Help understanding Plateau

A plateau, in general, is 4-6 weeks without loss, and mainly happens because the person is underestimating their intake or overestimating calories burned. MFP will prompt to change your calorie goal after ten pounds are lost as you won't be burning as much.

But why are you eating 1200 as a man? Anything greater than 2 pounds a week is too aggressive, and even that number is meant for people who are morbidly obese.

Plateaus are almost never because your calories out drops dramatically. The number 1 and 2 causes of plateaus in my opinion are water retention, and inaccurate calorie tracking. Water retention can happen for a number of reasons. It can be minor, or profound. It can mask weeks worth of fat loss. Fortunately, it resolves itself given enough time. If you find that you have been stuck at the same weight for about a month, you can usually rule out water retention.

Once retention is ruled out, accurate tracking is usually to blame. Everyone likes to think they are accurate but their methods may not be accurate. You need to be weighing all your food. Not estimating portions, or using cups/tablespoons for solid foods. You don't eat 1/2 a cup of oats. You eat 40g of oats. If you eat out often, even if the restaurant has nutritional information, it's probably inaccurate. The nutritional information is based on the portions the company reported to the FDA. I doubt your local Chipotle measures oil they use down to the drop or weighs the portion of rice or steak they give out. This is not only true of just about every restaurant ever, but also your friends and family when they cook meals you eat. Even if you somehow are 100% accurate on your tracking (you aren't), people just sometimes forget or make an error. I make them frequently enough and that's coming from the guy who wrote the calorie counting guide. Sometimes you forget to add something you ate. Sometimes you make a dish and enter something wrong. Just the other day I made slow cooker pork. I weigh it raw and cooked so I'm accurate. I thought the meat weighed 16 ounces. It actually weighed 1.6 lbs. I didn't discover this until it was too late. These things happen.

Finally, I think some people think they are burning more calories per day then they actually are. Just because a calculator, equation, or fitness device says you are burning x amount of calories a day doesn't mean you are. All those things have margins of error and can be offset significantly under certain circumstances. I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.

TL/DR: If you stall it's probably water retention. If you have ruled that out, you are eating too much/burning too little to create weight loss.

malibu927 wrote: »

At the amount you're eating, yes it is. You're setting yourself up for muscle loss, hair loss, lethargy, and other problems that come with not getting enough nutrients.

Your ticker says you only have 33 pounds to lose. Change your goal to a pound a week and eat that amount plus half of your exercise calories. You really should start logging everything because that's how plateaus begin...things that aren't counted still go into your body. If you lose without weighing, then you're one of the lucky ones.

You are assuming he is actually eating that little. In my experience, most people, especially men, who say they eat around 1200 calories are eating way more then that. They are usually grossly underestimating, not tracking accurately, not accounting for cheat days, etc. Most people cannot eat that little for any great length of time. I'm not saying it's impossible, just unlikely.

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

In my opinion, which probably matters little, plateaus come from not adjusting your caloric intake after a certain amount of weight loss. You should always keep track of your TDEE and adjust your eating habits accordingly. As a guy, you generally won't retain water for long enough to simulate a plateau as your body will drop the extra fluids between a few days to a week unless you're eating a diet that super high in sodium. Proper food tracking is essential and you can't just guesstimate, especially the closer you get to your goal.

The part about water retention is not true. Men can retain water for quite a long time. Especially if they get relatively lean. It's incredibly common.