Am I getting closer to reaching a plateau?
I have been eating 1,200 cals for the past 2 and a half month I think.. and have been in a calorie deficit for 3 months and I am concerned about hitting plateau because my progress has been slowing down (scale wise). I was on average losing 2-3 pounds per week and it's now taking more than 10 days for my weight to go down.
Best Answer
-
Yeah, weight loss does slow after a while.
Couple things. As you get closer to a healthy weight, don't expect it to be 2-3 pounds per week.
Depending on your current weight, you could expect anywhere from 1/2 pound to one pound per week.
1200 calories is probably too low in general. Without knowing your stats (current weight/height/how you log food/activity and exercise) then I'd guess you're being too aggressive. If you've been doing 1200 for two months, your body is starting to slow down unnecessary functions to preserve necessary ones.
Eat more for a couple weeks, minimum.
Here, read these:
6
Answers
-
Are your 1200 calories well balanced? I noticed when I started focusing on my macros more I made more progress. I also try not to weigh myself right before or during my period. I'm hungry, tired, bloated, and pissy during that time so I just stay away from the scale.
4 -
I don't know if I can consider it well balanced, but I am staying within my calorie intake, I can even say I am eating less than than 1,200 (too anxious). It's frustrating because I can't use my period as an excuse, I have irregular cycle so I just don't know if I'm stuck because my period is coming or I'm doing something wrong.
1 -
Try focusing on your macros and Sugar for a cycle or 2. My sugar was pretty out of control, when I cut my morning creamer I lost 3 pounds.
1 -
Unless you're very petite, probably old and inactive besides, please don't eat below 1200. Maybe don't even eat below 1200 if you are that petite, old, and inactive, because individuals vary.
Read Riverside's post again - the one marked as a good answer, because it is one.
Faster weight loss isn't necessarily better weight loss. Healthier weight loss is better weight loss. Long term successful weight loss that creates habits we can use to stay at a healthy weight long term: Also better weight loss.
I can understand anxiety about overeating and not losing weight. But anxiety about risking health for faster weight loss should counterbalance that.
Please find the happy medium, the right balance: Lose weight at a sensibly moderate pace, preserve long term good health. That's the path of thriving.
2 -
agree with other replies.
consider updating your profile with your new weight and goal and see what target calories MFP gives you. I also like the calculator.net’s target calorie calculator.
you might also want to try eating at maintenance for a week or two and then go back to a deficit.1 -
You’re losing too quickly. Also without knowing any stats we can’t help you assess best steps and what might be happening. For reference losing .5-1 lb a week is good results and normal. Adjust expectations, check your logging, and take it from there. Guessing is part of the problem from what I can tell.
2 -
I'm 5'4 and I currently weigh 169 lbs. I was 216 lbs when I first started.
0 -
What does your goals say for daily calories and rate of loss? Judging from your height and weight you would be fine to lose up to a lb a week, more than that can be excessive. We don’t lose weight linearly so I recommend following a weight trend app to keep you calm and using a food scale for accuracy. You’ve done a great job.
0 -
I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your concern about plateaus. They happen when you’re eating at maintenance, or when water retention masks fat loss on the scale, usually resulting in a “whoosh” eventually.
But sometimes, a plateau isn’t physical at all, it’s just boredom. For some people, when your routine feels stale, it’s easy to slip on tracking, portion sizes, or consistency. Switching things up doesn’t magically make you lose weight, but it can reignite your focus and make sticking to your plan feel fresh again. I prefer sticking to what I know, but everyone is different.
If you’ve been in a plateau for more than 3-4 weeks, it’s a good idea to double check your logging accuracy and update your current weight to make sure your calorie goals are correct.
Last important detail, losing .5-1 lb a week is not a plateau. In fact, it’s an ideal rate of loss. Anything more than that is considered either aggressive or fast, and expectations should be adjusted accordingly.
5 -
You've lost 47lbs in three months! That's not 2-3lbs a week. That's an AVERAGE of over 3.5lbs a week.
I don't know whether to celebrate with you and congratulate you--which is what you deserve, or scream in frustration--because of what I fear will end up happening!
#1. Any reasonable rate of loss will FEEL like an absolute plateau to you given your exceedingly fast starting rate of loss. Reasonable rates of loss for you now are 1/4 of what you've been putting up!
#2. There do exist studies that back up that in a year there were equal final loss results between the fast loss participants and the slower loss participants.... given that fast loss participants spent the extra time at maintenance receiving ongoing nutritional counseling and follow up.
