Stall after every ten pounds lost?

CarlySupertramp · December 2018

I am down 30 and noticing a pattern. After my first ten, over a week of stalling... after losing the next ten, again... lost ten more, another 9 day stall so far...

Anyone else? Sigh.

Oh, More info: Doing keto (and NO alcohol), and I have been at it for 80 days.

pierinifitness · December 2018

Welcome to the plateau club. That was me too most of this month. I continued with discipline and patience and just busted through the plateau. Felt good.

Hang in there. Many here are privately cheering for you.

kami3006 · December 2018

Losing weight is not consistent. There are a lot of factors that go into what you see on the scale. I only saw the scale move every three weeks but my measurements were changing. A week of not losing or bouncing around the same weight is normal; not what I would consider a stall or plateau. Keep doing what you're doing.

debrakgoogins · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

I am down 30 and noticing a pattern. After my first ten, over a week of stalling... after losing the next ten, again... lost ten more, another 9 day stall so far...

Start tracking your measurements if you are not doing it already. The scale might not be moving but you might still be making progress. If you measurements are not changing, consider revisiting your calorie goal after every 10 pounds lost. Your calorie needs will decrease as you lose weight.

try2again · December 2018

A week is not a stall. Weight loss isn't this nice straight downward line. Women in particular will have weeks where their natural water weight fluctuations mask fat loss. Only look at your average weight loss over time. Sounds like you are losing at a steady clip of 2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1

CarlySupertramp · December 2018

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

kami3006 · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

Aggressive, regardless of nutrition, means losing a higher amount of muscle along with fat. With 30 lbs to lose, assuming that puts you at a normal BMI, you need to slow it down. It's significantly harder to put on muscle than it is to retain it.

RelCanonical · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

Eat more plz. Fat and protein are nutrients too (hence the "nutrient" in macronutrient), and you're not getting enough of those on only 1000 calories a day, especially at 5'6''. It takes time for the symptoms start showing. Human bodies are designed to stay as stable as possible (aka homeostasis) and it will try as hard to do that (thus, not feeling the symptoms of too few calories for a few months) until it can't anymore, and it will crash. The most common symptoms are hair loss, fatigue, and dull, sallow skin. It takes a long time to get back to normal after something like that. It's better to keep the deficit as narrow as sanity allows.

try2again · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

Please reconsider. It's good that you are concerned about nutrition, but our bodies need a certain quantity of fuel, not just quality. You are burning through lean muscle mass at this rate, and your heart is a muscle.

Keto is fine, just eat enough.

For OP and lurkers:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

ShayCarver89 · December 2018

You only eat 1000 calories a day?! You’re basically starving off the weight! Let me tell you something; you are setting yourself up for failure. Whatever you lose is probably going to come back, and you may even gain back double. Why? Because what you’re doing is called a crash diet. Not a lifestyle change. Nothing about it is healthy or realistic. Can you see yourself doing this every single day for the rest of your life? Because you can’t. It’s not going to happen. Knock it up to 1200-1400, learn how to eat, learn how to love and be gentle with yourself, and you’ll be ok.

CarlySupertramp · December 2018

Thanks, you guys.

I will raise the calories by a few hundred. I have noticed a little cramping that could be related?
My moods aren't so great either tbh.

Edit - I forgot to add, its tricky knowing how much to eat a lot too because I don't have an appetite and on keto they say don't eat when you aren't hungry...

I will get at least 1200 though

janejellyroll · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

Thanks, you guys. I will raise the calories by a few hundred. I have noticed a little cramping that could be related?
My moods aren't so great either tbh.

Edit - I forgot to add, its tricky knowing how much to eat a lot too because I don't have an appetite and on keto they say don't eat when you aren't hungry...

I will get at least 1200 though

Some people find that keto depresses their appetite to the point that they are unable to consume enough calories to support their health simply through hunger cues. No responsible keto advocate would recommend that people not eat even if they aren't getting enough. If someone was telling me not to eat even though I was only getting 1,000 calories a day and exercising regularly, I wouldn't trust them with my wellbeing and I would seek new sources of advice and guidance.

RelCanonical · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

Thanks, you guys. I will raise the calories by a few hundred. I have noticed a little cramping that could be related?
My moods aren't so great either tbh.

It's really hard to tell over the internet, but the best way would be to add the calories and see if it helps. (: It could be.

try2again · December 2018

So glad to hear this!

Even in keto, the weight loss comes from the calorie deficit. So go ahead and set up your MFP profile to lose 1 lb/week and aim for the calorie recommendation it gives you. When you exercise, log it and eat back at least some of those calories. Wish you the best

AnnPT77 · December 2018

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

Of course you're seeing the scale hold steady for a week at a time on the reg. You're severely undereating, and dramatically increasing health risks for yourself. That tends to increase water weight fluctuations, because of the stress on your body.

