What do you consider a plateau?

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swaymyway
swaymyway Posts: 428 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am currently experiencing a massive plateau myself so any thread with plateau in the title grabs my attention and I head in there to see if I can learn any thing - and am usually surprised to discover that someone is complaining of not having lost any weight from any thing from a few DAYS to a few weeks.

I don't know what the actual definition of a plateau is but do people really consider no loss for one week a plateau? There are so many factors involved in weight loss that could affect what you see on the scale that I wouldn't even bat an eyelid if I didn't lose any thing in one week - in fact if I could lose even 1lb per month at the moment I'd be thrilled.

For you - how long do you have to go without a loss to consider it a plateau? How long do you leave it before changing up your routine?

Replies

  • lorischlitz
    lorischlitz Posts: 22
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    How tall are you? 123 to 119 may take some time if it's the last few pounds you have to lose. Have you tried just going on protein shakes and a few tbs. of flax seed oil? May get you out of your stall.
  • That_Girl
    That_Girl Posts: 1,324 Member
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    Well, my plateau has been 3 months now....
  • CodyD18
    CodyD18 Posts: 161 Member
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    I would consider anything after 2 weeks to be a plateau. Once you plateau that is the time for you to switch up your routine and adjust your calories and see what happens. Everyone plateaus and it's a very annoying part of losing weight but you'll start losing weight again you just need to do a few adjustments.
  • SarahLovesCheesecake
    SarahLovesCheesecake Posts: 520
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    My longest was 3 mths, but Im sceptical, as Id grown complacent, so it was my fault really....
  • reepobob
    reepobob Posts: 1,172 Member
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    I see that you are really close to your goal weight...Congratulations! I hear that once you get real close, you actually need to eat more...I don't know what your goals are set at, but you might need to set it at a 1/2 pound per week and eat back your exercise calories...you have lost so much up to this point that I highly doubt you are "slacking off"...damn near 100 pounds takes discipline and hard work...

    From other threads however, I have heard that now is the most important time to eat back exercise calories to get to the finish line...not sure what your methods have been up to this point...

    Good luck!!!
  • swaymyway
    swaymyway Posts: 428 Member
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    How tall are you? 123 to 119 may take some time if it's the last few pounds you have to lose. Have you tried just going on protein shakes and a few tbs. of flax seed oil? May get you out of your stall.

    I'm 5 foot, I feel like I have tried every thing to break my plateau over the last 6+ months, though no I have not gone down the protein shakes route. I am heading off on holiday next week so feel there's little point starting something new (I'm currently trying Turbofire exercise wise and NOT eating back my exercise cals diet wise (after eating them back for 5 weeks and seeing no change)) until after I return - I plan to start a thread asking for advice on my plateau woes then :)

    For now though I was literally just curious as to if it's just me that goes "eh??" when I see someone calling no loss for a week a plateau as it's my views on what a plateau is that are skewed - or if other people agree with me that it needs to be longer than a week or two to be considered one!
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
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    I'm going to second the advice to change your weight loss goal to .5 pound per week. First because your body is close to your goal and won't tolerate a large deficit. Second because you need to start thinking about transitioning into maintenance mode. The other thing that might help it have a completely free day. Just one mind you where you eat and don't worry about what it is or how much. My guess is after 95 pounds your leptin levels are very low and one free day will boost them back up.
  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    It is much, MUCH harder to change when your body is at a peak; that's exactly why it's called a plateau. If you've been hitting your numbers every day for six months in terms of diet and exercise, it's quite possible that you need to shift from the usual chipping away to straight up hammering your body so you can break through and get to the next level. Meaning add an extra 10-20lbs to all lifts, another 50% or even DOUBLE your run distance, etc. And then drink additional water and shift carb intake towards protein/fat intake to compensate for all the additional stress.

    Our bodies LOVE being in stasis, i.e. not changing a thing. Sometimes you just need to force the darn thing to do what you tell it to do!

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