Have you lost weight before? Is this your first rodeo or have you gone through weight loss and regain before?
If you've gone though loss and regain what are you doing DIFFERENTLY this time?
If this is your first rodeo, are you aware that many people go on to successfully lose weight and then when you see them again a year or two later most of them are well on their way back to regaining.
You hear things such as: I got sick or injured, about family or work related issues, about special diets that they did not continue with, about special injections that weren't (not a reference to glp-1 drug), or some other thing that changed circumstances, didn't work out, or was never going to be sustainable.
But do you really think that any of them intended to revert and didn't realize how much healthier they were at a lower weight?
Weight loss is dynamic.
We don't just lose fat but we lose fat and lean mass. Which in one respect is as it should be because some of the lean mass is not actually needed; but then again some of it IS muscle mass that IS needed and we really do not actually want to lose it. And this changes over time given the relative amounts of fat and lean mass in our bodies.
Hormone levels change over time. We can start obese where these changes are pretty much all beneficial. And we can apply the same "shock" to a leaner body and get hormonal shifts that act counter to our intentions. Do you remember yourself when you were an adolescent? Were you week because you couldn't always control your hormonal responses? I don't know about you, but I don't go around thinking that my mind will win a battle with my hormones all of the time. So maybe playing for time and reducing the intensity of the hormonal rebound I would have to cope with was a better strategy than maximizing the likelihood of one--that was my thinking.
Not to mention the interplay of size and duration of deficit and potential for neurotransmitter disturbances and food ideations.
Anyway. There is no point in continuing to spout till the OP expands on her situation.
Three months at more than 15lbs a month. Not sure what the target weight is. Not sure what the maintenance plan is.
I guess we may not get to hear much from people who join MFP, lose 75lbs in a few months, and then maintain effortlessly without ever coming back. They may exist!
From the people I see around the forums, most end up fighting. Fighting to control their impulses to push harder when they should be more patient. Fighting to lose that last little bit of weight. Fighting to not regain the last little bit they fought so long to lose in the first place.
And you, OP, should also start asking yourself some different questions.
You are NOT a 216lb 5ft 4" woman today.
Today you are a 169lb 5ft 4" woman.
You're overweight; not obese. And you're starting from a position of considerable perturbation.
Aim to continue to improve but consider urgency, strategy, longer term planning and the protection of the loss you have already achieved.
4 -
It's my first time trying to lose weight, I've been overweight/obese almost my entire life and it felt like an accomplishment that I lost that amount of weight in such a short time. I highly appreciate the advice that everyone gave here and I am willing to apply it as well if it means it'll be better for me.
If it's any relevant to the topic, I am 19.
I need advice on how I can condition myself to not feel guilty about eating more than 1170 cals daily, it's a daily mental battle. Even during my birthday I felt guilty for going over my usual calories for the day (I told myself I could have a cheat day when I reach 176lbs and I did).
Genuinely, thank your guys' advice.
2 -
I'm hoping of a nice ladies will show up to comment.
You should be proud. You're setting goals and accomplishing them.
But you're also pushing scary fast.
Ask how many marathon runners get to win a marathon by pushing 110% each and every day.... none. Because to get there you need a more balanced approachm
The win, believe it or not, is NOT to lose fast.
The win is to both lose to where you want to be and then to manage to stay at that level for a long time.
The part where large deficits can start messing with your brain you're starting to find out by the sounds of it.
Balance is a good thing. Which is why I'm off to get some sleep 😉
1 -
I'm not necessarily a "nice lady", to use PAV's terminology. But I hope you may think of me as a sort of concerned, caring internet granny who wants you to have a long, healthy, happy, thriving life. I'm for sure old enough to be your granny, and I do care even though I'm a stranger.
It's wonderful that you're losing weight. Clearly, you know how to lose it, and then some.
But @PAV8888 is right. For the sake of your health and future, slow the bus down.
Begin focusing on finding the eating and activity habits that will put you on a path of long term health and thriving. If it's important to you, as it is to many at age 19, a thriving healthy body is also the most attractive to others, not just in body shape but also in capabilities, vivacity, energy and more.
As someone who was overweight myself when a teenager, I understand that that idea may feel alien. The culture, which trumpets a bunch of nonsense about being skinny and eating weird diets and that kind of thing, doesn't help us form true sensible ideas about thriving good health and appearance, either. High-click influencers literally lie about how they got the body they have, in order to sell you their programs or boost products for compensation, claiming that those things got them where they are. It's not true.
