This is not a rant, just a question

TeddyBear47 · March 2012

I understand that there will be plateaus during weight loss. What I don't understand is how there are so many women who haven't lost weight in months. It seems strange to me. I read they are on a disciplined weight loss regimen and they exercise alot. Can anyone explain?

I do have plataeus but they pass within a week. It would be extremely discouraging if it happened to me. Thats why I want to understand.

Tourney3p0 · March 2012

Weight loss comes down to calories in and calories out. Calories in are easily measured, assuming the provided nutritional information is correct

Calories out can be a bit more complicated. You've got calories burned by doing mundane things like watching TV, cooking dinner, taking a shower, etc. These are a bit more difficult to measure since everyone does different things that they don't consider "exercise", but MFP does a pretty good job of estimating it based on their lifestyle selection.

You've also got exercise in the "calories out" column. Most cardio machines give you a calories burned output, but is it correct? Maybe, maybe not. MFP probably has the exercise listed, but it doesn't take into account intensity. Heart rate monitors with straps can do a pretty good job of approximating calories burned, but how do you truly know the number you're given is correct? This is where the first potential problem comes into play. People tend to estimate that they've burned more calories than they really did when they exercise.

Finally, and this is the biggest one.. BMR. It's the amount of calories you burn in a day just by existing. Not counting your "lifestyle" calories. Just the energy you would burn laying in bed all day. If you eat less than 1200 calories a day or so, your metabolism is going to go into energy conservation mode. Your BMR is going to plummet, meaning the amount of calories you burn by "just existing" is also going to plummet. This is why approximately 6 out of 5 posts on here are "Help, I can't lose weight even though I'm only eating 900 calories and exercising three hours a day."

All calculations assume a healthy BMR, but people tend to try to overdo it and their BMR is no longer healthy. All calculations go out the window.

Emporor_Augustus · March 2012

It is VERY discouraging. Plateaus are what cause most women to give up entirely.

There are a lot of contributing factors, in my opinion... first and foremost, your age plays a huge part in it. Often times people in their 20s can fluctuate by 5-10 lbs in a week just by cutting out one kind of bad food. Meanwhile, the older someone gets, the harder it becomes for them to lose that weight quickly. Plateaus can last for months and months at an age like 50 (my mother, for example).

Another factor would be your metabolism. A slow metabolism obviously doesn't process food or burn calories as fast as someone with a very high metabolism. A high metabolism prevents long plateaus by being easily adaptable to changes (like a new exercise regimen, or a new diet).

I think another big problem lots of women have is they do the exact same thing over and over. Your body, being the friggin' smartass it is, will adapt to change. So if you try to lose weight by say, lowering your calorie intake from 2,000 to 1,500, soon your body will adapt to operating on 1,500 calories. So maybe you'll lose a few pounds in the first month or so, but then your body figures out what you're doing, and resets. The same with exercise. That's why you have to constantly change up what you're doing, so your body can't adapt, and it will hopefully prevent plateau.

Those are my thoughts, at least.

grinch031 · March 2012

There are lots of possible reasons. First and foremost, many people underestimate their calorie consumption and overestimate their calories burned. There is research that supports this. And second, as people lose weight, their metabolic hormones start over-compensating. They may become leptin (anti-starvation hormone) deficient and their metabolism will slow down to in order to achieve an energy balance in the fat stores. That is why it is so common to regain lost weight. If you say its more common in women, I suspect its probably mainly hormonal though. Its more complex than calories in vs. calories out despite what some would like to believe.

Photoology · March 2012

One thing that may be happening (as it did happen to me.. I will admit that)... is that I stayed the same in my eating patterns and exercise pattern. After doing the same things for months, my body probably just assumed it wasn't going to get anything different from me and stayed put. I was eating clean and I was exercising regularly but it became too regular.

The other thing is that people sometimes don't realize it but start falling into "bad" habits... some may say "oh well its okay if I splurge today, I know what I am doing..." and actually they just start back up with the bad habits.

There are many ways to push through plateaus and sometimes it takes awhile to realize that... at least it did with me

sheri02r · March 2012

Also there are other reasons why the number on the scale doesn't go down. I've been at the same weight for about a month now, but my clothes fit better, I can look in the mirror and tell that I've lost inches. It's not always about the number on the scale...especially when you get close to your target weight. I'm healthier, fitter..and honestly those have become more important to me than loosing those last 5lbs.

rileysowner · March 2012

First of all a plateau, as I have heard it defined, is 3 weeks or more of not losing weight. Less than that, is not really a plateau.

Having said that, I have at least 2 friends here who plateaued in weight loss for several weeks. One I think was 6 weeks. They did what everyone should do, which I by the way neglected to do myself but do now. They measured themselves. Guess what, even though the scale was not moving, their measurements were going down which meant they were getting rid of fat, no question about it. Too often people get much to stuck on the number on the scale. Frankly, the only one who knows that number is you. People see how your body is changing and the fat is going away, something the scale does not always reflect.

This is not a rant, just a question

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