Weight Loss Plateau Reasons

Is It A Weight Loss Plateau ?

Is It A Plateau ?
During my own weight loss success , I did hit the dreaded weight loss plateau. So now after my own weight loss success , what can I share when looking back at that tome, what can I say on it to help you ?

It took me 6 months to hit my first weight loss plateau. Though it took 6 months I was only then left with around 11lbs left to lose, but I seemed I had reached a point where my body was saying no more !.

A weight loss plateau is not unusual when you decide to lose weight. The fact it took almost 6 months before I had hit one shows how affective intermittent fasting to lose weight had been for me.

Weight Loss Plateau – What To Do Next

In order to move past this block, I needed to make some changes, but I also needed to be sure that the weight loss plateau was not just caused by simply eating more calories than I needed. Many times a weight loss plateau is no more than you eating too many calories for losing weight.

To be sure my weight loss plateau was not because of a problem in my diet, I first had to monitor my calories to ensure I was still in a calorie defecit for losing weight.

At the time I had lost 46lbs ( 21 kilos) of a 56lbs weight loss target.This meant I no longer needed the same amount of calories I did 6 months previously. At the start of the year when I weighed 231lbs ( 105 kilos) my maintainence calories would be around 3,200 calories per day. When I hit the weight loss plateau I was at 185 lbs ( 84 kilos) and with my then current activity leval that number would mean I would only be needing around 2600, so 600 calories a day less.

After losing a large amount of weight up to that point ,my target was to lose 1lb a week, and when you realise that just to maintain the weight I was then ( 185lbs) I would need to be eating 600 calories a day less than a the start 6 months ago, it is a unrealistic to expect to lose much more. This a good example of why my weight loss went from 2lb per week, down to 1lb. The number of calories we need does not remain static, it moves along with our weight.

If you are looking to lose weight yourself, please remember that 1lb ( approx 0.5 kilos) per week is a healthy and realistic target. When I started using intermittent fasting, I had a large amount of weight to lose, and the first few weeks the weight came off quickly but I always knew it would change, that is why I set 52 weeks to lose 56lbs, it was realistic.

I now know a 20% reduction in calories from that total ( 2600 calories) would give me a 1lb per week weight loss. It also means that my current calorie intake to achieve this should be around 1850 per day ( 185 llb x 10 cals per lb ). You can also use the resting metabolic rate calculator which will give you similar numbers to this.

So with this figure as my benchmark, the next thing I had to do was to look at the actual calories I was eating. To do this I simply kept a food diary, and wrote down everything I ate and drank . I did this for 14 days. This was to show I was not going over the 1850 per day average. On weekends my intake of calories is higher, but weekdays when using Intermittent Fasting and a condensed eating window my calorie intake is lower with an avg of 1500.

What did that diary show ? It showed that I was eating more or less at maintenance, hence the weight loss had stopped.

What became clear as I look back now almost 2 years later and knowing what I know now is, the weight loss plateau is really just your body and lifestyle coming together to reach a set point. In other words the initial changes made have now reached a point where you need to make further changes, if you want to continue to lose weight.

So How to Break A Weight Loss Plateau ?

No matter what weight loss plan you are following, if you are losing weight for a period of time, at some point you will reach the same set point i did. If you have a weight loss plateau, then to move beyond it, you have to make some changes, still kind of comes back to eat less move more

I did reach my weight loss target in Oct 2009 It took me 41 weeks to lose the 56lbs of fat. You can see my weight loss transformation pictures here

The weight loss plateau lasted for a little over 2 months. It was the toughest part of my weight loss journey, but my advice now looking back is to stick with what has worked, and be patient, the less you have to lose the harder it will be and the longer it takes. Also I would advise you start to use the mirror more than the scales at that point to monitor your progress. Our bodyweight can fluctuate by at least 4lbs a day just with water, so if you only have a few lbs to lose the scales are not always telling you the true story.

Often what you think is a weight loss plateau is nothing more than your lifestyle catching up with the new you. Understand the changes you have made, and chances are this will be the last you see of your weight loss plateau

Looking To Beat A Weight Loss Plateau , read My?anything goes diet review or learn about fasting to lose weight

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