How to pass plateaus

me2me2lc

I lost 16 lbs, goal was 30. Couldn’t get past that plateau, using macros, tried refeed day, reset day, etc. What am I doing wrong? Then lost all hope and its all back again. How do I get past that yoyo plateau? Totally frustrated.

AnnPT77

How long did the plateau last?

Often, waiting it out is the best strategy, especially if the stall happened suddenly, when eating and activity stayed about the same (vs. loss gradually tapering off with consistent eating/activity; or tapering off with increasing incidents of eating past goals, ignoring goal altogether, or skipping exercise/activity).

If there's a gradual tapering off of loss, it may be time to tighten up logging, or recalculate calorie goals - something like that. Sometimes, when the symptoms are very specific, a couple of weeks at estimated maintenance calories may help.

Part of the reason I'm wondering how long the stall was, is your mentioning "refeed day, reset day". Frankly, a day is pretty much nothing, a drop in a giant ocean of days.

What I do for a day makes almost no difference in my bodyweight, beyond a blip at most, either a day when I eat nothing (if ill, say), or if I eat two or three times my maintenance calories. (Yes, I've eaten 2-3 times my maintenance calories a number of times. I get a water weight scale jump for a week or two at most, then things settle back down around maintenance weight, if I don't keep repeating that massive food intake, but rather keep it rare.)

What matters most is the pattern - or the average, actually - over many, many days. Weeks. Months. The majority of our days determines the majority of our outcome.

The way to get out of the yo-yo cycle, IMO, is to recognize that weight loss may be a temporary project with an end date, but weight management is a lifelong thing, one way or another. IMO, it's important to stick with it, figure out not only what it takes to lose weight, but to keep at a healthy weight long term. That's about habits, the things we repeat more-or-less on autopilot, not about what we do for a day or a week. At least that's my perspective, from year 6+ at a healthy weight, after around 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity.

kjratliff55

Drop daily Calorie goal by 100 and stick to it to get past the plateau (adding steps to your daily walk can help too). But the main thing is consistency.

Cheesy567

Keep the big picture in mind. How long do you plan on keeping off the weight you lose? A plateau is simply practice for that. It’s maintenance. Practice for maintenance. Nothing to be upset about. Roll with it and keep going.

If you’re going to keep the weight off for a lifetime, a few weeks or even a few months of a plateau during the weightloss is really not much. Choose to change your mindset, so that you don’t lose your progress.

MagisterMundi

Cheesy567 wrote: »

Keep the big picture in mind. How long do you plan on keeping off the weight you lose? A plateau is simply practice for that. It’s maintenance. Practice for maintenance. Nothing to be upset about. Roll with it and keep going.

If you’re going to keep the weight off for a lifetime, a few weeks or even a few months of a plateau during the weightloss is really not much. Choose to change your mindset, so that you don’t lose your progress.

This is my advice as well. Just keep going. If you're supposed to be losing weight with your current caloric intake/burn rate and you're not, but you had been previously, you'll start losing weight again. I've plateaued for three weeks before, where I didn't lose a pound despite having a 800-1000 calorie deficit every single day, but on the forth week I weighed myself and I was down four pounds and back on the downward trend once more. It can be discouraging, to be sure, but long-term weight loss is not necessarily a linear path. Stalling out, or even gaining a few pounds, is part of the process. Just have to stick to it.

Super_tomato

I’ve been at a plateau for 4 months now and just recently saw a drop, although I’m hesitant to think I’ve made it through the plateau until I see numbers I haven’t seen before for more than one weigh in. Like everyone above has mentioned, I have had to work on my perspective of being in a plateau and take advantage of figuring out how to maintain. I’ve lost weight before and didn’t maintain it which is why I’m trying to lose it again. I want this time to be long term successful so this is my practice. Keep with it. It doesn’t hurt to try things but don’t expect sudden changes. Everyone above me here have given excellent suggestions.

wiley1st

Great insights from all the posts above - stay consistent, realize you'll have a bumpy ride, and plateaus are expected. I've had a couple of plateaus myself. I made it through the first one by just sticking to the plan and broke through after 10 days or so. The plateau I'm in now is a bit more stubborn since I've gotten much closer to my goal weight and me slacking off a bit on calories & exercise. I'll stick to the plan for now, but I've been considering a zig-zag diet (google it). It's a bit more work to have different caloric intake per day, but it can trick the body away from stabilizing at a constant daily calorie goal.

IheartPGH

A good, old fashioned walking regimen of 1 hour a day has helped my fat loss immensely. And it has helped stop the plateaus altogether.