Hello all! I stumbled across this forum as I was looking to help my wife. I am hoping someone here can provide some guidance…

My wife has been losing weight for the past 6 months as has done a tremendous job averaging about 4 lbs a weeks. Since the beginning of the year, she has flat lined in weight loss and I am not clear why. I know this is frustrating for her and I am wanting to help motivate her and get her past this.

Here is her basic daily routine:
Less than 1000 calories per day
A minimum 45 minutes of exercise at least 5 times per week - mostly cardio
(typically a 24 hour fitness class)


She does not like fish and typically eats Grape Nuts with a banana for breakfast, baked, non-breaded chicken in a salad for lunch and a sensible dinner.

She has done a great job at sticking to this routine for the past 6 months! I hate to see her get unmotivated because she has hit this plateau and I want to help her get thru this!

I am sure it is unmotivating to push yourself so hard day in and day out and not see any results. I truly want to help her. Thank you in advance for your advice / help.

What's her stats (high, weight, age)?

Just at a quick glance, under 1,000 calories is usually much too low. A lack of calories can put your body in starvation mode, and make you plateau.

If she is quite petite (and I mean real small), then the only other thing would be lack of variation. She would need to mix up her exercise plan and food/calorie intake.

But seriously I'm about 99% sure she's eating too little, unless she's a 5 year old.

Thanks Matt! I do know know her stats as she keeps her weight private. I have heard she might be eating too little, but how do you tell someone they need to eat MORE to lose weight?

She's basically shut her metabolism down, guaranteed. She's gone into starvation mode. Starvation mode is the reason people get stuck on a plateau and the reason a lot of people end up yo-yo dieting. If you eat below a certain level for too long (that level being the RMR - resting metabolic rate - of your body), your brain sends out a chemical signal that you are in a famine. Your body literally starts burning muscle up in addition to a smaller amount of fat because muscle is what raises our metabolism. When you've reached your "goal" and quit dieting you've effectively got a slower metabolism because your body has been burning, proportionately, WAY more muscle than fat. Consequently, the weight piles back on once you go back to eating your old ways again.

A person cannot starve themselves and lose weight long term, it's virtually doomed to failure unless they're willing to spend the rest of their lives on a diet.

Show her something like this:

Calories Per Day Calculator

This is kind of what I was afraid of. Now trying to convince her that she needs to eat more to lose more is something we are going to have to discuss. Any ideas?

Show her this topic...

I would recommend you calculate her BMR (Base Metabolic Rate, meaning how many calories you burn per day if you did nothing) to see just how much more she needs to eat (it's recommended to eat no lower than -500 of your BMR). Just Google "BMR Calculator."

Then talk to her or show her these posts about starvation mode. If you want, you can Google some more credible sources about starvation mode.

By the way, what she's doing is very unhealthy for her body. I'd know because my workout and diet was twice as rigorous and strenuous before I hit a plateau and had to find out how to break it, so let her know this.

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Sometimes, the person is already eating the correct amount of calories, the correct amount of food balance and already doing the correct amount of physical exercise (for their body). Everything should continue to work as before usual but it doesn't. Thus, plateau situation on one's weigh scale. This happened to me 4 different times - during my 60 lbs reduction. For my body, I think it got "too comfortable" with my daily exercise routine. Once I either "increased time" or "increased intensity", my body broke its plateau. And, it starting dropping its "extra" weight again.

As a suggestion, try doing something different. For example, walking up 20 stairs for 45 minutes "every other day" instead of simple walking 45 minutes. Or, doing 15 minutes of jump rope / skipping rope instead of situps / push ups. Thus, getting the body to perform exercise tasks it hasn't done before. For my body, these "changes" always broke my previous weight reduction plateaus. Chaning one's current "now comfortable" exercises might break your wife's current plateaus as well...

Hope this helps as well...

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She can't just up her calories at this point without changing things up, odds are she will gain weight, which will scare her. You have to understand, this is a metabolic issue. Best case scenario, she should change up her workout routine, cut back the cardio to maybe three times a week and ideally add in weight training two or three times a week, and then slowly increase her calories and bring them up to where they need to be for her height/weight/age/activity level.

The weight training will hopefully rebuild the muscle she's lost. If she gains a little muscle her metabolism should perk back up. If she's never lifted weights before she should be able to cut fat and build a little muscle.

Frankly, under a best case scenario she should see a nutritionist (maybe even a trainer).

This is a pretty simple concept though: Eating below your BMR (basal metabolic rate) for an extended period of time will cause your body to hoarde calories, hense, restricting weight loss. It will burn up metabolically wasteful muscle instead, further lowering your metabolism.

If enough food is not coming into the body, it will not burn off the fat, which is the body's long term storage. This is built into us from when food didn't just exist in a supermarkets and you didn't know when or if you'd eat again.

You can't just tell her to eat more, she has to start understanding a little something about metabolism and weight loss and then the light bulb should go on for her.

Just google Starvation Mode, print up a good article or two, and then hand them to her along with a link to a BMR calculator.

thanks for the information fat cat and spike^^
i am also about to hit a plateau...
i just checked my bmr ... and its about 2200
and ive been eating 1400 calories... sooo thats...
an 800 calorie deficit... + i walk about 4-8 miles a day.
sooo i think i am going to start eating more... and
then add strength training.