Help avoiding plateau

Options

I have been losing regularly until last week. I think I might be hitting a plateau. Not sure if I should lower my calorie intake but I am at 1200 right now. Or increase my exercise, I already walk 3 miles a day. I do the 3 miles in 55 minutes and speeding it up is not an option I have bad SI joints but increasing my miles? Not sure if that is what I should do. Anyone have any suggestions?

Best Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,323 Community Helper
    edited August 3 Answer ✓

    My advice: Patience. If you've been losing well until last week, then the scale stalled for a week, high odds there's some weird water weight thing masking continuing fat loss on the scale. It's 100% normal to have stalls.

    Honestly - from the observation point of being here on MFP 10 years through my own weight loss then maintenance - I think one of the ways people often fail is by cutting calories or increasing exercise every time there's a short stall. Eventually, the calories are so low, or the exercise so fatiguing/time-consuming, that the overall plan becomes unsustainable . . . so they give up.

    It isn't an actual fat loss plateau until the scale stays around the same weight, maybe a little up a little down, for at least 4-6 weeks or one full menstrual cycle . . . and that's if the loss before that was gradually slowing down over a period of weeks, besides, probably. Even then, sometimes it isn't a true plateau.

    Bodies are weird.

    So: Wait it out, I suggest. While you're waiting, read this - especially the article linked in the first post:

    Hang in there. Best wishes!

  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 19,150 Member
    Answer ✓

    ^^ all of this. A plateau is weeks and weeks without loss. A week without is a blip. Weight loss isn't linear, bodies are complex, and there's a hell of a lot more going on with the number on the scale than fat loss and calorie deficits. Last week I "gained" then "lost" 9lbs over the course of 7 days, due to water retention, a huge amount of exercise, and an excess of carb and sodium consumption. Hormones also have a field day with scale weight. Don't go tying yourself up in knots what you are doing something wrong because you're not seeing consistent weekly drops, you'll just mess with your own head.

Answers

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,260 Member

    +1 for patience, one week is nothing really.

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,656 Member

    Everything under a month is not a plateau. If you have a menstrual cycle and there's a bit of boating at some point it's not a plateau. If you don't have a full bowel movement and there's more stuff in your intestines it's not a plateau. If you ate a bit more salt and your body holds more onto water it's not a plateau. If you started a new exercise and your body holds a bit more onto water for healing it's not a plateau. And there are dozens of other reasons why weight loss seems to stall for a moment, and neither of them have anything to do with bodyfat.

    You should certainly not eat less. You're already on the lowest possibly calorie amount considered healthy for an adult. And you could likely eat a lot more than that and still lose. Unless you're very petite and old. Remember: weightloss winner is not who punishes themselves most, but who loses weight in a sustainable way and keeps it off.

  • rms62003
    rms62003 Posts: 138 Member

    I also will put my vote in for patience. I'm one that hates plateaus, and every time I hit it, I have to talk myself through it - you body fights weight loss, that's natural.

    Personal experience - I only lost 4 pounds in June, plateaued at 230 for 2 weeks. Then, beginning of July, went down 7 pounds in 10 days! Then, stayed at 223-225 for the rest of the month (weigh in today was 223). Our bodies don't like linear loss.

  • lynda1164
    lynda1164 Posts: 2 Member

    thank you everyone. I just really needed hearing from all of you. I just know myself too well and like many times before when I did hit a plateau and did not see results I have “cheated” and gave up tracking. I guess I am just so afraid of hitting a plateau since I have been loosing steadily for months now. Had my weigh in with my dr today and I was down 2.2 lbs. from last week. I am just happy when I see any loss!
    Thank you all again for your support