Weight loss plateau normal?

December 21, 2008 7:11 PM

I lost thirty pounds since September by calorie control (about three months), but I haven’t lost any weight in the last two to three weeks. I’ve heard that weight loss plateaus are normal, but what is the best way to continue my weight loss?

If I continue the same calorie count, will I begin to drop weight again, or do I need to mix it up? I’m a 5’ 8” male who began at over 280 pounds. I’m under 250 pounds now, but I want to get to a healthy BMI. To do so, I need to drop at least another 40-60 pounds. I got to this point by reducing my calories to 1200-1400 per day. I haven’t begun any serious exercise regime, although I have been walking slightly more (20-30 per day). Do I need to further lower my caloric intake to restart my weight loss? Do I need to add exercise?

I’ve read some of the previous questions along this line (googled “site:ask.metafilter.com weight loss pleateu”) but most suggest that calorie count is more important than exercise. I was pretty heavily into weight lifting in high school and college, but was never into organized sports. I’m eating healthy foods now. I feel like--once I drop the weight--I can keep it off. I know exercise is important for cardiovascular health, but I feel like (at this point) I could easily get discouraged if, as a fat slug with no prior sporting experience, I had to join a soccer team. How far below 1200 per day can an adult male reasonably go?

Am I on the right track keeping to the 1200-1400 calories per day and little to no additional exercise, or do I need to refine my plan? What’s the normal time frame for a weight loss plateau? Maybe be I just need an “at a by; stick to it.” Thank you all.

posted by paulg to health & fitness (27 comments total)

going below 1200 calories daily is not going to be healthy for you. i would start adding exercise, even if that's just doing a brisk walk for 30 mins a day. you can gradually increase your exercise regimen from there. adding exercise doesn't mean all of a sudden training for a marathon, you know.
posted by violetk at 7:33 PM on December 21, 2008

Your body adjusts to consistency. So yes, you probably either need to change your caloric intake, or start exercising. Your caloric intake is already about as low as you can safely go, so it looks like exercise for you! (A plateau of two or three weeks is not at all unreasonable, though.)

Weightlifting is a great place to start, since you already know you like it. It won't help your cardiovascular health, but I think you're right — developing a habit of exercising without getting discouraged right away should be your priority.

Walking is also a great way to burn some calories, though you'd need to spend more time on it than you are right now. Still, it's a pretty low cost of entry. You might find that continuing a walking regimen and very slowly working your way up to running, like with the time-honored Couch-to-5K program, could do wonders for you.

Congratulations on what you've already achieved!
posted by adiabat at 7:37 PM on December 21, 2008

By dropping your calories you have created a calorie deficit. A calorie deficit is all that is needed for weight loss. However, by creating a deficit only through diet your metabolism has slowed down: slowing down to meet your caloric intake. The trick is keeping a high metabolism while maintaining a deficit. The only way to do this is through exercise.

I know the economy is bad and things are tough all over, but investing in a personal trainer for just a few months while you learn proper form and create a well thought out diet and exercise regimen will have the most impact.

I found that Body for Life had a really good, basic explanation of this.
posted by munchingzombie at 7:42 PM on December 21, 2008

It's possible you're not eating enough. I am not at all an expert, but when I have investigated it, 1200-1400 calories a day would be a good number for weight loss for me, and I am a woman who is 4 inches shorter and 80-90 pounds lighter than you. If 1200 is the minimum needed to sustain my ~160-170 lb. body, it might not be enough to keep you going. It's possible your body's holding onto mass because you're not getting enough food. A doctor/nutritionist/dietician would probably be able to help give you a target calorie range and some suggestionsin terms of healthy choices for your body.

Most of my diet-based knowledge comes from my mom, who's lost a lot of weight with a low-carb, low-fat diet. She's been working at it for a long time, and she's definitely had a bunch of plateaus that have lasted months at a time. It's normal for it to plateau and to slow down in general (it's hard to maintain the quick losses of the first couple of months of any weight-loss programme anyway). Don't get frustrated and try to go too extreme -- your weight loss is only going to be healthy for you if you do it in a healthy way. Plus, be proud of yourself about how far you've come!
posted by SoftRain at 7:47 PM on December 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'm there with you, bud.

