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No changes

So I've been on a my fitness pal/calorie counting journey from February and have lost 3stone but the past 4 weeks I have stayed the same weight down to the very .9 ounces! Is this normal? Does it pass?

Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,438 MFP Moderator
    OP, how many calories are you eating? Are you logging daily? Do you use a food scale? Do you exercise?
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 9,063 Member
    Need more details. Sex, height, age, starting & current weight.

    Immediate thoughts:

    *Have you lowered your calories as your weight has decreased? Go in an adjust your profile.

    *several users say their scale “locks” to a number when the battery is low

    *anything changed? Doing more air or long vehicle travel? Changed or added any foods? I added popcorn seasoned with soy sauce as a daily snack about six weeks ago, and my weight went up two or three pounds. I realized the connection after reviewing my food diary. Since one of my kids has adverse reactions to soy, I’m taking it out. I can see a difference in the bloating already after just a couple of days.

    *Did you increase exercise in your hurry? Any soreness? Recent illness or surgery? Muscle pain and recovery can be a source of (sometimes very large) water retention

    46 pounds in 26 weeks is six months. If you started obese like I did, that can be very reasonable. However if you were smaller to begin with, it may be too fast a pace.

    I actually increased calories as I went along, and yet weight loss continued. Your body may be begging for more, not less. Bodies are odd things. Kinda like cats. They do what they wanna do, when they wanna do it.

    Have you lost inches, size, etc during this process? My husband’s weight stabilized several months ago following about 35 pounds lost, yet he lost a couple sizes afterwards.

    You may be in holding pattern for a “woosh”, many people plateau, and suddenly one morning wake up to a substantial, unexplainable loss. That happened to me several times so it’s not an urban legend, lol.

    And everything that @psulemon said above^^^^

    Hang in there. You’re doing well. Make sure you’re developing habits you can keep for a lifetime.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    As others have stated, additional information would help here --- but, the gist of it is that you've lost ~1.75lb/week since you started. Depending on how large your deficit it/how close you are to your goal weight (where you started/where you're going, etc.)--- start increasing your calories to make your deficit smaller and smaller. Alternatively you can go into maintenance for a few weeks too and recalculate a small deficit after that.

    Without knowing more specific information about you --- that's really the only input.

    What's happening is normal - yes. You are at a plateau or close to your goal weight. Also know that your 'goal weight' might simply not be the best weight for you. If you have to continue to restrict your self or keep yourself in a calorie deficit in order to maintain that weight, it's too low.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,316 Member
    Normal.

    If weight loss was going along at a pretty good clip, then stopped pretty suddenly without commensurate eating/activity changes, it's probably one of the weird water retention effects. In that case, just staying patient is one option, and may lead to a sudden drop in weight (a "whoosh") but a maintenance break could be a good plan for various reasons. More info about that here, if it the decline in loss rate was sudden:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

    As an aside about activity changes: This probably doesn't apply to you, but I've seen some people here think that only exercise activity changes matter. But daily life changes in routine can make a surprisingly big difference. I've seen the occasional thread where someone underestimated the impact of things like moving from a house with a yard/garden to a smaller apartment or condo, a re-location in an office building or change in duties for work that reduced movement, change in transportation mode to work or school, etc.

    If weight loss gradually tapered off over the weeks, then it's somewhat more likely that you've just approached maintenance calories, so might want to consider re-calculating goals, tightening up logging habits, re-examining accuracy of exercise or fitness-tracker estimates, considering whether fatigue is bleeding calorie burn out of daily life through reduced energy/activity and that sort of thing.

    In a fatigue scenario, increasing calories to slow the theoretical loss rate can be surprisingly effective in some cases, but if it's not a subtle fatigue issue, then the other stuff is a higher probability IMO.

    Hang in there, keep thinking about causes/effects, and you'll see progress!
  • Dreamroper
    Dreamroper Posts: 39 Member
    Congrats on the loss. More info would be helpful, since 42 pounds in 26 weeks is quite fast, and if you're close to your target lean weight then you should be looking to lose weight at a slower rate.

    This suggests you've been on a daily deficit of 800 calories for seven months now. You're long overdue for a break. Return to maintenance calories for a month to give your body time to recover from the stress of the last seven months. Then resume the diet. Maybe not at as high as 800 calories per day if you're relatively close to your goal.

    This is excellent advice. I have just recovered from Covid after a month of being ill. I had lost 11 lbs in 2 months, and have gained back a little because I was SO hungry while I was sick and thought that it would be best to take a break and give my body time to heal. I think our bodies need a break, especially when we're sick.