weight loss plateau?

nisusrn

How does one deal with a weight loss plateau? What is your plateau and how did you over come it?

Sued0nim

If you are truly at a plateau you will have stayed the same weight for 6-8 weeks whilst maintaining an accurate defecit

Have you?

nisusrn

I have been going down, but super slow. I think I am close to it tho

heybales

Well, is the slow weight loss because you purposely made a wise choice,
or has your body forced that on you because you picked a fast weight loss speed that actually isn't reasonable?

And MFP after you lose 10 lbs asks if you want to adjust your eating goal since that should lower with less weight to move around - has that happened yet, and did you say yes?

Sued0nim

You will be going down slowly because of either a lower defecit, which is needed as you get closer to goal or tracking inaccuracies - so you could refocus on accurate weighing and logging and good food choices

Merkavar

Everyone down this is a hijacking!

So this might not be a plateau since its been less than 2 weeks but its a little annoying and wondering if there is anything i can do now to prevent it lasting 6-8 weeks.

As far as i can tell i have had the same deficit and if anything an increase exercise. but all of a sudden i go from 1.3kg loss a week to .1 loss a week at most. I log all meals every day and as accurately as i can.

So any advice on how to break a plateau before it goes to far?

TimothyFish

Plateaus happen because people either eat more than they realize or because they've reduced their activity without also reducing their calorie intake. Plateaus are often blamed on inaccurate logging on the assumption that if people knew what their true calorie deficit was they wouldn't allow it to continue. The colder months are particularly bad because people tend to stay inside more and there is plenty of food loaded with calories. My preference is to break a plateau by increasing activity, because it gives me an action to do, rather than reducing intake, because that requires me to not do something.

Sued0nim

Merkavar wrote: »

Everyone down this is a hijacking!

So this might not be a plateau since its been less than 2 weeks but its a little annoying and wondering if there is anything i can do now to prevent it lasting 6-8 weeks.

As far as i can tell i have had the same deficit and if anything an increase exercise. but all of a sudden i go from 1.3kg loss a week to .1 loss a week at most. I log all meals every day and as accurately as i can.

So any advice on how to break a plateau before it goes to far?

it's not a plateau so it's a moot question

if you want a reason, changing up your exercise can result in water retention as muscles repair or you're due on, or you've increased your sodium, or you've taken your eye off the ball when it comes to tracking (only the latter would result in true weight gain)

vbvamsi

nisusrn wrote: »

I have been going down, but super slow. I think I am close to it tho

I know the feeling.... I feel that I am at a plateau too. I have been losing about 1kg a week for the last 4 months and in the last 10 days, I haven't lost any weight. My routine hasn't changed. I will see how it goes for few more weeks ...

Dawmelvan

I hit a "plateau" for 10 months-which is kind of good because it meant I was maintaining a 25 pound weight loss but still wasn't at my goal. And when I got honest and looked hard core at my food diary was "cheating" four times a week, causing my daily average to be at maintenance. The way I broke it was to eat at my daily calorie intake every single day. Personally, I did this by adding more nutrient dense foods, i.e. vegetables and lean meats and less starches such as pasta (not saying this is how everyone wants to lower their caloric intake). I also added more daily exercise.

heybales

Merkavar wrote: »

Everyone down this is a hijacking!

So this might not be a plateau since its been less than 2 weeks but its a little annoying and wondering if there is anything i can do now to prevent it lasting 6-8 weeks.

As far as i can tell i have had the same deficit and if anything an increase exercise. but all of a sudden i go from 1.3kg loss a week to .1 loss a week at most. I log all meals every day and as accurately as i can.

So any advice on how to break a plateau before it goes to far?

How much you got to lose attempting that big of a weight loss?

Is that close to a 50% deficit?

Does that even sound like a good idea - eating half what your body would like?

Your body will adapt to extreme situations, in addition that kind of stress increases cortisol which retains water too.

When was your last diet break? Though in reality, you are almost there already?

