What's causing the weight loss plateau?
sibeluver03
Posts: 58 Member
I've been following a low carb way of eating (1500 calories/15 net carbs per day) and working out 5 days a week since March 2017. I've lost 56 pounds and feel wonderful! I've been stuck at my current weight for one month. In fact, I've actually gained an extra pound or two back, it keeps bouncing around. My exercise has been Beachbody's T25, but recently I switched to Insanity Max 30. I'm almost done with Week 2 of that program. My eating habits have been steady for the most part. I have had two cheat meals in the last month.
So my theory is- the cheat meals have done me in and caused me to stall.
Or, have I reached a weight that my body is comfortable at and maybe I need to adjust my calorie/carb intake again? Lower the calorie intake, perhaps? I don't think I can mentally handle less carbs per day.
I am hoping the change of work out routine will help get these last pesky 10 pounds off. I've always heard the last 10 are the hardest. It's been true for me so far!
So my theory is- the cheat meals have done me in and caused me to stall.
Or, have I reached a weight that my body is comfortable at and maybe I need to adjust my calorie/carb intake again? Lower the calorie intake, perhaps? I don't think I can mentally handle less carbs per day.
I am hoping the change of work out routine will help get these last pesky 10 pounds off. I've always heard the last 10 are the hardest. It's been true for me so far!
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Replies
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Are you weighing your solid food?
The last 10lbs will come off slowly...your deficit has become smaller since you are closer to goal. If you are being VERY accurate in your logging, 1500 calories may be too much to keep losing weight.
You will need some patience. And more consistancy. I honestly don't think it has anything to do with your workout routine - you work out for health, you eat less for weight. I don't think it has anything to do with your carb level either
Can you tell us your height and weight?5 -
Just remember... it's aaaall about calories. The more accurate you track them, the better your results will be.
Have you readjusted your calorie goal since losing 56lbs? Congrats by the way!
How to be as accurate as possible:
- Log everything you eat and drink using a digital scale (solids) or measuring cups (liquids) and try to find accurate database entries
- Eat back only 50-75% of the calories you think you're burning during exercise (whether the machine/your fitbit/HRM/MFP gives you the number - they can be wildly inaccurate)3 -
Have you readjusted your calories recently? I have to go through the MFP calorie set up every 10 pounds or so.
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sibeluver03 wrote: »I have had two cheat meals in the last month.
So my theory is- the cheat meals have done me in and caused me to stall.
What do you consider to be a cheat meal - something higher carb but still in your calorie allowance, something that takes you up to maintenance or no holds barred eat everything you like?- Changes in macros particularly when significantly changing your carb intake can cause water retention
- More sodium and alcohol can also cause water retention
- If you are going no holds barred - you may have wiped out your calorie deficit
sibeluver03 wrote: »Or, have I reached a weight that my body is comfortable at and maybe I need to adjust my calorie/carb intake again? Lower the calorie intake, perhaps? I don't think I can mentally handle less carbs per day.
Being only 10lbs from goal will make weight loss slower, you should only really be expecting to lose 0.5lb per week at this point and you need to be more accurate with your logging than when you started out because you have a smaller margin of error.
Tighten up your logging and maybe adjust your expectations for the last slog.
Weighing daily and using a trend app like Libra or Happy Scale for a little while might help if you are experiencing water weight fluctuations.
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Have you taken a diet break at all during your weight loss? Have a read of this: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/
Once you're in the healthy weight range, your body will fight back a lot harder against losing weight. I would recommend doing a diet break as outlined in the link (yes, you are going to have to up your carbs for that two weeks, that bit is important), then return to a deficit aiming for 0.5 lb per week. As Tinkerbell said, your logging will need to be tight, because you have very little margin for error.4 -
Thank you all for the replies! I do weigh and measure my food. I am 5'4 and 158 pounds.
I actually never eat back any exercise calories. I just never have. Except maybe if I go a tad over my daily calories? I think I do have room to improve when it comes to tracking my food. I'd say I'm 95% on tracking everything that goes into my stomach. Maybe that darn 5% is the problem. I'll do better.
Those cheat meals were no hold backs. One was Pizza Hut buffet and I ate until I was stuffed. Being low carb, I hadn't had bread in over 6 months. That had to have affected something! The second meal was my favorite Mexican place. Pulled pork burrito with rice and beans. And chips and salsa. Very high carb/calorie meal. The last real cheat meal like this that I'd had was when I hit my 50 pounds lost goal.
I will be more strict with my tracking. I think that may help.
Nony_Mouse- I definitely have not taken a diet break. I will check that article out. Thank you!4 -
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One of my friends told me that you can actually get a diet plateau and need to shake it up. I changed my eating habits for roughly 2 weeks and lost 6 pounds in the same timeframe. Would recommend trying it to see if it helps. Accurate reporting is definitely essential3
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sibeluver03 wrote: »Those cheat meals were no hold backs. One was Pizza Hut buffet and I ate until I was stuffed. Being low carb, I hadn't had bread in over 6 months. That had to have affected something! The second meal was my favorite Mexican place. Pulled pork burrito with rice and beans. And chips and salsa. Very high carb/calorie meal. The last real cheat meal like this that I'd had was when I hit my 50 pounds lost goal.
