Weight loss plateau

AveyHam

What are your tips and tricks on breaking through weightloss plateaus?

kommodevaran

First, by realizing that weight loss plateaus don't exist. Weight loss "is not linear"; your weight fluctuates naturally, independently of whether you lose, gain or maintain weight. If you have the same weight over a long period, you are eating at maintenance. This means that you need to eat less/move more. This can usually be taken care of just by tightening up your logging - checking entries, weighing your food, no cheating, and only eating back 50% of your exercise calories, if any.

dragon_girl26

Well, I dont know if this is yout case or not, but so often people come in with the misconception that eating "healthier" or "clean" is enough, and they get frustrated when the scale doesn't move. I wish it was that easy, but unfortunately it isn't. Calories still matter. Without knowing any information, my usual questions are:
How long has it been since the scale moved? If it's been 3 weeks or less, it's not a plateau. Weight loss isn't linear, so you aren't most likely going to see losses every week on the scale like clockwork.
Do you use a food scale, or just eyeball portion sizes?
Do you have regular unlogged "cheat" meals?
Do you double check everything you enter in your MFP diary against the nutritional labels? MFP database is user maintained, so there are a ton of incorrect entries. This includes barcode scanning and the green "verified" entries. Double check everything!
Do you use USDA values for things like nuts, vegetables, fruit, and meats?
Do you eat back exercise calories? If so, how do you calculate your burns? I've found machines like elliptical's to show twice the amount if what I actually burned, so it's better to underestimate if you aren't losing anything.
Do you re-evaluate your calorie goals after every ten pounds of loss? Your body is smaller so it needs less calories to function.
Do you log EVERYthing, including condiments, oils/butter that food is cooked in, etc...?

DetroitDarin

Dragon - that is a terrific post.

cityruss

Plateau: a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress.

Assuming your logging is accurate or is as inaccurate as when weight loss was occuring, assuming this plateau is over a long time frame, and assuming everything else has remained constant then the only logical conclusion is you are suddenly consuming maintenance calories.

How one suddenly jumps from a deficit to maintainance on the same amount of calories is anybodies guess.

The above has not happened. Your problem lies with logging accuracy/calorie burns/ovulation/timeframe/etc etc etc

dragon_girl26

DetroitDarin wrote: »

Dragon - that is a terrific post.

Thank you.

daniip_la

My advice depends on the length of your plateau. Has it been less than a month? Keep logging accurately and give it time. My last stall lasted 3 weeks, and then I dropped around 10lbs in two weeks.

If it's longer than a month, it's probably time to check what you're doing wrong. Log more accurately if you've let that slide. Eat fewer calories or move more.

BoxerBrawler

Yes, has to do with logging and activity. Log accurately, reduce calories, move more, or stay where you are.

RoxieDawn

Plataues really do not exist, if you are doing the exact same thing as the weeks before (calorie consumption, exercise, etc..) it has only slowed down a bit and maybe masked by water retention etc.. A drop is around the corner. Consistency is key. Stay the course and make sure if you have a a good amount of lose, change your calories goals at every 10 pounds.

Now the 10 pounds or less to lose, everything matters. Logging and moreoever honesty with that, keeping exercise challenging, different routines or perhaps changes in volume and intensity. Trending your weight at this point is a good idea and even through maintaining your new found weight "range".

diannethegeek

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.