Convince me that a plateau exists

I stay under my calorie limit, always have. I workout HARD 7 days a week.... always have. Yet I've hit about 3 plateaus. Not changed my food at all, changed my workouts so they were MORE intense.

Just because you think it does not exist does not mean that its right.

also i think it's possible that people who experience plateaus have either been slacking off on their exercise efforts or havent been pushing themselves. of course you're going to plateau fitness wise if every day you do 30 minutes on the treadmill at level 3.5. i met someone at the gym a few months ago who was doing that, then i saw her again recently and she was still doing the same workout. she was telling me that she didnt understand why she wasnt losing weight even though she eats below her maintenance. i was like maybe you need to challenge yourself more in your workouts?

Slacking off? I went from a simple 20 min zumba at the start to now running 6 miles or more a DAY. I've hit 3 plateaus by UPPING my calories, putting them down & exercising MORE & doing completely different workouts ALL of the time. I think perhaps just because SOME don't hit one they think everyone else is faking it or not working hard enough.

Just steady and slow weight loss.

My body reacts quite strongly to the hormonal shifts to do with monthly cycles. Nothing to do with more chocolate or less exercise at that time of month, but at around ovulation every month my weight goes up, and I lose again the following 3 weeks.
I guess my body doesn't believe in steady and slow weight loss like yours does.

thanks,that makes me feel better about this.I know I am ok on some level but then on another on get discouraged.

A plateau means a period of time where you aren't losing weight. It's called that because if you graph it, it looks like a plateau. There can be many causes for it, but whether or not it exists is not up for debate.

I have so many friends on here that tell me about the plateaus they have hit along their weight loss journey. I'll admit to being a huge skeptic when it comes to most things and this is no exception.

I'm carefully monitoring my MFP friends' activity and diet to be a support and accountability partner along the way. I see what they eat. I see how they work out. And I also see a pattern when they hit the said "plateau". It's usually that they've kind of fallen off the "within my calorie limit" wagon and then they get back on. Consequently, their weight goes up, then down, then up, then down. I don't call that a plateau. I call that consequences.

And in all honesty, when I chose to lose weight myself on MFP, I stayed within my calories consistently for 6 months and lost the weight consistently (almost exactly the amount MFP predicted) until I reached my goal. No plateau. Just steady and slow weight loss.

So convince me that a plateau really exists. Tell me your stories. The only reason I care is that if it truly exists, I want to know so that I can have more sympathy, kindness, and understanding towards those facing it. I don't want to be unfairly judgmental and just dismiss the struggles that people are facing.

Here's my story:

It was steady and slow the first 40 lbs.

The last 20 was chunky for me with plateaus and I came up with this:

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

any time you are dieting down or in a caloric defecit the metabolism slows down hence the plateau... which is why its important to not cut calories as quickly and have re-feed type days along with strategically monitoring calories and macronutrients.

I lost steadily 1.9 pounds a week for several months, then gained 1.5 pounds, then got stuck for almost 2 months. For 3 days I paid very careful attention to my logging, and ate around 200 calories less than my limit each day and lost 5 pounds in a week, and I'm stuck again. I do suspect that plateaus are just sloppy eating.

Why should anyone prove to you it doesn't exist? Don't mean to sound grumpy but from the tone of your thread you come across very much 'I can do it so easily, anyone that can't is just sucky and not trying'. Maybe you didn't mean to sound like that but, hey I'm just being honest, you sound very judgemental and hollier than I.

I got the same impression reading through the comments and responses. It's a very, "I do this perfectly" tone.. =/

I definitely do not do this perfectly. Heck, the other day I had Halloween candy and red wine for dinner, went over my calories, and didn't even bother to log any of it. I screw up all the time. I'm human and no better than anyone else. I may have just been entirely fortunate that I never experienced the plateau. I don't know. That's what I'm trying to understand.

