Plateaus and Slow Downs

bmeadows380

well, its official - I've definitely hit a plateau. My weight loss has painfully ground to a halt, and my measurements were all the same as last month. Its frustrating because I'm still 8 lbs away from my first major goal!

I'm already eating at the absolute minimum recommended calorie limit for my height and weight, and I've found that if I let that creep up a little that I gain. I've been trying to get some walking in, at least 30 minutes on most days, but the heat and humidity of summer is making me exhausted.

The last time I lost significant weight, the same thing happened - I started in the early winter, lost a bunch of weight up until the summer heat, and then stalled out. Then, as autumn came on, the weight began creeping back on. I'd really, really rather not to do that again!

There was a forum topic "21 Dietician Approved ways to jumpstart weight loss". I'm not too impressed by the article, as I'm already doing most of those things anyway, and some of the advice I don't consider valid or applicable. I've thought about trying to make myself skip lunch and only eat breakfast and dinner, but I don't know if I could keep that up.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to break this plateau?

theowlbox

I'm so sorry you're having a hard time! It is a g d bummer and it can be super frustrating. I've recently had that issue and seem to be coming out of it. Here is what i did. See if any of it is helpful:
1. i started to carefully choose the entry i was choosing in the food diary. I looked at the options for each food and chose the higher number to see if i had unintentionally been mislogging.
2. I lowered my calories very slightly again, to give myself a buffer for mislogging. I only changed it by 50 calories or so. I think i was at 1954 and i changed to 1900.
3. I upped incidental exercise by becoming more active in doing housework, projects and gardening.
4. I upped intentional exercise by increasing intensity and adding small, more intense walks between .5 and 1.5 miles a few times a week.
5. I tried to increase high volume low calorie foods to increase water in my diet.
6. I became more intentional about my sleep.

It seems to be working, but who knows what will work for you. Tinker a bit and see what gives you results. Best of luck!!

dawnz75

I don't have any amazing ideas to help, except to say I understand.
August 2015 to May 2016 with mfp lost 35lbs
The summer hit and by the end of last year it had all found its way back. Something about the summer, heat, vacation, more loose schedule is the deathnell for me. I gained about 6 to 7 lbs this last June (last month). Knowing how far I fell the previous summer was my motivation to not let go completely. I am almost to my weight loss number of late May. I figure if I can even tread water for the summer months that is a victory.
I am sorry you are struggling. I wish you the best as you adjust and "fight" to even maintain. Plateaus make it hard to put in the work.

gazellefish

Plateaus are the worst!

I lost my first 30lbs from January - April (260 to 230), dropped to 227 and then went up to 232, then I hung out at 230 for a MONTH.

Thanks to Fitbit (assuming relative accuracy), I know that I wasn't eating above maintenance, my steps were on par to the previous months, and my calories burned was similar to previous months. My sleep did suffer a little bit, but I don't know if it was exclusively responsible. I was still working out just as often as I had been. I was pissed off, it was frustrating as hell.

I finally kicked it after a relaxed weekend where I just ate what I wanted, I hung out with friends. In the meantime I had been working on getting more sleep, tightening up my logging, etc. I added cardio to my mornings, too. Finally, it dipped down, then back up, then finally back down. Now I'm stuck at 224/5, haha.

I think part of my issue was general life-stress, and then when I wasn't losing the stress/anxiety/frustration got worse in a horrible catch-22. Obviously I can't say for sure that my weekend of 'don't care' helped ultimately, but I feel like it did. That being said, if you plateau for closer to two months, time to talk to a doctor.

If it helps, I think I'm starting to realize that my summer weight loss may just be slower. I'm eating worse, I'm drinking more, etc. You lost weight before, you can lose weight again! I had to keep reminding myself that even if I was just maintaining, I still weighed less.

ZhivagosGirl

I unfortunately don't have any words of wisdom, just commiseration. I lost 50 lbs between January and the end of May and have been gaining and losing the same 3 lbs for 6 weeks. I joined MFP on Monday and started tracking/logging hoping to gain some insight - and support. Just doing my best to stay the course...

bmeadows380

thanks, guys! I really love the support this group gives! You guys are the best!

@Zhivagosgirl: sometimes commiseration is exactly the support I need lol It really helps knowing I'm not alone and that's not just me!

