Weight loss after plateau

LuckyMe2017

It seems like I am gaining water weight every other week. It's really weighing on my patience since I am doing everything I know to prevent/minimize it. Also, for the past month, my weight loss was 5 pounds. I lost 3 pounds the first week of April, but am now heavier than I was the end of March.
I am wondering if I have been in a fat loss plateau and just water weight has been fluctuating?
What has your weight loss been after a plateau? Has it been an initial significant loss? 1-2 pounds a week? Snail pace?

DeguelloTex

I leveled out at about .6 pounds per week for about six weeks and it's back to about 1.8 pounds per week for the last two weeks.

malibu927

A plateau is 4-6 weeks with no loss. What you're experiencing is a normal fluctuation.

LuckyMe2017

malibu927 wrote: »

A plateau is 4-6 weeks with no loss. What you're experiencing is a normal fluctuation.

It's possible that it has been 4-6 weeks. I am only one pound lighter than I was 3 weeks ago and that difference could have come from anything.

4legsRbetterthan2

Your weight loss rate should reflect your deficit if you are logging accurately. So how much of a deficit are you eating? It should have nothing to do with a previous plateau.

LuckyMe2017

4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »

Your weight loss rate should reflect your deficit if you are logging accurately. So how much of a deficit are you eating? It should have nothing to do with a previous plateau.

I am at a deficit. Pounds lost: 9 jan and feb, 5 March, 1 april
My weight loss is not reflecting my deficit, so I am wondering if I have plateaued but haven't noticed because my water weight is fluctuating? Also wondering if weight loss will pick up again or just be slow here on out?

suruda

Can you look at your food diary and determine if there is a consistent food reason you are gaining? for me it is beef....If I am going to have beef, I don't plan on getting on the scale the next day. It will quickly go away, but it will always cause me to retain water and show a gain!

I tend to lose 2-3, then nothing for a week or 2, then another drop. It's erratic and that is why I like tracking it on MFP to see the long term trend!

futuremanda

MidwaysT wrote: »

4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »

Your weight loss rate should reflect your deficit if you are logging accurately. So how much of a deficit are you eating? It should have nothing to do with a previous plateau.

I am at a deficit. Pounds lost: 9 jan and feb, 5 March, 1 april
My weight loss is not reflecting my deficit, so I am wondering if I have plateaued but haven't noticed because my water weight is fluctuating? Also wondering if weight loss will pick up again or just be slow here on out?

You are probably at a deficit, yes. But the pace of your weight loss will follow your deficit. If your deficit is 100 cals a day, for example, it would take 35 days to lose 1 lb.

If you want more help, you'll need to provide your stats (height, weight, age, activity level) and calorie target and if you'd be willing, open your diary to public. Because if, in fact, you are plateauing, or experiencing slower loss than your logs suggest you should, then there are errors in your logs (i.e. you are eating more than you think you are, and/or burning less than you think).

LuckyMe2017

suruda wrote: »

Can you look at your food diary and determine if there is a consistent food reason you are gaining? for me it is beef....If I am going to have beef, I don't plan on getting on the scale the next day. It will quickly go away, but it will always cause me to retain water and show a gain!

I tend to lose 2-3, then nothing for a week or 2, then another drop. It's erratic and that is why I like tracking it on MFP to see the long term trend!

My guess is that a food might be causing the fluid since I am watching macros, sodium, water consumption, no change in exercise, no alcohol recently, not TOM...

I think in the past, my weight loss was higher than the water gain, now the water is taking over. I have actually gained an inch this last week in my waist stomach, etc and my feet and toes are puffy.

4legsRbetterthan2

What is your calorie goal, age, weight, height, from your previous posts is sounds like you are a female. Do you eat back exercise calories, how do you estimate them?

LuckyMe2017

There are no major changes that would cause me to go from losing consistently for two months then waning off. Every week for the past month (when weight loss slowed) and prior, I average 1100-1300 calories per day. My goal has been 1500-1680 per day and I usually fall about 2000 below my calorie goal for the week because I don't eat back exercise calories.
And no, I am not over estimating exercise calories because I walk/jog uphill but only log it as in flat surface.