I'm about your size (5'5"), and even eating 1200 (net) was too aggressive for me while losing: I got weak and fatigued, then it took weeks to recover, even though I started eating more as soon as I realized I was losing too fast for my then-current weight. If you feel good, it isn't necessarily an indication that all is well: I felt good until - suddenly - I didn't.

Furthermore, as others have said, fast loss is risking excessive muscle loss, and not helping you learn the skills for permanent maintenance of a healthy weight. Those two things, taken together, make an even larger risk. You're setting yourself up to yo-yo in weight.

I'm pretty old, so I've seen some friends yo-yo repeatedly for decades, first an extreme diet and exercise schedule, then either not being able to keep it up all the way to goal, or getting to goal but not being able to maintain. Then they would regain, and repeat the cycle. With every crazy-fast loss, they lost a little muscle mass. Every regain was mostly fat. Over time, a tiny bit during each cycle of loss/gain, they got squisher (higher body fat %, lower muscle %) and less active in daily life because of that physical depletion. The next time they lost, that meant they needed to undereat even more extremely to see loss. It's a down-spiral. At my age (63), quite a few of them are fat, sick, weak enough to interfere with household chores (flipping a mattress, shoveling snow), and seemingly not very able to lose weight. I've often been in groups of women around my age (+/- 10y) where someone says "of course it's impossible to lose weight at our age" and others nod sadly (even as I sit there at a healthy weight, same age, and most of them know I was obese just a few short years ago).

MFP granny says: Don't do that. Lose at a sensible rate. Stay strong and healthy the whole way. Learn how to stay at a healthy weight for the rest of your life. Your future self will thank you.

kami3006 · December 2018

AnnPT77 wrote: »

EvelynFeatherstone wrote: »

try2again wrote: »

2.5 lbs/week, which is actually quite aggressive unless you have over 100 lbs to lose.

30 down since the start in early october, and i have 30 more to lose before i hit my projected goal in late march.
i have gone at it quite aggressively, ~1000 cals a day and at least 45 minutes of exercise most days. some days i eat my bmr in calories though to kinda refuel. i am 5'6
i take vitamins and supplements and i do not eat empty calories, all nutritious. i make sure to eat enough veg most of the time but sometimes i am in a hurry.
i have not fallen off the keto wagon even throughout the holidays.

MP granny says: Don't do that. Lose at a sensible rate. Stay strong and healthy the whole way. Learn how to stay at a healthy weight for the rest of your life. Your future self will thank you.

We love you MFP Granny!

debrakgoogins · December 2018

I want to ammend my original suggestion to state that you should adjust your calories now. 1000 calories is definitely too low (assuming you are logging correctly and you really are eating only 1000). You've gotten great advice here, especially from MFP granny. Good luck to you.

gcminton · December 2018

Seems like everyone else has covered your calorie goal, but I'll chime in and say yeah I have a similar pattern with my loss. My calorie count is fine and it's averaging out to 1-2 pounds lost per week as expected, but it's annoyingly not linear, also as expected.

So you may find that you still have a noticeable lose-pause-lose-pause kind of pattern. Mine is sort of lose 3-4, gradually gain 2-ish, lose 2-4, gradually regain part, lose again, regain about half, etc. Sometimes it's more like a 2 week cycle rather than a pound amount. Annoying but not unusual.

You might get some benefit out of keeping notes. Was your diet unusual for a day or two? Do you menstruate? Unusually stressed? If you like data, notes can help you pinpoint the specific cause of fluctuations which can help alleviate some of the frustration.

Safari_Gal · December 2018

Some weeks I notice weight loss stalls a bit- but I’m typically doing more weight lifting those weeks- so perhaps I’m either holding water or hopefully building lean muscle. I’ve noticed weight loss isn’t the same every week and it starts to slow down the closer I get to my goal.

CarlySupertramp · February 2019

It ended up falling off in a chunk over the course of a week... So the average loss is still about 10 per month...
I did up my calories by 2-300 and even more some days where I feel a little woozy. The loss did not slow down and I feel better. Thanks again you guys

Momepro · February 2019

I've noticed it's every 5lbs or so with me. I tend to lose it in chunks then a couple weeks of nothing. Then another 2-5 lbs overnight, then another couple weeks of nothing. As long as I don't gain back in that time, it's a fairly steady drop, but it's funny that it's less like slowly melting off weight and more like randomly cutting off chunks.

Stall after every ten pounds lost?

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