I started in August, I'm 5' 11", and started out weighing 203. I'm down to 188 now (I'm on weight watcher's with the woman - shh! Don't tell!). I'd been at a plateau for a couple weeks and started exercising and the weight has just started falling off again.

A treadmill in the basement with some good tv shows on dvd to watch has been the key. So far, Veronica Mars, and Buffy have been watched, and now that it's my turn to pick shows, I'm going to suggest Battlestar Gallactica and The Trailer Park Boys.

Word to the wise: Skip the exercise bike. It's easier, but you have to spin your ass off to even come close to the calories burned by a brisk walk. Treadmills are cheap at the second-hand sporting goods stores everywhere I've looked - although we are coming into "resolution" season, so YMMV.
posted by terpia at 7:56 PM on December 21, 2008

Are you drinking enough water? Unless you are already drinking plenty, you might try drinking more water.
posted by rglasmann at 8:18 PM on December 21, 2008

Thanks, everyone. I actually own a treadmill, but it's been in my dad's garage for the last few years (sorry, step-mom). I guess I was hoping for the advise: don't worry about your plateau, weight loss will resume in a couple of days.

Based on SoftRain's comment, I should add that I've been regularly blowing my diet by 200-300 calories on/or Friday or Saturday nights in the hope that I could avoid plateaus. Is that a realistic strategy to convince my body that it is not starving, or is it completely worthless? (I imagine lots of people would be interested in the answer to that question.)

Good luck, Teria (if you follow this thread)--keep up the regime. RoftRain: thanks to your mom; I guess (according to virtually every "see you doctor" mefi thread) my doctor should be my first stop, but somehow I feel like I want to be able to "show-off" to her before an appointment regarding my weight loss. (I really don't want to subject myself to that hospital diet routine. It was the first shock of my doctor telling me I technically obese that set my on this path. For some reason, I feel like don't want to disappoint her.)

Adiabat, I feel like I'm not temperamentally disposed to cardiovascular exercise. Is there a way to get around this, or do I just need to bit the bullet and start jogging (groan). In the (distant) past I have been really into weight training, but have never enjoyed cardio. What would be my speed? Rowing? Something else?

I guess the question really is: will I start losing weight again sticking to the same plan, or do I need to add exercise. I realize exercise wouldn't hurt, but I'd prefere to stick with just diet until I'm under 200 pounds if I can.

For any people who read this thread in the future: weighing 80+ pound and loosing 30 pounds really does make a difference. I have so much energy than I did before the diet. Diet can make a huge difference. The question is: when (and how) do I need to add exercise to my plan"?

Thank you all very much. I can't tell you all how much Ask Metafilter has meant to me. It keeps me going.
posted by paulg at 8:21 PM on December 21, 2008

Weight loss through diet only works so far. Beyond that point, your body figures out it's starving, so it hoards energy, and you basically can start to feel like shit.

As mentioned above, you need to add exercise. Period. A healthy way to figure things out is this: figure out how much you can expend right now in a good exercise session (plenty of online calculators). Halve that. Now find your "rest" metabolism at your current weight - the no-loss, no-gain basic caloric needs. Add the half-exercise from the first step to this. This is your target - from dead-even to a little over, but with exercise, a little under. Obviously, online calculators don't know you, so you'll have to tweak things based on experimenting. This will not make you lose weight fast; in fact it'll be slow. But it will ingrain in you the healthy tendencies that will help you keep the weight off in the long run.

Another trick: your body doesn't really go into fat-burning until about 25 minutes into a workout. But it keeps going and tapers off a long time after you're done. So from a weight loss standpoint, two half-hour sessions each day means you get *two* of those taper periods=more fat burning.
posted by notsnot at 8:21 PM on December 21, 2008

Regarding drinking enough water, rglasmann, I think I am drinking enough. I had kidney stones a few years ago, and I drink at lest 12 oz. per waking hour now. (Good god, the pain! Every one: drink plenty of water. As Monk says: you'll thank me later.)
posted by paulg at 8:28 PM on December 21, 2008