@gazellefish: I am stressed out right now, but that's been my life for years. However, I just changed positions within my company, I've been working on getting my old house ready to sell and it's been on the market for a month with very little interest, the place I'm going to be moving into has STILL not been vacated by the renters, and then there's the summer heat and humidity which just drains me but which also in turn leads to a lot of self-criticism. I tend to see all the stuff I should be doing, and get very upset with myself when I don't get it done. I can't just take a break without feeling guilty!

Anyway, I know plateaus come, and you are so right - even knowing that, it is frustrating as all get out when they hit! Thanks for your story, though; it helps knowing I'm not alone and to see that you are powering your way through it, and you are definitely right; its still a victory if I can maintain and not gain.

@dawn: for some reason, I don't seem to lose well in the summer, either. I'm not sure why; I'm more active in the summer. Perhaps its because there are more traps to get you with family get-togethers and such? And I do think the heat and humidity have something to do with it; I absolutely cannot take the humidity at all!

So we'll both just have to strive to survive until the fall, and see if we can't kick it back into gear when the weather cools down, right? lol

@owl: thank you so much for the kind words! I have been looking back over the last month and can see where I've become a little sloppy with recording, so your 1st point is definitely worth considering.

I'm already at the bottom of what is recommended for my weight, and that's actually well under what MFP recommended - I had found that to actually lose the 2 lbs per month, I had to cut about 100 calories off the recommendation. However, I've been have more slip-ups the last few weeks and going over, so I think what I need to do is try to get more vigilant in sticking strictly with my limit. I have the bad tendency to allow myself an extra treat here and there, especially on days that I've exercised, and I've really got to stop that.

I have started trying to get a 30 minute walk in a day when before I was not doing any exercise at all. Right now, I'm just walking, but I think once I get moved, I'm going to get a stationary bike. That way, I'll have something to get me through the winter. I know I should probably consider starting to lift weights, but I detest a gym environment and hate giving up the time it takes of my evenings. There's only so much time in a evening after I get off work and once I get dinner done, and after spending all day trapped in a place doing work I have to do whether I like it or not, I find that I get very jealous of my few free hours in the evening - which makes it very, very hard to get a workout in because I hate working out! And I'm not a morning person at all - I've tried getting up before work, and I failed miserably at it.....

I do really need to try to get more sleep, that I know. I've meant to go to bed earlier all week, but last night was the first success at it, and even that was only about an hour earlier. Still, when I got up this morning, I had finally registered a small weight loss when I had been at the exact same weight all week long; I like to think that extra hour of sleep did it.



My brother, who is also trying to lose weight, called me yesterday and said he was trying the intermittent fasting - the 16:8 plan. Now he tends to read up on all the literature and gets on a band wagon, and sure enough, he's done that with Fung (I think his name is), telling me all about the scientific studies and what IF is supposed to do for you. At the same time, I've heard both sides here at MFP as that seems to be a pretty polarizing topic.

anyway, despite some of the disdain for it I see here, I seem to see a lot more positives than negatives about it, so I thought I'd give it a shot and see if it helps me reign myself back in.


So I'm going to try intermittent fasting by skipping breakfast and waiting until noon to eat - that also will make me more vigilant in waiting the 4 hours I need in the morning between taking my morning metformin (for PCOS NOT diabetes) and taking my synthroid, and then waiting the hour after taking that before I eat.

And I'm definitely going to try to get more sleep of a night, even if its only 6 hours (I'm bad for only getting 4 hours per night).

I'll keep you guys informed if these help!

Nerdbear88

I took a different view of my plateaus as I was losing. I looked at it from the point of view that my body was adjusting to the shock of eating at a deficit for a long period of time and the extra calories it was burning. I hit about 4 plateaus while I was losing weight. They lasted for 1-3 weeks on average. But they were always followed by another big drop in weight. I'm assuming after my body got adjusted to the new level of CICO, then it gave up the fat willingly. For example my goal for 2016 was to lose 104 lbs (52 weeks x 2 lbs). My total weight loss that year was 106 lbs. It was not linear but the end result was the same. I had kept the 2 lbs a week loss almost to the pound.

I know it can get frustrating but stress only raises your cortisol levels and makes your body hold on to the fat that much more. If you view it as a natural progression of your weight loss journey and accept that your body needs time to adjust to everything you are doing to it, the happier and healthier you will be in the end.