How do I overcome a weight loss plateau?

d12m17s

I say if it works continue to do it no matter what anyone else thinks.

wchull

ladyhusker39 wrote: »

I totally get what you're saying. However, it's important to understand what actually worked vs what was just coincidence. This is particularly important when you inevitably hit the next "plateau" so that you know what to do to work through that one.

I'm glad you've started seeing progress again.

Thank you, I'll keep your reply in mind next time I run into an issue. That being said my immeiate need was to lose 25 pounds in 100 days otherwise my doctor was going to put me on blood pressure meds which I didn't want ot be on. When I told him I would get the weight off he gave me this look that said "Fat chance bucko" but my weigh-in is Friday with the doctor and in the last 90 days I've lost 35 pounds.

Sorry if I seem a bit put off by some of the replies but it seemed that they were just a bit too quick in telling me that the advice given was just a bunch of BS. During that 10 day period which I'll refer to as a plateau, I was hitting the gym every day and even with the calories I gained back from my workouts and consuming far fewer calories than my allotment and was still stuck at the same weight. With the so called "poor advice" given somthing did happen and I started losing again and the only real change was eating lunch, which meant I had to compensate for those calories at dinner and the strength training has undoubedly added muscle mass which probably means that I'm buring a few more calories per day to maintain that muscle mass. Even if some consider it to be "poor advice" I say "so what, it worked and continues to work for me".

nndarden

Congrats on your progress to date. It's better and faster results than I managed.

But, after a year in a diabetes prevention / mitigation class (i.e. [affectionately called] Fat Class), I've come to believe that weight loss at its simplest is calories in < calories out. And, if you reach a plateau - and you will, to get back on the path you have to eat less and / or exercise more.

After about a year of weight loss, I found out one possible reason for a slowing down in the rate of weight loss. I had failed to up date my weight in the MFP app. Once it recognized I had lost about 50 pounds, the program recalculated my calories / day and exercise / day goals. I'll let you know in another 18 months if the revised goals are working as I hopefully approach target.

PAV8888

Fast rates of loss can be great confidence boost but they do have their own sets of issues and are not always the best for everyone.

They certainly increase the risk for gallstones for example. More lean mass may get lost as compared to losing at a slower rate. The risk of malnutrition and of developing disordered eating related ideations increase, particularly with large deficits.

While there are no clear-cut research answers that favor a slower over a faster rate of loss, most research to date has concomitantly included a substantial amount of follow-up and continued dietary intervention for the people in the fast loss category.

Most of the people on mfp are providing their own intervention and counseling and as such I have formed the personal opinion that spending the time to develop a maintenance arsenal while losing weight can only help me achieve ultimate success. There is also the issue of avoiding or at least minimizing, I should say, long term adaptation, which to me appears to be a worthwhile goal.

And doings these things takes time which is made available with a not exceedingly fast weight loss.

A least problematic rate of loss appears to be achieved when deficits do not exceed 20% of TDEE (25% while obese). This usually translates into a loss rate of between 0.5 and 1% of body weight per week.

While a loss rate of 1% to 1.5% is probably not going to create too many issues for someone who has energy reserves compatible with being labeled morbidly obese, slowing down a bit when approaching the high overweight category is probably not a terrible idea.

Of course one treats the complete person and people and their doctors have to evaluate relative risks.

The state of medicine today is such that doctors tend to counteract issues as they come up and postpone for the future issues that have not yet come into play.

As such the relative weighing (ha, ha) of maintaining your weight loss versus the speed of your weight loss may differ between your doctor and yourself.

You have made an excellent start. Start working on extending that start into something more long-term by making choices you think you can live with long-term.

CharlieBeansmomTracey

wchull wrote: »

ladyhusker39 wrote: »

I totally get what you're saying. However, it's important to understand what actually worked vs what was just coincidence. This is particularly important when you inevitably hit the next "plateau" so that you know what to do to work through that one.

I'm glad you've started seeing progress again.

Thank you, I'll keep your reply in mind next time I run into an issue. That being said my immeiate need was to lose 25 pounds in 100 days otherwise my doctor was going to put me on blood pressure meds which I didn't want ot be on. When I told him I would get the weight off he gave me this look that said "Fat chance bucko" but my weigh-in is Friday with the doctor and in the last 90 days I've lost 35 pounds.

Sorry if I seem a bit put off by some of the replies but it seemed that they were just a bit too quick in telling me that the advice given was just a bunch of BS. During that 10 day period which I'll refer to as a plateau, I was hitting the gym every day and even with the calories I gained back from my workouts and consuming far fewer calories than my allotment and was still stuck at the same weight. With the so called "poor advice" given somthing did happen and I started losing again and the only real change was eating lunch, which meant I had to compensate for those calories at dinner and the strength training has undoubedly added muscle mass which probably means that I'm buring a few more calories per day to maintain that muscle mass. Even if some consider it to be "poor advice" I say "so what, it worked and continues to work for me".

since a lb of muscle burns like 6-10 additional calories you arent going to be burning a lot more calories. if you are also in a deficit its harder to build muscle. and Im not trying to offend you but you look like an older gentleman,its going to be even harder to build mass due to lower testosterone among other things,and you dont gain muscle that quickly even in a surplus(aside from maybe some newbie gains which isnt going to be a lot and tapers off after time). as for working out more and eating less your body will retain water to repair muscles so thats why the scale didnt move, or why it went up in the first place. so if the scale is going down again its probably because the water you were retaining was flushed out, could be some fat loss too.

ptrcmcc6

Hey, if it's working for you, stick with it. If you should plateau again (and you probably will), you can cross that bridge when you come to it. I've been losing/gaining the same 1-3 lbs. for over a month now. It gets frustrating but I just keep pushing on. Eventually, the scale will start going down again and I'm in no rush because, the way I am eating is the way I plan on eating from now on. I'll admit, sometimes I have bad days but I always try to get back on track the following day.