Some people believe that if you are at a weight loss plateau... ( cont'd )

Altagracia220

Some people believe that if you are at a weight loss plateau, upping the calorie count of your daily limit will help you lose weight. Can someone explain why this is true? Or if it is not true, why?

betuel75

Not true, its all amout calories in vs. calories out. If you've plateaued its because your not in a calorie deficit or have a some sort of medical condition.

cstevenson86

I can say from personal experience, during the times where I've plateaued, I change things up and start seeing results again. For instance, I added a core and toning class...as well as yoga...to my weekly routine. I also switched up what kind of proteins I'm eating. Both of these combined together seemed to make a difference! Your body gets used to a certain kind of exercise, or certain kinds of foods...when you plateau, it's time to change something. Good luck on your journey!

cee134

I don't know if it's true but I read that you can go to your maintenance weight for maybe a 2 -6 weeks and reset your metabolism. Being careful to raise your calorie count by 100 until you get to maintenance. That being said, you can also adjust every 5 lbs and not every 10 lbs.

TimothyFish

It is true because some people don't understand weight loss. They have this idea that weight loss is a thing that is fighting against them. Then they see some fluctuation that happens after they eat more than normal and they latch onto the idea that eating more results in their losing weight. But weight loss doesn't work that way. To lose weight, you simply eat less and move more.

segacs

It's not true. It's a persistent myth that gets bandied about these forums though, and that for some reason refuses to die.

DaniCanadian

A lot of people 'plateau' because they don't readjust their calorie intake for their new weight. You need less calories to lose weight when you're 150lbs vs 160. So they may think they're still doing the same thing but actually eating too much to continue losing.
A lot of people also don't realize how valuable strength training is. Muscle increases your metabolic rate because the more you have, the more calories your body needs to burn day to day to function. Adding 2 or 3 strength workouts a week helps fight that 'plateau' too.

SergeantSausage

Not true because physics.

vismal

This is one of those situations where you must make a distinction between weight loss and fat loss. Eating more during a stall can certainly cause weight loss to increase in the short term. We've all seen this happen. Scale is stalled for weeks, you have a cheat day or refeed, next thing you know, weight starts moving again. This is due to water retention. Sometimes eating more can cause water retention to alleviate. This is just water moving out though. Fat loss was not stimulated by eating more. It was slowed. This is why so many people think eating more during a stall helps. In the short term, on the scale, it can. But again, it's just water moving out. Most of us aren't interested in water losses, we're interested in fat losses. Eating more will not help with fat losses.

lemonlionheart

vismal wrote: »

This is one of those situations where you must make a distinction between weight loss and fat loss. Eating more during a stall can certainly cause weight loss to increase in the short term. We've all seen this happen. Scale is stalled for weeks, you have a cheat day or refeed, next thing you know, weight starts moving again. This is due to water retention. Sometimes eating more can cause water retention to alleviate. This is just water moving out though. Fat loss was not stimulated by eating more. It was slowed. This is why so many people think eating more during a stall helps. In the short term, on the scale, it can. But again, it's just water moving out. Most of us aren't interested in water losses, we're interested in fat losses. Eating more will not help with fat losses.

Great explanation of this! We need to copy and paste this every time someone claims that having a cheat weekend kick-started their weight loss again

segacs

DaniCanadian wrote: »

A lot of people 'plateau' because they don't readjust their calorie intake for their new weight.

True. A lot of people also keep doing the same exercise as they were always doing, not realizing that they're burning fewer calories since the exercise gets easier for them so they're not working out as hard. That's why it's important to progressively increase the intensity of your exercise, whether it's strength training or cardio.

happyfeetrebel1

jazmin220 wrote: »

Some people believe that if you are at a weight loss plateau, upping the calorie count of your daily limit will help you lose weight. Can someone explain why this is true? Or if it is not true, why?

Not true.

The people who say this kind of stuff are generally 'starvation mode' theorists; and since starvation mode does not exist, this is not accurate. If you are not losing, you need to eat a bit less, or move a bit more; NOT increase your intake. That is silly.

Inaccurate logging can also present itself as a 'plateau'

rayw89

What advice would you give someone who is already at their minimum calorie intake(1,200), and has stalled? I'm 5' 8". I've added interval running into my workouts the last few days, and still the scale hasn't budged. I lost 20 lbs. easily over the last 6 weeks, but the last 4 days there has been no change, up or down.

Liftng4Lis

It's not true.

segacs

rayw89 wrote: »

What advice would you give someone who is already at their minimum calorie intake(1,200), and has stalled? I'm 5' 8". I've added interval running into my workouts the last few days, and still the scale hasn't budged. I lost 20 lbs. easily over the last 6 weeks, but the last 4 days there has been no change, up or down.

Please tell me this post is not serious.

If it's serious, then 4 days is not a plateau. 4 weeks, maybe. 4 days is normal, especially since you've been losing weight way too quickly (averaging more than 3lbs/week until now). Check your expectations.

If it's a joke, yep, well played.

rayw89

Oh yeah, hahaha, so funny, right? It is a plateau for me, because I had been losing every day. There's no need for snarkiness.
I was not losing weight too quickly, I put on 20 lbs. over a 4-5 month period, and it came off easily since I caught it in its tracks. Going from eating a lot of *kitten* every single day, and not doing any exercise, to eating healthily and strictly, and incorporating an hour of exercise six days a week, will make some people lose a decent amount of weight in a short amount of time.
Some people need to not jump to conclusions so quickly on here. Chill out.

Christine_72

rayw89 wrote: »

What advice would you give someone who is already at their minimum calorie intake(1,200), and has stalled? I'm 5' 8". I've added interval running into my workouts the last few days, and still the scale hasn't budged. I lost 20 lbs. easily over the last 6 weeks, but the last 4 days there has been no change, up or down.

Everyone's weight loss will eventually slow down.
Losing weight every single day is not the norm. Give it a good 4 weeks before you start to worry

Dnarules

segacs wrote: »

rayw89 wrote: »

What advice would you give someone who is already at their minimum calorie intake(1,200), and has stalled? I'm 5' 8". I've added interval running into my workouts the last few days, and still the scale hasn't budged. I lost 20 lbs. easily over the last 6 weeks, but the last 4 days there has been no change, up or down.

Please tell me this post is not serious.

If it's serious, then 4 days is not a plateau. 4 weeks, maybe. 4 days is normal, especially since you've been losing weight way too quickly (averaging more than 3lbs/week until now). Check your expectations.

If it's a joke, yep, well played.

This. Also, if you just changed an exercise routine, water retention might be masking any losses.

rayw89

christinev297 wrote: »

Everyone's weight loss will eventually slow down.
Losing weight every single day is not the norm. Give it a good 4 weeks before you start to worry

I won't lose weight every day, it was just curious for me because over the weeks my weight would fluctuate each day, lower on some days, and a little higher on others(water weight, I would assume). So for it to not even fluctuate with water weight, and stay the exact same, on point, is what I would call the start of a plateau. I'm prepared for this to last another few weeks. I was just curious as to if there was anything I could do to not let it last more than that.

arditarose

Not true. Though, if you're at a deficit for a long time (at least 4 months), I'm a huge supporter of diet breaks. Eating at maintenance for a couple week is just a nice change, and good for your body and mind-then you have to get back in the saddle and be set to your appropriate deficit. Adding calories to your daily deficit to lose weight though, no.