What is the definition of plateau?

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  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    MrsKila wrote: »
    If you know for sure you're eating at a calorie deficit then what is the meaning of a plateau? Why would you ever have one if it's all about calorie and calorie out? Just trying to understand. The more weight you lose the more you reduce calories (understood).

    Yes. Most plateaus are due to calorie creep.
  • DebSozo
    DebSozo Posts: 2,578 Member
    edited August 2016
    MrsKila wrote: »
    If you know for sure you're eating at a calorie deficit then what is the meaning of a plateau? Why would you ever have one if it's all about calorie and calorie out? Just trying to understand. The more weight you lose the more you reduce calories (understood).
    I suspect that if you are doing everything "right" and are still at a plateau that it could be water retention.

    Some women lose fat but water fills the fat cells temporarily. Then there is a whoosh of weight loss. According to the article below , a woman can hold onto 5-10 pounds of water and might not see the weight drop for 5-10 weeks (due to shifts in water balance) even though she is still technically doing everything right and losing fat at 1 pound a week.

    This article explains this phenomenon. There could be several other reasons as well as the calorie creep possibilities already suggested by posters.
    http://bodytransformationfitness.com/weight-loss-plateaus/
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    I've experienced plateaus of course, but they don't really exist..... because WHEN I was experiencing one, I realised I was being less accurate with my weighing foods or I was simply eating that bit more which meant I was eating maintenance calories.
  • Pattycake755
    Pattycake755 Posts: 59 Member
    Hmm! I wonder why experts, including doctors say that weight loss plateaus exist, and people don't believe they exist??? Just use Google and you will also find that most call any weight loss stall a weight loss plateau; the only difference in definition is the length of the plateau! Whatever the reason for the stall or plateau, YOU STOPPED LOSING WEIGHT FOR WHATEVER FREAKING REASON. I stopped losing weight for four weeks and I called it a PLATEAU! And many other people call weight loss stalls, whatever the cause, a plateau! DAMN, why argue over something that has obviously come to mean "any weight loss stall." So what!?!?

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