New Study Reveals: Plateaus are NOT real...
peterdt
Posts: 820 Member
Sorry for the deception. Yes, plateaus are real in the short run (weeks or weeks). BUT plateaus are NOT real in the long run like a month or more period of time.
I entered 6 months of data that I logged here at MFP and the results were shocking to be honest.
Sorry it's so long. It's not a simple topic. But it is one that can change how you think about your weight loss journey.
INSIGHTS OF NET CALORIE LOSS SPREADSHEET
I have calculated that I have lost 131,009 Net Calorie Loss over the last 6 months. Divide this by 3500 and I should have lost 37.43 pounds. I actually have lost 37 pounds. I was shocked at how accurate this was after crunching the numbers!!!!! BUT this was only after adjusting my BMR to 2500 from the 2963. This is a HUGE difference over time. But if you play with the numbers some I guess you can find out what your real BMR is.
Given the above information for the past month I set a goal of losing 10,500 calories per week. My actual results week to week vary A LOT. But over a month the numbers have always been within in a pound of projected losses, and often exactly on. So please, if you try this DO NOT think you will get accurate numbers day to day, or even week to week. But month to month it should be pretty accurate, at least in my experience.
Okay, now some disclaimers. Weight can be impacted by soooo many things. Muscle gain, water pretension, thyroid problems.. and on and on. Before I THOUGHT that maybe one of these things were affecting me. My daily scale measurements varied a lot and it seemed that I would often go weeks without a loss for no good reason. Honestly, I had some other issues going on in my life. Also, I was making excuses. The truth is that during the times I was losing a lot less I was simply eating more. I was kind of SHOCKED when I realized this. It took entering the number on the spreadsheet to realize this. DOH!
But there is a flip side to this. Since I had found out what was really going on two HUGE things happened for me.
If I stuck to my plan the weight loss plan results would show up sooner or later. Even in the past month I would “plateau” or even gained a few pounds for over a week. I still weighed myself EVERY day first thing in the morning. Even though the scale did not actually show a GAIN I had faith that those loses would show up later. Guess what? They did! I kept on the plan and I was rewarded! Because of this I am on my way to my best month ever. For November so far I’ve lost 11 pounds. Awesome!
The scale lost its power over me! This is huge. Before I used to get discouraged when no loss would happen. Now I know to trust my NET CALORIE LOST numbers instead.
Goal Setting Is Easier. I’ve set a goal to have a NET CALORIE LOSS of 10,500 calories/week. This is 1500 calories of NET CALORIES LOSS per day. My focus now is on this now and has been for about the past month. I don’t always hit the goal actually and often fall quite a bit short. This also helps tremendously during those times of temptation. But overall, I’m still doing pretty well. I am always thinking of my NET CALORIE LOSS daily goal and it stops me from going off plan.
Spreadsheet is KEY. I set all this up in a very simple spreadsheet. Took me an hour or so to record the first 5 months of results by going “back” in my MFP records. Easy to do though especially if you split your screen. THE SPREADSHEET HAS BEEN KEY FOR ME! I set a Google alarm to remind to enter my data every morning. I have many other stuff I track on that also like; business goals, blood pressure, meditation minutes, yoga minutes, sleep hours- about 30 entries to make every morning, but only takes about 15 minutes.
THE KEY IS SEEING THE RESULTS OVER A MONTH. NOT OVER DAYS OVER A WEEK. ON THE SPREADSHEET IT IS ALL IN FRONT OF YOU. IF YOU DO AN HOUR OR SO OF WORK TO ENTER ALL YOUR OLD DATA GET READY TO BE FLOORED BY WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY. BUT…ONLY LOOK AT THE NUMBERS OVER A MONTH PERIOD, NOT A WEEK AND CERTAINLY NOT DAYS.
I can make a template and share this with anyone who would want it. Just message me with your email address and I’ll shoot one over to you.
I’ve read a lot of other people’s weight loss stories. Many of them have recurring themes on HOW they did it. None of them have really spelled it out like I have above (as far as I know), but I hear over and over it’s a calorie numbers game in what they write. There are also many other recurring themes which maybe I’ll write about in another blog posting another time.
