Weightloss Plateau After 3 Weeks

NickDugger

So, I've been counting my calories and exercising regularly. I've been getting a fairly consistent 1800 calories, trying to lose 2lbs a week. After the first 2.5 weeks, I was down about 7 lbs. However, For the past few days, my weight remained unchanged, and now when I weighed myself this morning, my weight went up.

I've had some people try to tell me that it's because of the muscle that I'm building. I've been lifting 2 days a week with a PT, and doing cardio 4 days a week--I don't think that I've built enough muscle yet for me to plateau...

What should I do? Should I just keep on doing what I'm doing, or should I take a new approach?

Seeing my weight go back up is a bit scary to me.

malibu927

You aren't in a plateau. A plateau is 4-6 weeks with no change in weight. Weight loss is not linear, so there will always be days or weeks where you don't lose/gain. The key, especially if you decide to weigh every morning, is to look past the daily change and view the long-term trend.

DebSozo

NickDugger wrote: »

So, I've been counting my calories and exercising regularly. I've been getting a fairly consistent 1800 calories, trying to lose 2lbs a week. After the first 2.5 weeks, I was down about 7 lbs. However, For the past few days, my weight remained unchanged, and now when I weighed myself this morning, my weight went up.

I've had some people try to tell me that it's because of the muscle that I'm building. I've been lifting 2 days a week with a PT, and doing cardio 4 days a week--I don't think that I've built enough muscle yet for me to plateau...

What should I do? Should I just keep on doing what I'm doing, or should I take a new approach?

Seeing my weight go back up is a bit scary to me.

You've lost 7 pounds in 3 weeks! It is all about averages. Usually the first pounds off are water weight because you burn glycogen first. Water binds to glycogen 2:1 or 3:1. So your first 7 pounds was probably 2 or 3 pounds of fat and the rest was water. Then as you rehydrate you gained the water back but continued to lose fat. It looks like you haven't lost weight but you have lost fat in actuality all along. You should start losing 1- 2 pounds a week soon. Or you might lose in spurts and drop 4 pounds for instance, stabilize, lose nothing for a bit and then lose more. Look at the long term averages over a spread. You've done really well for 3 weeks!

sunnybeaches105

malibu927 wrote: »

You aren't in a plateau. A plateau is 4-6 weeks with no change in weight. Weight loss is not linear, so there will always be days or weeks where you don't lose/gain. The key, especially if you decide to weigh every morning, is to look past the daily change and view the long-term trend.

^ This. You may also want to review your diary and make sure you are consistently hitting your calories goal, and also make sure you're using a food scale.

LisaKay91

That's why mine started to level off, too. I weigh the same for 5-9 days in a row, drop 5lbs and then the next 5 days I'm back up 5lbs. I am just going to keep going with the healthy eating instead of getting discouraged. Do you have a food scale? I am trying to measure everything in grams now instead ounces. I have read around here that working out/lifting can retain a bit of water while your muscles are healing. Keep going another few weeks

diannethegeek

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10196160/scale-stress-syndrome/p1

dlkfox

Patience. Perseverance.

lorrpb

2 days is not a plateau. Keep following your plan and results will keep coming, but always in the timeframe or amount that we "want" or expect. Great job so far!