Women and Plateaus?

mad14vic

So I recently got back into a healthy lifestyle after realizing my scale had been lying to me. I lost 8 pounds in 12 days and now I'm stuck at 183.6 I've been here for the past 8 days and the scale literally wont move from that number. I'm trying to blame it on being a woman and having hit "that time" at the beginning of the 8 days. But I run 40 minutes a day or bike 40 minutes, lift weights about 3 times a week, drink tons of water (about 2 gallons a day) and eat about 1350 calories a day. Any idea what will fix this plateau? Anybody willing to share what's worked for them?

ew_david

12 days is not a plateau. The 8 pounds you lost was likely water weight.

Patience. You're going to need it.

Liftng4Lis

I'm pretty sure for you to call it a plateau it's something like 5 weeks. 12 days means you need to be patient.
Good luck!

jenmovies

With your running and biking, just push harder. Try bursts of intensity, like running as fast and hard as you can until you feel like you can't breathe, then slack off a bit, etc, and same on bike. The same sort of thing they do in a spin class. This should kick your metabolism back into gear. I am finding the same issue, but with adding in these bursts, my weight loss is increasing again. Obviously, be as safe as possible and only do what you are comfortable with. Just push a bit harder, and you should see results. (Info gleaned from reading a ton of articles by professionals - definitely always check credentials on blogs etc!)

segacs

Would you be here frustrated if you'd lost 8 pounds in 20 days? 'Cause that's what you did.

Seriously, take it easy and take it slow. A pound a week on average is a great loss, and remember that it's an average so some weeks you may not see any downward movement, or even upward movement. The body can fluctuate +- 5lbs in the same day. Water weight, hormones, what you ate last night, sodium, all of that can influence the scale.

Breathe in and out deeply. Good. Now tell yourself that this is gonna take some time. Trust the process.

honkytonks85

Women do tend to fluctuate more due to hormones etc. That's not really a plateau it's just another reason why you shouldn't be stressing overly about the scales all the time. Weigh less often. And expect that your weight will fluctuate.. But analyse the longer term trend.

Sued0nim

_dracarys_ wrote: »

12 days is not a plateau. The 8 pounds you lost was likely water weight.

Patience. You're going to need it.

This

a plateau is doing everything right for 6-8 weeks

I frequently don't lose any weight for 2 weeks or so .. in fact the scale goes up and down between the same 2lbs, then I drop a 1lb or 2 below the lowest level and the scale goes up and down between the 2lbs but at a lower level

weight loss is not linear

(and the 8lbs is mainly water weight)

mumblemagic

Even though I have an IUD and therefore have very light periods I still gain about 2 lbs at TOM. It usually comes off gradually in the 5 days after. If you have "proper" periods you'll probably be holding more.

RaspberryTickleChicken

_dracarys_ wrote: »

12 days is not a plateau. The 8 pounds you lost was likely water weight.

Patience. You're going to need it.

+1

But if you ever hit a REAL plateau (min of few WEEKS) try revving up the intensity of cardio. I was stuck at 110 for almost 2 mos then a nutritionist / pt friend suggested reducing cardio duration but rev up intensity. Within the week I FINALLY broke through.

Good luck.