50 pounds down, 35 to go but hit a plateau

RyanneRose
RyanneRose Posts: 128 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been on a trend toward my goal at a pretty steady pace. I don't exercise all that much just because I'm on my feet all day for work and on my days off I'm exhausted. But that hadn't been an issue so far with loss. I've been told that the closer you get to your goal weight, the harder it is to lose the pounds, so if anyone has advice for getting past that, I'm all ears. I've been stuck on a plateau for the last 3 weeks and am wondering if that's an indication that it's going to get harder now.

Oh, I'm 5'8 and currently 180lbs

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    Yes, weightloss slows down once you get lighter because a smaller body needs less energy, and hence your calorie deficit will be smaller. Have you recalculated your calories on MFP? Just go through the guided setup again, and you'll likely get less calories to eat. Or, if you're already at the lowest point of healthy loss (1500 for men, 1200 for women) then loss will be a lot slower. What helps is very meticulous weighing and logging as small mistakes have a much bigger impact. This, and patience.
  • jst1986
    jst1986 Posts: 204 Member
    Try recalculating your calories to ensure you are now not over-eating, I try to do mine every 10lbs or so that I lose to keep in check.

  • RyanneRose
    RyanneRose Posts: 128 Member
    Thanks for the replies here :) I am already at 1200, as I moved down to that after losing my first 15 or so at 1500. I haven't been weighing my food though. I do log, but some of my logging is guesswork when I don't have a readily available number to put in. I'll try and adjust my behaviors to be more accurate in logging and see where I end up. After a few months of steady loss, this plateau has been very frustrating, but I'll try and be more patient with it!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    I'm also 5'8". When I was at 180 on my way to 140, 1200 was WAY too low for me. I'd say, tighten up your logging and add calories back up to 1500-1600, and more if you do some exercise. That's where I stayed for that last 40 pounds from 180 to 140, and I had many days where I ate a whole lot more - like at least once a week I'd eat around 2500 calories. I was doing a little exercise, so technically I ate 1800-1900 on most days (1500+300 for the exercise.)

    If you have an on-your-feet active job you can probably eat more than 1500-1600, for that matter.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,226 Member
    Your maintenance calories are now lower so you need to lower calories. Try 100-150 lower. No need to recalculate as you already have a base amount that worked at a higher weight so just adjust downward from there.

    As an illustration try carrying around a 50 lb dumbbell around all day and see how much more energy it takes to get through the day.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    Your maintenance calories are now lower so you need to lower calories. Try 100-150 lower. No need to recalculate as you already have a base amount that worked at a higher weight so just adjust downward from there.

    As an illustration try carrying around a 50 lb dumbbell around all day and see how much more energy it takes to get through the day.

    TO is already at 1200 and should not go lower. Yes, at a certain weight weightloss will slow down and weighing food on a scale becomes a lot more important because being off might wipe out the deficit for the day. one day is nothing in the grand scheme of things but if this happens pretty much every day then things will come to a standstill.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    Three weeks isn't necessarily a plateau in fat loss. Over that time period, water retention can still be disguising a meaningful continuing fat loss rate.

    If you were losing at a good rate, and loss stopped suddenly, without any change in eating patterns, exercise, or daily life activity level (job, home, etc.), then water retention is the most likely explanation. (If you increased exercise or activity during that time, it's even more likely.)

    If loss gradually tapered off to a stop over many weeks, also without changes in eating/activity, it's more likely that you've found your maintenance calorie level. Since 1200 should result in weight loss at 5'8" and 180, making sure you're as accurate as possible in logging will help to sort out what's happening.

    In the latter case, there's a narrow possibility that you've eating too little for too long, and fatigue is reducing your calorie expenditure. That wouldn't stop fat loss, but possibly could increase the chance that water retention could be masking fat loss, because the stress of long/extreme calorie restriction is among the factors that can increase water retention.

    There are lots of other things that can trigger increased water retention: Illness, injury (even minor), allergies, hot weather, increased salt/carb consumption (even if perfectly healthy amounts of salt/carbs), and much more. If you haven't read it, take a look at this thread, and especially read the article linked in the first post.

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1

    My weight loss didn't slow down by itself; I had to slow it down intentionally. Different people have different experiences.

    My advice would be to hang in there with the routine that's previously been successful for another few weeks, if the stall was sudden. Sometimes the scale is a lying liar that lies, when it comes to fat loss.

    Best wishes!
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,226 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    tomcustombuilder wrote: »
    Your maintenance calories are now lower so you need to lower calories. Try 100-150 lower. No need to recalculate as you already have a base amount that worked at a higher weight so just adjust downward from there.

    As an illustration try carrying around a 50 lb dumbbell around all day and see how much more energy it takes to get through the day.

    TO is already at 1200 and should not go lower. Yes, at a certain weight weightloss will slow down and weighing food on a scale becomes a lot more important because being off might wipe out the deficit for the day. one day is nothing in the grand scheme of things but if this happens pretty much every day then things will come to a standstill.
    If the plateau ends up lasting a month or more there are more weekly calories being consumed than is being reported.

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