I’ve hit a plateau

fionanugent1713
fionanugent1713 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve been going great with gradual weight loss. Roughly a pound a week but for the last few weeks nothing has changed. I’ve been real good. Anyone any ideas to kickstart it again?
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Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,892 Member
    edited October 2022
    A few weeks = two or three? And for how long has you been losing a lb a week?

    Without more info, I would just suggest to be patient, stalls are normal. I didn't lose weight every week, I even had weeks where I was seemingly gaining weight, but it always ended up going down in the end.

    Have you changed anything? Increased exercise, for example? Water retention is often the cause of stalls: from increased exercise, stress, hot weather, flying, a higher salt intake, hormones/monthly cycle,...

    It can't hurt to make sure you're tracking your food accurately (weighing, choosing correct database entries, not using generic database entries like 'one lasagna',...).

    If you've been losing weight for a longer period of time, and you haven't changed your calorie goal, you might want to 'reset' your goal settings in the app, to get an updated calorie goal for your lower body weight.

    A few weeks without a loss can be normal, if it's been 6 weeks or more, I'd be more worried.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,272 Member
    edited October 2022
    Plateaus are normally just a math miscalculation and the fact that we aren't a closed system and the out side of the equation has many factors that are impossible to account for on a daily basis I wouldn't sweat it for now. Stick with it and take you weight everyday then average it out to compare as you go forward, and if you're still not losing any weight and if by using a tape measure you're not seeing a reduction, then it's simply a situation where you're not in a deficit.
  • GoRun2
    GoRun2 Posts: 478 Member
    Yes, what the previous posters said. I'd stay with the plan but pay extra attention to weighing / measuring your food and tracking if is only 3 or 4 weeks.

    I retain water like crazy with salt. Drinking more water helps wash out the salt. This may not be your issue.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
    Don't overcorrect.

    I lost weight steadily over years and often had periods where the scale didn't budge for weeks on end. However, I logged my weight daily the entire time and the slope of my loss actually stayed consistent.

    The objective data showed that I only *ever* had a real plateau if I ate and drank more, like around the holidays.

    I just got used to those prolonged periods where the scale didn't change or even went up for weeks on end. They were always eventually followed by a period where my weight started dropping again. I referred to it as "brewing a loss."

    If I had over corrected, I would have mistakenly assumed that changing something was what made the weight eventually come off, but really, it was just that this was the normal pattern for weight loss for my body.

    If you expect the scale to drop consistently, you are setting yourself up for enormous frustration and over correction.

    If you over correct, you run the risk of pushing yourself into unsustainable territory. Stick with what you know you can handle and stay consistent with, give it time, and then objectively see what's happening.

    If you stick to exactly what was working before, consistently, with no deviation for 6 weeks and the scale still hasn't budged, then start making small adjustments and see what happens.

    But at the end of the day, you can never actually "kickstart" yourself back to the rate of early scale results. Long term, substantial weight loss is a slow and wonky process where the scale usually spends the majority of the time not cooperating.

    That doesn't mean you aren't steadily losing fat. It just doesn't show consistently on the scale.

    Even though the data show I was steadily losing fat, I often only actually saw the scale drop for a few days at a time once every 4-8 weeks.

    The scale was all over the place, but like frickin' clockwork, I lost weight *on average* at the exact same pace every month.
  • 15822
    15822 Posts: 269 Member
    I am sort of excited about my plateau actually. I KNOW I'm eating at a deficit (albeit a smaller one than in the first 3 months of weight loss), but the scale hasn't budged in 4 weeks now. But I am also so sore from lifting, I can just barely take a shirt off. I'm anticipating that water shed moment. It'll be great.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,760 Member
    I just had to google it, too, and this was the first thing that came up:
    If you're committed to losing more weight, try these tips for getting past the plateau:

    Reassess your habits. Look back at your food and activity records. ...
    Cut more calories. Further cut your daily calories, provided this doesn't put you below 1,200 calories. ...
    Rev up your workout. ...
    Pack more activity into your day.


    Getting past a weight-loss plateau - Mayo Clinic

    I didn't click on the link to see if "how long have you been plateauing/be patient!" was in there but not that bad of advice if it's been a long time :)

    My theory was going to be, if you google kickstarting a diet after a plateau, you'll eventually come to links to mfp threads where people will give you the advice you should have listened to in the first place :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,638 Member
    glassyo wrote: »
    I just had to google it, too, and this was the first thing that came up:
    If you're committed to losing more weight, try these tips for getting past the plateau:

    Reassess your habits. Look back at your food and activity records. ...
    Cut more calories. Further cut your daily calories, provided this doesn't put you below 1,200 calories. ...
    Rev up your workout. ...
    Pack more activity into your day.


    Getting past a weight-loss plateau - Mayo Clinic

    I didn't click on the link to see if "how long have you been plateauing/be patient!" was in there but not that bad of advice if it's been a long time :)

    My theory was going to be, if you google kickstarting a diet after a plateau, you'll eventually come to links to mfp threads where people will give you the advice you should have listened to in the first place :)

    Obviously, Google results are colored by both history and which sites get the most hits. I saw some of that, but also a mix of "increase exercise", "decrease exercise", "cut carbs", "eat more veggies", "try IF", "eat fiber", "drink water, coffee or tea to increase metabolic rate", etc.

    Would some of that help? Maybe. But "google it" is not helpful advice. If a person doesn't know what to do, hasn't been through it, how are they supposed to sort the wheat from the chaff? Some of those things directly contradict each other!

    I see that you picked out the Mayo Clinic recommendation (or Google ranked it top for you), which is somewhat selective in the first place. ;)
  • LaurieKane1
    LaurieKane1 Posts: 6 Member
    When I hit a 3 week plateau I started Intermittent Fasting and I started losing again right away

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