You seem like an intelligent young woman. You can figure this stuff out, but I'll urge you to seek out solid, mainstream, science-based sources, not the over-marketed click-baiters. The click-baiters are flashier and more tempting, but aren't helpful. Almost everything touted in popular culture about nutrition and exercise is at least somewhat misleading, and often flat wrong.
You write "I need advice on how I can condition myself to not feel guilty about eating more than 1170 cals daily, it's a daily mental battle. Even during my birthday I felt guilty for going over my usual calories for the day (I told myself I could have a cheat day when I reach 176lbs and I did)."
Please consider that mental health is as important as physical health. Please consider that allowing a bad relationship with food/eating/exercise to creep in is a slippery slope toward disordered eating, and at the bottom of that cliff is eating disorders. Eating disorders can be deadly. Literally. I'm not accusing you, not saying that's where you are, but I am begging you not to put even one tiny baby toenail on that slippery slope.
Food is not a sin. We need to eat some to live. It's fuel, nutrition, even a source of pleasure in a balanced, healthy life.
Eating enough calories is the foundation of every weight management, nutrition, physical fitness or healthy appearance goal. Here's a very common graphic we see on many sincere and science-based sites, this one from a mostly-bodybuilding-focused site run by a true credentialed expert who shows good sense and follows the science:
Source:
Since food is not a sin, guilt is not helpful. On top of that, it feels icky, and who needs icky?
When we have weight, health, fitness or appearance goals, the basis is getting the right number of calories, not too many, not too few. Currently, IMO you're eating too few calories for best thriving. Losing weight too fast increases health risks, can weaken bones and lose muscle mass, plus other things that aren't a kindness to your future self. Consider that future self's needs, too.
It's absolutely correct, with a weight loss goal, to eat fewer calories than you burn daily. But not too few. Eating too few calories means too little nutrition. That's a fact, even if macronutrient percents are on target. For example, the right percent of calories from protein, when eating too few calories, is too little protein in absolute terms. Reasonable nutrition is vital for health and thriving.
None of this stuff - calories, micros, macros - needs to be exactly exact every single day. Pretty close, on average over a week or so, is completely fine. It's like a bank account. We don't need to earn the same amount of calories every day, or spend the same number. But overall, we want to maintain a reasonable balance on average, and balance eating and activity so we reach our goals healthfully.
A healthy weight loss rate is in the range of half a percent to one percent of current body weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that range for most of us. Someone who's severely obese may need to lose at the one percent level or maybe even faster, because their weight in itself is a major health threat. In those cases, they should be under close medical monitoring for nutritional deficiencies or health complications.
You're not severely obese. You're not even obese at all, in technical terms. You're overweight, so yeah, your best outcome for health and thriving would be to continue losing weight for a while. At 169, something around 0.75 pounds a week, maybe a little more, would be fine. Since you're young, and IF the rest of your life is pretty low stress and you're getting good nutrition, a pound a week might even be OK for another 20 pounds or so. Maybe.
Right now would be a good time to start thinking about experimenting to identify the eating and activity habits that will maximize your health and well-being lifelong, and leave you with good overall life balance. Good overall life balance includes things like enough energy for job and home life, a rewarding social life, the ability to enjoy celebrations (including reasonable celebration foods), being strong and capable, and more. Being at a healthy weight is a piece of that, but not the whole.
I'm not saying you should fix all of everything in those domains all at once. I'm suggesting you continue with your weight loss goal, but start to plan and practice how you'll eat long term, eating habits that will keep you mostly full, deliver decent overall nutrition, be practical/affordable, and generally keep you happy. Honestly, IMO, feeling guilty about cake on your birthday doesn't fit in that scenario.
As you lose more slowly, your scale weight will go up and down day to day. That's absolutely normal. Our bodies are up to 60%+ water, and as your weight gets into a healthier range, the percent of your body that's water increases because some other components like fat decrease. Water retention fluctuates day to day by multiple pounds. So can the amount of waste in the digestive tract. When it comes to those things, our bodies know what they're doing, and we should understand what they do and let them do it.
That water/waste variability means that fat loss, which is more gradual, will play peek-a-boo on the bodyweight scale with those things. There will not be a scale drop every day, in some cases maybe not even every week. There shouldn't be. What matters is the multi-week trend. For a woman of your age, I'd suggest comparing your body weight at the same relative day in at least two different menstrual cycles. That's still not perfect, but will give you a better idea of your loss trend.
