Plateu

AnnPT77 wrote: »

lgfrie wrote: »

I've found that people have two completely different (and actually opposite) ideas in mind when they use the word "plateau"

• Shorthand for "yes, I'm still losing fat in accordance with CICO, but for whatever reason, my body is storing some water, leading to a frustratingly long flatline on my scale readings that I wish would end already.

or

• My body is currently operating outside the realm of physics, because I have been taking in less calories than I burn for an extended period of time and yet am no longer losing fat.

The former is just part of dieting. You retain water; then it drains off. You have a so-called plateau, and then you get a whoosh that fully delivers the correct weight loss for the entire period in which the plateau-whoosh cycle occurred. Where the "plateau" is frustrating, the satisfying whoosh more than makes up for it. Just a lil delayed gratification is all.

The latter does not, and cannot, exist. It is outside the realm of physics and biological systems as they are known to work to say that you are taking in less energy than the body requires and yet are not burning fuel reserves -- i.e. fat.

If you take in less calories than you use, you are burning fat. If your CICO is the same now as before the plateau, you are burning exactly the same amount of fat per day as before the scale flatlined.

My experience with plateaus is that in most cases, diet discipline has flagged. In fact, I was just speaking with a house guest a few days ago who was bitterly describing a month-long plateau. A few quick questions confirmed that she'd watched the scale flatline, got demoralized, stopped counting calories, and was just coasting for a while. She thought she was dieting but wasn't really, or in any event not enough to lose additional weight. And lo and behold, she stopped losing weight, because her caloric intake had increased. Seems so obvious, and yet she was (and remains) convinced that her body just magically stopped losing fat for a while even though she was dieting. Like there's some evil Plateau apparition that just shows up in your body and causes you to diet and diet with no weight loss. It makes no sense.

All a plateau is or can ever can be is a sodium rebalancing that instead of taking place over the usual 3-5 day time frame occurs over a long enough time frame for the dieter to notice and get annoyed about it.

The Plateau Apparition has an uncanny knack for showing up right as a person is getting tired of dieting and isn't paying as much attention to the kitchen scale, portions, etc. Amazing coincidence.

Generally, I agree with this post.

But there are a few other things a plateau (as perceived by the plateau-ee) can be. Without trying to be exhaustive, some are:

* Person has lost enough weight that what used to be a deficit level of calorie intake is now a maintenance level of intake. (This one would usually appear gradually, but normal fluctuations could obscure that.)
* Person has changed daily routine in some material way without realizing the profound effect that can have on calorie needs. This might be something like moving to a smaller home without flights of stairs, or a significant job change. (Some people think exercise is more influential than daily life, but for many of us, the reverse is true.)

That's without even getting into inaccurate logging, or common misunderstandings about the potential effect of "cheat days", inflated exercise estimates, or what happens if one uses a TDEE calculator but reduces exercise below what one told it.

You're right, though: Water weight is likely (not necessarily just from sodium), or flagging attention.