Is there such a thing as a REAL plateau?

healthy_life2015

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts.

I see tons of posts about people saying they hit a plateau and don't know what to do. It seems that they always fall in one of two categories:
1. They haven't lost weight in one or two weeks - not long enough to be a plateau
2. They have not been sticking to their plan or think they are sticking to it but are eating much less / burning much more than they think

I define a true plateau as not seeing a loss for a significant period of time (more than a couple of weeks) while maintaining healthy habits and staying in deficit. I am inclined to think this really doesn't exist. The only example I can think of is when you lose so much weight that what used to be a deficit is no longer a deficit.

What do you all think?

Unknown

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TimothyFish

Simply put, it is impossible for your body to hang onto weight. In fact, we are constantly losing weight and if we don't replace what we lose by eating regularly and drinking fluids, we would eventually dry up to nothing but bone.

AskTracyAnnK28

BFDeal wrote: »

I'm no scientist so I can't give a yes/no it's real argument. My belief is it is more a matter of practicality and the need to increasingly lower calories gets to a point that's either unsustainable or too uncomfortable on an individual level.

I've lost ALOT of weight. I was 365 at my highest and everytime I get to 225 it just seems to stop. The solution everyone seems to chant is to eat less. OK, so how much less? This last time I stopped losing at 2300. 2200 didn't get it going. 2100 didn't either. So now I'm at 1900. Next will be 1700. 1500. At what point does this become unhealthy for me since I'm 5'11" 230lbs?

So, answering your question, am I physically unable to lose weight? Of course not. I'm sure if I stopped eating all together I'd lose weight. But at some point there's a practical element that all the judgemental people who seem to lose weight eating 10,000 calories a day just dismiess. I mean, should one really have to starve to drop a few pounds?

This just struck a chord with me. Because I lost 3 pounds in the past 2 weeks I had to lower my calorie intake in order to keep losing and it's really bummed me out.

I wish I could offer practical plateau advice, but I really have hit one yet. There were weeks here and there where I didn't lose, but they were my fault because I ate too much (holidays, birthday, etc.).

sarika61

Your calorie intake is still pretty high for losing weight for a 5 ft 11 in man. It would be appropriate for you to cut your intake to 1500 kcal/d if you can tolerate it. That is not an unhealthy caloric intake for a man of your height. It's low, and you'll lose, but it's not dangerous for you. Hubby is 6 ft 2, was about 215 lb (I think), and started at 2000/d, but found he eats less than that. Lost about ten pounds, now cutting caloric intake down to 1500 (which he found was not very hard for him), to keep losing. And he runs a few miles most days.

amoffatt

I stayed at the same weight (around 1-3 pound up and down) for over 4 months, unable to get past this "plateau" until I became stressed and didnt eat, dropped 5 pounds in 2 weeks. Now to maintain that drop is the tricky part since it was lost with little food.

I beleive there can be a stall or pleateau, especially when one is busting but for months and seeing no results. I have found personally that I either need to change my eating habits and/or up the intensity on my workouts, whether they are longer or more intense.

runner475

BFDeal wrote: »

Quick add is for coffee, black. I've seen varying figures on how many calories are in a cup of black coffee. 1-5 usually. I've started just putting 20 a day to cover my coffee. I'm probably overshooting it. For the cottage cheese, the diary just doesn't offer grams as a serving size. It uses cups. I do the math based off the label. 113g per serving divided into whatever my weight is (I try to get as close to 2 servings (1 cup, 226g) as I can on my scale. Same for the salsa. The diary lists the servings in tablespoons. It's 31g a tablespoon. I just weigh and do the math.

OK. Was it Fat Free Cheese Cottage Cheese?
I want to know what kind of cheese it was and I want to know how many grams you ate today.

sarika61

http://www.epi.umn.edu/cvdepi/video/the-minnesota-semistarvation-experiment/

This is a link to a video summary of the Minnesota Starvation experiment done in late 1944-45, narrated by a participant. Normal - weight, healthy young men volunteered for a starvation study. Fascinating. The takeaway is that, given your history, if you are correctly measuring and recording your caloric intake, and not losing at 1900/d, you will probably need to go a bit lower, or add in more exercise, but no lower than 1500/d. Most interesting was that all the participants became irritable, depressed, experienced a loss of libido, and became utterly preoccupied with food. When they were allowed to freely eat, after the study was over, the narrator reports that he was still hungry for years, and became obese, which he had never been beforehand. He didn't get back down to his pre-starvation weight until three years afterwards.

What I realize, from having watched the video, is that I'm going to have to do this slowly, and plan on staying with the MFP program for several years, if not forever, in order to get to and maintain a normal, healthy body weight for my height. Clearly, the body will try to regain after starvation, and will overshoot into obesity, if one allows oneself to eat "ad lib". If that was the case for a normal healthy young man, who had never been obese, it's certainly got to be the case for any overweight person who "diets" to lose weight, then returns to their usual eating habits.

runner475

I don't understand why BFDeal's comments got deleted from this thread. It looks like there is a misunderstanding between this thread and the other one.

My conversation with BFDeal was actually in line with OP's "What do you think?".

