Losing Water weight or plateauing?

Hi All,

I recently started my journey at the beginning of Mar 23. Things I have done to kickstart my weight loss:

- Walking for 90 minutes daily
- Reach a min of 10,000 steps daily
- Keep a caloric intake of 1300 daily

My stats

Female, mid-30s.
3rd March 2023 Weight - 194 Lbs
20th May 2023 Weight - 182 Lbs
Goal Weight - 154Lbs

My question to those who have already progressed or have more knowledge on this is, is this change purely because I am losing water weight? I haven't seen the scales budge from 182 Lbs in the last 2.5 weeks.

What can I do to shock my body and continue the weight loss progression instead of plateauing?

Thanks all!
Aira



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Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,033 Member
    You don't need to 'shock' your body, you just need to be patient. Stalls are normal. If you have a stall for a full menstrual cycle, then you can start worrying, but not yet.

    Are you weighing daily or weekly? Are you using a weight trend app like Libra or Happyscale? It helps to set the overall weight trend beyond the water weight fluctuations.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 1,530 Member
    That’s a decent loss so far. There are factors that contribute to a stall in your situation and one that is common is your homeostatic system trying to balance out your Fatloss with water. Give it a few more weeks.

    If the stall was fairly sudden then that is another sign of water retention. At some point you’ll most likely experience a whoosh and lose the water in a few days.

    If you’re truly at 1,300 calories then that is plenty low and further lowering isn’t necessary.
  • Kosterc4383
    Kosterc4383 Posts: 32 Member
    Make sure you run this plan by someone really knowledgeable.
    Your bmr is like 1600 kcal.
    10000 steps is like 450 kcal at your current weight, so you are deficit 750 kcal a day, if you exactly hit the targets.(my gp put my intake at 1700 and I am only 40 lbs heavier)
    3500 kcal to loose 1 pound of fat.
    You lost 12 lbs in 78 days. That is a deficit of 540 kcal per day. Your result is a healthy weightloss. (Well done, keep going) Your plan is a bit much.
    Do you weigh all your food? Using sugar replacements? Pre-diabetic? 100 of questions, but just keep going and the next pound will be burned!
  • Rockmama1111
    Rockmama1111 Posts: 264 Member
    Hmmmmm… “shock my body”… why do you need to do that? You’ve been doing this for 8 weeks and lost 12 pounds, which is stellar. Some of it was water, yeah. It’s how it is.

    Just keep going, logging and plugging along. I’m not far off from you weight wise and get that many steps too; 1300 calories a day got old pretty fast. Don’t get discouraged if you want to do a few days a bit higher.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,950 Member
    Hmmmmm… “shock my body”… why do you need to do that? You’ve been doing this for 8 weeks and lost 12 pounds, which is stellar. Some of it was water, yeah. It’s how it is.

    Just keep going, logging and plugging along. I’m not far off from you weight wise and get that many steps too; 1300 calories a day got old pretty fast. Don’t get discouraged if you want to do a few days a bit higher.

    While I mostly agree with you, it's 11 weeks, not eight weeks.
  • Aira_Ruwenzor
    Aira_Ruwenzor Posts: 11 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    You don't need to 'shock' your body, you just need to be patient. Stalls are normal. If you have a stall for a full menstrual cycle, then you can start worrying, but not yet.

    Are you weighing daily or weekly? Are you using a weight trend app like Libra or Happyscale? It helps to set the overall weight trend beyond the water weight fluctuations.

    I'm measuring daily without using any trend app. What I had noticed was that the I was losing around 1lbs every week. I guess I just have to remain consistent and push through!
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,528 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    You don't need to 'shock' your body, you just need to be patient. Stalls are normal. If you have a stall for a full menstrual cycle, then you can start worrying, but not yet.

    Are you weighing daily or weekly? Are you using a weight trend app like Libra or Happyscale? It helps to set the overall weight trend beyond the water weight fluctuations.

    I'm measuring daily without using any trend app. What I had noticed was that the I was losing around 1lbs every week. I guess I just have to remain consistent and push through!

    Exactly. It's not uncommon to see a week or 2 where you don't appear to lose weight. Often it's because you're holding onto water. We tend to think specifically of fat and muscle when we think weight, but there are a number of other things that add to it. What matters is the end of the week, month, year overall shows a downward trend.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Oh yes, patience is key! You might also be a whoosher. You lose some weight, your body does some magic and stores some more water which will mask weightloss, then the water sticks around because it wants to be best friends, and it invites a few more water friends. You step on the scale: no change for 1-2 weeks. Argh! You just ignore water, and suddenly it, and all it's friends decide to leave in one annoying night where you go to the look several times. And the next morning you're right on track with weightloss again. this is what my body did when I was losing. It's somewhat frustrating, but after a few weeks I knew its what it was.
  • hoodlisa1979
    hoodlisa1979 Posts: 38 Member
    I plateaued for 5 weeks, added in extra 400 calories for 2 weeks and saw no gain & obvs no losses, back down to 1200 calories and slowly coming off again, I would wait at least a month