getting out of a plateau!

EmmyP1215
EmmyP1215 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anybody have any advice for when you have a weight plateau?? I feel like for the first time I'm trying to get more exercise (not muscle building really so it's not that) and eat at a deficit & healthy and I'm not gaining or losing anything! Any advice welcome :-)
For ref, I'm 28, 5'3 and am plateauing at basically 131.4 (might go up or down a few oz but nothing big). I am trying to lose 10 pounds by June

Replies

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Are you using a weight trend app like Happy Scale (iphone) or Libra (Android)? I lost almost 40 pounds in 2021 and some weeks and even months it seemed like I wasn't losing any weight, but the trend in Happy Scale showed otherwise.

    If after these ten pounds you are at your final goal weight, you should allow more than a few months.

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  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,308 Member
    How long have you plateaued and what was your rate of loss before the stall?

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,204 Member
    EmmyP1215 wrote: »
    Does anybody have any advice for when you have a weight plateau?? I feel like for the first time I'm trying to get more exercise (not muscle building really so it's not that) and eat at a deficit & healthy and I'm not gaining or losing anything! Any advice welcome :-)
    For ref, I'm 28, 5'3 and am plateauing at basically 131.4 (might go up or down a few oz but nothing big). I am trying to lose 10 pounds by June

    So you're shooting for something between half a pound and a pound a week? If you're trying to lose very slowly, that fat loss can hide on the bodyweight scale behind water weight fluctuations for a surprisingly long time . . . at least that was my experience. Slow loss is a good plan with so little to lose, though.

    New exercise tends to add water weight for muscle repair (even non-muscle-focused exercise). On top of that, hormonal variations can distort scale weight via water fluctuations, and when and how that happens in your monthly cycle can be quite individual.

    I think the probable explanation is that you're doing fine, but it's not showing up on the scale because water weight increase is masking fat loss. My best advice would be patient persistence . . . and I do know how hard that can be, I promise.

    I'm not sure how long you've been at this, before the perceived plateau. I will say that with a small calorie deficit, things will be more predictable with:

    * extremely meticulous logging (food scale and all that),
    * a solid estimate of your personal calorie needs from your own experience (vs. a generic MFP, calculator or fitness tracker estimate),
    * reasonable exercise calorie estimates, and
    * daily consistent conditions weigh-ins input to a weight trending app**. Consistent conditions means something like first thing in the morning, after bathroom before food/drink, in the same state of (un)dress every day.

    ** Happy Scale for Apple/iOS, Libra for Android, Trendweight with a free Fitbit account (don't need a device, last I knew), Weightgrapher, others. Even they can misrepresent reality during very slow loss, for a while - it's still just a statistical estimate.

    Still, most likely you'll see your fat loss show up on the scale after your water weight rebalances. I'd usually say 1-2 weeks, but with monthly menstrual cycles in the picture, it could be up to a month at an extreme.

    Hang in there!

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