My maintenance calories is 2180 according to MFP

4legsRbetterthan2

MidwaysT wrote: »

I am at a deficit. Pounds lost: 9 jan and feb, 5 March, 1 april
My weight loss is not reflecting my deficit, so I am wondering if I have plateaued but haven't noticed because my water weight is fluctuating? Also wondering if weight loss will pick up again or just be slow here on out?

did you make any changes to your exercise routine in the last 4 weeks?

MidwaysT wrote: »

I think in the past, my weight loss was higher than the water gain, now the water is taking over. I have actually gained an inch this last week in my waist stomach, etc and my feet and toes are puffy.

The puffy feet and toes sounds worrisome to me, are you in good health?

4legsRbetterthan2

malibu927 wrote: »

A plateau is 4-6 weeks with no loss. What you're experiencing is a normal fluctuation.

I still think this is the best peice of advice you have gotten and we are just chasing ghosts here. Everyone's weight goes up and down, all the time. It would probably be best to just keep going and if you see no more drops by the end of April you might be in a better time frame to re-evaluate then.

LuckyMe2017

The only change is that I upped my calories to 1680 from 1500 April 1-12. U just changed it back to 1500 this morning due to stall.
I am in good health as far as I know. I was on blood pressure meds, but stopped taking them April 1 and my BP has been normal without it.
I have been eating sweets recently but staying within calories.
I am 32, 5'7, 178lbs, female. Started MFP consistently 12/31/14 at 202.

I averaged 2 pounds off per week through week 12. The past 3 weeks I have lost 1 pound. However, last Wednesday I was down to 175.

My last 5 weekly weigh ins starting 3/16
181.2, 179.2, 180, 177.2, 177.8
So my original question was could I have plateaued and just be playing around with a few pounds of water weight? If so, how can I expect my weight loss to commence after the plateau. I know there are many variables, but was wondering about others experiences.

4legsRbetterthan2

I don't see a plateau at all, you are still trending downwards, by 1-1.5 lbs/week. You will see ups and downs in weight, that is normal. Changing your calorie goal may have lead to some more fluctuations than you are used to, and since it was only 2ish weeks you changed it for I doubt your body ever settled in enough to get a really consistant trend back.

Liftng4Lis

Normal fluctuations, be patient.

LuckyMe2017

Ok! I actually only lost 3.4 in 5 weeks, which is way down from 2 pounds a week.
That said, I know I need to be patient.
Thanks for the input!

futuremanda

MidwaysT wrote: »

So my original question was could I have plateaued and just be playing around with a few pounds of water weight? If so, how can I expect my weight loss to commence after the plateau. I know there are many variables, but was wondering about others experiences.

It's just that weight loss follows your deficit. It's math. It may not come out linearly in short time frames, but over a long enough period, averaged out, it should actually be: Sum of Deficits on Each Day / 3500 = Pounds Lost in Theory. Number of Days / Pounds Lost in Theory = Number of Days to Lose Each Pound. Compare to actual pounds lost, and predicted rate of loss based on target deficit. If they don't match, your logging is off, or your body varies a bit from what the calculator predicts (i.e. MFP may think your maintenance is 2100 but maybe it is 2000, and you unluckily fall below average in that respect). (Or you have a medical condition.)

So, the answer to how your loss will commence after a plateau is the same as how your loss would ever commence. Over several weeks, averaged out, it will commence exactly according to your total deficit over those weeks. It's up to YOU to create the deficits, and to watch the numbers as a check. How your loss will move is not a mystery, and not subject to how others have done. You can calculate it, try to match your plan, and if the numbers do not match, assume there are errors, make adjustments in your practices, repeat.

And by the way: When I input your stats as sedentary to a calorie calculator, I get 1860 as your maintenance number. I get 2131 if I do lightly active, so I think MFP's 2180 is as good a starting estimate as any. (IF you are lightly active, indeed. Are you? Keeping in mind that's lifestyle calories, meaning, not including exercise?)

LuckyMe2017

futuremanda wrote: »

MidwaysT wrote: »

So my original question was could I have plateaued and just be playing around with a few pounds of water weight? If so, how can I expect my weight loss to commence after the plateau. I know there are many variables, but was wondering about others experiences.

