Thursday, May 20, 2021

Where do I go from here? (50lbs down, in a plateau)

I (25F) began losing weight in August of 2020 and have since lost 50lbs (201->151, I'm 5'4"). For the past few weeks I have been frustratingly bouncing around 151 and feel like I am in a plateau. I have PCOS, which I have heard can lower basal metabolic rates by as much as 15%, so I usually calculate TDEE based off of that 15% subtracted from the BMR.

I currently eat a maximum of 1200 calories per day and workout 6 times a week- 3 days I do Bikini Body Guide (for strength training) and 3 days I walk at a 15% incline at 3.5mph on the treadmill for 30 minutes (for cardio). I use a scale to measure everything I eat and I log it all, even down to a 15 calorie black coffee.

I feel like I am no longer making progress but I have nowhere to go from here. I am a medical student and cannot realistically devote more time to exercising, and I am not going under 1200 calories.

I am contemplating some options and was looking for advice. These are my current ideas, although I'm open to other ideas too:

  1. Increase my calorie intake for a week to "maintenance", which I believe would be close to 1450 calories a day, then go back to 1200 calories.
  2. Consider this 50lb weight loss a "cut" and begin trying to "bulk" with some muscle so that with future cuts I will have more muscle, thus increasing my TDEE. I mostly struggle through the Bikini Body Guide workouts so if I was better fed I may be able to get more out of these workouts? Not sure.

I've yo-yo'd with weight before and I'm terrified of doing anything that will make me gain weight in fear that I will spiral and lose my progress, as it's happened before; however, I'm kind of sick of working out nearly every day and only eating salads when I go out with friends only to sustain a plateau. I am just really stuck on what I should be doing to switch it up and get out of the plateau.

submitted by /u/WillFeralFeline
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