How did you get through your plateau?

nrheasley

Hello friends,

I dropped 16 pounds over the past few months. My period came around, and I gained 2.5 back. I didn't think too much about it because weight gain is common around that time of the month. But it hasn't gone away. I weigh myself almost daily but only record Fridays, and unless I lose 3 pounds overnight, I am going to be the same weight tomorrow. How did you get through your first plateau? Did you ever figure out what was causing it? How long did it last? I am getting very frustrated!

Thanks

Branstin

First, you need to understand the difference between a plateau and normal body fluctuations. Just because the number on the scale doesn't go down within a few weeks doesn't mean you are at a plateau. This is normal because bowels, TOM, exercise, sodium, hormones, water, stress, etc. affect the rate at which your body burns fat and calories. A plateau is when your weight doesn't drop for a period of 4-6 weeks at which time you will be at your calories maintenance level. This means that you are consuming enough calories to maintain your current weight. You will then need to re-create your calories deficiency in order to continue to lose weight.

segovm

I personally don't believe in the idea of a plateau. If my weight loss slows down more than I like I need to eat less or exercise more.

I'm not particularly scale obsessed though. I mostly measure success by eating the calories I want to eat and getting in better and better workouts over time. The scale is just sort of there to make sure things are moving along mostly as planned.

I think a lot of folks like to imagine that at some fictitious point called a plateau the rules of the calorie get tossed out and they become helpless victims to this new concept of unchangingness. Clearly that's nonsense. The body requires energy to operate and if you stop losing weight and have excluded water weight / muscle gain (extremely rare when losing by the way) then the only plateau you have reached in a new level of maintenance calories so you should just adjust accordingly.

Hope this doesn't come off as snarky. Clearly this is just my view and others certainly have opposing points that they believe just as much.

nrheasley

I'm already eating at 1200 calories, so I can't really go down anymore. I do plan to start knocking more off my exercise calories--about 10% to make up for any error. I wasn't eating back my exercise calories for a while. I think that may have been part of the problem.

segovm

I'm already eating at 1200 calories, so I can't really go down anymore. I do plan to start knocking more off my exercise calories--about 10% to make up for any error. I wasn't eating back my exercise calories for a while. I think that may have been part of the problem.

Yeah there was a study a while back (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199212313272701) where they basically found that people that diet often are the worst at underestimating calories eaten and overestimating calories burned. For the calories eaten it was WAY off... like they thought they were eating 1000 calories and in fact had eaten 2000.

Personally I don't eat back exercise calories and honestly question the idea that anyone who is not losing weight needs to eat more food. Call me old fashioned but that just seems anti-intuitive.

Honestly though if you are SURE you are eating the calories you think you are and burning the calories you think you are, then I would just ignore the scale. My weight goes up or down all the time. Several pounds a day, sticking for a while and then dropping like a rock.

I just do my best to get my food logging as tight as I can and make sure I press myself as hard as I can for workouts and that's all that matters to me. If I'm not acting like a fat guy I'm going to lose weight.

StaciMarie1974

How long has it been? I typically gain 2-3 the day after my period starts, and don't see my day-before-period weight again until 10-14 days later. It all catches up 2-3 weeks after my last period started, and by the time I'm due for another I'm down a few pounds. You have to look at the long term trend, and keep going.

Sodium, stress, etc. can also affect water weight. Hold on, keep doing what you're doing, and in the next 1-2 weeks you'll see the #s you want again.

nrheasley

I measure EVERYTHING. I'm confident my food tracking is fairly accurate. I tried not eating my exercise calories back, too. Didn't help. However, I do knock it down about 10% to account for error. I may up that to 15. Its been about 2 weeks since my period ended, so I can't blame that anymore.

skinny0000

Patience and perseverance. Also remember that the number on the scale is only one measurement of a very complex system.

skruttan44

for the few days i saw logged in your food diary, your sodium intake seems on the high side. Possible the reason that you are seeing water retention.

I also measure myself which can help, as you would see if your measurements are getting smaller even if the scale isn't moving for a bit.

