Plateau

Any good advice on getting off of a week long weight plateau?

Replies

  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    The majority of people will not lose weight each and every week. Unfortunately, weight loss isn't linear and the body doesn't follow what should be simple math when it comes to losing weight. Sometimes we lose, sometimes we stay the same and sometimes we gain.

    Keep doing what your doing and you will lose again. Don't lose motivation! Don't forget to change things up along the way so you avoid a plateau!
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    Yeah I wouldn't call a week a plateau :laugh:

    I haven't lost in about a month and a half, and that's par for the course for me. Every month is a new plateau waiting to happen for me! :cry:

    Generally the suggestions to break a plateau would be to change something up however. But if you do that every week, you're not going to know what's working or not. Maybe stick to weighing yourself just once a month instead of however often you are weighing now...
  • I think a plateau has to last at least 3-6 weeks. Give it a little time. :)
  • okeedokee5
    okeedokee5 Posts: 46 Member
    One week does not a plateau make. Keep at what you're doing.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,235 Member
    All of the above. A week is not a plateau. It could be your body retaining fluid, readjusting, maybe you need to poop or maybe your body is just being ornery.
  • Well Iets begin this solution with the cause behind a plateau, followed by some solutions. Lowering calories too much or too fast will cause the body to drastically decrease its metabolism. Another surprising cause, is dieting for too long and never giving yourself a break. A great solution to this is to indulge in a comfort meal once a week. So eating consistent for 6 days in a row, for will allow a favorite meal on the 7th day. It does not matter when this meal is eaten but most people prefer dinner (dinner with family or spouse). I personally enjoy me some delicious baby back ribs from longhorn with a nice buttered cinnamon sweet potato! :D Hey, us humans are allowed to enjoy foods we love and not feel guilty!

    Lets dig a little deeper into plateaus; over-training is a MAJOR cause. Overt-raining is basically training too much without giving the body proper rest/recovery; not eating nutritional foods to help the body recover. What happens here is, the body begins to increase its cortisol (stress) level and this occasion prevents the body's ability to properly lose fat or regulate hormones. This increase in cortisol will place a MAJOR tax on the central nervous system (CNS) which leads feelings of fatigue, sickness, hunger, increased stress, etc. The solution is to make sure the body gets its proper rest and recovery; sleep minimum of 7 hours, increase your nutritional foods and take days off.

    Although there may be a few more causes, I personally believe these can be the two major causes. By making sure you give yourself a break to enjoy your comfort foods, allowing the body to properly recover with valuable sleep, rest and nutritional foods, the body will be less susceptible to go through plateaus. This method is a great solution to kiss plateaus goodbye; hope this helps! :)
  • pureirishman
    pureirishman Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks for all of your thoughts. I started losing pounds again recently. Obviously patience is not one of my stronger traits.
  • Fruit, fruit and more fruit. :)
    Pushes things through the system to put it nicely. :laugh:
  • _mrsgigi_
    _mrsgigi_ Posts: 38 Member
    switch up work out routine, and zig zag calories... sometimes even just eating more than u usually do can help.
  • TammyS3
    TammyS3 Posts: 28 Member
    I haven't lost in about a month and a half, and that's par for the course for me. Every month is a new plateau waiting to happen for me! :cry:

    I'm about the same, I haven't lost in over a month now!
  • Mcgrawhaha
    Mcgrawhaha Posts: 1,596 Member
    Well Iets begin this solution with the cause behind a plateau, followed by some solutions. Lowering calories too much or too fast will cause the body to drastically decrease its metabolism. Another surprising cause, is dieting for too long and never giving yourself a break. A great solution to this is to indulge in a comfort meal once a week. So eating consistent for 6 days in a row, for will allow a favorite meal on the 7th day. It does not matter when this meal is eaten but most people prefer dinner (dinner with family or spouse). I personally enjoy me some delicious baby back ribs from longhorn with a nice buttered cinnamon sweet potato! :D Hey, us humans are allowed to enjoy foods we love and not feel guilty!

    Lets dig a little deeper into plateaus; over-training is a MAJOR cause. Overt-raining is basically training too much without giving the body proper rest/recovery; not eating nutritional foods to help the body recover. What happens here is, the body begins to increase its cortisol (stress) level and this occasion prevents the body's ability to properly lose fat or regulate hormones. This increase in cortisol will place a MAJOR tax on the central nervous system (CNS) which leads feelings of fatigue, sickness, hunger, increased stress, etc. The solution is to make sure the body gets its proper rest and recovery; sleep minimum of 7 hours, increase your nutritional foods and take days off.

    Although there may be a few more causes, I personally believe these can be the two major causes. By making sure you give yourself a break to enjoy your comfort foods, allowing the body to properly recover with valuable sleep, rest and nutritional foods, the body will be less susceptible to go through plateaus. This method is a great solution to kiss plateaus goodbye; hope this helps! :)

    perfectly said!
  • I know how discouraging it can be when you don't see the #s changing on the scale! Keep working, keep strong, and you will start to see the results again. Sometime, just changing up the workout can be enough to shake things up. I ran for 15 weeks, found myself in a 3-week plateau, and got discouraged. Then I started a new exercise routine where I only ran half the time, and then did circuit training and HIIT workouts the other half of the time...6 lbs down in 6 weeks! Now I'm back to mostly running and the wight is coming of just like before. Sometime, you just need that jolt to the system to get it working again. Keep it up, don't get discouraged!! :D
  • cedarghost
    cedarghost Posts: 621 Member
    yes