Blah...Scale rut

I'm feeling very blah, because the scale has not moved in a week.  Not a single ounce! 

I'm 5'7, 206.2 pounds (grrr .2)  I've lost 11 pounds so far, about 1 lb per week.

I've been excercising the same, appx 400 cal 3x per week and 200 cal 2x week.  I've been eating about the same, 1300-1500 per day.  Once a week I eat maintenance.

I did drink a lot less water last week, due to a really awful work week.  Could that do it?  Or is this the dreaded plateau?  I thought I could at least make 20 lbs lost before the plateau   And no, my clothes do not feel significantly looser.  I haven't checked my measurements this week, because I usually only do it once a month.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Congratulations on your 11 pounds, that's awesome!

Probably, it is just water weight.  And our body isn't a machine - the weight doesn't come off predictably, sometimes it holds onto it and then bang!, two pounds gone.

Keep exercising and eating well.  Make sure you don't have more than a 1000 calorie deficit, and that you are measuring accurately.  Keep the water up and the sodium down.

The scale will move, I promise.    It's frustrating, but if you look at the big picture, you are healthier for exercising and eating well, even if you don't lose more weight.

I agree it's probably you just retaining water cause youa ren't drinking enough (sounds backwards but it's true). Keep up the good work, I don't think one week qualifies as an actual plateau. Plus is it TTOM, or the week before that may be tricking you too.

Original Post by puh8suwrux:

Probably, it is just water weight.  And our body isn't a machine - the weight doesn't come off predictably, sometimes it holds onto it and then bang!, two pounds gone.

This happens to me ALL The time.  I get stuck, sometimes for a couple of weeks.  Then, just when I'm getting frustrated and ready to tear my hear out trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, I drop a couple of pounds.  Just keep working through it, make sure you're being accurate with your counts and moving around, drink your water, etc.  Make little tweaks if you think you need to, but don't let the stall stop you from staying on track.  If the scale doesn't move in a couple of weeks, then maybe it's time to reevaluate a bit.  But I'm betting it will.

Things that help me....

1. I weigh myself everyday (when I wake up) and I log it. I then average one week at a time and compare average of one week versus average of the next week. Day to day weight will always fluctuate, but it's helpful to look at the average.

2. I also bought a food scale and I weigh pretty much everything. If you eyeball it, there's a good chance you might under estimate how many calories you eat. Also, if you eat out from a restaurant, food labels from a restaurant can be anywhere from 20-300% inaccurate (I read this somewhere and I believe it). It's best to cook/make your own food and weigh things out.

3. How do you really know how many calories you burn in exercise? I often find that this site over estimates how many calories actually burned, but others disagree and say it's spot on. I found out it over estimates for me because I now wear a heart rate monitor, but even those are a bit inaccurate. Cardio machines, HRM, etc often over estimates, and even if it's accurate, it displays TOTAL calories burned, not incremental calories burned, meaning that if you normally burn 100 calories an hour sitting at your desk, but you work out for an hour and it reads 400 calories burned, you actually only burned an additional 300 calories, not 400 calories.

4. Eat smaller portions of food more frequently. It's easier said than done, but even small effort for this can help. For example, if you normally eat a sandwich and salad at lunch, eat 1/2 the sandwich and 1/2 the salad at 12pm, then eat the other halves at 3pm. If you normally eat 2 pieces of toast and 2 eggs for breakfast, save one piece of toast for a mid morning snack, etc.

5. Try to be more active throughout the day. It doesn't have to be an additional work out, but even things like cleaning up your desk at work, frequent trips to the water cooler at work, doing more chores around the house, walk to the super market every once in a while, etc. These kinds of things can really add up.