Let’s do this together people! MFP is such a powerful and wonderful tool like we’ve never seen before and quietly thousands of people have changed their lives. I would guess that people using MFP have lost much more than any paid site like Weight Watchers, etc. Also, I want to thank everyone who has been such a support to me thus far and I hope that I have been encouraging also. This write up and the challenge also is my small way of giving back. I really hope it is helpful to y’all. Also, I am open to any suggestions and this NET CALORIE LOSS thing is a work in progress. I would love to see how others do on it if they try, and would love to hear from you. Always open to new friends.
IF you want to know more I have another post at my blog that explains how I do net calorie loss calculation:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/peterdt
I entered 6 months of data that I logged here at MFP and the results were shocking to be honest.
Sorry it's so long. It's not a simple topic. But it is one that can change how you think about your weight loss journey.
INSIGHTS OF NET CALORIE LOSS SPREADSHEET
I have calculated that I have lost 131,009 Net Calorie Loss over the last 6 months. Divide this by 3500 and I should have lost 37.43 pounds. I actually have lost 37 pounds. I was shocked at how accurate this was after crunching the numbers!!!!! BUT this was only after adjusting my BMR to 2500 from the 2963. This is a HUGE difference over time. But if you play with the numbers some I guess you can find out what your real BMR is.
Given the above information for the past month I set a goal of losing 10,500 calories per week. My actual results week to week vary A LOT. But over a month the numbers have always been within in a pound of projected losses, and often exactly on. So please, if you try this DO NOT think you will get accurate numbers day to day, or even week to week. But month to month it should be pretty accurate, at least in my experience.
Okay, now some disclaimers. Weight can be impacted by soooo many things. Muscle gain, water pretension, thyroid problems.. and on and on. Before I THOUGHT that maybe one of these things were affecting me. My daily scale measurements varied a lot and it seemed that I would often go weeks without a loss for no good reason. Honestly, I had some other issues going on in my life. Also, I was making excuses. The truth is that during the times I was losing a lot less I was simply eating more. I was kind of SHOCKED when I realized this. It took entering the number on the spreadsheet to realize this. DOH!
But there is a flip side to this. Since I had found out what was really going on two HUGE things happened for me.
If I stuck to my plan the weight loss plan results would show up sooner or later. Even in the past month I would “plateau” or even gained a few pounds for over a week. I still weighed myself EVERY day first thing in the morning. Even though the scale did not actually show a GAIN I had faith that those loses would show up later. Guess what? They did! I kept on the plan and I was rewarded! Because of this I am on my way to my best month ever. For November so far I’ve lost 11 pounds. Awesome!
The scale lost its power over me! This is huge. Before I used to get discouraged when no loss would happen. Now I know to trust my NET CALORIE LOST numbers instead.
Goal Setting Is Easier. I’ve set a goal to have a NET CALORIE LOSS of 10,500 calories/week. This is 1500 calories of NET CALORIES LOSS per day. My focus now is on this now and has been for about the past month. I don’t always hit the goal actually and often fall quite a bit short. This also helps tremendously during those times of temptation. But overall, I’m still doing pretty well. I am always thinking of my NET CALORIE LOSS daily goal and it stops me from going off plan.
Spreadsheet is KEY. I set all this up in a very simple spreadsheet. Took me an hour or so to record the first 5 months of results by going “back” in my MFP records. Easy to do though especially if you split your screen. THE SPREADSHEET HAS BEEN KEY FOR ME! I set a Google alarm to remind to enter my data every morning. I have many other stuff I track on that also like; business goals, blood pressure, meditation minutes, yoga minutes, sleep hours- about 30 entries to make every morning, but only takes about 15 minutes.
THE KEY IS SEEING THE RESULTS OVER A MONTH. NOT OVER DAYS OVER A WEEK. ON THE SPREADSHEET IT IS ALL IN FRONT OF YOU. IF YOU DO AN HOUR OR SO OF WORK TO ENTER ALL YOUR OLD DATA GET READY TO BE FLOORED BY WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY. BUT…ONLY LOOK AT THE NUMBERS OVER A MONTH PERIOD, NOT A WEEK AND CERTAINLY NOT DAYS.
I can make a template and share this with anyone who would want it. Just message me with your email address and I’ll shoot one over to you.
I’ve read a lot of other people’s weight loss stories. Many of them have recurring themes on HOW they did it. None of them have really spelled it out like I have above (as far as I know), but I hear over and over it’s a calorie numbers game in what they write. There are also many other recurring themes which maybe I’ll write about in another blog posting another time.
