How do you know if you have plateaued?

jezahb

So I have stopped losing weight. In fact I have gained weight, as much as 6 lbs in the middle of last week and down to 2 lbs over my most recent lowest weight now (which was 9 days ago). I am so frustrated and have no idea what is going on. I gave it a week, thinking maybe I just retained water but it has been OVER a week and still showing that I gained. There is no caloric reason for this, and I am VERY careful with my calories and actually borderline obsessive with weighing every bite I eat. I have my goals set to lose 1.5 lbs a week and have been finishing significantly under that goal each week. Last week I finished 1,545 calories under the goal, week before that 1,610 under, and this week I will finish out at least 1100 calories under (if I eat exactly my goal today which is unlikely). So that is, using the 3,500 calories in a lb of body fat equation, almost consistently half a pound MORE a week I should be losing...so 2 lbs a week. So why am I gaining, or at least not losing? How long should I give it before I fully declare I have plateaued and what should I do to fix that? Don't say eat even less calories as I cannot do that safely, most days I am consuming around 1300 a day so I am only 100 calories away from the minimum safe amount I should be consuming. So I can't safely eat any less than I already am eating, and right now for medical reasons I cannot exercise (have an appointment to see a pulmonologist as I cannot exert myself without my O2 levels dropping, likely because of the 2 bouts of pneumonia last year). I feel so stuck and getting frustrated.

ashleypetrie4

You don't have to answer this to be true for you or not, but I ALWAYS gain weight around my period (up to 5 lbs usually). Check your sodium intake, including salt added to any foods you eat, and your water intake. Try to drink more water. I know you said you can't exercise, but can you go for a leisurely walk? Even moving a little more during the day if you're mostly sedentary now can break a plateau. Also, take a look at the foods you are eating.. you may be staying within your calories, but are you choosing as many nutrient-dense foods as possible and avoiding processed foods? Veggies, fruits, lean meats, nuts, whole grains, etc. If you don't already, try cooking your meals at home as much as possible. Just with that alone you may be cutting out a lot of junk you don't even realize you are eating.

diannethegeek

A six pound gain over two weeks could easily be water weight due to an increase in exercise, stress, hormones, sodium, carbs, TOM, etc. A plateau is generally considered to be something like 6+ weeks without a change on the scale while keeping everything else consistent.

If your certain that you're logging your food accurately, certain that you're not overestimating exercise calories, and certain that your calorie goal is set accurately, then the only thing to do really is wait a few more weeks and see.

ManiacalLaugh

I think a week is still okay for the scale to freeze. Water weight (as you mentioned) can still be the culprit. It can take up to 10 days to shed a few pounds of water weight. I'm just now done shedding 5 lbs of water weight gained from a massive hike I went on on the 5th of June. (Edit with a note: the effort of that hike is what caused the gain, and I've heard massive workouts can do that.) Add that to the fact that it's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and getting much warmer on average (which can also cause water retention in me), and my weight is constantly up and down.

Not to discount your concern at all, but a week or so really isn't too bad. During my initial loss, I went on a 5 month span of plateauing. I had lost a family member and was starting a new job... I still don't know what went wrong, but I was super stressed. Eventually, the scale fell again and I lost an additional 40 lbs.

DeguelloTex

If there is no caloric reason for it, I'd wait it out. A week, or nine days, or the like isn't enough time to judge. This was 16 days, for example.

Liftng4Lis

You know when it's been 6-8 weeks with no change. At that point, you may want to look at your logging. Being as its only 9 days, just relax and wait it out, as it's most likely water retention.

