Weight loss plateau

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meganOooOoo
meganOooOoo Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve been in a calorie deficit for about 5 months now and I’ve lost 24 pounds, still need to lose another 20 and I’ve been stuck on the same weight for weeks. Info on breaking through a plateau is so varied. Should I reverse diet or cut more? I’m on 1400 and I weight train 4 days a week. Very strict with tracking and also have cardio on my training days

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  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
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    How many weeks is "weeks"? The last 20 pounds or so come off very slowly for most people. I started with 20 to lose. I have lost 15 in 7.25 months. Sometimes I have several weeks where my weight just seems to fluctuate within a 2 lb range A weight trend app is super useful when losing a small amount.
  • BarnardSunshine
    BarnardSunshine Posts: 12 Member
    edited December 2019
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    How many weeks? Are you weighing your food?
    The answer is definitely *not* to eat more- if it has been a over month and there is absolutely no change, you are likely eating more than you think and I would tighten up logging using a food scale.
    Otherwise, it's normal to get "stuck" at a weight here and there- if you are confident in your logging, the scale WILL budge eventually. Water weight from that time of the month, switching up an exercise routine, a salty meal, etc. can really mess with your head, so it's important to look at trends over long periods of time.
    The closer you get to goal, the less wiggle room you have in terms of what it takes to create a defecit, and weight loss will go much more slowly. Food scales are game changers, and as long as you're consistent and honest with yourself, you will get there.

    Good luck!
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    A plateau is caused by one or more of these things, in order of most common to least common:

    - You're not in a deficit, usually because:
    - - you aren't using a food scale to weigh ALL food and are therefore eating more than you think you are, and/or.
    - - you have "cheat days" that take you out of a deficit for the week.
    - You haven't waited 4-6 weeks in order to account for normal water fluctuations, especially if you have a menstrual cycle or have recently started/increased exercise.
    - You're using inflated exercise calorie estimates, therefore eating more than you think you are.
    - There is an underlying medical condition keeping you from losing weight. This is very uncommon compared to the other reasons.

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