Plateau

http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/what-causes-a-weight-loss-plateau/

3 weeks is too early to call it a plateau just yet.

Are you logging everything extremely meticulously? That means you are weighing food, logging everything (including condiments, gum, etc.).

How are you logging your exercise? Are you eating all your calories back, some of them, or none of them?

Have you updated your calorie intake goals as you have lost weight? You will spend less calories to move (walk, etc.) when you weigh less, so you need to update your calorie intake goals periodically.

Contrary to what some users will tell you, true plateaus exist. However, they are rare and most users on MFP (and most people overall) will never experience a true plateau. Usually, people think they are in a plateau because they are missing a detail. So the first thing to do is figure out if there is a detail you are missing. Once those possibilities are exhausted and it has been 6 weeks without a sustained loss, then let's discuss how to manage a true plateau.

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.