But I would reduce the sodium intake for a week and see what happens if I were you.

nrheasley

I will try that! I also take measurements, but they have also been disappointing

Branstin

You have dropped weight which is good but you need patience in order to reach your goal.

vettle

When I "plateaued" I ate 300 more calories per day and then lost 25 more pounds. You need to make sure you're eating enough. Check out my profile for some good information and a proper way to find out how many calories you need.

Michelle_Padgett13

I call my plateaus "unintentional maintenance." The first time, I bought a food scale and started weighing everything religiously. Now, every time it happens, I can usually pinpoint it: Maybe I had a few binges or started sneaking late night snacks without logging them, something like that. Then I have a little talk with myself about how I'm going to change that and then I promise not to stress about it and then I eat ice cream (if I have enough calories, of course).

My body has changed so much since I started doing this, that I think it's okay to plateau for a while. I feel like my body can rest from the stress of weight loss, I get enough fuel for my workouts, and I'm "training for maintenance."

I learn a lot about myself when my weight loss plateaus.

Macstraw

Patience and perseverance. Also remember that the number on the scale is only one measurement of a very complex system.

^This. keep doing what I've been doing. I've had plateaus happen a few times over the past year + that I've been on MFP, once for a couple of months, but I kept at it & broke through it. I wasn't really concerned because, although the scale # wasn't moving, I knew I was losing size because my clothes continued to get looser......

Keep in mind, none of us got to where we're at overnight & we're not going to reach our goals overnight either. Keep the long term view in mind & just keep plugging away.....

OffKilter5150

Our bodies do what they do. Don't fret so much about it. If you really are eating at a deficit, the scale will eventually move again.

tedrickp

I call my plateaus "unintentional maintenance."

I like this. Was at a nutritional seminar this week and the speaker referred to plateaus as "maintenance practice".

His assertion was that plateaus will always happen with long term weight loss. In most scenarios they will get progressively longer as well. He went on to say all they really were, was your body resetting to a new maintenance level (which makes sense since as we lose bodyweight, our energy requirements to maintain will also drop).

Basically you should work out new macro goals. But he also mentioned that for women he suggest leaving a full 30 days between diet changes to really judge what is going on since TOM can add so much water weight.

For me personally - I have gotten through plateaus by A) Working out new calorie/macro goals and being super honest in my logging (aka logging binges or party nights) and weighing my food very carefully.

nrheasley

When I "plateaued" I ate 300 more calories per day and then lost 25 more pounds. You need to make sure you're eating enough. Check out my profile for some good information and a proper way to find out how many calories you need.

I checked out your profile and fit2fatradio.com. Did you use their calculators to determine your calorie goals? I am not sure what my goal weight is (I have done a little bit of research, but the range was so wide, it wasn't very helpful), so I don't know how to eat at the calorie level for my goal weight.

lnader2000

After a plateau that seemed like forever but was actually 2 weeks :-) What brought me out of it was drinking more water (like double what you are drinking now) and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Here are some of the useful sites I found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToMNbP8yuAY

Checkout this site for HIIT workouts

http://www.fitnessblender.com/

SarahxCheesecake

Fact: You need to change your training. It even helps to change types of food. You also need to increase the intensity of your training becuase your body has now adjusted to the level of training you have been doing to get where you are now.

You could even drop your daily cals by 100?

I did the following because i stayed at a certain weight for 3 weeks despite always managing to shake it off easily.

- drink more water
- i changed from interval running to long distance, even if thats 10 mins at a time
- if you do weights, change the type of exercise and maybe increase the sets of lift a slightly heavier weight
- look at your macros, are you eating too much fat?
- analyse your food intake, are you eating any processed foods stop now and eat cleaner
- how much fast food do you eat? Cut it out now.

Hope that helps...

aliwhalen

Three things worked for me, calorie cycling or zigzag dieting, LOADS of water and paying attention to the calorie creep, I realized I was sneaking in more calories and getting lax with my measurements. Good luck to you!

nrheasley

I'm working on the measuring thing. Relying more on the scale and less on measuring cups (or trying to). Already on my 6th refill of my Britta waterbottle. What do you mean by calorie cycling/zig-zag dieting?