How have you overcome plateaus?

bruhaha007

Everybody eventually hits one, but what have you found to break through the ever challenging plateau? Have you found it has been more your diet or exercise that had to change or both?

malibu927

Diet. I needed to stop eating so much and tighten up my logging.

diannethegeek

These are the things I wish someone had told me when I plateaued for two months:

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

AverageJoeFit

I had two plateaus over the last year of losing weight. Both times I did what my brother called a body reset.

I would eat 100 calories over maitence calories for a whole week. You would think I would have gained weight after it, but I didn't. I actually lost after that week.

HutchA12

Loomisj72 wrote: »

I had two plateaus over the last year of losing weight. Both times I did what my brother called a body reset.

I would eat 100 calories over maitence calories for a whole week. You would think I would have gained weight after it, but I didn't. I actually lost after that week.

All that does is set you back. OP has it been 3 weeks? Have you changed exercise? Had a salty meal? Drank enough water? Eaten heavy on the carbs? All of these things can make you hold water and make your loss stall. 1 went from 156 to 159 back to 154.6 all in a week due to water retention from working out and sodium intake being up.

If you are eating at a deficit it will come off. If it's been over 3 weeks you need to check your logging or adjust your goal #. Remember it goes down over time as well to maintain loss.

JennieMaeK

I haven't experienced a plateau (at least not yet). In the past 14 months I've had 8 weeks where I showed a gain, 5 where I stayed the same. All the rest I showed some sort of loss (sometimes only 0.2 lbs). Anytime I gained or stayed the same I knew why (ate too much, water weight, poor logging, etc). The biggest thing for me is being consistent with my logging.

bruhaha007

Thanks for all the great ideas @diannethegeek

It sounds like there is some consensus that logging is really important and that makes sense. How else do you know what to adjust if you don't know the baseline prior to hitting the plateau.

Maxematics

Water weight from muscle repair, high sodium meals, higher carb days, or a multitude of other reasons can make one appear to be plateauing. Men experience plateaus far less than women it seems, but no matter the gender it comes down to logging accurately and having patience. I mention women because there are always posts by women here saying they've reached a plateau but for women who experience menstruation it causes us to hold more water weight than men do and this usually goes unnoticed.

I find that weighing in daily may help people realize they're not actually plateauing. I hold more water weight during ovulation and during my TOM I get a big whoosh of loss that doesn't go back up. If I didn't know to expect this, I may radically change my diet thinking I'm plateauing when I'm not. This month has been particularly ridiculous:



So anyone reading this, especially women who get their TOM, please be patient before you take drastic measures like cutting calories too much. Make sure your logging is on point, invest in a food scale, and observe your weight trends.

bruhaha007

Wow, great insight @synacious ! I will have to share this with my girlfriend. You further re-enforce the need to log and measure. Thank you!