance, or close to it, might be worth a try. I'm excited to see now if my weight will "stabilize" around 154-155 when I weigh in tomorrow, and also to use this technique again the next time I get "stuck". I'm wondering if it will work as well when I'm at a lower weight.