Hit a Plateau…discouraged but not defeated

mrttxrry5k

I’m starting my 5th week counting calories on MyFitnessPal and exercising more. I lost 2 pounds the first week and 1.4 the second week…however even though I have follows the plan the last two weeks in a row I have not lost any weight. I think they have my calorie deficit set to high. It says I should eat a 2330 which seems excessive to me for weight lose. I’m cutting it back to 1700 this week to see if that will help me move forward with my goal. Any thoughts or advice on this would be helpful. I’m not giving up though because no matter what I’ve still lost 4 pounds, my cloths are a little looser and I no longer gaining weight so here’s my weekly goals

Stay in new calorie range of 1700

Use new indoor walking/cardio app and do at least one workout a day on it

Drink at least 5 cups of water a day

Limit myself to one sweet treat a day

Set a date finally to quit vaping (Official quit dat is June 1st)

Get my mind frame on track to quit smoking this week and prepare to quit on June 1st

xxslim_pickinsxx

Your goals are great, and so is your progress!

Lietchi

My advice is: more patience!

A true plateau is at least 4 weeks/1 menstrual cycle without any weight-loss, anything shorter than that and it could just be 'noise' from water weight fluctuations.

It's very common for people to have some quick losses the first few weeks (water weight losses on top of fat loss) and then a stall of a few weeks as their body recalibrates its water weight level. You also mention extra exercise, which can cause water retentio, masking fat loss on the scale.

And more generally: weight loss is rarely linear, it's normal to have stalls or even temporary weight increases even while eating a correct amount of calories. A weight trend app like Libra or Happyscale can help you see your weight trend through the daily/ weekly fluctuations.

An example from my own weight-loss journey - the line is the trend (clearly downwards) but the dots (individual daily weigh-ins, in kg) are up and down. In ccomparinga single week with another, I might have thought that I was gaining weight (multiple lbs even) rather than losing, but looking at a longer period, it's clear I'm losing weight.

For successful weight-loss, I think it's important to stick with a strategy/ calorie goal for at least a month/ menstrual cycle (preferably even two) before making any changes - anything shorter and you may be nulpunt the gun based on water weight fluctuations rather than fat loss.

AnnPT77

I want to underscore what Lietchi said: One of the common patterns we see people go through here is "good loss first couple of weeks then looks like a stall for a couple of weeks". Usually, patient persistence is the best answer, for at least a few more weeks.

You don't say anything about your current height, weight, age, or activity level. That makes it hard to know whether 2330 in unrealistically high calories, or whether 1700 is riskily extreme. It's also common here to see women, influenced by the diet-culture idea that we all need to eat like a tiny delicate bird to lose weight, believe that weight loss inevitably requires very low calories. In reality, the calorie level is going to vary wildly, from numbers well into the 2000s down to the classic 1200, maybe even a little below that in very petite women who are older and not very active.

I'd strongly encourage you to stick close to one calorie level and exercise/activity regimen for at least 4-6 weeks, or at least one full menstrual cycle if you have those, before tweaking your calorie level.

Though it's not the most common pattern, some women here report only seeing a new low weight once a month, at a particular point in their menstrual cycle. A fairly common pattern is to routinely add several pounds of water weight at one or a couple of points during the cycle, masking continuing fat loss on the scale.

Hormone-related water retention can be that weird. It's not fat. Until a woman has multiple cycles of calorie-counting experience data, she won't have a handle on her standard patterns . . . and even when she does, there can be a change, or an occasional weird cycle. It's important not to over-react to water retention fluctuations.

There are other potential sources of water weight fluctuation, too: Minor injury or illness, change in composition of ones eating (more/fewer carbs or sodium for example, even when all in a reasonable range), high stress, new exercise, and more. Those fluctuations can be multiple pounds - I had a scale jump of almost 6 pounds a few days ago (on a base weight in the low 130s pounds), and it disappeared within a week with no calorie changes . . . and that's as someone in menopause and in year 9+ maintaining a healthy weight post-loss.

In contrast, really fast fat loss of 2 pounds a week is a mere 4.6 ounces of fat loss per day on average,, just a jot over a quarter pound. Water fluctuations can hide that loss on the body weight scale for multiple weeks, realistically.

I don't intend this next to be mean or harsh here, just honest. Reaching a healthy weight has been such a quality of life improvement for me that I want that for everyone, you included.

I was concerned when I saw you were cutting over 600 calories after a month in which you'd lost 3.4 pounds, nearly a pound a week. At four weeks, you're still in a position where your seeming stall could be leading up to a decent drop, if water fluctuation is part of the situation.

Another common thing we see here is a pattern where people want fast loss, and cut calories very quickly and steeply after a short scale stall. That lower calorie level is harder to stick to, plus it makes good nutrition more difficult, can depress energy level so we move less and burn fewer calories than expected, and may be a significant physical stress that adds water retention through stress hormones . . . leading to another scale stall, another calorie cut, until the whole process becomes just too miserable and impossible to continue.

I'd encourage you to hang in there for another couple of weeks, at least. If you have 4-6 weeks or a whole menstrual cycle or more at a consistent calorie level, you have the experiential data you need to estimate your true calorie needs from experience. That's a more science-like approach to the process. Long run, I'd suggest using that experience data to shoot for a loss rate in the range of at most 0.5-1% of current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that - half a pound per hundred pounds current weight - unless severely obese and under medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.

Fast weight loss isn't necessarily better. Fast weight loss can be a trap. IMO the real key to long-term success is finding a sustainable, reasonably happy eating and activity routine we can stick with consistently for long enough to smoothly lose the weight we want to lose, while learning/practicing the habits we need to stay there permanently. That's a different mindset from "lose weight fast".

I'd love to see you succeed here. Please be careful and thoughtful about the process!