Weight loss is stalled, I should wait a month before increase?

mattig89ch

Hello all,

So my weight loss was stalled this past week. I didn't gain or lose. I did go over by 100 once, but I came in under by the same the next day, so I figure it all evened out. Now this has happened once before, what I needed to do was wait for a while, then increase my limit by 500 calories per pounds I lost (so just 500) for 2 weeks.

Last time, I went down to 1700 calories and had a real hard time of staying under that. This time, I was hoping to keep it at 1800, then increase from there. What I'm not 100% sure on, is the amount of time I should be stalled. I think its a month, is that correct?

gallicinvasion

Hello! Hope you’re well.

Firstly, 1 week is not a stall. If you are more or less maintaining your weight for 4-6 weeks, then you might want to reevaluate your eating plan. But over 1 week, water weight fluctuations can easily hide any fat loss or gain. Your data won’t give it a clear picture unless you’re viewing a longer period of time. Keep to your plan, keep weighing at the same time each week (or each day, if you’re a daily weigh-er) and then see where you are in a few weeks. This way, you avoid making a rash decision on bad data.

If you are in fact maintaining your weight after tracking your intake and weight 4-6 weeks, that means you have been eating at maintenance-level calories. You are burning the same amount of energy that you’re eating. That means you might be forgetting to log food, not weighing food, choosing entries that don’t have the correct calorie counts, overestimating your exercise calorie burn, or something similar. Those are the usual pitfalls.

If you actually are at a stall, you have to eat less than you burn in order to lose weight. So you would have to eat fewer daily calories, not more, in order to continue losing.

Panini911

one week is not generally considered a stall/plateau. it's a normal part of the process, our body won't go down the set rate weekly like clockwork over months and months.

at most i'd double check my weighing all foods and entries used. but i wouldn't change calories.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

nooboots

Why would you increase your calories? (even if it was a proper stalling)

mattig89ch

As far as I understand it, when you stall during your weight loss, your body goes into starvation mode. Holding onto everything it can get, because it you are starving and need every calorie.

And 4-6 weeks, got it. Thanks for the info all! I figured it was around a month. But I'll keep at it for an extra two weeks. Just to be sure.

Like I said, I did this before. During that two week increase, I did gain a bit of water weight, but nothing else. This increase, got my body out of starvation mode. And I started decreasing from there.

I actually got this info from a nutritionist, over in man v fat.

Panini911

no you lose weight when you are in a calorie deficit. starvation mode in the way you are describing isn't a thing. trying to find the link about htis....

ETA: here you go
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1

hixa30

The whole "eat more to lose weight" concept doesn't make sense. In fact I'm going to say that it is a fallacy. I'd suggest that if your counting is accurate, you reduce your intake slightly, increase your exercise, or a combination of both.

mattig89ch

Oh god, I'm not suggesting I (or anyone else) fall into the trap of 'eat more lose weight'. Not at all. This is you reducing your caloric intake to the point where your body starts to think its starving.

I will say this, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't try it myself. But it happened. I lowered my daily count to 1700 and I hit a wall. I was really struggling with it. I was able to do it, but it was a struggle every day.

I asked on the weight loss forum I used to frequent, and the local dietitcian told me about this whole starvation mode thing. Well...more like he said 'your body thinks its starving, so its holding onto everything as tight as it can'. He then explained that, since I had maintained this caloric count for a month (I think it was a month at that point), I needed to jumpstart my body out of it. And told me to increase my count by 500 per pound lost. And since I didn't lose anything, I just upped it by 500. He then said, keep it going for 2 weeks. Then slowly start to decrease it, until I start losing again. And this worked.

It basically, reset my deficit counter. But I didn't even try this, until I hit a very hard wall for me. Like, 'I'm about to give up, because I can't go any lower' kinda wall. So it was either try this, or just walk away from weight loss in general.

I'm not suggesting anyone else try this though, this is 100% my own personal experimentation. If it works, great! If not, then I'm up a few pounds I have to lose. No biggie.

nooboots

There is no such thing as starvation mode, its a myth. How do you think people end up starving to death if it were true? And Im not talking about people who are self harming regard to eating either, think about old people who are neglected because they're not accessing food, they end up dying.

rheddmobile

Your dietician is wrong. Starvation mode as you have described it is not a thing. The explanation of your experience is that you were losing weight at the expected rate all along, and the water weight fluctuations which were hiding your loss eventually evened out. This would have happened eventually without you raising your calories for two weeks.

HealthyHart1972

nooboots wrote: »

There is no such thing as starvation mode, its a myth. How do you think people end up starving to death if it were true? And Im not talking about people who are self harming regard to eating either, think about old people who are neglected because they're not accessing food, they end up dying.

Thank the lord someone with common sense has commented

liz0269

Setting aside the starvation mode thing
What you are describing is a planned diet break. Taking a full two week diet break every 8-12 weeks where you eat at maintenance can help prevent the metabolic slowdown that can happen from long term dieting. I'm on my phone so I can't look up the link, but there's a really good thread that explains what to do and why.

liz0269

The thread is called Of Refeeds and Diet Breaks. I can't copy the link but you can search for it.

KevHex

Hi. How much more fat do you want to lose and how active are you and how tall are you?

I've lost about 60lbs and changed my weight loss goal from 2lbs a week to 1lbs a week. At 2lbs a week 1600 Cals was not enough for me. I've got about 20lbs more to go before I check in with my progress and maybe reevaluate again. I eat back most of my exercise calories on the 4 days I go out running. I am 6'1" and 45 years old FYI.

Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint and if you are ticking all the correct boxes the other MFP members have listed in the various comments you will lose weight. There is no point being hungry, grumpy, disillusioned or struggling with weight loss for the sake of cutting an extra 250 to 300 cals per day when you can just extend your weight loss period by a month or two and feel much better along the way. This is what I tell myself anyway :-)

mattig89ch

rheddmobile wrote: »

Your dietician is wrong. Starvation mode as you have described it is not a thing. The explanation of your experience is that you were losing weight at the expected rate all along, and the water weight fluctuations which were hiding your loss eventually evened out. This would have happened eventually without you raising your calories for two weeks.

I'm confused by your statement. I said I was at 1700 calories a day, and wasn't losing weight for a month (ish). But your saying I would have lost weight again? Even after a month of no weight loss?

Panini911

mattig89ch wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

Your dietician is wrong. Starvation mode as you have described it is not a thing. The explanation of your experience is that you were losing weight at the expected rate all along, and the water weight fluctuations which were hiding your loss eventually evened out. This would have happened eventually without you raising your calories for two weeks.

I'm confused by your statement. I said I was at 1700 calories a day, and wasn't losing weight for a month (ish). But your saying I would have lost weight again? Even after a month of no weight loss?

yeah i went thru a stall of 6-7 weeks. i went up then stayed there til finally 7 or so weeks later i went down "woosh" to where i should have been at. Best guess is i was retaining water due to a number of random reasons and it finally released.

during that time i remained strong, though insanely annoyed and PO'ed. I dobule and tripe checked logging and weighing. but it was all more or less fine other than some tweaks.

mattig89ch

liz0269 wrote: »

Setting aside the starvation mode thing
What you are describing is a planned diet break. Taking a full two week diet break every 8-12 weeks where you eat at maintenance can help prevent the metabolic slowdown that can happen from long term dieting. I'm on my phone so I can't look up the link, but there's a really good thread that explains what to do and why.

I actually didn't know this was a tactic for weight loss. Thanks for the heads up! If you do find that link, could you post it here? I'd appreciate it.

liz0269

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1