Jmgkamp

I loved reading this post, so thank you OP. Because last week I was so pumped to weigh in at 176.1, only to now be holding steady in the 178 range. No caloric change, no TOM, but I did have a lot of popcorn (well within calorie allowance) along with some rice (different days, again within calorie range). So I'm going to trust the experts and hope that we are looking at normal things - in my case I'm hanging my hopes on water retention.

victoria_1024

I recently went about 2 weeks without losing any weight after very steadily losing 1-2 pounds every week for a few months. I knew I was doing everything right and just kept at it. Then I suddenly dropped 3 pounds. That seems to be happening for me more, where I hover around the same weight for a while and then drop weight suddenly overnight.

melachey

I currently aim for 1200-1300 calories a day. When I hit what I thought was a plateau (3-4 weeks at the same weight), I INCREASED my calories and actually dropped weight. When I looked back on my food log I realized there were many days I was coming in at 1100-1200 calories. Much too low, especially if I was exercising. So I aimed a bit higher and that helped.

Also, alcohol is a diet killer for me. Alcohol makes me hold onto weight for days. Is that a factor?

jezahb

melachey wrote: »

I currently aim for 1200-1300 calories a day. When I hit what I thought was a plateau (3-4 weeks at the same weight), I INCREASED my calories and actually dropped weight. When I looked back on my food log I realized there were many days I was coming in at 1100-1200 calories. Much too low, especially if I was exercising. So I aimed a bit higher and that helped.

I did this last time I dieted, I gave myself a "cheat day" where I would go over my goal by 500-800 calories on one day and I didn't plateau last time. So funny enough I just decided to do the same thing tomorrow, eat over my typical 1200-1300 range and probably hit maintenance or a little over to see if that budges it. I kinda feel like eating so few calories (which I kind of have too since I am short so therefore my maintenance level is quite low) eventually leads to a stall out in my weight loss as my body lowers its metabolism to compensate for what it clearly thinks must be a time of famine. Just my theory, if my weight suddenly drops after this mini-feast tomorrow I will have my answer.

Also I don't drink except for the rare BBQ with friends/family which I haven't had any of lately, so sadly that isn't it.

emmaps55

The scale gets influenced by so many thing -- water weight, salt intake, time of the month, etc. So a long time ago I decided to weigh myself every day, and then at the end of my "week" I average the 7 days' weights to get my "average weight" for the week. This smooths out the trend line. It allows me to see progress when I might despair. For example, my weight at the beginning of Week 1 was the exact same as my weight at the end of Week 3. I knew I had been earning a deficit of several pounds, but I sure wasn't seeing it day by day. But my average weight -- the weight I was circling around -- went down 2+ lbs over those three weeks, which is a good rate of loss for me. You can also keep a 10-day moving average which really shows you that weight loss is happening when it might not seem it as you step on the scale. An Excel spreadsheet is helpful for this. There are many examples online -- here's a link which explains more -- read down the comments to see how people do it:
http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/1eqaaw/my_progress_so_far_a_graph_on_what_weight_loss/

Sued0nim

So you quoted the only post that was incorrect ...interesting

It's not a plateau until 6-8 weeks
It's probably water weight
Eating more does not increase weight loss ever
Starvation mode doesn't exist ...it's a misinterpretation of thermogenic adaptation and has minimal effect on calories out
Alcohol is not a diet killer

Sued0nim

Look I'm at maintenance ...this is a NORMAL weight fluctuation over a 3 month period ...see the weight "stalling" and increasing and dropping ...cos sodium, exercise, hormones ...not cos bro-science and media made up reasons

DeguelloTex

rabbitjb wrote: »

So you quoted the only post that was incorrect ...interesting

It's not a plateau until 6-8 weeks
It's probably water weight
Eating more does not increase weight loss ever
Starvation mode doesn't exist ...it's a misinterpretation of thermogenic adaptation and has minimal effect on calories out
Alcohol is not a diet killer

@rabbitjb
You know, I think it would save everyone concerned a lot of time if, instead of asking for details and giving explanations, we just ask the OP what she wants the answer to be and then say that's the answer.

emmaps55

rabbitjb -- thanks for the Trendweight link! I didn't know about it, but it's one more interesting way to see my progress. I find I really respond to the bells and whistles approach to weight loss,

strong_curves

DeguelloTex wrote: »

If there is no caloric reason for it, I'd wait it out. A week, or nine days, or the like isn't enough time to judge. This was 16 days, for example.

