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Post by bbbearsmom on Aug 7, 2019 0:00:01 GMT
Wednesday, 08/07
Day 38 – Deal with a Plateau
First Beck discusses weight loss expectations about losing every week which she says usually doesn’t happen and when it doesn’t happen doesn’t mean the diet is broken. Most weight loss is a zig-zag line trending downward. You’ll lose, go up, stay the same, go down and repeat.
Often you’ll have small plateaus that last a week or two. These can be from water weight, hormonal changes, and other bodily functions. When you hit a longer plateau of more than a few weeks it may be because your body no longer needs all the calories you are eating. At this point Beck says you have four options:
Continue doing what you are doing and wait it out. (My WW leader often gives this advice and it has worked recently for a couple of women in the meeting. One the plateau was just for a few weeks but the other it was months. For the last one it was her last few pounds before goal and for the first one she had started pretty vigorous exercising.)
If it is healthy and reasonable for you to cut the amount you are eating lower your intake by 200 calories. This will give you about a half pound a week loss.
Increase your daily exercise by 15 to 20 minutes.
Call goal and move into maintenance.
At this point I would like to add that Tammy says that when she got to the last few pounds she would add a point and keep losing. She did this a few times until she started to maintain. So that can also be considered.
What has been your experience with plateaus? Any wisdom to share about plateaus?
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Post by bbbearsmom on Aug 7, 2019 0:00:47 GMT
I've never had a plateau. Any stalling I've had was because I was eating too much.
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Post by cathygeha on Aug 7, 2019 5:28:15 GMT
I found that on average, when in lose-mode and following the program, I lost on average about 1.5 pounds per week when daily weights were averaged. Weekly weights were another matter entirely...very zig zag
Plateaus: I found that I hit and stayed at plateaus when I reached previous setpoint weights. These were weights I was able to maintain for years in the past before gaining moore. So, I expect that when I get to 200 I might hit a plateau. The next would be 180 then 160 and then 145 or 140. I usually wait it out believing that my body is readjusting ligaments, tendons, balance, etc and is regrouping to lose again.
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Post by lani on Aug 7, 2019 15:18:41 GMT
I've never had a plateau. Any stalling I've had was because I was eating too much. Same here. |
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Post by surfgirl on Aug 7, 2019 18:28:42 GMT
bbbearsmom , lani , so when you were in losing mode you always either lost or gained? Did you ever just stay at a point for even a week or two?
I feel like I'm in one giant plateau right now, bouncing around between the same 4 pounds without making significant forward progress and it's making me crazy! I've always done the PP with the Wendie variation on WPs, and since I was at a higher scale number I added one DP. Maybe I should go down one DP to what the calculator says (26)? But do you think varying my WPs is holding me back? I wouldn't think so...varying is supposed to help keep the body guessing, right?
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Post by bbbearsmom on Aug 7, 2019 19:46:58 GMT
surfgirl, I'm sure I had weeks I stayed the same but not for long. There was one time I was hanging around one number and I had been relaxed on my tracking and I fixed that and I started to lose again.
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Post by starchild68 on Aug 7, 2019 19:47:26 GMT
surfgirl, I'm curious about the Wendie variation...I vaguely remember Wendie from years back. How does that work? About plateaus....I was stuck in what I'd call a Plateau Range for quite awhile. Perhaps some would call it a reset of a Setpoint. My original goal weight was 140. After I stopped going to meetings and then stopped tracking, the weight slowly and steadily came back on until I was almost at my starting weight. rinse & repeat. Couldn't make myself stay at that wt, I kept hovering a few pounds above it, around 145 or so. I tried increasing exercise, tried a few cleanse diets, but it was exceptionally hard to get below 143 for more than a week or two. So I increased my target wt to 146. Got there, stayed for awhile, but then got off program and went up to 150. Then a long, long time hovering around 148-150. For several years. I know I must have been sabotaging myself by cheating on points occasionally, you know, forgetting to track certain snacks etc. but overall, even when i was very diligent about tracking, I would get stuck in a certain range and could never seem to get back to my previous targets. ....back later....late for appt...
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Post by borntexan on Aug 7, 2019 21:56:44 GMT
surfgirl I would be interested in how you do the weeklies on the Wendie Plan.I have forgotten how many to add.Are there like a couple of days you stay strictly to daily points or am I not remembering right?I know 26 is where it's supposed to be.Since I'm trying to maintain I upped mine to 29 and although I rarely get 29 daily points I like the extra room. I don't think I ever had a long plateau.My first year on PP the last time I rejoined WW I would lose 2 weeks and either stay the same or have a slight gain 2 weeks out of each month.The closer I got to goal on smart points I started losing faster but now I find it hard doing SP and getting in at least 30 points.I do like points plus on Itrackbites.
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Post by surfgirl on Aug 7, 2019 22:09:24 GMT
starchild68 & borntexan, please see the Wendie thread in the Less to Lose area of the forum, all the directions are at the top of the first post. There is also a link to a site where you can plug in your DP number and it will spit out the Wendie points per day, but its set up for PP and maybe SP, I'm not sure. bbbearsmom, I think I'm on top of my tracking but I'll look at that more closely. borntexan, yes, two days a week you are at only your DPs. Maybe I should first reduce my DPs from 27 to 26, which seems like not that much but it might make the meter move more reliably?
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Post by lani on Aug 8, 2019 15:34:52 GMT
when you were in losing mode you always either lost or gained? Did you ever just stay at a point for even a week or two? Yes. No. I have always been able to lose fairly easily. Maintenance has been my challenge. |
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