Do you believe in plateaus?

aqualeo1
aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Or are they just behavior induced? Looking back it seems every time I hit a "plateau" it was a period where I either wasn't logging everyday or going to the bar more than normal, having extra dessert or something like that.

I was at 135 forever and I considered it a plateau but looking back I wasn't being very honest with myself. As soon as I tightened it up I started losing again.

I really can't think of a time during my 50+ lb loss that I was weighing all food, accurately logging, and staying under my goal where I didn't lose anything so it just got me thinking maybe it's not even a real thing at all but more of a pattern of behavior for people who are losing large amounts of weight. Like you can only be so good for so long then you loosen up a bit when you've lost a noticeable amount of weight.

What do you think?

Replies

  • Eric_DeCastro
    Eric_DeCastro Posts: 767 Member
    I don't believe in them, I believe we get complacent with our habits and we steer off course and we don't lose weight. that is why we need constant reminders of why we are doing this so we won't steer off course.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    Nope. A plateau is eating at maintenance. And when people say "I'm doing the same thing as I was to lose the first 30lbs!" sure....maybe they are. But maybe they don't realize as their weight goes down, so does their caloric needs.
  • navyrigger46
    navyrigger46 Posts: 1,301 Member
    In lifting, yes, but in weight loss, NO. If someone hits a plateau in their weight loss it's because they got lazy in their logging and are eating at maintenance.

    Rigger
  • Eric_DeCastro
    Eric_DeCastro Posts: 767 Member
    Nope. A plateau is eating at maintenance. And when people say "I'm doing the same thing as I was to lose the first 30lbs!" sure....maybe they are. But maybe they don't realize as their weight goes down, so does their caloric needs.
    In lifting, yes, but in weight loss, NO. If someone hits a plateau in their weight loss it's because they got lazy in their logging and are eating at maintenance.

    Rigger

    I agree.
  • Branstin
    Branstin Posts: 2,320 Member
    Exactly!
  • AvsFreak
    AvsFreak Posts: 152 Member
    Plateaus? No, but fat loss is not always linear.

    Good read by Lyle McDonald.
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • aqualeo1
    aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
    And as for the people who swear they hit one and upped their calories to break it (because of "starvation mode" and what have you) I think it's just the act of changing your goal prompts you into logging more accurately and paying more attention again.
  • Llamapants86
    Llamapants86 Posts: 1,221 Member
    Any time I didn't drop weight for more than a couple of weeks it was always because of my behaviors. I have had a couple of 1 to 2 week stalls that were just weight loss not being linear though. I this of plateaus being a month or longer.
  • CorlissaEats
    CorlissaEats Posts: 493 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:
  • aqualeo1
    aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
    Plateaus? No, but fat loss is not always linear.

    Good read by Lyle McDonald.
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

    It's usually not but in a perfect world I think it would be. I mean biologically it should be. Eating patterns and daily calorie burns are not linear though so it gives not linear results for people.

    If someone ate the same exact food in the same exact quantities and did the same exact movements (like every step they took was the same every day) I think it would be completely linear.

    Or say the same exact deficit every day I guess to compensate for any weight loss happening.
  • aqualeo1
    aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:

    Plateau being defined as some kind of biological process that stops weight loss even though you're eating at a deficit for any length of time at all.
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  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    my experience clearly differs from all the others here, my weight loss stalled even though I was still diligently weighing and logging. So I tweaked my calories (upping in case you care). Please do not tell me I got complacent or lazy with my logging or weighing of food, you don't know me, you only know your own personal experience.
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  • kitlynnJ
    kitlynnJ Posts: 78 Member
    I eat, log and exercise consistently. .I usually go 2-3 weeks without loosing any weight then, just when I'm starting to think I'm accidentally at maintenance, I'll drop 1.5 pounds in a day. I believe weight loss isn't linear, but don't know if I would call those 2-3 weeks without loss a plateau.
  • CorlissaEats
    CorlissaEats Posts: 493 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:

    Plateau being defined as some kind of biological process that stops weight loss even though you're eating at a deficit for any length of time at all.

