Scale at a standstill for 2 weeks

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jenniferhorn87
jenniferhorn87 Posts: 50 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
So my weight has been at a standstill for the past 2 weeks. I have started exercising a lot more than I was before (gone from doing the stationary bike for 20-30 minutes a day to walking at least 2 miles a day over the past 10 days or so) and I'm now burning a lot more calories than I was, and I usually don't eat all of them back. Also, I never used to exercise before I started doing all of this 44 days ago and I'm thinking that I might be holding onto water because I'm now building muscles in my legs... or maybe I've just hit a plateau?

I'm wondering if anyone has encountered this and I welcome any input that anyone can give me. I'm not letting myself get discouraged by it because I know that it's just something that happens.

I am starting to see a difference in the mirror and my pants feel looser than they did even just 2 weeks ago, which leads me to believe that I'm holding on to water or building muscle. I took my measurements but it's hard for me to tell if I'm making any progress because I didn't take my initial measurements until I was about 25 days in, so I didn't know what my starting measurements were. I took them again a couple days ago and some of them have gone down a few centimeters but that's all. It might be too soon to tell anyway, since there was only about 15 days in between.

Also, my diary is public if you want to take a look.

Thanks in advance!


***EDIT***

A few more pieces of info... I have a HRM so I know that I'm getting a fairly accurate estimate of my calories burned from exercise, and my best friend is a dietician who looked over my diary and said that I am eating very well on my average days.

Replies

  • KaysKidz
    KaysKidz Posts: 208 Member
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    When I lost my weight before, the best way to end a plateau was to eat MORE for a couple of days. Not twinkies mind you! Just more good for you food!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    chances are it's water/glycogen stores from the extra exercise.

    Here is an article that helped me understand this better...

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    When I lost my weight before, the best way to end a plateau was to eat MORE for a couple of days. Not twinkies mind you! Just more good for you food!

    If you are truely are at a plateau that means you are eating at maintenance...and if you are at maintenance eating over maintenance will not cause weight loss....:noway:
  • jenniferhorn87
    jenniferhorn87 Posts: 50 Member
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    When I lost my weight before, the best way to end a plateau was to eat MORE for a couple of days. Not twinkies mind you! Just more good for you food!

    If you are truely are at a plateau that means you are eating at maintenance...and if you are at maintenance eating over maintenance will not cause weight loss....:noway:

    But might it be possible that I'm not eating enough calories back from exercise? I have heard of that happening as well... It's not like I'm at a negative net or anything like that, however. I'm usually under by no more than 500 calories a day (and that's on a highly active day)
  • bcdudley1
    bcdudley1 Posts: 26 Member
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    I just came off of a 2 week plateau like that. For me, it took temporarily lowering my exercise and raising my calories to get moving again. I went up slightly, then started dropping again. I raised my calories from around 1200 - 1300 to around 1400 - 1600 and have been keeping it there. A weekend of 2500 - 3500 calorie days is what got me moving.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    When I lost my weight before, the best way to end a plateau was to eat MORE for a couple of days. Not twinkies mind you! Just more good for you food!

    If you are truely are at a plateau that means you are eating at maintenance...and if you are at maintenance eating over maintenance will not cause weight loss....:noway:

    But might it be possible that I'm not eating enough calories back from exercise? I have heard of that happening as well... It's not like I'm at a negative net or anything like that, however. I'm usually under by no more than 500 calories a day (and that's on a highly active day)

    If you aren't eating enough you get weak and lethargic and the workouts would be hard.

    Based on your original post you have increased your exercise...and that makes it most likely water/glycogen stores that will "woosh" in 4-6 weeks...for me when I increased my workouts (added in HIIT 2x a week) it took 3 weeks for me to see it...
  • WaterBunnie
    WaterBunnie Posts: 1,370 Member
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    I wouldn't worry at this stage. Give it another week or so and you may well find you have a sudden drop that'll make up for lost time. Hormones can make a big difference for us girls too.
  • greenmonstergirl
    greenmonstergirl Posts: 619 Member
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    2 weeks is nothing...try six months but i have gone from a size 14 to an 8 at the same weight! its not always about the scale.
  • StraubreyR
    StraubreyR Posts: 631 Member
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    I just went through three weeks of no loss. As of today I'm down a pound and a half, and am on target to lose 5 pounds a month for the last three months. Just keep doing what you are doing and have patience, it's sure not a linear process!
  • lindsey1979
    lindsey1979 Posts: 2,395 Member
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    I'm dealing with the same -- I'm at the end of my third week and it's been pretty steady -- after 6 weeks of fairly consistent losses of 1.5-2 lbs/week. I'm not sure what it is, exactly. I'm hoping it's mostly a water issue and I'll see a whoosh soon. However, there is a theory out there that there is a sweet spot for weight loss and when you create too much of a deficit, it triggers a hormonal stress response in your body, making it harder to drop the weight. That's why some suggest increasing your calories slightly to get back into the sweet spot if you have a large calculated deficit that was previously working.

    Frankly, I don't which theory is right. I'm leaning towards the latter, unless you have become more complacent about your calorie counting. But, if you haven't, the latter theory makes more sense to me.

    I've also read that with women, water retention issues can mask weight loss, so it may be better to compare weeks in your cycle against weight at the previous month at that time to give you a better picture of actual losses rather than a week-by-week basis. I haven't broken mine yet, but I've got other issues that may be contributing to it (thyroid issue and I feel a little hypo right now).

    The best advice I can offer is to stay the course and make sure that you're accurately measuring/weighing your calories...if nothing moves after 6 weeks, then it may be time to explore further.

    Here's some interesting articles on it: http://www.leangains.com/2010/01/how-to-deal-with-water-retention-part.html
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • xero2099
    xero2099 Posts: 49 Member
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    2 weeks is nothing...try six months but i have gone from a size 14 to an 8 at the same weight! its not always about the scale.

    indeed
  • jenniferhorn87
    jenniferhorn87 Posts: 50 Member
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    I definitely don't think that eating too little is my problem... I've been doing a pretty good job of listening and responding to my body's signals... if I'm feeling hungry I'll eat, and if I'm not then I don't. I know that withholding too much is bad and will have a negative effect on your weight loss if it's done for too long.

    I think I'll look at it as being a water retention issue... I have a history of retaining a lot of water. The important thing is that my pants are feeling looser :)

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