Let’s do this together people! MFP is such a powerful and wonderful tool like we’ve never seen before and quietly thousands of people have changed their lives. I would guess that people using MFP have lost much more than any paid site like Weight Watchers, etc. Also, I want to thank everyone who has been such a support to me thus far and I hope that I have been encouraging also. This write up and the challenge also is my small way of giving back. I really hope it is helpful to y’all. Also, I am open to any suggestions and this NET CALORIE LOSS thing is a work in progress. I would love to see how others do on it if they try, and would love to hear from you. Always open to new friends.
IF you want to know more I have another post at my blog that explains how I do net calorie loss calculation:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/peterdt
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Replies
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What study are you referring to?0
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My One persons study. It is not scientific... but I think is insightful. By not scientific I mean 100's of people would need to do something similar to what I have done and then see what the results are. So, my results are extremely subjective. Honestly, its just a provocative blog headline to get some attention.What study are you referring to?0
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Don't people often plateau for over a month at a time?0
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I have not. Have you? I guess that at least half the time the "plateau" is a result of losing motivation to lose weight.Don't people often plateau for over a month at a time?0
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I can't comment on whether plateaus are a real phenomenon (though I do think most "plateaus" are caused by one's failure to follow one's plan), I do agree with you on one thing:
spreadsheets are key.
For more than a year I logged my weekly losses on a spreadsheet. When I had weeks where I didn't lose, I'd go look at my average and see that I was right on track. My monthly averages almost always lined up perfectly to my calculated deficit. I'd go 2 weeks with nothing then - bam - 4 pounds gone.
"If I stuck to my plan the weight loss plan results would show up sooner or later."
I can't agree more. I lost 2 pounds a week on average as long as I wanted to. It wasn't until I was 10-20 pounds from goal that I purposely slowed things down. I never had a plateau.
It's easy to get frustrated if you're only looking at what you lose this week. When you average out your losses over a month or more, it's really enlightening.0 -
I'm not far enough in yet to plateau, but there are a lot of threads on here about people breaking free from months of not losing anything despite working hard.0
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bump for later0
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That is awesome to hear. A nice validation. Thank you for sharing! I don't think most people go to the trouble of making a spreadsheet, or maybe just don't know how.I can't comment on whether plateaus are a real phenomenon (though I do think most "plateaus" are caused by one's failure to follow one's plan), I do agree with you on one thing:
spreadsheets are key.
For more than a year I logged my weekly losses on a spreadsheet. When I had weeks where I didn't lose, I'd go look at my average and see that I was right on track. My monthly averages almost always lined up perfectly to my calculated deficit. I'd go 2 weeks with nothing then - bam - 4 pounds gone.
"If I stuck to my plan the weight loss plan results would show up sooner or later."
I can't agree more. I lost 2 pounds a week on average as long as I wanted to. It wasn't until I was 10-20 pounds from goal that I purposely slowed things down. I never had a plateau.
It's easy to get frustrated if you're only looking at what you lose this week. When you average out your losses over a month or more, it's really enlightening.0 -
Excellent post and one that makes sense. When I first started to diet, I read and read, all that I could. I had to wade through some absolute nonsense.(stand on your head while waving your right arm. No! stand on your head waving your left arm three times, THEN wave your right arm, etc.) One of the first scientific articles that I read was about calorie equalibrium. The closer you get to your goal weight the slower the loss. A person can weigh 300 and if they will reduce their caloric intake to that of a 150 person, they will eventually, over time, weigh 150. It is that simple and that slow.
