Isn't it too early for me to plateau?

  • OK, so I got serious about my weight loss on July 6. I had been doing pretty well for the most part. Of course, I had a couple of slip ups here and there, but I always recovered within a day or two, at the most. I have now been stalled out on any loss for the last 2 weeks. I don't get it. I switched to the Wendy plan, varying my daily calories but still staying within an average. Other than that, I haven't really changed anything. I'm going back to the flat daily calorie total rather than the varying average. I'm aiming for 1700 calories a day right now. Once I've been back on the daily total for a week or so, I'll drop if I need to, but in a way I hate to drop just yet....I feel like I need to leave myself some room for later on when this happens again. There will only be so many drops to my calorie intake that I can do. I'm drinking 2 liters + a day of water, doing a 3 mile WATP video almost daily. I keep joking to myself that anyday now, I am going to get on the scale and just see a whoosh way downward because it'll catch up to me. But I don't know. Maybe my body is just being stubborn. Or I jinxed myself when my hubby left for the month and I said maybe he wouldn't recognize me when he came home. Ugh... my brain knows this is just a phase and that it will pass at some point or another, but my self esteem is taking a beating here. I have measurements from about a month ago, but I am actually afraid to take more. Part of me thinks well maybe inches are dropping even if pounds aren't. But if they aren't dropping, seeing them not go down is going to send me into that downward spiral. I guess I just needed to vent my frustrations for a second rather than go look at whats in the fridge. Thanks for listening.
  • Give it some time. I have had several periods of 2-3 weeks with no loss, and I started only a little before you did. It's maddening, but there is nothing to do but wait it out.

    Your body will let go of the pounds.

    I agree that dropping the calories is premature.
  • If you don't want to decrease your calories, and I'm thinking that you just may have to, unfortunately, sooner then you think, you can increase your exercise. How about adding some strength training in? Or adding another day of exercise to your week? Or another activity? Bike riding, dancing, walking.

    And what types of foods are you eating? Heavy on the carb side? Maybe upping the protein and fiber a bit will do the trick. Are you measuring? Are you sure you haven't gone over your calorie allotment?

    I don't think you've necessarily hit a plateau, you very well may see a nice drop in a couple of days. Keep at it. I know it's frustrating. A little trial and error, a little tweaking here and there - oh and lots of patience. You'll get that scale moving downward again.
  • It sounds like you are doing all the right things. All you can do is not give up. Sometimes the body is stubborn, little factors play in all the time to keep the numbers from budging. Just hang in there, keep working at it, and you will start coming down again. In my experience, switching things up does help. I was doing slim fast for a while to get jump started, and then graduated to eating small meals throughout the day instead. I got stuck again, so I went and rented a new work out video from the library and started up on the slim fast again. Past experience (and my hopefulness) says this will help. If not, all I can do is keep trying. Same for you! Change things up, keep up what you're doing, whatever, just don't stop!
  • Hi ,
    I would wait a few more weeks, and if nothing happens then kick up your plan, as Robin suggested, maybe you need to add a little more exercise, or something. I have plateaued before, and after a time, I loose again. I eat between 1400-1600 calories, and don't think I could eat less and feel good. I also exercise about 60 minutes a day 5 days and on the weekends, I do 30 minutes on Saturday's and Sunday I have been hikng for a few hrs, but I only lost 1 lb this week, I accept this, and hope soon it will be better.
    cheryl
  • I wouldn't call anything shorter than 5 weeks a true plateau. Sometimes you can do everything right and not see a loss for 2 or 3 weeks, then you might see a big drop that 4th week, or just start losing slow and steady again.

    This is where food journals, and food measuring do come in handy too. My mom thought she had hit a plateau, and couldn't understand why. My husband just happened to be visiting (we live in five hours away), and I immediately noticed that she was no longer measuring her food, and was nibbling more between meals. If I had told her outright that her guestimations were off, or that I saw her not counting her snacks, she might have gotten mad, but instead I just suggested she go back to journaling and measuring and maye she'd find a "pattern" to her losses and gains (she'd lose one week, and gain it back the next "mysteriously").

    The big thing here is to not let your self-esteem get wrapped up into this process. Whether or not you lose another ounce, you're still going to have all of the great and unique qualities that make you who you are. I know easier said than done, but weight loss isn't for sissies. It may not be rocket science, but it's damned hard work, and if you don't have instant and perfect success it has nothing to do with how "good" a person you are. You almost have to look at it like building a house, if you run into problems installing the plumbing, it doesn't make you a bad or stupid, you just have to learn what you need to learn, put it into practrice and move on.

    Every attempt makes you stronger, if you let it. You are trying to learn about yourself, and act appropriately, not beat yourself into submission.
  • Okay, you are not going to want to hear this (and I'm sure everyone else is sick of hearing about it by now) but I started losing June 2006, lost 32 pounds in four months, and then stopped. Just completely stopped, for almost a year now. I haven't been able to get my weight to budge since. I really thought it was far too early for a plateau, but apparently not.

    Granted, since that I have slacked off a few times, mostly because nothing I did was working, so why try? But I did maintain, for the most part (I go up and down two pounds over and over), so I am clinging rather pathetically to that small victory.

    I really think, for me at least, the key is exercise. The major difference between what I was doing then and what I'm doing now is swimming. In the beginning I swam laps for at least half an hour three times a week, but then I developed a lipoma (fatty tumor) on my shoulder and swimming hurt too much. I had the tumor removed in June of this year, but I haven't gone back to swimming yet. I used to swim in a private pool, but now the only pool available to me is at the gym, and I have been a chicken about getting in the water in public.

    If I do get over myself and start swimming again will it make a difference? Probably. I hope so. I've started running, which should also help if I can ever get past ten minutes and build up my speed, but so far my weight hasn't moved yet.

    So you can look at it this way: Yes, you can plateau early on, but at least you haven't been stuck at the same weight for a year. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
  • I've stalled a couple of times for a couple of weeks, even gained a pound once in three weeks, the other two I didn't lose anything, then the next week- BAM! I'd lose 5 pounds, and another time, 9 pounds. I have no clue why my body does this, but it happens more often than not in this weight loss journey.

    I'd give it another week or two before making any changes. Your muscles could be holding onto water (I know this happened to me during my recent 9 pound loss) for a bit, and when it let's go, watch out scale!

    Hang in there. You have to remember, you will not lose every week- you might go two or three weeks without losing, then the pounds will start coming off again.
  • It sounds like you made a change in going to the Wendie plan and that's when your loss started to stall. Certain things work for some people and not for others. It sounds like a good plan to go back to the way you were doing it before and see if that's the problem.
  • Two weeks really isn't that long. 44lbs in 4 months here and I've had a stretch of no loss in 2 weeks too, but after that I dropped 4lbs. you may or may not have to drop calories or increase exercise, but you might give it another week or two to see first if your body really is stalling out.