Hitting a plateau

I'm not really sure where I hit my first plateau... I remember though after I hit around 40 pounds lost it got much more difficult to get weight off. So I changed how I ate again, tried new foods, began eating less premade things and became more of a cook. I noticed my plateau had a lot to do with my sodium intake and the fact that my body was used to my exercise plan now. So instead of walking for an hour I ran more during that hour, I tried different types of cardio, introduced weight lifting. I'm now sitting at 72 pounds lost after 215 days of logging. I fluctuate a bit because I like to drink my beer lol. I'm hoping to lose 29 more by July for my one year.

I lost 40 when I plateaued then after tracking what I ate and my workouts/calorie burn plus Intermittent Fasting the weight just melted off I ended up losing 80 more pounds! Hang in there you will find a way.

28 lbs, plateaued and then My Sister in law (weight loss buddy) got pregnant and in all the excitement I sort of just forgot about My goals and just can't get My fire back.

I hit my first plateau at 6 months and 55 lb lost. It lasted 3 weeks. 3 months later and another 25 lb gone, I had another 3 week plateau.

liviaish13 wrote: »

how much did you all lose before hitting a plateau with your weight loss?

98lbs

I lost 6 pounds per month for a 6 months period (May - October). However, since November I been hovering at the same weight. I think it began as a plateau, but after a couple months i just got discouraged and lost focus. Winter hit like an 18-wheeler, i had added stress from being the only parent while my husband went to his home country for two months, then hosted my parents for a month or so while they relocated. I turned to food too many times. I am determined to get back to work now. My first goal is to lose 6 pounds by end of March.

You may look at it a little differently, rather than asking how much weight you lost, you may want to look at it as a percentage? Each person is going to have a different starting point. If you start at 200lbs and someone else starts at 150lbs, there is going to be very different results. That might be a little more telling and may be interesting?

However, to answer your question and add my spin on it. I started to stall at 30lbs lost, which is a little over 11% body weight lost. I got comfortable and sick over the holidays and have maintained the same 5lbs for the last 2 months. I still log, I still watch my intake, but I can honestly say, I'm not being as dedicated as I was in the beginning and my gym days have gone down due to schedules, but I will remain focused and it will come off in due time.

As epido said, "What do you mean when you say plateau?" My conjecture is that daily, weekly and even monthly weight variation due to factors other than calorie deficit is too great compared to expected weight loss to accurately discern a true "plateau" over any period less than a month or even longer. I have been using MFP since last May and have lost 50 lb (1.2 lb/wk on average). I have tracked my weight and net calorie intake for 286 consecutive days. Say we define a plateau as a period of 7 days over which my weight did not decrease. That is, my weight was the same or greater than it was a week earlier. That occurred on 90 of the 286 days. If I lengthen that period to 14 days, my weight over two weeks did not decrease on 52 of the 286 days. Even if I lengthen the period to 28 days, I saw no decrease 11 times. My conclusion is that, since I lost weight consistently (but not monotonically) over the 286 days, it would be wrong to label any of these as "plateaus."

The factors other than actual calorie deficit that come into play include random and systematic measurement errors in body weight and in food and exercise logging, and less-controlled factors like hydration. It would be an interesting if a study could be done to estimate the magnitude of these errors using the MFP weight, food and exercise diaries.