How I'm Breaking Through My Weight Loss Plateau

The weight loss plateau.  It's frustrating. +WeightLossPlateau

Up a pound.  Down a pound.  But never breaking through that level.

Still doing all the things that were working last week.  Suddenly, the weight loss stops.

What's going on?

I'm no doctor but here's what I read.

Most likely my hormones have adjusted my metabolism.  +Hormones +Metabolism

After 4 weeks of daily calorie deficit, my lizard brain said, "whoa, hold on, we may be in a famine here, let's conserve energy". +CalorieDeficit +LizardBrain

It's part of what makes the basic equation (calories in=calories out) such bullshit.  There's a lot more to it than that.

So what am I going to do about it?

Most low-carb diets recommend a "cheat day" to reset the hormones.  This gets the lizard brain out of "oh shit" mode. +LowCarb +CheatDay

I'm not following a low-carb diet right now.  Would this work with a daily intermittent fasting as well? +DailyIntermittentFasting

I tried it on Friday.  Didn't quite eat my maintenance calorie load but I went over my normal 1000-calorie daily deficit.  Made sure to eat lots of crap too.  Double Quarter Pounder.  Fries.  Heath Bar.  Red Vines.  Soda.  Movie Popcorn.

Hard to believe I didn't go over my maintenance calories right?  I'm pretty fat.  My plateau is at 201 after starting at 213.  I've got a daily calorie maintenance allowance of 2600-calories.

So what happened?  I had a cheat day on Friday.  I was pretty hungry most of the day Saturday.

When I woke this morning, Sunday, I broke through my plateau, 200 even.

I LOVE CHEAT DAYS!

Another recommendation was to switch focus.  Stop weight loss mode.  Start muscle build mode. +WeightLoss +MuscleBuilding

The author of this advice said the plateau should come around the 6 month or 10% of body weight mark.  This wasn't true for me.  I plateaued at week 5 and 5% of body weight.

I'll switch to muscle building eventually.  I do a little every day now.  Wasn't ready to make the switch to full-time yet.  I'm still a fat jiggly slob in the mirror.  If the cheat day doesn't work next week maybe I'll consider it.

RESOURCES

How to Break a Weight Loss Plateau by Monica Reinagel, MS, LD/N, CNS

A New Look at Weight Loss Plateaus edited by Rachel Berman

Taking Care Of What I Have Control Over

"Appearances are deceiving."

That's what I told myself this morning.

That's what I told myself to encourage me.

I was feeling pretty good, feeling pretty light, thinking the scale was going to give me a good number.

It didn't.

I was up 1.4 pounds from this same time yesterday.

My mind said, I know fluctuations are normal, it never goes just straight down.

But that didn't work.

Another voice in my head countered back, "Yeah but you maintained your calorie deficit yesterday just as you have every day for the past 2 1/2 weeks, what's going on?  I'm worried."

Appearances can be deceiving.

Even though what appeared on the scale was a weight gain, I was feeling good.

So I ignored what appeared on the scale.

I looked in the mirror.

I'm looking pretty good.

Not as good as I want, but better than I was.

And I'm still moving in the right direction.

I'm taking care of the things I have control over.

I'm fasting 18 hours a day.

I'm fasting to allow my body to repair itself (autophagy). +Autophagy

I'm fasting because it makes a 1000 calorie a day deficit much easier to maintain. +CalorieDeficit

I'm taking care of the things I have control over and that's what's important.

Appearances are deceiving.