I like this graphic, it's very clear.

jezahb

@rabbitjb
You know, I think it would save everyone concerned a lot of time if, instead of asking for details and giving explanations, we just ask the OP what she wants the answer to be and then say that's the answer.

Wow, no need to be nasty. Seriously now. I quoted that post because I found it interesting, and accurate to what I myself had experienced when I dieted 2 years ago with great success (until a breakup threw me off). I actually valued everyone's answers and opinions, and started a Trendweight graph which I think will help me see my weight loss in a more realistic way. I don't record weight gains on here since it changes my "Jezahb has lost __ lbs!" thing which I would hate if I knew the regain wasn't due to going over my maintenance calories but more likely water retention. So I think Trendweight will help me see a pattern more clearly, like if sometimes I stall out weight loss wise before eventually losing again. Right now I don't see that, since resuming dieting I was losing a steady 1-2 lbs a week or more, so now that I haven't lost any for almost 2 weeks and in fact have maintained a 2-6 lb regain...it is hard to swallow (no pun intended).

Good news is, don't think I will be attempting the whole "cheat day" thing again. Been doing the 1300 calories thing for long enough that hitting nearly 2000 in a day felt awful, I felt over full and just gross all day. Like it felt like my stomach was actually stretched too taut like a drum, not a good feeling and was more demoralizing on my confidence then my mini plateau was.

SezxyStef

jezahb wrote: »

@rabbitjb
You know, I think it would save everyone concerned a lot of time if, instead of asking for details and giving explanations, we just ask the OP what she wants the answer to be and then say that's the answer.

Wow, no need to be nasty. Seriously now. I quoted that post because I found it interesting, and accurate to what I myself had experienced when I dieted 2 years ago with great success (until a breakup threw me off). I actually valued everyone's answers and opinions, and started a Trendweight graph which I think will help me see my weight loss in a more realistic way. I don't record weight gains on here since it changes my "Jezahb has lost __ lbs!" thing which I would hate if I knew the regain wasn't due to going over my maintenance calories but more likely water retention. So I think Trendweight will help me see a pattern more clearly, like if sometimes I stall out weight loss wise before eventually losing again. Right now I don't see that, since resuming dieting I was losing a steady 1-2 lbs a week or more, so now that I haven't lost any for almost 2 weeks and in fact have maintained a 2-6 lb regain...it is hard to swallow (no pun intended).

Good news is, don't think I will be attempting the whole "cheat day" thing again. Been doing the 1300 calories thing for long enough that hitting nearly 2000 in a day felt awful, I felt over full and just gross all day. Like it felt like my stomach was actually stretched too taut like a drum, not a good feeling and was more demoralizing on my confidence then my mini plateau was.

not nasty true...

rabbitjb wrote: »

So you quoted the only post that was incorrect ...interesting

It's not a plateau until 6-8 weeks
It's probably water weight
Eating more does not increase weight loss ever
Starvation mode doesn't exist ...it's a misinterpretation of thermogenic adaptation and has minimal effect on calories out
Alcohol is not a diet killer

and this is true as well.

emmaps55

Just wrote a blog post explaining more about Trendweight.com -- I am so excited to have found this website thanks to rabbitjb!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/emmaps55/view/discovering-trendweight-com-751070

999tigger

err what lifting4l and rabbit said.

northdog

victoria_1024 wrote: »

I recently went about 2 weeks without losing any weight after very steadily losing 1-2 pounds every week for a few months. I knew I was doing everything right and just kept at it. Then I suddenly dropped 3 pounds. That seems to be happening for me more, where I hover around the same weight for a while and then drop weight suddenly overnight.

That has been happening to me as well. My weight loss graph looks a lot like stairs.