When was your last 2 weeks of really accurate logging, perhaps reducing eating out to be more accurate?

Merkavar

heybales wrote: »

How much you got to lose attempting that big of a weight loss?
aiming around the 50kg mark for weight loss

Is that close to a 50% deficit?
yeah around that. maybe not that much on average.

Does that even sound like a good idea - eating half what your body would like?
no it doesnt sound like a good idea, but so far i havent ran into an issues, no side effects, no lack of energy etc im more of the oppinion that it cant be worse than being overweight. Im not like doing anything crazy like skipping meals or eating nothing but celery. im not starving all the time. Im eating less and exercising more. Im no expert but i hear the recommended weight lose is like .5 to 1kg, is 1.3 a whole lot more than 1kg? Also i heard 1% of your weight a week is ok, the fatter you are the more you can lose etc.

Your body will adapt to extreme situations, in addition that kind of stress increases cortisol which retains water too.

When was your last diet break? Though in reality, you are almost there already?
Never even heard of a diet break, but also i dont feel im dieting, i just not eating as much rubbish like KFC and pizza as i used to.

When was your last 2 weeks of really accurate logging, perhaps reducing eating out to be more accurate?

Pretty sure every week is pretty accurate, scanning barcodes into the phone, every now and then something will be a bit iffy like when i got to a bday at a chinese resturant and have to guess a little.

heybales

So that much to lose then max is reasonable for awhile. But more isn't better.

But be aware that obese and morbidly obese when put on initial big deficits to cause that 1% of body weight loss weekly are expected to lose the normal 20% of the weight as muscle mass, and beyond the reduction in metabolism that causes, another 20% reduction in full day burn is expected eventually after some weeks.

That's why I asked about taking a diet break, it can help regulate the hormones so that doesn't happen as bad. Not the muscle loss, but at least the 20% drop in daily burn could be lessened.

You say you haven't noticed any ill effects. But you have. What do you call a loss of around 0.1 kg with supposedly the same deficit amount in place?
If everything is peachy fine - why did you ask and comment on where you have ended up?

Doesn't really matter if it feels like you are dieting.
You feeling full, and your body being fully fed for level of activity or two entirely different things.

So bar codes great (except most foods change sizes and therefore nutritional info over time while SKU remains the same), but are you weighing foods and do the math for serving size correctly by weight, not volume?

Here is study where a mere 25% deficit off lab measured TDEE caused the body to adapt and slow down for one group. The other group had a deficit like you have, and really slowed their body down more than loss of muscle would cause.
Even eating at reduced maintenance for 3 months only caused their suppressed daily burn to go from 500 below expected to 250 below expected.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/heybales/view/reduced-metabolism-tdee-beyond-expected-from-weight-loss-616251

I only suggest this because most don't play out the end game, where your daily burn goes down about 75 cal per 4.5 kg lost, and therefore to reach goal weight with a deficit, and maintenance, can you do it on a suppressed system, is that best for future success?
For you, that would mean a lowering of 1667 calories from whatever current average daily burn is, without an increase of exercise burn.
That also means eating level would need to drop that much to keep a deficit, hopefully smaller, but still.
So what happens if you take current eating level and take off 1667 calories. But since that has max 1000 cal deficit, add 500 or 750 back in for being able to reach goal weight.
Add 1000 back on for potential maintenance number.

And if you suppress your system by 20%, that makes it even lower.
Is that an eating level you can sustain and adhere to?

Just throwing out some reasons why max at the start isn't always a great idea, maybe for a month, but then let body recover by taking max deficit and sticking to it, if losing more, eating more to keep it.

esjones12

OP - progress is progress! If you are slowly losing then you are not on a "plateau". Keep eating at a deficit and you won't hit a plateau (6-8 week stall).

Just keep weighing all your food and logging it. If you don't have a lot left to lose, then the rate will be slower. If you do have a lot left to lose - then perhaps increasing your deficit will speed things up.

Best of luck!