So I got off to a rollicking good start with my lap band journey and I am thrilled with my weight loss so far - 60lb in four months. But now the expected and dreaded plateau has arrived and I need advice from those who have been before for me. What do I need to change to break my plateau? Do I need to vary my calories? Up? Down? I am currently averaging 1200/day. Should I change my exercise routine? More? Less? Different? I exercise at least 30 minutes per day, five or six days a week, a mixture of exercise bike, actual outdoor cycling, vigorous rock and roll dancing, and a bit of walking (but not too much because that is the one thing guaranteed to make my knees ache!)

I look forward to learning what has worked for others.

Thanks in anticipation.

So I got off to a rollicking good start with my lap band journey and I am thrilled with my weight loss so far - 60lb in four months. But now the expected and dreaded plateau has arrived and I need advice from those who have been before for me. What do I need to change to break my plateau? Do I need to vary my calories? Up? Down? I am currently averaging 1200/day. Should I change my exercise routine? More? Less? Different? I exercise at least 30 minutes per day, five or six days a week, a mixture of exercise bike, actual outdoor cycling, vigorous rock and roll dancing, and a bit of walking (but not too much because that is the one thing guaranteed to make my knees ache!)

I look forward to learning what has worked for others.

Thanks in anticipation.

I am in the same boat and would like to hear the answers to this. It's like you were reading my mind and typed this up before I had a chance to.

I'm just getting out of a "no progress on the scale plateau" that's lasted at least 3 weeks and was up and down with 5-7 pounds. I exercise daily and eat about 1100 cals a day. The scale showed no progress, however, I am so thankful that I have been keeping measurements every 3 months and I noticed my clothing fitting a little loser at times. Turns out that I have been losing inches. I also tried a few things that I read or was given advice by a trainer that may have helped.

I finally started losing again.

• Try changing to a natural artificial sweetner like Stevia. I read that some of them are chemically based and could slow down weight loss (sacchrin products, splenda etc. etc.) - Read on internet.
• Change your exercise routine. For example, I was on the Eliptical machine everyday for 30 minutes with high resistance and changed the work out to a cardio workout with less resistance and increased to 45 minutes. - Trainer advice.
• Change the time of your workout before or after meals or time of day. Do the opposite of whatever you are doing now. I know this not always possible. - Trainer advice
• Increase your water intake to at least a gallon a day. This one is also tough. - Trainer and Doctor advice.
• I got comfortable with eating bigger bites and not chewing my food as well as I should and was eating a bit more. I also forgot to concentrate on eating proteins first at meal times and now after I started doing this again, I feel much fuller quicker and no hunger for 3 or more hours. - re-learned on own.
• I was eating too many sugar free candies and discovered that just because they don't have sugar does not mean that the calorie count is low. - learned the hard way.
• You should probably keep your caloric intake the same, but, always always always make sure you eat your proteins first at every meal time. At least 50 grams of proteins per day. - Doctor, trainer and internet advice.

Hope this helps. It's worth a try.

thanks Jake. I'll give these ideas a go except for the artificial sweetener as you have found that they give me severe headaches.

I had a three week plateau as well. I work out 5 or 6 days a week. I recently got a bdymedia fit and realized that my calorie deficit was nearing 2000 on some days. 1000 is the high end of recommended. Like I said I work out 5 or 6 days a week and I burn 500 or more calories each time. I recently learned you're supposed to eat these calories if your already at a 1000 calorie deficit, so I've bumped my calories to 1400, from 1200. I started losing immediately. I'll probably continue to increase my calories another few hundred, but slowly.

BTW, I used to use a polar HRM, and now I have a body media fit, so these rent estimated burns they are real. Websites estimate to high, so be careful if you use that.

So to answer, I broke through my plateau by increasing calories. I figure after 8 months at a deficit that high, my body finally decided, I'm holding onto the weight now, feed me more..LOL