Plateaud ??

tobiecross

Have been using MFP the past 132 days, while I have lost 21 pounds already, I seem to have hit a wall and I'm still looking to lose about 20-30 more pounds. Any advice to help me kick start my weight loss again?

dmiivanov

Take like a 2 week break eating at at your maintenance. It'll reset you're body's metabolic rate so that you're not in a starvation mode any more. Then continue your usual calory deficit program and you should be able to start losing weight at the same rate again.

85Cardinals

platoad, made a mesa my weight loss.

Keep at it with a good attitude, original poster. Switch some stuff up and see what works. Happens to everybody.

glassyo

Before you do anything, how long have you been stalled? A plateau is usually 4-6 weeks of no change. Anything less (and I'm thinking you've only been stalled for a week or two) would be water retention from too much sodium, that time of the month, a new exercise program, or weighing yourself fully clothed without having gone to the bathroom after eating a huge meal you don't usually eat the night before when, the week before, you'd been stark naked after doing your business in the morning having only a piece of toast for dinner.

Maxematics

dmiivanov wrote: »

Take like a 2 week break eating at at your maintenance. It'll reset you're body's metabolic rate so that you're not in a starvation mode any more. Then continue your usual calory deficit program and you should be able to start losing weight at the same rate again.

She's not in starvation mode. Starvation mode does not exist and she does not need a metabolic reset, as nothing has happened to her metabolism. These are myths in the weight loss world.

OP, congrats on your losses thus far! Here is my advice to you:

1. Unless it's been 4 to 6 weeks, as @glassyo has written, it's not a plateau. The reasons for possible stalls have also been stated.
2. If it actually has been more than 4 to 6 weeks, make sure you've gone and recalculated your calorie goal on MFP. It is suggested to do so every 10 pounds or so, as your caloric needs will decrease as you lose weight.
3. If you've already done this and you've still been stalled for 4 to 6 weeks, then you're eating too much to lose weight whether it's through inaccurate food logging, eating back too many exercise calories, or some combination of the two. Depending on how much you have left to lose, buying a food scale would be a great asset to you as our allowable margin of error for calorie counts decreases as we lose weight. If you do not want to buy a food scale, then try decreasing your current intake by 100 to 200 calories. If you start losing weight within two to three weeks, then you're good to go.

diannethegeek

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so since you last saw a drop on the scale, 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.

dmiivanov

synacious wrote: »

dmiivanov wrote: »

Take like a 2 week break eating at at your maintenance. It'll reset you're body's metabolic rate so that you're not in a starvation mode any more. Then continue your usual calory deficit program and you should be able to start losing weight at the same rate again.

She's not in starvation mode. Starvation mode does not exist and she does not need a metabolic reset, as nothing has happened to her metabolism. These are myths in the weight loss world.

OP, congrats on your losses thus far! Here is my advice to you:

1. Unless it's been 4 to 6 weeks, as @glassyo has written, it's not a plateau. The reasons for possible stalls have also been stated.
2. If it actually has been more than 4 to 6 weeks, make sure you've gone and recalculated your calorie goal on MFP. It is suggested to do so every 10 pounds or so, as your caloric needs will decrease as you lose weight.
3. If you've already done this and you've still been stalled for 4 to 6 weeks, then you're eating too much to lose weight whether it's through inaccurate food logging, eating back too many exercise calories, or some combination of the two. Depending on how much you have left to lose, buying a food scale would be a great asset to you as our allowable margin of error for calorie counts decreases as we lose weight. If you do not want to buy a food scale, then try decreasing your current intake by 100 to 200 calories. If you start losing weight within two to three weeks, then you're good to go.

OK, maybe you know about female weight loss better than I do; ) and maybe it is a myth in the weight loss community. But it worked for me 3 times that I tried in the past few yours, and each time I'd come out of the two week reset feeling great, motivated, having most of the strength back, and making further progress at ease.. and I'm gonna use that again

MissusMoon

dmiivanov wrote: »

Take like a 2 week break eating at at your maintenance. It'll reset you're body's metabolic rate so that you're not in a starvation mode any more. Then continue your usual calory deficit program and you should be able to start losing weight at the same rate again.

Nope, nope and nope.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/175608/starvation-mode-is-a-myth-the-science

dmiivanov

OK, let the "starvation mode be a myth " then. But the techniques seems to work great, and since it works I'll use it and recommend to anyone who asks.

janejellyroll

dmiivanov wrote: »

OK, let the "starvation mode be a myth " then. But the techniques seems to work great, and since it works I'll use it and recommend to anyone who asks.

Don't you there is value in presenting accurate information though? You're referring to myths. Maybe your technique will work for others, maybe it won't (you have a sample size of one, which isn't that reliable), but there's no value at all in promoting false information about starvation mode or resetting the metabolism.

buniphuphu

diannethegeek wrote: »

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.

Thanks for this info. I had assumed the app would adjust my calorie goals when necessary. When I did WW, that app auto-adjusted, so I assumed MFP would as well. When I had MFP recalculate, I'm 130 calories lower than I was.

dmiivanov

janejellyroll wrote: »

dmiivanov wrote: »

OK, let the "starvation mode be a myth " then. But the techniques seems to work great, and since it works I'll use it and recommend to anyone who asks.

Don't you there is value in presenting accurate information though? You're referring to myths. Maybe your technique will work for others, maybe it won't (you have a sample size of one, which isn't that reliable), but there's no value at all in promoting false information about starvation mode or resetting the metabolism.

Yeah, I agree. Thanks toall for their efforts in making my information more accurate.

dmiivanov

So I've spent some time reading research papers about the starvation mode following links here . They don't always seem consistent but the numbers I see are like between 1 and 8% reduction in metabolic rate after prolonged periods of starvation ( very little to no food)

So Why could possibly the technique of eating normal for a couple of weeks and then continuing back to the deficit work for busting through the plateaus?
I think we might be forgetting another big factor: The level of unplanned physical activity . Are you putting lots of vigor into every little thing that you do? Do you take stairs instead of elevator, do you walk instead of taking a train or driving, do you go outside and walk frequently, do you get up in your cubical and walk around and or / stretch? Do you joke around often and laugh really hard ?
People with well balanced hormones do all these things almost subconsciously , while those that are overweight and moody tend to just sit around and do nothing, unless it's something planned like going to the gym or outside for a jog. Even then they do it kind of unwillingly, as if it is a chore.
But if just one hour of slow paced walking can burn more than 500 kcal , mostly from fat, what can be said about the rest of the unplanned physical activity?
So what can happen to the hormones if you stay in a calorie for a long time without giving yourself any break whatsoever?

trigden1991

Reduce your calories, do more exercise or both.

allyphoe

Why could possibly the technique of eating normal for a couple of weeks and then continuing back to the deficit work for busting through the plateaus?

Because weight loss isn't linear. As long as you've been eating at a net deficit for an extended period, anything that causes time to pass will result in loss that shows up on the scale. If changing things up makes the passage of time more tolerable, go for it. But the benefit is that the passage of time is more tolerable, not that the changeup itself caused weight loss.

if just one hour of slow paced walking can burn more than 500 kcal

It would be quite the unusual person who would burn 500+ calories over and above NEAT with an hour of slow-paced walking. Or even fast-paced walking.