Plateau

lrwhit2006

Does anyone have any “not common” tips for breaking through weight loss plateau? I’ve been stuck at this weight for mooonthsssss! Thank you!

quiksylver296

Get a food scale.

kommodevaran

"Weight loss plateau", no such thing. You're eating more than you think, or expecting too fast weight loss.

jemhh

If you are a woman and haven't lost anything over the course of one menstrual cycle (period to period), drop your calories. If you don't have periods, drop calories if you haven't lost anything in 6-8 weeks.

Quiksylver's suggestion to get a food scale is a good way to track and drop calories. If you haven't already been weighing solid foods, now's the time to start.

steveko89

The common tips are common for a reason. If you've been at the same weight for months you're not being successful creating a calorie deficit.

- Do you have a food scale and are you using it 100% of the time?
- Are you logging consistently, accurately, and exhaustively?
- If you're exercising are you eating back those calories? If so, how are those being calculated/estimated? Is that accurate?

If/when you can answer "Yes" to those questions your TDEE is less than what had been calculated/estimated due to an over-estimation of exercise or non-exercise activity level and you need to eat fewer calories.

diannethegeek

All of my tips are pretty common, but here they are anyway in case something helps:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

cascadinglilac

kommodevaran wrote: »

"Weight loss plateau", no such thing. You're eating more than you think, or expecting too fast weight loss.

Yes it is. Your body can hold onto excess water weight and then you'll lose it later, creating a whoosh. It's well documented and even happened in starvation experiments.

I also want to clarify it doesn't happen for months (only days or a couple weeks, at most), so OP is probably eating too much.