There are also weight trending apps that use statistical formulas to guess at the fat loss rate behind the random fluctuations. Those can be helpful, too, once you get a couple of months of personal data into them, as long as you understand that they're not a magic crystal ball either, just a more educated guess.
As you get some eating habits dialed in that you can almost do on autopilot - ideally guilt free! - you can begin to think about other aspects of your healthy life plan, like exercise, ideally both strength and cardiovascular exercise. But with weight loss as your key goal, calories and nutrition are a good starting point. You obviously know how to commit and reach goals. Keep setting goals, keep doing good things, keep things balanced and sensible . . . that's a path to long-term thriving, IMO.
Best wishes!
3 -
There is only one tiny thing where I would have a slightly different take from Ann.
(Two of you count that I do consider her a nice lady and Internet auntie/granny!🤣)
And that would be on how to best manage a transition.
Your, on paper, optimal scenario probably would involve eating at maintenance for a bit before resuming a deficit. That's so that you can give your body a bit of a break after eating at such a severe deficit.
But, I am the first to acknowledge that there are dangers to this. Especially for someone who has not yet experienced loss and regain yo-yos.
So yes, I agree with Ann to transitioning to a slower loss rate and not actually suggesting full maintenance for a bit.
But my bias, at least for a few weeks, would be towards an even slower rate of loss. The lower end of what Ann was suggesting not the higher.
Some tools for you to consider:
Look at a 30 day time period in your recent past. If you're aware of your cycle, consider a time period that matches similar points of your cycle even if they are not 28, or whatever, days apart. Because there exists the potential for water retention that would change your apparent weight even though the underlying fat levels haven't changed in the same manner.
Consider your weight change between the start and end of the time period. (personally I would do several time shifts to this, moving the needle so as to consider two, three, five days on either side and verify that the numbers are similar. And if not I would probably try to figure out why or use averages instead)
Take the weight change and multiply by 3500. That's how many calories of deficit your weight change indicates that you've had.
Add to it all the food / drinks you logged as your intake.
The total is your probable TDEE.
Your new eating target would be about 250 to 500 Cal less than your daily TDEE. Ann suggested 375 Cal less for ~.75lbs a week of targetted loss.
I will, much more than Ann, advocate they you should use a weight trend apps and consider that your weight, even though I also acknowledge that the apps are not magical.
They do, however, help one avoid knee jerk reactions where knee jerk reactions don't help.
I was listening the other day to the radio.
The disk jockeys were discussing generations and what each generation, according to a US poll, considers authoritative and trusted information sources.
I almost drove off the road when I heard that for generation Z, YouTube was considered the top source of trusted information! Google was the choice for the millennials.
Open ai's Altman recently said: "People have a very high degree of trust in ChatGPT, which is interesting, because AI hallucinates. It should be the tech you don't trust that much."
Because of some projects I've been test running all of the major commercially available Ais. For all the brilliant connections that you see, you also see the AIs giving equal consideration to off the wall sources and quite often injecting conclusions that are not supported by any of the sources they claim to have considered. You even consistently see them dropping the constraints you thought you introduced with your prompts. Even though the AI acknowledges that it knows about them. Like a kid with chocolate on their mouth telling you they have no clue as to what happened to the chocolate bar.
Unfortunately information has to be multi checked. Especially when it can't pass the sniff test. And even when it does. Because confirmation bias is still bias. And your sources have to be considered dispassionately as to their potential biases.
Unfortunately one's weight level is often arrived at because of a collection of multiple habits that have been accrued over time.
Food, exercise and activity preferences are a big part of it. Social interplay and considerations and relationships are another part of it: you should see what happens to pizza slices whenever I leave my dad's place tired and late at night!
To change your weight level long term you have to give yourself some time to figure out and work on a collection of longer term options and habits that will promote your sticking to the lower weight level long term.
This doesn't mean that you will have to change everything all at once and forever. But you have to stack the deck with a few extra aces and kings and queens so that you keep winning more hands than you lose!
Unless you are planning on never eating cake ever again... the collection of options and habits and tools should include an accomodation for some happy cake eating in there too!🤷🏼♀️🤔
1
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 396.6K Introduce Yourself
- 44.2K Getting Started
- 260.8K Health and Weight Loss
- 176.3K Food and Nutrition
- 47.6K Recipes
- 232.8K Fitness and Exercise
- 449 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.7K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.3K Motivation and Support
- 8.3K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.5K Chit-Chat
- 2.6K Fun and Games
- 4.5K MyFitnessPal Information
- 16 News and Announcements
- 18 MyFitnessPal Academy
- 1.4K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions