Can I avoid plateau by mixing my food and exercise up more often?

hoops1888

I know everyone eventually plateaus after a certain amount of weight loss....

1. how much weight generally can you lose because this happens or how much time passes before you’ll hit the plateau?

2. Also, if you change up exercise and the food you eat quite regularly, does this mean you will avoid a stall?

Jixil

As you lose more weight, your body needs less calories. If you're eating the same amount of calories as before, when you were bigger, you're just maintaining the weight now that you're smaller. If you want to keep losing weight, you need to recalculate how many calories you should be eating now to maintain your current weight, and then eat less calories than that.

thechiopodist

Jixil wrote: »

As you lose more weight, your body needs less calories. If you're eating the same amount of calories as before, when you were bigger, you're just maintaining the weight now that you're smaller. If you want to keep losing weight, you need to recalculate how many calories you should be eating now to maintain your current weight, and then eat less calories than that.

This is correct. If you go to the goals area, you change your weight to your current weight and your calories will be reduced. You have to do this after losing each 10 to 15 lbs.

Fursian

A plateau, in my mind, is "eating at maintenance". A period of time, usually a month or preferably more of consistent weighing on a body scale and accurate weighing/measuring/logging of food with kitchen scales, and staying the same weight. Would signal to me that I was eating at maintenance.

With all that said, I have heard that some people do go a month or so and then have a drop on the scale or tape measurements, this knowledge does help wonders with my patience if I've not seen a drop in awhile and know I'm doing all I can.

"Can I avoid plateau by mixing my food and exercise up more often?"

This, to me, is a numbers game. It doesn't matter what you do with your food or your exercise, or timings, it all comes down to the numbers. If you burn more than you take in, you'll lose weight. Eat more than you burn, you'll gain weight. Burn the same as you eat, you'll maintain.

malibu927

You can avoid a plateau by logging everything as accurately as possible. You don't need to change anything...in fact, you may see a slight stall any time you do change your exercise routine.

lynn_glenmont

Often, a plateau just indicates that you have reached a point that your safe rate of fat loss is slow enough that it can easily be masked by normal fluctuations in body weight due to varying levels of water retention (attributable to hormones, electrolyte balance, retention for muscle repair from workouts, inflammation from various causes, etc.) and the weight of foods waste in the digestive tract.

In those cases, patience is what needed.

To your specific questions ...

1. Time to a plateau (measured in actual time or in weight loss) is highly variable. No one can predict what your experience will be.


2 (a) Changing up exercise could actually trigger a stall, if it means increased challenge to muscles that will now need increased levels of water for repair. Decreased challenge to muscles could decrease water retention and result in a "whoosh" on the scales. If your exercise is mainly cardio-based, significant changes in time/mileage can still affect water retention for muscle repair. The effect of changes in exercise, outside of the effect on your calorie deficit, are far more difficult to predict than they are to explain in hindsight.

2 (b) Effects from changing up "the food you eat" are unpredictable. Increasing your calories or changing your macros could affect your hormone levels or glycogen stores in a way that leads to decreased water retention and a dip in the scales, but there are so many variables, including your current calories, your current macro distribution, and your endocrine system, that trying to predict whether your personal response to some change in your diet is pretty much a crap-shoot.

2 (c) These are all short-term strategies. Unless what you weigh next week, including water, is more important to you than how much fat you're carrying two or three months from now, it's not worth worrying about. Spend the energy on developing patience and an appreciation for the idea that "weight loss is not linear."

GrumpyHeadmistress

Plateaus don’t automatically happen. In 2.5 years I’ve never had one. I’ve lost some weeks, I’ve gained some week and I’ve even stayed the same some weeks. But I’ve never plateaued

hoops1888

Okay okay this is very interesting. I log weight loss monthly and mfp automatically reduces calories based on this so I probably won’t plateau, considering I’m logging accurately and sticking to my calorie llimits?

I thought it was something to do with your body getting used to the foods you eat or the exercise you do

Fursian

hoops1888 wrote: »

Okay okay this is very interesting. I log weight loss monthly and mfp automatically reduces calories based on this so I probably won’t plateau, considering I’m logging accurately and sticking to my calorie llimits?

I thought it was something to do with your body getting used to the foods you eat or the exercise you do

You're doing the required thing, that's the important part. It's really the only part, unless there is any medical problem?...

"I thought it was something to do with your body getting used to the foods you eat or the exercise you do"

Most people only notice the new exercise having any impact on the body scales, not so much the food. As long as you're staying within your allotted calories and not going OTT with salt, etc.. things should be fairly stable.

AnnPT77

hoops1888 wrote: »

Okay okay this is very interesting. I log weight loss monthly and mfp automatically reduces calories based on this so I probably won’t plateau, considering I’m logging accurately and sticking to my calorie llimits?

No guarantees. Some people experience a period of time where their weight holds steady for a while before dropping again even when they're in a deficit (a "plateau"), some people don't.

I thought it was something to do with your body getting used to the foods you eat or the exercise you do

There's been a lot of silliness propagated in the diet and exercise blogosphere about the need for "muscle confusion", "keeping your body guessing", cycling various elements of eating (calories, specific macronutrients) up and down, and the like. Mostly, it's fiction created by people who want to sell you something.

If you get bored with how you're eating, or it no longer seems subjectively satisfying, change how you're eating. If you feel like you're just going through the motions with workouts that no longer seem motivating or fun, then change up your exercise. Otherwise, just eat in a way that gives you balanced nutrition and reasonable calories, and do exercise that's fun and improves your fitness, and you'll be fine.

cebreisch

How much you lose and how long it takes before a plateau hits depends on the person. I don’t know that there’s any science to it....and it isn’t “if” but “when”. When it happens to me, I just have learned to be patient for the ride. I can’t drive 18 hours to Florida in 5 minutes (OH wouldn’t I love to though!!) and I can’t make the plateau go any faster either. The only thing that helps me ride it through is to focus on logging EXACTLY what I’m eating and making sure I’m logging EVERYTHING down to the last bite, and down to the condiments.

I usually won’t log the ketchup that I eat with fries, or the sauce I have with chicken nuggets, or the mayo I put on a sandwich....but when I hit a plateau I do. I just figure that a plateau is the time to refocus efforts and batten down the hatches.

I do know people who SWEAR by “changing it up” from time to time thinking if they switch the time of day they workout or what type of meal they have when might “keep your body guessing” and not feel like it’s in too much of a routine.

I dunno if there’s any truth to it - but I’m not going to dismiss it either necessarily. I just never bothered giving it much thought because it really is about CICO. Track food like a nazi, and get an activity tracker - that way you know CICO. THe bigger the gap between CI and CO then the more you’ll loose. I have about 2 years of data that’ll prove that where I lost 115 pounds. Didn’t ever hit enough of a plateau to worry about what to do about it - one of them lasted about a month, and then I was back to losing about 1.5 a week.

yirara

I lost about 18kg over 8 months (I know, it was fast) and never plateau'd because I logged thoroughly and used a food scale. Ok, I'm a whoosher, thus nothing might happen for a few days, and then I'd suddenly drop 1-2 lbs over one night. Also weight loss might be masked by fluid retention from TOM, heat, stress, more sodium, new type of exercise, travelling, or pretty much every other reason if you happen to be female But that's not a plateau but normal fluctuations in your body's water level.

Gamliela

Either eat less or move more.

NovusDies

hoops1888 wrote: »

Okay okay this is very interesting. I log weight loss monthly and mfp automatically reduces calories based on this so I probably won’t plateau, considering I’m logging accurately and sticking to my calorie llimits?

I thought it was something to do with your body getting used to the foods you eat or the exercise you do

If you settle into a pattern of eating and then suddenly and radically change it there is a possibility you can have a temporary negative reaction like going from low fiber to high fiber. In that sense your body has become accustomed to the foods you eat but that has nothing to do with weight loss. A varied diet is good for nutrition but you can eat the same 3 meals each new day and lose weight.