I hit a plateau at only 11lbs???

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holly_roman
holly_roman Posts: 116 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, for the past 7 weeks I have been eating at 1200-1500 calories. I am 5'2 SW:246 CW:235. That would create enough deficit to see at least a 1lb weight loss a week. I just started putting low exercise into my routine on monday(couple min stretching, body resistance, and cardio)I was concentrating on portion control etc, (CICO). I stepped on the scale this morning and this is the 3rd week it has not moved. I am feeling frustrated. I have a food scale, I am measuring everything. I drink about 90oz of water a day. I hit about 90g of protein a day and around 100-120 carbs. Is it possible I hit a plateau already? I feel like everyone else who is obese like me has dropped consistently for months before hitting a plateau. This is the first snag I have hit and it is really getting me down. I don't understand how what I did for the first couple weeks dropped weight and then the next couple nothing. Please help my wonderful MFP friends?!

Replies

  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    holly_roman wrote: »
    Hi everyone, for the past 7 weeks I have been eating at 1200-1500 calories. I am 5'2 SW:246 CW:235. That would create enough deficit to see at least a 1lb weight loss a week. I just started putting low exercise into my routine on monday(couple min stretching, body resistance, and cardio)I was concentrating on portion control etc, (CICO). I stepped on the scale this morning and this is the 3rd week it has not moved. I am feeling frustrated. I have a food scale, I am measuring everything. I drink about 90oz of water a day. I hit about 90g of protein a day and around 100-120 carbs. Is it possible I hit a plateau already? I feel like everyone else who is obese like me has dropped consistently for months before hitting a plateau. This is the first snag I have hit and it is really getting me down. I don't understand how what I did for the first couple weeks dropped weight and then the next couple nothing. Please help my wonderful MFP friends?!

    The bolded stands out to me as the likely cause. New exercise = water retention.

    I would give it a couple more weeks of accurate logging and see. My guess is you'll see a "whoosh" of loss in a week or two after your body catches up to the new exercise routine.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
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    It is a bit early to call it a plateau at only 3 weeks. There are some newbie losses there already, but I would suggest continuing for now and come back if you still haven't seen a loss in another 3-5 weeks (for 6-8 weeks total without a loss).

    Also, when you say the scale hasn't moved, are you saying it hasn't gone up nor down even a single lb.? Does your scale measure in tenths? This seems really odd, and isn't how a plateau works anyway.
  • elbrujo53
    elbrujo53 Posts: 55 Member
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    This has happened to me in the past with changes in my exercise routines (water retention, increase in your muscle mass) . Check your measurements instead, they should have decreased. Most important: do not look back. Stay on track and pounds will go away again....
  • julie2038
    julie2038 Posts: 142 Member
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    I have been logging since June and have lost 46 pounds. Don't give the scale all the power. How are you feeling over all? Do you feel better? When I first started,and I was doing everything right, and I stepped on the scale and it didnt move I would want to quit too. I told myself not this time. I deserve this. I trusted the process! There are times in the month where my weight doesn't move. I think it has to do with just being a women. You will see results if you just keep doing what you are doing, and trust the process!
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Here, read this:
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,124 Member
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    Honestly, It seems like your calories are a little low to me. Your BMR should be somewhere around 1700 calories. How are you measuring your calories burned through exercise? From personal experience, anytime I'm hovering around 1200 calories in a desperate attempt to drop weight faster.... it does the opposite. I would say your baseline should probably be 1400-1500. I have never experienced water retention from a change in exercise routine except when I started lifting heavy weights. I don't think body weight exercises/pilates type exercise would do that. My suggestion would be become more familiar with your #'s... do your BMR/TDEE calculations and stick to a 20% deficit. More is not always better.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    Also, if you're the sort of person who can handle daily weigh-ins, it makes the water fluctuations much more obvious because you now have 21 data points to trend and not 3. You can then use a weight trending app and extract a much more accurate trend.

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