    Ok- then the 5 week one was a plateau and the others probably not. :smile: I was eating too little, it was messing with my hormones and my metabolism. My monthly came a week early, twice- that freaked me out so I used that as part of my reasoning to increase the calories. I tend to over estimate on everything except meat, so its likely that what I was logging as 1200-1400 calories was actually less than 1000 cals. I had stopped losing weight even though I was at a deficit of around 1500 calories. I addressed it pretty quickly though, it took me 2 weeks to be concerned about the lack of progress and other 2 weeks of watching closely before I hit the forums for some harsh but great advice.
  • aqualeo1
    aqualeo1 Posts: 331 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:

    Plateau being defined as some kind of biological process that stops weight loss even though you're eating at a deficit for any length of time at all.

    Ok- then the 5 week one was a plateau and the others probably not. :smile: I was eating too little, it was messing with my hormones and my metabolism. My monthly came a week early, twice- that freaked me out so I used that as part of my reasoning to increase the calories. I tend to over estimate on everything except meat, so its likely that what I was logging as 1200-1400 calories was actually less than 1000 cals. I had stopped losing weight even though I was at a deficit of around 1500 calories. I addressed it pretty quickly though, it took me 2 weeks to be concerned about the lack of progress and other 2 weeks of watching closely before I hit the forums for some harsh but great advice.

    Ok but how are you sure you were eating to little though? You said it prompted you to start weighing all your food so maybe when you thought you were increasing you were really decreasing because you were eating more than you thought you were when you weren't weighing. And then you started being more accurate so even at the higher goal you lost weight.

    I mean it's possible right? I did the same thing myself that's why I'm questioning it now.
  • Polarpaly05
    Polarpaly05 Posts: 74 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:

    Plateau being defined as some kind of biological process that stops weight loss even though you're eating at a deficit for any length of time at all.

    Ok- then the 5 week one was a plateau and the others probably not. :smile: I was eating too little, it was messing with my hormones and my metabolism. My monthly came a week early, twice- that freaked me out so I used that as part of my reasoning to increase the calories. I tend to over estimate on everything except meat, so its likely that what I was logging as 1200-1400 calories was actually less than 1000 cals. I had stopped losing weight even though I was at a deficit of around 1500 calories. I addressed it pretty quickly though, it took me 2 weeks to be concerned about the lack of progress and other 2 weeks of watching closely before I hit the forums for some harsh but great advice.

    False, you were underestimating how much you ate. You can't stop losing weight on a deficit of that much. You just changed the way you track and happened to "increase" the calories you ate.
  • CorlissaEats
    CorlissaEats Posts: 493 Member
    Define plateau. I have yet to experience a true plateau, but then I have a lot to lose still.

    I had a 5 week plateau in September 2013 that prompted me to start weighing all my food and to increase my calorie goal to a healthy sustainable level. I wasnt eating enough. And since that time I have had 3 mini plateaus. Each one lasted about 3 weeks which is why I don't view them as true plateaus. My diet and exercise stayed pretty much the same (with the exception of the goal recalibrating that I do every 5 lbs), yet for 3 weeks the scale didnt budge. I eat 1900-2000 cals, and that should give me at least a 500 cal deficit per day. If weightloss was linear, I should have been seeing results yet I didnt. Its teaching me to take deep breaths and wait. I'm at a deficit so my body will eventually catch up.

    Plateauscan happen. What was once a deficit can become maintenance. Metabolism can change. Muscle mass does affect burn. Our bodies are a dynamic living organism that reacts and adapts to change. :flowerforyou:

    Plateau being defined as some kind of biological process that stops weight loss even though you're eating at a deficit for any length of time at all.

    Ok- then the 5 week one was a plateau and the others probably not. :smile: I was eating too little, it was messing with my hormones and my metabolism. My monthly came a week early, twice- that freaked me out so I used that as part of my reasoning to increase the calories. I tend to over estimate on everything except meat, so its likely that what I was logging as 1200-1400 calories was actually less than 1000 cals. I had stopped losing weight even though I was at a deficit of around 1500 calories. I addressed it pretty quickly though, it took me 2 weeks to be concerned about the lack of progress and other 2 weeks of watching closely before I hit the forums for some harsh but great advice.

    Ok but how are you sure you were eating to little though? You said it prompted you to start weighing all your food so maybe when you thought you were increasing you were really decreasing because you were eating more than you thought you were when you weren't weighing. And then you started being more accurate so even at the higher goal you lost weight.

    I mean it's possible right? I did the same thing myself that's why I'm questioning it now.