Exercise pushes beyond this point and is necessary to keep up a healthy body. A fit, healthy body burns more calories than one that is conserving calories, like sitting and doing nothing until bedtime. A sedentary body is the one that conserves calories, not the low cal, high exercise one. Tomorrow, do something extra. As small as opening your door, opening an envelope or walking to the street or as large as running 5 miles. It is all the same as far as the difference of your tomorrows. Do just a lttle extra every day. Everyone can do just a little more than they did yesterday. What you did yesterday is your new starting point for today.0 -
Honestly rolled my eyes when I read subject line. & it did work because I normally don't come into this topic unless I am looking for something specific. I think you are onto something tho. The only tried & true weightless that works & lasts is calories in vs calories out. You illustrated that very well & I appreciate your hard work & sharing it. I would like to see your spreadsheet. Would be cool for a study to be done on this. Maybe email mfp ppl and see if they can help u with that.0
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I heart this post. While I haven't done the spreadsheet work, I shocked myself a couple of weeks ago. I was getting frustrated that my weight wasn't coming off and I would go what seemed like weeks without losing much if anything, but when I took my current weight and compared it to my starting weight, I was averaging 2 pounds per week loss.0
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The body does it's thing. We are all different. To make sense out of water weight and fluctuations will lead you to inconclusive and incorrect assumptions. Just let it go, let your body do it's thing. Have patience. If you gain weight over time you are eating too much, and if you don't lose weight over a long period of time you are likely eating too much. If you lose weight too fast or have problems with too much of a calorie deficit you are not eating enough. You can always notch things up or down by 100. If you have a lot of fat on your body you will not starve. There is no such thing as starving fat people. Look around the world, have you ever seen a starving fat person? If you are not sure just ask your doctor but if you need to lose weight, and you are not, either give it a bit of time and/or eat less. The reason we all got fat in the first place is eating too much. All you have to do is eat less to lose weight. It is that simple. But you have to be patient. The body does it's thing. Having to lose weight is not fun. It's never fun, even when you maintain you fluctuate, life happens, holidays happen, social events happen, stress happens, at some point you have to reign it in again and get back to business. All the skills you learn when you are losing weight comes into play when you maintain. It's not ever easy. It is fun when it happens, it motivates you too keep going, it snowballs when you are motivated, but there is nothing easy about it.
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.0 -
bump0
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want to read later0
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Why does this at least begin to read like one of those junk infomercials?0
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yes there are plateaus- not excuses plateaus- not talking about those- which we've all been thru, talking about real- the body is sick of you deciding what it needs and decides for itself- that is a mental plateau- which is all it ever is, what is our minds of expectation0
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I can dig this. I think plateaus a month or more and you may need to check your eating or it might be caused by something out of your hands. People don't look hard enough at what might be the cause. I plateaued recently for roughy about a month and couldn't understand why and then I realized that I changed my birth control. Switched back to old one and a week later I broke my plateau. I think its external things like that, that are the real causes for plateaus and you just haven't identified what the change is.0
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Bump to read later.0
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I dont believe in the *set point* theory(i.e plateau). I beat it.
Here is a very generic article about it.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/295632-metabolic-set-point-and-weight-loss/
((Disclaimer-this article does not make it true or not..Is just an example of what i tend to believe..its also really late and i couldnt find a better one..lol))
ALSO, I wrote about this in one of my blogs. Feel free to take a look.
~Cray0 -
I did the SAME things that allowed me to lose 8lbs the month before during the month of September. I only lost 2lbs all month. I didn't change my eating or exercise going into October and I lost 7lbs that month.0
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Otherwise known as anecdotal evidence. cheersMy One persons study. It is not scientific... but I think is insightful. By not scientific I mean 100's of people would need to do something similar to what I have done and then see what the results are. So, my results are extremely subjective. Honestly, its just a provocative blog headline to get some attention.What study are you referring to?0 -
Agreed with all that you have to say. I recently had about a 10 day plateau, probably not a big deal, but made me frustrated. Dropped my daily goal from 1540 to 1200 (plus 400 cals for BF) and started to see the scale move much faster!! It is a bit of a numbers game. I often see little gains which are frustrating on days that I am SO good... but then later will lose a pound or more overnight. Just need patience. Really, if I am going to maintain my weight loss this whole work out and tracking calories thing is never going to end... so I might as well keep on keeping on:)0
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Thank you for this encouragement. Just what I needed to hear when the scale is not cooperating with my schedule!0
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Good food for thought! I use a spreadsheet at work to motivate me on my performance numbers. I didn't think to do this in real life. Thank you ...0
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i do agree to this based on my experience0
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For me I need to mix it up and try new approaches every now and then. I think my body gets used to my methods and then decides it is comfy so I have to switch things around. Nothing like having to outsmart your own body!0
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Interesting read, will digest it all later0
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I tend to believe that there's no such thing as plateaus. If you stay the same weight for 1+ months, that's not a plateau. That's called "maintenance". At some point in time your caloric needs will drop to the point of your current intake and your progress will stop. You just need to eat less, or exercise more. Or take a break and eat at maintenance for a week or a month to re-adjust, and then move on. Both things have been successful for me to break "plateaus".0
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Very interesting! Thanks for the time you put into your study. I would love to have a copy of your spreadsheet.
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