New Study Reveals: Plateaus are NOT real...

This is the classic study (yes, an actual scientific study) on self reported weight loss plateaus:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199212313272701

The subjects were chosen specifically because they maintained they could not lose weight on a self reported intake of 1,200 calories. Turns out they were under estimating how many calories they were eating by as much as 50%...

If you are plateauing your first call must be to check your energy balance carefully over a sufficient amount of time- much as the OP has done

You have a lot to lose and haven't been at this for long. As you get smaller, losing weight will become harder. Your spreadsheet only accounts for right now. If you don't make adjustments, you WILL eventually plateau. I've been doing this 3 times as long as you have and had as much to lose. I have done my own "study" and I am certain that you will eventually change your mind about your conclusions here.

Since we're all presenting anecdote as universal fact, why not add another?

Your experience is not mine. I've lost 136 pounds. As I got smaller, losing weight did not become harder. My weight loss only slowed down when I chose to slow it down by increasing my calorie intake and therefore decreasing my deficit. I was still losing nearly two pounds a week when I was 15 pounds from goal and I was eating around 2,000 calories a day (at that point, I did increase my intake because I was training for an endurance event and needed the additional fuel, and did not want to compromise my performance - actively trying to lose weight would have done that).

I am not "certain" OP will change his mind.

I don't know why my experience is different than yours - perhaps it was my method of increasing my calorie goal as I lost weight instead of decreasing it as so many people do; perhaps it was my exercise routine; perhaps it was my diet; perhaps I did not experience a hormonal shift like many dieters do.

What I do know is that plateaus are not inevitable, and for me, I lost weight at the deficit at which I ate, regardless of whether I had 135 pounds to lose or 10.

Obviously we will all have different experiences, but OP's suggestion that one create a spreadsheet to track one's losses and minimize the disappoint with low weeks is a good one in my opinion.

That is another consistent issue people who get fairly close to their goal weight report. There is surely something to that, and maybe the spreadsheet thing falls apart at that point. Or might need some serious adjustment.

This is the classic study (yes, an actual scientific study) on self reported weight loss plateaus:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199212313272701

The subjects were chosen specifically because they maintained they could not lose weight on a self reported intake of 1,200 calories. Turns out they were under estimating how many calories they were eating by as much as 50%...

If you are plateauing your first call must be to check your energy balance carefully over a sufficient amount of time- much as the OP has done

People like me don't like to "estimate" our calories. I use a scale and when in doubt, go higher. I also prefer to under estimate exercise calories.

People in that study were not using calorie tracking software or food scales. O.o

True. Sometimes when I look at someone's diary, I immediately know that the problem is "user error." Sometimes it's a physical issue, such as hormones. I suspect that the OP was not considering that factor when creating this post. There are so many people on MFP for whom you *KNOW* that they are not logging accurately....things like 3000 calorie burns from mopping their kitchen floor.

But it is certainly the case that factors outside of the person's control can be inhibiting weight loss. I don't think OP was referring to those things, but rather the believing that more often than not, it is user error. I am inclined to believe that. I haven't been here long, but I've looked through a lot of diaries and just shake my head at some of the nonsense that I have witnessed, wondering if these people are just lying to themselves or if they are honestly just not very bright.

don't think it proves anything. it is working for me now. who is to say it might not in the future. you assume too much.

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.

I would say that if you put 99% of the people who swear black and blue that they are at a calorie deficit and are not losing in a metabolic ward and monitored their intake careful they would start losing weight....

You should seriously stop with all this pompous 99% of people are just doing it wrong BS asap. You dont give your peers nearly enough credit. Their common sense or their willpower.

The Third Group nutrients include calories, sugars, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. However, for products (e.g., fruit drinks, juices, and confectioneries) with a sugars content of 90 percent or more of total carbohydrate, to prevent labeling anomalies due in part to rounding, FDA treats total carbohydrate as a Third Group nutrient instead of a Class II nutrient. For foods with label declarations of Third Group nutrients, the ratio between the amount obtained by laboratory analysis and the amount declared on the product label in the Nutrition Facts panel must be 120% or less, i.e., the label is considered to be out of compliance if the nutrient content of a composite of the product is greater than 20% above the value declared on the label. For example, if a laboratory analysis found 8 g of total fat/serving in a product that stated that it contained 6 g of total fat/serving, the ratio between the laboratory value and the label value would be (8 / 6) x 100 = 133%, and the product label would be considered to be out of compliance.

I would say that if you put 99% of the people who swear black and blue that they are at a calorie deficit and are not losing in a metabolic ward and monitored their intake careful they would start losing weight....

You should seriously stop with all this pompous 99% of people are just doing it wrong BS asap. You dont give your peers nearly enough credit. Their common sense or their willpower.