I'm 5'10 and started at 204 a year and a half ago and have got down to 176 so far, mostly through a floppy style of running and cutting way back on alcohol, and I've plateaued as well. I'm not going to worry about it though. I always hated running when I was young and it wasn't until I started following the couch to 5K plan and not pushing myself too hard that I started to actually enjoy myself while running. Running makes my whole body feel better and weight loss has become secondary. I never thought I'd feel that way.
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:48 PM on December 21, 2008

Try doing some light weight work: push-ups, dips, squats, lunges, etc. Muscles fire your metabolic furnace.
posted by 26.2 at 11:23 PM on December 21, 2008

Your metabolism can speed-up/slow down a certain amount, which adjusts how many calories your body burns a minute when you aren't moving. However, when you do move around, that requires extra energy exactly proportional to the work done and that energy has to come from somewhere. If you take in fewer calories each day than you burn it is impossible not to lose weight.
So adding a little exercise will definitely unstick you. I wouldn't suggest anything severe, just 30 minutes or more a day of brisk walking. More is better, but it all counts.
posted by w0mbat at 12:23 AM on December 22, 2008

What they said. Eat more than you have been, and exercise, both strength training and cardio.

Cardio things you could consider: Dance Dance Revolution, aerobics classes (which covers a gamut), jumping rope, juggling, swimming. There are a lot more choices than jogging.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 12:26 AM on December 22, 2008

Yeah you have to excersize.
posted by delmoi at 1:55 AM on December 22, 2008

I really don't think you're eating enough. I'm a 5'4 woman, and 1200 to 1400 is what I typically aim to net in a day (so that's after I've exercised -- I'm actually eating 1500 to 1700).

I got around 2150 calories to maintain your weight when I put your stats into the Mayo Clinic calculator -- I would subtract 200 to 300 calories a day from what they recommend and add some mild to moderate exercise that you find palatable and maintainable and see if that shakes things up a bit.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:11 AM on December 22, 2008

I think that at different points it can be either calorie count or exercise that is more significant to weight loss. It sort of depends on your own lifestyle up to that point, how you eat, your own metabolism, etc.

But for long term, maintained weight loss and overall fitness, calorie control and exercise go hand in hand and you need them both, period. In any kind of plateau, you just need to change something in your routine to shake your body up. Because you don't exercise and your caloric intake is already very low, I would suggest changing the exercise part. You said you walk 20 to 30 minutes per day. Walk for 45 minutes per day. Or, walk for 30 but at a much faster clip. Add some weights--nothing crazy or intense. All you need to do is change things up a little bit to jar your body out of being used to what you're doing. Also, make sure that within the calories you are getting they are divided in a good way between protein, carbs and fat. You need to have some good fats and complex carbs--don't be scared of them. You need them for energy AND for weight loss!
posted by Rudy Gerner at 4:08 AM on December 22, 2008

Yes, eat more! But make your calories count, and you won't have to count calories. No more "white stuff" (white flour, white rice, potatoes). Read the labels on the food you buy, if "enriched flour" is the first ingredient and sugar the second, put it back on the shelf. Look for whole grain foods, fresh veggies, healthy fats. And like everybody says, exercise daily, anything you enjoy doing. I took off 35 pounds six years ago and have maintained my ideal body weight.

Congratulations for getting healthy!
posted by Idjit at 6:10 AM on December 22, 2008

paulg writes "It was the first shock of my doctor telling me I technically obese that set my on this path. For some reason, I feel like don't want to disappoint her."

I have a funny anecdote for you here. My doc told me I should lose some weight. A year later and 30 pounds lighter, he said "Wow, you lost weight" and I replied "yeah, you told me I should." He did a dead stop, started laughing and said "I tell almost everyone they should lose weight - but nobody ever actually does it!"

Congrats, you dumped 30 pounds. I know how it feels. Your doctor will be pleased. Your doc may not think you are at your ideal weight, but you're a hell of a lot better off than you were, and have showed your commitment to making a permanent change in your health. Talk to her, get her advice, that's what doctors are for.

You definitely need to add some exercise. Over half your body is muscle, and muscle burns a lot of calories just in maintenance costs. More muscle = higher resting metabolic rate, so you burn more sitting still than you used to.

bonobothegreat writes "I always hated running when I was young and it wasn't until I started following the couch to 5K plan and not pushing myself too hard that I started to actually enjoy myself while running."

