Weight Loss Plateau

tyork1994986
tyork1994986 Posts: 5 Member
edited April 7 in Health and Weight Loss

I have been trying to maintain losing 1 pound a week with this app. Most weeks I do lose the 1 pound (if not more some weeks) but I have heard about plateauing before. This was the first week where there was no change in my weight, and I trained similar (if not more) than weeks prior. The only thing that changed was that I didn't get much sleep (I have a 4 month at home, so a continual 7-8 hours isn't necessarily obtainable) and there was 1 day where I didn't count my calories (cheat/treat day).

How have you overcome weight loss plateaus?

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Answers

  • Cocarney
    Cocarney Posts: 1 Member

    I try to push through them. Try to change up your exercise or diet a bit?

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,371 Member

    For how long is this plateau? If it's a few days, or 2 weeks it's not a plateau.

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,380 Member

    A plateau of 4-6 weeks will require fewer weekly calories

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,964 Member

    High odds that's a water retention issue, not a plateau in fat loss. If you've been averaging roughly a pound a week up until the recent scale stall for a mere week, wait it out.

    If the multi-week trend over 4-6 weeks is downward, also high odds that fat loss is proceeding as it should. Ups and downs are normal, mostly water weight or relatively more waste in the digestive tract on its way to the exit.

    The cheat day, even if it didn't have enough calories to stall fat loss, may've contributed to extra water retention, and extra waste, neither of which are fat. A sleepless night can also contribute to water retention.

    If your weight loss had gradually tapered off over multiple weeks, there might be a reason to cut calories a little further. But if it's as you describe, losing somewhat irregularly but averaging close to your target loss rate until this week, I'd advise you to hang in there, sticking to a sensible weight loss plan as you'd been doing.

    After 4-6 weeks, or one full menstrual cycle if you have those, and there's no loss, that could be a an actual plateau and a reason to cut calories a bit. One week is too soon.

    In the mean time, if you haven't been logging your cheat days, you might want to do that. It's possible to wipe out a whole week's deficit with a cheat day and wipe out that week's loss, but it'd take a big cheat day. If you count the calories from cheat days - even if you have to estimate - you'll have a better handle on the effect of the bigger-eating day on fat loss.

    Best wishes!

  • oakster69
    oakster69 Posts: 88 Member

    Focus super hard on your logging of food. I have had a sustained plateau before and it comes down to the little things that end up adding up. condiments, portion weights, logging every little thing. When you are looking at a 500 calorie deficit, it doesnt take much to completely eliminate that. If you miss your logging by 250 calories a day overall it will mean that you will not lose a pound that week, but half a pound or less. Eating a handful of almonds instead of counting them out, can cause 50-75 calorie error etc. The moral of the story is that it is easy to have enough errors in the estimates to lose your 500 calorie a day deficit.

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