    Anything is possible, but I still am convinced that I was eating too little. I was heading to a physical shutdown. I have other health concerns that I am regularly seeing my doctor about which could be factors others do not have. I was losing weight for several weeks at an 'extreme' deficit, and then I stopped losing even though I was still at that deficit. I started to experience troubling symptoms like : I lost time on my very regular cycle, had crazy PMS symptoms I dont normally get, Exhaustion and the need to sleep more than 10hrs per night, I started to get migraines and light sensitivity. Something in my biological processes stopped me from losing weight even though I continued to eat at a deficit. I didnt wait for my hair to fall out though before I identified a problem. I increased to at least my BMR and slowly started to lose again.

    When I started weighing my food, I had to start doubling my portions to get the measurements and weights I had been estimating. So what I thought was 100 calories before, was in fact only 50-60 cals worth. I am gluten free (allergies) and eat a largely plant based diet which tends to be low in calories. 100g of broccoli is a pretty large portion with very few cals- I was logging about 100g and only eating 30g. Same goes for legumes, rice, and other plant sources. I get to eat a lot more now and some days its hard to eat that much. I do agree though, most people are eating more than they think they are. I was eating less than I thought, more often than the opposite. I regularly serve myself a portion and then weigh it to see how close I am- I still tend to serve smaller portions than I think I will be. I did it last night. I put my eyeballed 7oz. serving of rotisserie chicken on a plate- it came to 5.2oz.

    It wasnt until I started to focus on getting 100g of protein that my meat portions changed and I added nuts and other calorie dense foods. There are many days now where I prelog all my food and it comes in under 1200 calories and then I am scrambling to add at least 700 calories to a day that already looks full and satisfying to me. I eat nearly 300 calories in nuts for breakfasts now just to boost my intake and my meat portions at dinner are 2 to 3 times larger than before. I also still have the reverse days, where I am trying to cut things to hit my daily target.

    One of the most noteable changes in my diet has been cutting out pop and chips- thats where a majority of the calories that made me "fat" came from. Based on a typical weighed serving now, I was probably getting between 600-1000 cals of chips in a single sitting. I likely could have just cut them and lost weight but I also was doing portion controlling and vigorous exercise. As soon as I started eating more than my BMR things started getting better. I think there is a sweet spot between too high and too low and its a balancing act to find it and to stay there. Its a number that changes.

    *** It should be noted that I am on a restricted diet- I have numerous food allergies that affect the bottom line differently than for others. Wheat, Milk, Eggs, Honey, Almonds, Yeast, etc. Gluten intolerance cuts down a lot of unplanned snacking and on processed foods, add in the rest...
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau
    Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know
    Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand
    To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands

    The nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
    And an illustrated book about birds
    You see a lot up there but don't be scared
    Who needs action when you got words

    When you've finished with the mop then you can stop
    And look at what you've done
    The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen
    And the work it was fun

    There's nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
    And an illustrated book about birds
    You see a lot up there but don't be scared
    Who needs action when you got words

    Well the many hands began to scan around for the next plateau
    Some said it was in Greenland and some say Mexico
    Others decided it was nowhere except for where they stood
    But those were all just guesses, wouldn't help you if they could

    (nirvana)
  • TheEffort
    TheEffort Posts: 1,028 Member
    I believe in plateaus...it's an indication that the body has adapted to the current calories and/or exercise. In my opinion, it becomes maintenance when people accept the situation and longer make adjustments to continue the progress.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
    Changes in water weight, etc. can make you believe you've stalled for a while even when you haven't. I guess you could call it a plateau since there's no apparent change in weight for a month or so.

    That's how I lost the last 8 or so pounds, decreasing my deficit as I went
    - lost 1 lb a week (500 cal deficit)
    - one week with no change and losing a lb the next week (250 cal deficit)
    - three weeks with no change and losing a lb the 4th week (125 cal deficit)

    So, in reality I lost as expected, but waiting the 4 weeks to see the scale change was mighty annoying.
  • hoyalawya2003
    hoyalawya2003 Posts: 631 Member
    And as for the people who swear they hit one and upped their calories to break it (because of "starvation mode" and what have you) I think it's just the act of changing your goal prompts you into logging more accurately and paying more attention again.

    I totally agree! My DH was on a "plateau" because he had his goal set too low. So he would hit it a few days, go way over b/c he was really hungry other days, and just couldn't get consistent. I told him to up it and be more consistent, and I think it worked. If your goal isn't realistic (too aggressive a deficit), you are setting yourself up to fail.

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