I notice your cheat meals are all very high carb, which makes perfect sense with how much you're restricting them normally. But it also sounds like you actually enjoy eating carbs and are doing keto specifically to lose weight.
Have you thought about what you're going to do once you reach your final goal? If you just stop because you're finished dieting there's a very good chance you'll start putting the weight back on. Now might be a good time to start practicing how you're going to eat at maintenance so you can sustain your loss.
Congratulations on your incredible accomplishment so far!6 -
Think of calories in terms of allowances for the week. If you had 1 cheat day per week that was 4,000 calories and the rest of your days that week were 1,500 calories.. (4000 + 1500*6)/7 = 1857 calories per day. That's probably an extremely small deficit. However, if you are low carb and then eat carbs, you will gain more water weight than a normal person just eating carbs. So you could see 1-2 lbs of water weight go on, combined with a tiny deficit, means stalling for a while. That doesn't even add the factor of sodium causing additional water retention. Pizza hut is super high sodium.
If I were you I wouldn't drop carbs lower.. I would start transitioning to a more typical 20% protein, 50% carb, 30% fat (or some other slight variation). Unless you want to be low carb for the rest of your life, the last 10 lbs is a good time to start transitioning. I also think you should transition because you went hogwild at a Pizza Hut lol. You like carbs, you clearly miss eating them. Better to learn moderation with them now.
Change your goal to be .5 lbs per week. Up your carbs slowly (if you want). Don't have "cheat days" but rather bank your calories for the week. Switching your cals to .5 lbs/week will give you more to play with, so you can save some for weekends and still lose weight.
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JerSchmare wrote: »Plateaus are a myth. Typically, you need to drop calories, increase activity, increase the intensity of your activity, or some combination of all of these. It’s simple, honestly.
This is true, but sometimes there is the appearance of a plateau for a short period (but not a month) because of transient water or waste. If you eat less than you burn you will lose body mass. There is no point at which decreasing calories will not result in a greater deficit. Yes, it's true your metabolism can slow if you severely restrict calories, but that just makes dropping calories less efficient; the deficit still increases but maybe at 10:9 instead of 1:1. Conversely, there is no point at which eating more will cause a greater deficit. And the only way you lose body mass (other than surgery or a horrible accident) is from a calorie deficit. Note that I never mentioned breakdown of carbs, protein, fat, etc. That's because it doesn't matter in terms of just weight loss. It matters for general health and the right mix may make you feel less hungry and therefore more likely to adhere to your caloric restraints. You cannot defeat physics.2 -
Great information everyone, thank you so much!!
I definitely love carbs. Darn things are what made me so overweight in the first place. Actually, just over eating in general. I know that my problem came from wanting to feel stuffed. I liked the "so stuffed I can hardly move" feeling. That will forever be a struggle for me.
I have considered switching over to Weight Watchers for maintenance. I know I'll see some fluctuation in my weight because WW allows carbs... but I definitely don't think I can stay low carb the rest of my life. I would break at some point. WW allows more variety of foods while helping control portions and general consumption. I wonder if now would be a good time to start transitioning and I can begin working toward losing the last 10 pounds WW style?1 -
1. Not adjusting intake after losing some weight.
2. Subconsciously reduced activity.
3. Logging or measuring issues.1 -
sibeluver03 wrote: »Great information everyone, thank you so much!!
I definitely love carbs. Darn things are what made me so overweight in the first place. Actually, just over eating in general. I know that my problem came from wanting to feel stuffed. I liked the "so stuffed I can hardly move" feeling. That will forever be a struggle for me.
I have considered switching over to Weight Watchers for maintenance. I know I'll see some fluctuation in my weight because WW allows carbs... but I definitely don't think I can stay low carb the rest of my life. I would break at some point. WW allows more variety of foods while helping control portions and general consumption. I wonder if now would be a good time to start transitioning and I can begin working toward losing the last 10 pounds WW style?
Weight Watchers does not allow a wider variety of food than just straight up myfitnesspal. Calorie counting (without carb counting) is the ultimate choice of variety. Weight watchers estimates portions, correct? I'd be more likely to overeat under those circumstances.1 -
Have you readjusted your calories recently? I have to go through the MFP calorie set up every 10 pounds or so.