It's just that weight loss follows your deficit. It's math. It may not come out linearly in short time frames, but over a long enough period, averaged out, it should actually be: Sum of Deficits on Each Day / 3500 = Pounds Lost in Theory. Number of Days / Pounds Lost in Theory = Number of Days to Lose Each Pound. Compare to actual pounds lost, and predicted rate of loss based on target deficit. If they don't match, your logging is off, or your body varies a bit from what the calculator predicts (i.e. MFP may think your maintenance is 2100 but maybe it is 2000, and you unluckily fall below average in that respect). (Or you have a medical condition.)

So, the answer to how your loss will commence after a plateau is the same as how your loss would ever commence. Over several weeks, averaged out, it will commence exactly according to your total deficit over those weeks. It's up to YOU to create the deficits, and to watch the numbers as a check. How your loss will move is not a mystery, and not subject to how others have done. You can calculate it, try to match your plan, and if the numbers do not match, assume there are errors, make adjustments in your practices, repeat.

And by the way: When I input your stats as sedentary to a calorie calculator, I get 1860 as your maintenance number. I get 2131 if I do lightly active, so I think MFP's 2180 is as good a starting estimate as any. (IF you are lightly active, indeed. Are you? Keeping in mind that's lifestyle calories, meaning, not including exercise?)

I think I entered light which should be accurate. I think a part of my impatience is that if I had been losing 2 pounds a week, over 5 weeks I'd lose 10 pounds. If I plateau for 5 weeks, then do I recover any of the weight I would have otherwise loss? Or will it just be 5 weeks of no loss?
Either way, I guess I will have to wait it out.

futuremanda

MidwaysT wrote: »

I think I entered light which should be accurate. I think a part of my impatience is that if I had been losing 2 pounds a week, over 5 weeks I'd lose 10 pounds. If I plateau for 5 weeks, then do I recover any of the weight I would have otherwise loss? Or will it just be 5 weeks of no loss?
Either way, I guess I will have to wait it out.

If you *truly* were creating a 1000 calorie deficit EVERY single day for 5 weeks, and not just your logs SAYING you did, but ACTUALLY, then you'd lose 10 lbs. And if the scale was messing with you, yes, you'd "recover" them. And then loss will proceed, over time, on average, according to your ACTUAL deficit, 2 lbs a week if that's what that is.

But just because your logs suggest you are creating a specific deficit, does not mean you are. Even meticulous logs have errors. Even the labels on your food have errors. Not every apple in existence has exactly the same nutrition per gram, not every chicken breast weighing 4 oz will have the same ratios of fat/skin/etc. Not every body conforms to the absolute average for a given calculation from a specific calculator (like MFP's, or Scooby's, or whatever). Exercise calories are total guesstimates. Lifestyle calories are a set number despite that lifestyle movement actually varies.

If you log 100% consistently, as accurately as you absolutely can, with weighing and the best database entries and so on, with conservative exercise calorie burn estimates, and give it like 2 months, and you do not lose according to the numbers, then something else is off. (Like your metabolism being slower than the calculator projects, or you move less than you think, or there are still errors in your logging, or you should see a doctor.)

You cannot have 5 weeks of no loss unless you had 5 weeks of no deficit (or extremely tiny deficit). Like, if your body takes 3000 calories to not die, and you only feed it 2000 calories, it will HAVE to burn body tissue to not die. There's no way around it. So either you fed it what it needed in actuality, or something is messing with the scale (water weight, say) and when that stops, you will see your loss.

If you were supposed to lose 10 lbs though in the last 5 weeks and have lost actually 0 pounds, I would suspect that you've lost SOME and there's SOME water weight, but that no, you're not in as big of a deficit right now as you think (you're not creating a 1000 cal per day deficit). Now, if you are more at a 1 lb sort of pace, that'd be 5 pounds in 5 weeks, that's super easy to hide under water fluctuations.

I do sympathize with the impatience though. Five weeks is pretty patient, even! I hope it breaks for you soon, and you'll be able to see a bit better what may have been going on with you.

Oh and for the record: I always take my lowest weigh-ins to be my weight (as long as I'm losing). So if you went 181, 178, 177, 179, 177, 180, 182? Call it 177. Also, if you fluctuate this much, and are able to handle daily weigh-ins, I'd recommend it. MORE data gives you a clearer picture of what is normal for you, what your weight range is, how your weight tends to move. Once a week, like, what if you were your heaviest on the day you weigh? Then you think you didn't lose, but maybe all week, your loss would've showed.

LuckyMe2017

Thanks for the thorough response futuremanda.
I will give an update at the end of the month.