Word. I HATED running. Then I started doing it for my health. Now I feel so guilty that I haven't done much this fall that I signed up for a series of races for 2009. Pick a 5k, give yourself time to train for it, and go. Sign up for one of the MeFi running challenges. You don't have to be any good at it to have fun. I never thought I'd be the kind of person that could zone out while running and not pay any attention to what I was doing, but it's amazing when you stop focusing on the running itself and just let your mind wander how nice it is to be out there doing something.

FWIW I hated the treadmill at first, but it was good for early training. After I got to the point that I could run a mile or more without stopping, I realized that running outside was much more fun than the treadmill. I could never get myself to relax on the treadmill - I couldn't stop focusing on time and distance and it threw me off. Outside, I finally was able to just ignore my watch and go. If I had stayed on the treadmill I think I would never have progressed beyond a 5k, but once I started running outside I found I could run for an hour or more without feeling like I was clock-watching the entire time.

Some other bits of advice:
1) You need to eat some fat. Healthy fats, like raw nut oils (no roasted nuts, no salted nuts - raw almonds or cashews are great), fish oil from salmon, or olive oil. Your body is very good at saving energy reserves for the future. You won't burn off fat efficiently unless your body thinks you are going to replace it. No fat in means very little fat out. When choosing foods, look for low fat rather than no fat; the other side of this is that almost without exception, no fat means "we added a pile of sugar so it still tastes good". Low-fat very rarely has high added sugar.

2) In every diet thread someone says "cut out carbs" and "ooh, more protein". You don't need to do this. "Less carbs" is not good advice, but "less PROCESSED carbs" is. Eat way more whole grain, and avoid refined sugars and bleached flour like the plague. Complex carbs take longer to digest, and keep you feeling full longer so you eat less over the day without feeling like you're starving. A bowl of oatmeal in the morning does wonders. "More protein" is almost always read as "more meat" but that's a bad idea. Increase the amount of protein you take in by increasing things like beans in your diet. You're also adding fiber by following this plan, and that is great if you don't want to raise your risk of colon cancer (adding more meat is only going to increase this risk).
posted by caution live frogs at 6:48 AM on December 22, 2008

Nthing the advice that you could eat a little more (good calories preferred) and exercise some more.

This may not be recommended dietary advice, but I found mixing some higher calorie days in with my more strict days, i was able to keep my metabolism from slowing down. You could try that - keep similar average intakes, but have days with (comparatively) larger meals.


Oh, and congrats on your weight-loss so far!
posted by Tapioca at 7:37 AM on December 22, 2008

As the body loses weight, it becomes harder to lose weight. You need to decrease the amount of overall calories by either:
a. exercising more
b. restricting even more calories.
posted by hal_c_on at 8:35 AM on December 22, 2008

IMO, you've created too great of a caloric deficiency. You're body is likely moving into a starvation mode to hold on to as much nutrition it can to spread it out for as long as it can. This page has a decent calculator on it to determine how many calories you need. It likely to be 2000 or greater. Your weight loss will likely slow, but it should continue. I'd also suggest the ebook "Burn Fat Feed Muscle" that has earned kudos else where on mefi.
posted by nmabry at 9:23 AM on December 22, 2008

I agree with the posters saying that you're not eating enough. I (a woman) went through a similar period of significant weight loss. I was eating 1200 calories a day and running 3 miles a day 4 days a week. I hit a certain point where I knew I was still overweight and couldn't cut my calories anymore. The ONLY way I lost more weight was to INCREASE my calories. Believe me, I was absolutely shocked, but it's true. My body refused to shed more weight until I ate a few hundred more calories a day. I would concentrate on amping up the exercise slowly and adding additional good calories to your day. Look up what a man your height and DESIRED weight should eat a day for maintenance. There are lots of calculators online. If you're eating drastically less than this, it's probably the answer.
posted by theantikitty at 9:41 AM on December 22, 2008

According to "The Hacker's Diet":

Pernicious painful plateaus and baneful bounces

One reason to plot the trend daily or weekly is to overcome the psychological punishment day to day variations in weight would otherwise mete out: the awful week-long plateaus and day to day zig-zags in weight that reflect nothing more than how much water happens to be in the rubber bag. As we saw in the chronicle of Dexter's diet on page [Ref], you'll go nuts if you concentrate on daily weight. Focus exclusively on the trend to reveal the slow, inexorable progress of your diet.