OP, I haven't seen you respond to this. The number of calories needed for maintenance goes down as you lose weight. In other words, it takes more calories to stay fat. For a 5'8" moderately active 25yo female, for example, maintenance at 170lb is 2425 cal but at 106lb it's 1968 cal - a 457 calorie difference. You can try out various scenarios using this calculator:
http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html0 -
I found this when I was in the loosing mode, about every three months I would up my calories to 1800 vs 1200 for a weekend. It seemed to work for me.
https://www.jillianmichaels.com/blog/weight-loss/break-through-any-weight-loss-plateau2 -
I found this when I was in the loosing mode, about every three months I would up my calories to 1800 vs 1200 for a weekend. It seemed to work for me.
https://www.jillianmichaels.com/blog/weight-loss/break-through-any-weight-loss-plateau
She starts out pretty solid on her Q#1, accurately describing plateaus as a myth, but then gets into serious woo on Q#2. If you're in deficit, your body can't magically hang on to fat. Metabolism can slow down a little, but not enough to make you stop losing if your deficit is more than 10% of your TDEE.2 -
Have you readjusted your calories recently? I have to go through the MFP calorie set up every 10 pounds or so.
OP, I haven't seen you respond to this. The number of calories needed for maintenance goes down as you lose weight. In other words, it takes more calories to stay fat. For a 5'8" moderately active 25yo female, for example, maintenance at 170lb is 2425 cal but at 106lb it's 1968 cal - a 457 calorie difference. You can try out various scenarios using this calculator:
http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
I have not adjusted my daily calories. I wondered if I should? I currently take in 1500 per day. I do not eat back exercise calories. I have no idea how many I burn anyways. I don't have a hr watch or anything.
Here's what the calculator linked says. I'm under what it suggests. Maybe I should still take the calories down 100- 200?
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JerSchmare wrote: »Plateaus are a myth. Typically, you need to drop calories, increase activity, increase the intensity of your activity, or some combination of all of these. It’s simple, honestly.
+1
Maybe try to up the intensity on your workouts to see if that will help, if that isn't enough you can also try to lower your intake.0 -
sibeluver03 wrote: »Have you readjusted your calories recently? I have to go through the MFP calorie set up every 10 pounds or so.
OP, I haven't seen you respond to this. The number of calories needed for maintenance goes down as you lose weight. In other words, it takes more calories to stay fat. For a 5'8" moderately active 25yo female, for example, maintenance at 170lb is 2425 cal but at 106lb it's 1968 cal - a 457 calorie difference. You can try out various scenarios using this calculator:
http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
I have not adjusted my daily calories. I wondered if I should? I currently take in 1500 per day. I do not eat back exercise calories. I have no idea how many I burn anyways. I don't have a hr watch or anything.
Here's what the calculator linked says. I'm under what it suggests. Maybe I should still take the calories down 100- 200?
When I was in loosing mode, I ran across the same calorie calculator, it is actually nice to know what your BMR rate is as well, so that on days you don't exercise you can stay within your limits as well. So much information on the web, don't worry about it to much, I would get on the same stand still. Then eventually I would start loosing again. I was only gonna loose 30, then 10, eventually I lost a total of 45 which I tell myself my body knew exactly where I am suppose to be for my healthy body weight. Just stay the course is what I would always tell myself. Since I hit my final maintenance level I have maintained for the most part for over 2 years now. I turned to running half/full marathons so this past summer I was on carb load a little to much have gained back 5 so on the loose again. The best thing about MFP is that it has taught me what my limits are as far as calories in vs calories out, no diet drugs needed
You got this!! 1 -
If I go to "settings" on MFP and just click on calculate it will lower the calories based on the new weight.
It looks like you chose a random amount of calories of 1500 when you started, when in fact you could have been eating at least 300-500 more to lose at 1 lb. per week. Since you started in March, it seems like you've been losing 2 lbs. per week. Was 1500 what MFP told you to eat when you started?
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No, I definitely just picked 1500 because I didn't know how to properly use MFP. I still don't understand how it works 100%. I do low carb so I have used it to track those and calories and didn't really pay much attention to anything else.0
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It sounds like you've been losing weight at a pretty good clip for a long spell now.
Please read the refeeds and diet breaks thread. It really sounds like you could benefit from it.
Your weight "gain" is likely due to a change in exercise routines.
Your weight stall is likely due to the stress of eating at an aggressive deficit for so long.
When we diet, there are a lot of hormonal responses to calorie restriction that can have an impact on the scale and fluid retention. A lot of this is discussed in the thread I'm suggesting that you read.
Taking a break to eat at maintenance (and a different macro balance - sorry, some of the hormones you need to balance are carb sensitive) will restore your hormone balance and get your body back primed for eating at calorie restriction again.5 -
That exact thing happened to me and when I switched to Insanity Max:30, the weight started to just melt off and my body recomped in the most amazing way. I think the same will happen for you. Are you getting enough sleep and hydration?0
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sibeluver03 wrote: »No, I definitely just picked 1500 because I didn't know how to properly use MFP. I still don't understand how it works 100%. I do low carb so I have used it to track those and calories and didn't really pay much attention to anything else.
@sibeluver03 Below might help in understanding how MFP calculates:
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