BFDeal has serious logging issues and that's because they don't know how to pick the correct entry from the database. I think the conversation was a legit conversation that would help not only BFDeal but anyone who is picking entries from Database just off the bat.

runner475

herrspoons wrote: »

runner475 wrote: »

I don't understand why BFDeal's comments got deleted from this thread. It looks like there is a misunderstanding between this thread and the other one.

My conversation with BFDeal was actually in line with OP's "What do you think?".

BFDeal has serious logging issues and that's because they don't know how to pick the correct entry from the database. I think the conversation was a legit conversation that would help not only BFDeal but anyone who is picking entries from Database just off the bat.

I think it was the consistent trolling across multiple threads.

Yes they are whiny but it's coming from frustration. Their one of the BIG issue is - They are not picking the right entries from the database. I have been studying their diary for 2 days now.


EDTA: I think they need to be told how to pick the correct entry. 60% of the problem is that.

AskTracyAnnK28

runner475 wrote: »

herrspoons wrote: »

runner475 wrote: »

I don't understand why BFDeal's comments got deleted from this thread. It looks like there is a misunderstanding between this thread and the other one.

My conversation with BFDeal was actually in line with OP's "What do you think?".

BFDeal has serious logging issues and that's because they don't know how to pick the correct entry from the database. I think the conversation was a legit conversation that would help not only BFDeal but anyone who is picking entries from Database just off the bat.

I think it was the consistent trolling across multiple threads.

Yes they are whiny but it's coming from frustration. Their one of the BIG issue is - They are not picking the right entries from the database. I have been studying their diary for 2 days now.


EDTA: I think they need to be told how to pick the correct entry. 60% of the problem is that.

That's why I scan the barcode of everything I possibly can, and when I can't I get the information directly from the food label and enter it that way.

Athos282

Yup, they do exist!

ruffnstuff

[/quote]

That's why I scan the barcode of everything I possibly can, and when I can't I get the information directly from the food label and enter it that way.

[/quote]

Just FYI - do know how often the bar code is incorrect? Like, all the time. I build a ton of recipes and have been logging consistently for a year and half. I cook a variety of foods for the family, so I'm always having to enter in new stuff. Bar codes are incorrect a LOT. Just be aware...check everything against the label before you hit ok.

AskTracyAnnK28

ruffnstuff wrote: »

That's why I scan the barcode of everything I possibly can, and when I can't I get the information directly from the food label and enter it that way.

[/quote]

Just FYI - do know how often the bar code is incorrect? Like, all the time. I build a ton of recipes and have been logging consistently for a year and half. I cook a variety of foods for the family, so I'm always having to enter in new stuff. Bar codes are incorrect a LOT. Just be aware...check everything against the label before you hit ok.[/quote]

I always check...but so far everything I've scanned has been exactly what the labels says.

dakotababy

Well, this is just my experience...and so when it comes to plateaus, I find them to be trial and error, and you need a lot of patience. I have taken the mindset that Plateaus is when you are practicing for maintenance.

I was losing weight consistently for about a year, and then the weight loss stopped at 210lbs. (Im 5'7 F) I figured, "Ill wait it out longer"...8 MONTHS later, still nothing (no change on the scale, no change in any measurements). I felt okay, except I did notice my hair was coming out...not super fast, but more than usual (most people probably would have never of noticed). I was increasing my calories, lowering my calories, changing my exercising, changing my macro ratios - almost anything I could think of to "change things up".

I ended up buying a bodymedia armband to get the most accurate TDEE. When I wore it for the 1st week, I quickly realized that I was not eating nearly enough to fuel myself. I was eating 1500 calories - 1800 calories per day (some months I increased, some months I decreased, never below 1500 during those 8 months). I was burning 2500+ calories per day. Even though I never felt like I was starving, and I had energy to workout/go to work/etc, I tried increasing my calories to 2000 calories a day and sure enough, the weight began to come off again.

I do often get frustrated hearing the typical "your eating more than you think" response to plateaus, because that was not my case - clearly, I was not eating enough (even though I was over 1200 calories/day).

Just my experience.

ETA - This was well over a year ago when this happened. I am now down to 158lbs.

ETA - Just read some of the other responses, this is of course beyond tracking accurately - if you are not measuring and weighing and logging accurately - then you are wasting your time.

I_Will_End_You

healthy_life2015 wrote: »

I define a true plateau as not seeing a loss for a significant period of time (more than a couple of weeks) while maintaining healthy habits and staying in deficit. I am inclined to think this really doesn't exist.

I am inclined to agree with you.

Metruis

Athos282 wrote: »

Yup, they do exist!

I wish there was a like button here.

@BFDeal Eat less calorie-dense of foods. Of course you shouldn't be miserable. But yesterday, when I finished putting in my calories, I realized I accidentally only ate 450 calories and was perfectly full. Turns out broccoli has very few calories, heh, oops. So, y'know, find some low calorie things that have a lot of volume. You'll adapt. At your weight, though... well, I'm your weight, and I angle for 1200-1400 calories a day, as a woman who's reasonably sedentary.

That said, did you ever consider that maybe your body is just saying 'I'm happy at this weight and the amount I'm getting right now'? Sure, losing another 40 pounds might be ideal. But maybe doing it with diet isn't right for your body now... how about increased activity?