Moving past a plateau.

Fitzchiv
Fitzchiv Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Motivation and Support
Hi all, looking for a bit of advice in moving past a plateau in my weight loss. I've managed to shift 23lbs since January 2nd by adhering to my daily allowance on here, doing a little more exercise and cutting out most of the booze - but I've hit the same barrier I remember I did a few years ago when losing weight, the mid 12 stones. Back in 2012 I was shedding weight for a holiday, and remember specifically at 12st 10lbs things suddenly halted, and really dragged to get myself down to the 12st 4.5lbs I was the day I flew on holiday (and have steadily put weight back on since, maxing at 14st 9lbs over this christmas and 14st 6lbs when I started my diet proper on Jan 2nd).

As of tonight I'm roughly 12st 7lbs, having been at work and played football. I'd expect to be roughly that in the morning, and Friday is my official weigh in day.

It's taken 4 weeks to shed this last 3lbs, so I'm looking for some advice on how to kick start things again? I have a break coming up the end of May and in an ideal world I'd have hit target (12st) and can celebrate. My body has clearly decided it's lost most of what it wants to lose, but a couple of weeks back I went on a lads weekend and ate/drank badly for 48hrs - that lead to losing 2lbs that week, so I'm wondering if my body needs something in order to continue weight loss? am i potentially pushing too hard now and it's effectively said enough's enough?

Any kick start tips most welcome, thanks!

Replies

  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    Are you logging your food? How many calories are you eating? What is your height, weight, age and activity level?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    4 pounds lost in 3 weeks doesn't sound like you've hit a plateau to me. It sounds like the natural slow down and fluctuations that you see as you get closer to goal.

    Even so, these would be my pretty generic tips without more information:

    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.
  • Fitzchiv
    Fitzchiv Posts: 5 Member
    Hi both, ok so height 6ft, weight 12st 7lbs, age 33, activity level sedentary (2hrs of sport a week, otherwise a desk job pretty much sums me up)

    Re: the points above;

    2) Yep, log everything religiously and work within the 1,500cal limit MyFitnessPal has determined I need + any slack exercise logged on Fitbit gives me

    3) Got one, godsend!

    4) Yeh learned that as I've gone along, amazing the disparity in some items - I tend to err on the side of caution and always log the higher value if there's a lack of clarity

    5) Great call, haven't done that since I started out

    8) Never heard of that before, I tend to be quite obsessive about weighing every morning and evening but not used an average tracker

    Thanks for the feedback so far, I guess I may just being being impatient having seen 2lbs a week fall off with good regularity so far, plus remembering back to hitting this same point last time too.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    Sounds like you've got it point on :) Now comes the hard part.. patience. lol

    I know how it is, though, getting used to seeing that steady drop and then nada.. but, great part about it, then comes the woosh!

    https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html/
  • Fitzchiv
    Fitzchiv Posts: 5 Member
    Hey, thanks for the link - that's really interesting and I'd never put much thought into it really. I do weigh myself on a Friday because I recognise I tend to retain more water after a weekend of relative inactivity (and much lower caffeine intake with its water related side effects) so by Friday i know i'm at the best "low water" weight of the week.

    As you say, patience is the key and if it's not started again in a week or so I'll have to look at different solutions.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Spam Moderator
    It looks like you're at a healthy weight for your height so expecting to see losses each week is unrealistic. At this point, shooting for .5 pound per week is reasonable and that will be masked some weeks by normal fluctuations so a trending app would be good for peace of mind.
  • Fitzchiv
    Fitzchiv Posts: 5 Member
    Hi kami3006 - I agree I'm close to a good weight now, but whilst on paper i looks like a healthy weight in reality there's still a way to go to cut down to what I'd consider my ideal weight. I think the last 7lbs will actually be pretty close. good advice on marginal gains though, at least loss is still happening.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,979 Spam Moderator
    Yeah, healthy weight is a range and I completely understand wanting to get those last few pounds off. You've done great so far... congratulations.
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