Speaking just to the physical side, there are differences in how people's bodies react to weight loss. From what my endocrynologist/neurologist tells me, sometimes obese people metabolize food differently. It's a very complex system. They aren't completely sure how it all works, there is new information coming out all the time. While the basics: energy in energy out, is true, there are big differences between what the energy requirements are of one person versus another person's needs (ie: someone with a thyroid or pituitary issue). Also, sometimes through this journey your own caloric needs can change, your body can become either more or less efficient, which will impact your weight losses. Sometimes it can feel like a moving target.

There are differences between men and women as well.

Now that I know what my physical roadblocks are (thyroid), if I hit a plateau I know that I need to get my rear into my endo and have my levels checked. Plateaus can happen for other reasons as well.

When we get into the emotional reasons for plateaus it also gets very complicated. Sometimes people just get tired of logging everything. Sometimes you start slacking a bit. But, there are a lot of people with big issues around food and weight. It can be a reaction to abuse, it can be biochemical, or learned. One of the reasons that my friends list is pretty much confined to women who either have a lot to lose, or have lost a lot of weight, is that they understand that it's pretty complicated (physically and emotionally) and tend to give support and encouragement without judgement. I am not saying that there aren't people on the boards with less to lose that are also compassionate to these struggles, but it can be a totally different mindset.

Well, if you're a skeptic you understand the pitfalls of anecdotal evidence, but I can tell you that I stalled out for 3 months once. I was told by what I consider to be reliable sources that I needed to take a break from dieting. So went to maintenance for awhile and when I went back to a deficit I started losing again. My experience has been that the body eventually adjusts to whatever you're doing, whether that is diet, exercise, or both, and you have to change it up at some point. If I had just dropped my calories more that might have worked, but I didn't want to get into the constant cycle of eating less, stalling, so eating even less than that, etc.

Well, true. And you could get into a big pitfall if you had to keep dropping and dropping your calories to lose weight. How would you ever go back to maintenance calories without gaining?

I know for me, I never dropped lower than where I started. In fact, I found I had to gradually increase my calories and my exercise until I reached maintenance. But still, I don't work out like a mad woman or anything. Everything I do is very maintainable.

^I did the same thing. I lost most of my weight averaging 2000 calories, so that if I ever stopped losing I could drop my calories pretty easily. I really think this is a big factor in never plateauing.

I lose about 2 pounds a month. Some people would call that a plateau, considering I've been under my calories just about every week for the entire time I've been on MFP. However, I've lost 5% of my body fat in that same time. That is just under 1% bodyfat a month since May. That is a lot for someone who was already in the "healthy" range of BMI when I started. I was at 28% bodyfat and with a BMI of 24. Now I am 23% body fat with a BMI of 22.

I also went from a size 12 or XL to a size 4 or Med.

Some folks may be calling a fall off the wagon a plateau. Others may think that no weight loss for 2 weeks is a plateau. I suspect that now I am at my half-goal mark that weight loss is going to get a lot trickier. Is that a plateau?

A plateau to me is no progress at all for at least a month. No inches lost, no weight lost, while still eating under your calorie goal.

I weighed 183.2 on Tuesday. Despite a 2 hour work out and eating aprox 1200 calories I weighted 183.2 on Wednesday. I didn't get to exercise on Wednesday I weighted 183.2 on Thursday. Didn't get to exercise on Thursday but kept the calories aprox 1200. So i weighed 183.6 on Friday. Exercised two hours on Friday. Saturday I was back to 183.2. I didn't get to exercise yesterday but today I weighted 183.0.

Since October first I have lost between 1.6 and 2.6 pounds a week. I have 2 1/2 more days to go and i've only lost 0.2...

with out all those words:

6-Nov 183.2
7-Nov 183.2
8-Nov 183.2
9-Nov 183.6
10-Nov 183.2
11-Nov 183.0

so there you go. The proof of a plateau. hardest 0.2 pounds I've ever tried to get rid off. I'm hoping i'm over it now.

I think the OP is thinking of a plateau being something that lasts for months rather than days. Weight loss takes time. Ages in fact if your working on the last deposits of fat.

I think that people go through periods of recomposition. I also have noticed that after losing a decent amount I really had to kick up intensity at my workouts including wrist and ankle weights. SImply, when you don't weigh as much- you don't burn as many calories.