I am so fustrated! I am 5'3' and currently 143 lbs. i wear an eight in womens. In August of 07 I wieghed 186 lbs. I have had great wieght loss and feel like a million bucks, however, for the past 4 months I have plateaued. My wieght has not budged. I have tried decreasing calories, increasing the number of meals I eat a day. I began training for a mini marathon currently though I run 3-4 days a week 3 miles each time and every sunday play soccer with my church group. I am getting bored too. I have tried to change up my exercise routine by starting to mountian bike weather permitting, and added strenght training. Per a fitness instructor I broke my 3 miles in half and then I train with 5 lbs wieghts doing 4 reps of 12 with no more than 15 second breaks between reps or body parts. This includes squats, lunges, curls, tricep moves ( i don't know what it is called) and hang from a bar and lift my legs up to work my abs. Problem is I am GAINING wieght quickly! I gained 5 lbs this week. I am very muscular and would even be satisfied with this wieght if I had less body fat to see the muscles I am developing. Please any adice to get over this plateau and start lossing wt again or just body fat?

Heather...

I'm gonna copy/paste something I wrote just this morning:

---START--

You know what this REALLY comes down to? That darn scale. Listen folks, the scale is merely an instrument that measures your total weight, IT IS BLIND TO COMPOSITION. It can't discern between fat, muscle, water or even the gold fillings in your teeth.

My own example. Towards the beginning of my program I went one month: I biked till water poured from my helmet, I swam laps, weight-trained, played racquetball and kept my calories down. After one month I felt & looked lighter & leaner. I went in, got on the scale and I had gained 2.25 pounds!!!!!!! But then my guy slapped the body-fat calipers on me, they sank much deeper then before and we found I had lost an amazing 2.8% body-fat.

It's ALL about the fat. Focus people, focus!!!

I once came in early for my appointment and swam in the indoor Olympic pool. A lap is back & forth across 25-meters. It took me a bit over 2 hours, but I swam 100 laps (a wee over 3 miles). I then went to my appointment and recorded my biggest loss of 5.25 pounds (in 3 weeks). My guy and I both knew it was a "false low"....from 2 hours swimming I was dehydrated. My body-fat still had a loss of like .7%

So that's weight down 5.25 pounds, body-fat% down .7%

Sure enough, 3 weeks later I came in w/o having swam....on the scale, I had GAINED 1.5 pounds since my last visit. Did I stress??? Nope...I knew the game. We slapped the calipers on me and sure enough, another .5% drop since the last visit.

So that's weight UP 1.5 pounds, body-fat% down .5%

Do ya see what's happening here??? That's right, your scale weight is about as critical as the number of freckles you have on your body. Look at the bigger picture, LOOK AT THE ACCURATE PICTURE!!!

---END---

Heather....

I bet you're on a plateau ON THE SCALE....but on the body-fat percentage calipers I'm willing to bet you've been dropping downward on a regular curve and consistent basis. You say you're gaining weight quickly??....it's muscle weight AND YOU KNOW THIS.

How do you look? How do you feel? Look at all the exercise you've been doing....don't ya think your body is responding to the toll you're putting on it by building more lean muscle? Of course it is. AND YOU KNOW THIS.

If you're addicted to falling numbers on the scale, stop the weight training and go on the Atkins diet....there's a few guys out there who like their gals shrunken & emaciated. I'm not even going to elaborate.

I too have worked my butt off (yet it stays attached) and have seen little weight-loss on the scale...yet my body-fat % has gone from 29.7% to about 11.8%


WHOOP THERE IT IS

Now...do you have any REAL questions for this forum....or is this the part where I ask you to forward some naked pics of yourself????

Seriously....you're doing AMAZING, I'm proud of you, don't fret the scale, don't fear the reaper and please don't be repulsed by my humor.

And whatever you do....don't make me call in The Chillen. He's sorta like The Crackin' but he doesn't have tenticles and he's more of a land-based animal...but he can smash boat hulls, snap mast and open beer bottles with his abs of steel.

Don't think I won't go there...cause I totally will.

Hey Heather, Thomas here.

Seems the dreaded platue has got you down! As the lat post was as accurate as things get, your wieght should go down none the less. I dont believe you would like to be at 149 lbs at your height forever, I do however, think you are looking to be lean and tone at the same time. the only way that is going to achieved is for you to put on some muscle so you can burn more fat!

I have had my best results loosing wieght on a 2 year program in wich I lost over 200 LBS and went from 44% bodyfat to 15%. I stuck with sound resistance training, impervious diet and enough cardio to maintain my deficit.

Dont be discouraged! you are doing great! many times when the body gets used to things you experience diminishing returns. not to worry! many people believe it is time for a complete overhaul, its not! its time to tell your body that it cant do what your asking it to and it needs to change, just try to make every workout a bit harder than the last. please keep us updated on your progress and if you need any help just holler!

P.S and if naked pictures were mentioned you will have to CC me on that!