OK, here's another poll. You are following your weight loss plan exactly, and for two weeks there has been no change in your weight, or only small fluctuations up and down. What do you do?

Feel free to comment if you wish.

Jay

If I know I'm perfectly on plan and doing things as I should be, then I keep on doing what I'm doing. A couple years ago (before my last large weight drop), I was eating right, exercising right, etc but the scale didn't move for 1 month or 2 months but at the end of 3 months, I dropped 10 lbs and the weight kept going down for a total of 60 lbs. Since I knew I was on the right path, I didn't think there was a reason to change anything.

I cut back on sodium, drink more water, exercise more and vary my calories each day by a wider margin.

If I know my calories and activity are spot on I find my comfort in that.

I whine and whine. I'm in the middle of trying to overcome a plateau at the moment, so I'm being way more careful about sodium and water, but other than that I'm sticking to my plan.

Stick to my plan and make sure I am on plan, lowering sodium and making sure I'm hydrated also come into play.

Funny you should ask that question. That is where I am at in my weight loss. Two weeks ago the weight loss just stopped. Before that I was losing about 2 1/2 pounds a week. So I kept on doing what I had been doing, got frustrated at the scale, started to panic when the scale actually went up of all things, etc...

But today I have seen the smallest of indications that the weight loss may be starting again. I did increase my exercise by just 10 minutes just because. This has been my first plateau and I hope it is short lived. At least for the future, I will know what to expect and what to do.

It's probably because you are so close to 200.

Seriously milestones seem to cause plateaus. I have no idea why.

I give myself a day or two to refeed (which is sometimes unfortunately labeled a cheat day) where I eat at or above maintenance to give my metabolism a boost. Quite often that's all I need.

I answered "I don't change anything" but I honestly don't think I've had two on plan weeks where I didn't lose anything, not for a long time. I've had off-plan weeks (recently quite a few in a row) where I'll gain, and maintenance breaks (where I'll go up a few pounds, but drop them quickly afterwards). It's just been ages (just looked, over a year) since I've had a week where I couldn't explain the lack of loss.

I hit a few stalls while losing. All I ever did was keep going, and they ended themselves after 3-5 weeks, without reducing calories.

I drop my calories and up my exercise for a few days, then get right back on plan.

If it still doesn't budge, then I UP my calories and boost my exercise for a few days. - then right back on plan.

So far, one or the other has worked every time

Luckily, it's never happened to me while I was following my weight loss plan exactly. Any stall I've ever experienced was due to my veering off plan.

You're really lucky, robin! Wish it were like that for me, but as you know, I've had some three-week stalls even though I was POP.

Jay

I ACTUALLY, keep my calories the same, and exercise more...

that wasn't an option though.