Just Another Plateau and Weigh-In Thread

steveko89

EDIT: originally posted quoting/replying to someone from 2015 without realizing this was a lazarus thread. Good post.

MsBaz2018

Bump

quiksylver296

I missed this throughout the years. Good stuff!

Phirrgus

I'm telling myself this morning "Just trust the process"

All things being equal, just do it and trust the process.

Translation: Hating my brand new fancy BT scale right now

*bump*

Orphia

Zombie thread alert!




Worth a bump and a comment while I'm here, after reading this for the first time. Not sure how I missed this one.

Nony_Mouse wrote: »

I just posted this in another thread, but I think it's worth putting here too:

I think MFP at large has a habit of developing some blinkered views. Things get said enough times, taken out of context and abbreviated, and people parrot a single line without actually really understanding. 'If you were eating at a deficit you'd be losing weight' is a classic example. What it should be is 'if you are eating at a deficit (and you've verified logging etc is on point), you should be losing fat, however that fat loss may be masked by unholy amounts of water weight from jacked up cortisol, and if you've been at a deficit for any amount of time you'll have some adaptive thermogenesis going on that will also impact your rate of fat loss'.

This is the nuance of plateaus/stalls that gets missed: fat loss hasn't stopped, but it can sure as hell be masked by water weight for a long-*kitten* time. In one of Lyle McDonald's recent podcasts he did a calculation that a woman could easily not see a scale loss for 10 weeks between hormonal weight fluctuations and cortisol-induced retention. So, plateau as in scale weight staying the same for weeks on end is real, plateau as in no fat loss for weeks on end (assuming actually at a deficit), not so much.

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing...

Exactly, @Nony_Mouse

That's what it looks like in this bit of the OP:


“OMGOMGOMG it’s been three weeks and I haven’t lost a pound!! Help me! I am eating at a deficit and I have done my detoxes. I strong lift three times an day and run the equivalent of a marathon every week all the while tending to my six hyperactive kids! I know for a fact I am eating below deficit. I even waited two weeks between weigh-ins and still the same! Please oh please do help me!!”

The OP didn't mention cortisol/stress due to overtraining, work/family, and general overactivity.


The OP was making a different point about data points and trend weight equations, which may confuse some readers who actually should know what you're telling people.

Also, don't detox, people!

Also, while I'm here, a mention of the Happy Scale weight logging app that gives you lovely data and reports.