If you encounter periods when your weight seems painted on the scale, or if one morning you wake up hungry as a cave bear yet five pounds heavier than yesterday, examine the trend line on the chart. As long as the trend line is falling, you're continuing to lose weight. As long as your daily weight, whatever it may be, is below the trend, it's continuing to drag the trend line downward. Recalling these simple facts and taking the time to plot a trend chart so you can see them in action lets you bypass the torture that drives most dieters to despair.

Every few months you may encounter a stronger kind of plateau: a period where the trend line itself falls more slowly or even remains constant for a few days. As we've discussed in connection with finding a permanent weight goal, there are certain weights where the body seems especially stable. I think these plateaus in the trend indicate you're passing through one of those stable points. If you're taking off lots of weight, it stands to reason there will be periods when the body pauses, adjusts to all the changes going on, then resumes losing weight. Stay with the diet and in a few more days the trend will resume its decline, usually at the same rate as before or steeper, making up for lost time. The simple arithmetic of the rubber bag always wins out in the end; as long as you're eating less than you burn, your weight will continue to fall at a rate determined by the calorie deficit.

If you encounter a plateau in the trend that's on the verge of driving you nuts you might, as a last resort, consider a one- or two-day fast of the kind described on page [Ref]. That may be enough to break the temporary equilibrium and start the trend downward again. On the other hand, simple patience will certainly have the same effect in at most a few more days. The best way to treat these rare plateaus in the trend is philosophically and with patience; think of them as a preview of the stability you seek when you reach your weight goal. When the body settles in around the goal and you increase your calories to balance what you burn, you can expect a trend line that stays almost flat month after month.
posted by unclezeb at 9:44 AM on December 22, 2008

Jesus! 1200 calories a day for your size is extreme and unhealthy. I'd seriously recommend upping that to around 2000 (it should still be around a 500 caloric deficit each day). You're just going to gain it all back when you start eating normally again.

Just up your activity level. Think about it this way: What would you rather do? Walk 2 miles to the store, or eat half of a normal meal for dinner. Me? I'd prefer to walk a little bit if it means I can still eat like a human...

Also, to all the people pushing massive amounts of cardio... that will work, but having more muscle mass is important as well. It burns more calories to move a heavily muscled leg than it does to move a scrawny leg that just weighs a lot due to fat. You don't have to run (though it WILL give you faster results). Hell, you don't even have to buy equipment - wake up each day with a few sets of pushups and bodyweight squats (and pullups if you have a bar). It'll make a difference.

When you start feeling better about it, get to the gym. It sucks, I know. You have a busy life and can't make time to go to the gym. Yada yada yada. Just do it. If you want to lose weight, you have to "man up".
posted by phrakture at 11:25 AM on December 22, 2008

Additional dieting advice: skip a day. This is the best motivational tool you can get. You cannot do enough damage to reverse all that you've done throughout the week. If you stick to your diet for 6 days, and then gorge yourself on pudding for one day, it's not gonna do much. It'll be bad, sure, but it won't undo what you already gained.

So skip a day. Pick a weekday (as a weekend at home, as a free-day, is going to be worse than a free-day at work and doing errands and the like).
posted by phrakture at 11:30 AM on December 22, 2008

I just want to point out that the BMI is problematic as a measure for how much a person "should" weigh - a good at-a-glance for this may be found here. Ironically, being very muscular will increase your BMI the same way as carrying a lot of fat.

If your goal is to become more healthy, perhaps you could talk to your doctor about what some appropriate goals would be in other, more direct areas? (I'm thinking of things like blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol/lipids, etc.)
posted by oblique red at 2:22 PM on December 22, 2008

Thanks, everybody. I'll add twenty or thirty minutes of calisthenics to by daily routine, and considerably bump my caloric intake a couple of days per week. If that doesn't jump-start the weight loss, I'll try fasting for a day.

(And I have been eating good foods--lots of vegetables, nuts, et cetera, and almost no refined sugars. At last check, my blood pressure and cholesterol were at healthy levels.)
posted by paulg at 4:35 PM on December 22, 2008