Plateau

shortygirl1987

I hit a weight loss plateau, one day I'm at 147, then 145, then 143, then 145 again, it's driving me crazy

malibu927

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

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.

shortygirl1987

malibu927 wrote: »

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

Lately I haven't really been measuring my food, I just make sure not to over do it, I did use weights last night so that could be part of why I went from 143 to 145

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LazSommer

shortygirl1987 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

Lately I haven't really been measuring my food, I just make sure not to over do it, I did use weights last night so that could be part of why I went from 143 to 145

case closed friendo

janejellyroll

shortygirl1987 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

Lately I haven't really been measuring my food, I just make sure not to over do it, I did use weights last night so that could be part of why I went from 143 to 145

A plateau is six weeks of being on plan and not losing weight. Since you aren't on plan, this wouldn't be a plateau.

DanerTee

shortygirl1987 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

Lately I haven't really been measuring my food, I just make sure not to over do it, I did use weights last night so that could be part of why I went from 143 to 145

BINGO

SueInAz

LazSommer wrote: »

shortygirl1987 wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

If your weight is moving, you aren't in a plateau. How long has this been occurring? How are you measuring your calorie intake?

Lately I haven't really been measuring my food, I just make sure not to over do it, I did use weights last night so that could be part of why I went from 143 to 145

case closed friendo

Agreed.

Start weighing your food again. You're eating more than you think you are.

Arizona_C

Hi, advice to watch your food intake is good.

If you are really on a plateau, it's your food income and your exercise outcome are balanced. To kick such a plateau, include three high intensity work out a week. Just 30'' to boost the metabolisme and get the body out of its confort zone.

shortygirl1987

Yeah I've been a bad girl with not measuring even though I'm eating healthy, I started figuring that was my issue, time to whip out the scale and measuring cups again

maidengirl_

You are not in a plateau. A plateau is 6 weeks or more of no change to weight. You already solved your own problem by saying you haven't been measuring or weighing anything for a while. Time to get back to that. Use your food scale. You can just as easily overeat on healthy food too.