I'm going on my fourth week of my weight loss journey. The first two weeks were easy peasy but, every since last week its been total crap. I havent lost any weight and I've actually gone up about a pound. I dont know what I'm doing wrong. I've stuck to the same plan through out and I've actually been exercising more? So have you guys had any tough plateaus? and what did you do to get through them? Because I'm trying really hard to stay positive but, its really hard when I feel like the scale is working against me . Any help would really be appreciated.

I have a three step program for working through a plateau ...(lol)

1. I stay away from the scale for a solid week
2. During that week I eat healthier than I've ever eaten before! Veggies veggies veggies.
3. I do new workouts. This one is key. If I've been doing a month of zumba and pushups then I switch to swimming and weights...

After all that I usually find that I've gotten past it!

Thanks Ill try that. I've never hit a plateau before so this is foreign to me. I"ll try anything lol.

If you have stuck to your plan, it's probably not really a plateau; rather, it's most likely normal fluid weight fluctuation just masking a week or two's worth of fat loss.

This is normal and part of the process for nearly all of us.

Fluid retention can be caused by a host of factors - some of which are in your control and some of which are not. Weather, hormones, sodium intake, fluid intake, and - note this one - changes in your exercise routine can all cause you to retain fluid.

My normal weight fluctuations are up to 4-5 pounds - at the rate I lose even if I am perfectly on plan, that can easily mask a month or more of real fat loss.

So just hang in there and give it time. Give it a couple more weeks before you decide whether your plan needs tweaking. I know it's difficult to do but you have to develop patience. Changes over a month or two is the only time scale that is meaningful in this process. Since you have upped your exercise, you have to give your body a couple weeks to adjust to that change.

We need a sticky on "plateaus", yeah?

Definitely.

Though, given the constant questions about water weight, I get the impression that people don't actually read the stickys before they post.