Success during plateau

Well done for pushing through!

I constantly plateau, sometimes for up to a month. I can be completely defeating. I've lost 30 lbs over 7 months and I can drop 5-10 in a month and then plateau again. But stick with it, I try to mix things up, change exercises, change up the diet. I was not tracking my calories for a while, I did when I started but then quit, but I'm tracking again and losing again. When I did plateau for 2 months over summer, I was still exercising 6x a week but not tracking food and probably eating too much, even though I thought I wasn't. After those 2 months the scale stayed the same but I could fit into shorts that I could not fit into at all before, so things were still changing and I could see a difference in appearance. Sometimes I'll add in an extra workout or cut out a carby food for another fruit/veggie serving for a few days. Also - changing my motivation from the number on the scale to "fitting in those pants" helped when the scale wouldn't budge. Stick with it...you'll break through!!!!

astroamy wrote: »

I call it a stall. I have been at this for 7 months, and my pattern is stall-lose-stall-lose. I weight myself everyday and have a spreadsheet with it all. The stalls tend to be 1-2 weeks but about a month ago I had a 25 day stall, it about killed me. Last two times I lost weight I quit at about 30lbs down because of a long stall, so this time I swore I was going to reward myself for sticking with it not a weight loss goal. Weight loss is an award in itself. So when I was in my 25 day stall I decided that if I stuck with the plan until the end of that month I could get myself a pair of shoes. I stuck with it and it broke and I have a new pair of shoes.

This is my pattern of weight loss too only I tend to reach a low and then go up a pound or too. When the stall starts to drag out too long I get antsy but if I wait it out it always breaks and I reach a new low. I also second guess myself though and I start scrutinizing the intake more..

Could it be that the plateau in the number on the scale is really just a reflection of the body gaining muscle mass? I.e., losing fat, but increasing muscle

If you plateau, you're simply not eating a calorie deficit or enough of a defecit to notice any dramatic change. Shave another 100 calories off your daily intake and the scale will begin to move again.

This can be due to several reasons. As someone already mentioned, getting too lax on weighing and measuring or potentially, not re-calculating your goals in MFP. Remember, if you lose 20lbs over the course of a few months, you need to go back into the MFP settings and recalculate so it will adjust your calories accordingly. If you're doing a lot of strength training, you could be gaining muscle weight or retaining water as your muscles repair themselves. While on the subject of water retention, check your sodium levels, if you've been consuming a lot, you could be constantly retaining water, although the scale should still shift down, if you're eating at a defecit.

There's really never a plateau for no reason. Something is always causing it. Unless you, all of a sudden, develop some freak medical condition which you've been clinically diagnosed with.