so frustrated... weight hasn't budged in a week
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It's calories in and calories out. Your body does not suddenly decide to not obey the laws of physics. If you continue to eat fewer calories than you burn, you will always lose weight. It is not instantaneous, which gets most people.sbernardo123 wrote: »LazSommer wrote: »
There are no plateaus for weight loss if you follow the rules.
Thanks for your advice, but I definitely don't agree where you say there are no plateaus if you follow the rules. There are plateaus even if you follow your routine to a T. It's a normal physiological process for basically everyone.LazyButHealthy wrote: »
This is very easily said, but a bit more difficult to implement and account for the variations in energy expended and metabolic adjustments as you continue to progress. Having said that, a week is far from a plateau. Weight loss should be evaluated over a 4 week or more period of time.
A psychological plateau is not a physical one.
You have it well within your physical capacity to eat fewer calories than you burn. A physical plateau is a strength trainer being stuck at benching 285 lbs and for 4 months despite trying to progress. Or a runner not physically able to make it past the 10th mile they have been training to beat.
Not being able to accurately eat the proper number of calories is not an actual plateau, it's miscalculation. Your body is ready and able to drop the weight, you're just supplying it too much energy, which it stores.
And over time, energy expenditure will reduce. So yes, you can have a weight loss plateau, just like you can have a plateau in strength capability, of which you can get over by increasing mass or even possibility adjusting frequency. Either way, a change of plan will be required.
In the case of the OP, cleaning up logging is probably the first thing that needs to be addressed. Its potential the second is carbs due to PCOS.
Are you implying that a physical plateau for weight loss is the same as your BMR lowering with weight loss? Again, that arrives at a miscalculation issue and not your body being unable to shed the poundage.
BMR and TDEE are easily enough to figure out for most of the population, and even if it wasn't 100% accurate you would still lose weight assuming your margin for loss vs maintenance isn't set to something abysmally low. Most people here have a 500 cal per day deficit. Your BMR being off by 100 calories won't prevent a loss. Eating too much does.
I am suggesting there are variables for a weight loss plateau (miscalculation of TDEE, under reporting of calories, etc..). And yes, i would argue that there is no such thing as a physical plateau, but we dont' need to argue that in this thread as it wouldn't be beneficial to the OP.0 -
I am sure others have said this, weight loss doesn't happen every week. Even in a calorie deficit there will be weeks where weight says the same or even goes up because of things like water weight. There are times where weight will not change for several weeks, yet measurements will decrease. If you are going to expect a weight loss every week, you are going to be disappointed. I have has two weeks with no loss, even a slight gain, then suddenly, eating the same number of calories daily, there is a huge loss of 2-3 pounds in a day. Keep going, just make sure you are measuring your food carefully.0
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It's calories in and calories out. Your body does not suddenly decide to not obey the laws of physics. If you continue to eat fewer calories than you burn, you will always lose weight. It is not instantaneous, which gets most people.sbernardo123 wrote: »LazSommer wrote: »
There are no plateaus for weight loss if you follow the rules.
Thanks for your advice, but I definitely don't agree where you say there are no plateaus if you follow the rules. There are plateaus even if you follow your routine to a T. It's a normal physiological process for basically everyone.LazyButHealthy wrote: »
This is very easily said, but a bit more difficult to implement and account for the variations in energy expended and metabolic adjustments as you continue to progress. Having said that, a week is far from a plateau. Weight loss should be evaluated over a 4 week or more period of time.
A psychological plateau is not a physical one.
You have it well within your physical capacity to eat fewer calories than you burn. A physical plateau is a strength trainer being stuck at benching 285 lbs and for 4 months despite trying to progress. Or a runner not physically able to make it past the 10th mile they have been training to beat.
Not being able to accurately eat the proper number of calories is not an actual plateau, it's miscalculation. Your body is ready and able to drop the weight, you're just supplying it too much energy, which it stores.
And over time, energy expenditure will reduce. So yes, you can have a weight loss plateau, just like you can have a plateau in strength capability, of which you can get over by increasing mass or even possibility adjusting frequency. Either way, a change of plan will be required.
In the case of the OP, cleaning up logging is probably the first thing that needs to be addressed. Its potential the second is carbs due to PCOS.
Are you implying that a physical plateau for weight loss is the same as your BMR lowering with weight loss? Again, that arrives at a miscalculation issue and not your body being unable to shed the poundage.
BMR and TDEE are easily enough to figure out for most of the population, and even if it wasn't 100% accurate you would still lose weight assuming your margin for loss vs maintenance isn't set to something abysmally low. Most people here have a 500 cal per day deficit. Your BMR being off by 100 calories won't prevent a loss. Eating too much does.
I am suggesting there are variables for a weight loss plateau (miscalculation of TDEE, under reporting of calories, etc..). And yes, i would argue that there is no such thing as a physical plateau, but we dont' need to argue that in this thread as it wouldn't be beneficial to the OP.
I would agree. My point was mostly just to say that I wouldn't call it a plateau, as I think a plateau suggests that you are doing everything you can and still failing, suggesting your body needs a change of tactics as overcoming most plateaus benefit from. Eating less isn't a change of tactics, just mentally frustrating for some.1 -
In the last six months, every time I seemed to stall out for a week or so (I call it a "stall" when it's that short, not a real plateau), I adjusted my calories down. That's done the trick. I try to be pretty honest about logging without turning it into an obsession that consumes my day, so I figure I need to be aggressive about setting the calories at a low level, to give myself a bit of wiggle room. Also, I don't eat back any exercise calories. If you do eat back exercise calories, you'd better be a veritable nut about counting them--and if you think our food-calorie logging is prone to error, it doesn't hold a candle to the silliness out there in exercise-calorie-counting world! Set yourself a big enough average daily calorie deficit, and you probably won't have to endure many periods of a week or more without a loss.
But I will say this: I weigh daily, which shows me that I undulate in weight on a 3-4-day schedule, with the peaks and valleys slowly lower with each cycle. I don't expect lasting progress on the scale any more often than that under the best of circumstances.1 -
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There's also a video out there somewhere that shows how horribly inaccurate packaged foods can be as far as calorie counts. Like the calorie count for a sandwich said something like 350 calories when in reality it was like double that.
Either way, if someone doesn't log accurately they're only cheating themselves. So best to be as accurate as you possibly can.0 -
Thanks all. I just want to be clear here- i wasn't implying that i'm plateauing - i understand what that term means- which is why i said I can't be plateauing. I think i'm just too focused on the number and have a hard time reminding myself that there will be times i don't see a loss for a week, or two weeks, or a month. that doesn't mean it's time to give up and go back to my old, bad habits. I've taken to heart some suggestions/tips on here and will tighten up my logging, and will try to keep from getting too bent out of shape if the line is flat for a bit instead of dipping.0
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There's also a video out there somewhere that shows how horribly inaccurate packaged foods can be as far as calorie counts. Like the calorie count for a sandwich said something like 350 calories when in reality it was like double that.
Either way, if someone doesn't log accurately they're only cheating themselves. So best to be as accurate as you possibly can.
https://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY
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I have a male acquaintance who successfully lost over 150 lbs about 4 years ago. He ate practically the same thing everyday and the only thing he really changed over time was exercise, which he gradually increased. He lost 8 lbs one week, nothing the next week, 4 lbs the next week, nothing the next 2 weeks, etc. He was meticulous with weighing measuring and logging. "Weight loss is not linear" is an understatement, to say the least.1
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Here's a nice happy thought for you
An yours would be way bigger than this! That IS AWESOME!!!!
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk
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