Plateau …

chrissielt7238

Hello everyone ! I have been calorie counting for 6 weeks and successfully lost over a kilo a week for the first 4 weeks but have now plateaued:( Any tips or suggestions please ? I still have at least 10 kilos to lose , thank you in advance x

AnnPT77

How long have you stayed at the same weight? If it's less than - believe it or not - a whole month, it may not be a plateau, but rather a temporary stall.

If your calorie goal and activity has been relatively consistent in your first 4 weeks until now, and you were losing at a steady rate over that 4 weeks (vs. a lot the first week, then tapering off steeply), then there are decent odds that you're just seeing the scale effect of some temporary water retention.

Bodies can be up to 60%+ water, and fluctuating water retention is part of how healthy bodies stay healthy. They know what they're doing, so I think it's best to let them do it. It's not unusual to see some water weight rebalancing after an initial loss, especially if eating routine or exercise activity has changed, or loss has been kind of fast. Your initial loss has been fairly fast: Over a kilo a week is fast.

If you've been losing steadily, and nothing major has changed but the scale stops dropping, the most likely explanation is water retention. If that's what it is, it will sort itself out, and you'll see a scale drop when it does . . . but it could take anything from a couple of days to multiple weeks.

Weight loss isn't linear, unfortunately, and that can be frustrating, especially at first before we get accustomed to seeing it. If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading this thread, especially the article linked in the first post:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1

It explains how and why this kind of thing can happen. For now, I'd suggest you stick with the routine that's been bringing you success for a while yet before changing anything.

People will often suggest changing things up to "shock your body", but I think that sort of thing just gives us something to do that feels active and engaged, until the water weight drop happens that would've happened even without doing those things.

Hang in there, you've been doing great!

yirara

Next to what AnnP wrote, what are your current stats? Did you chose 1kg weightloss per week and did you get more than 1200 calories? If you say no to any of these two questions then you're likely still on track.

ninerbuff

Have you started a new exercise regimen or started to exercise recently?

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