Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Plateaus

I want to talk a little bit about weight loss plateaus.  They stink.  They're disheartening and frustrating.  I'm on one right now.  But I was looking at my old results in 2007 (chart below) and noticed that I hit a plateau weeks 8/21-9/5 when I lost less than one pound in three weeks.  But then look.  I lost 3 pounds the next week.  And the whole time I was losing body fat.  So don't feel disheartened if you stop losing for a few weeks.  If you are eating well and exercising you are helping your body!  I always thought that my body just needed time to catch up.  And when I would lose 3 pounds in a week I knew I shouldn't expect to lose much the next week.  I don't know why, but it just happens.


DateWeightBody Fat %Body FatLean Body Mass 
8/7/2007150.0 lbs32.1 %48 lbs102 lbs
8/14/2007146.0 lbs30.7 %45 lbs101 lbs
8/21/2007144.4 lbs30.1 %43 lbs101 lbs
8/28/2007144.0 lbs29.5 %42 lbs102 lbs
9/5/2007143.8 lbs27.5 %40 lbs104 lbs
9/11/2007140.8 lbs25.8 %36 lbs104 lbs
9/21/2007139.6 lbs24.7 %34 lbs105 lbs
9/28/20070.0 lbs0.0 %0 lbs0 lbs
10/5/2007136.8 lbs21.4 %29 lbs108 lbs
10/19/2007135.6 lbs21.6 %29 lbs106 lbs
10/26/2007134.2 lbs20.6 %28 lbs107 lbs
11/12/2007132.6 lbs19.7 %26 lbs106 lbs
11/28/20070.0 lbs0.0 %0 lbs0 lbs




And just FYI, here is a body fat scale.  You can get yours checked at a gym (usually for free), a college, high school (maybe), etc.

Physical ConditionMaleFemale
Very Lean<11 td=""><19 td="">
Lean11-1419-22
Desirable15-1723-27
Average18-2228-35
Typically Unhealthy>22>35
Typical Body Fat Scale



4 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this! It's a great reminder. I lost 1 a week for 3 weeks and then was so excited to lose 3 pounds last week! but this is good as I was feeling sad that I couldn't keep that up this week but I will try to remember 1 pound this week is great! Thanks!

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  2. Hi Kelli! I just discovered you today thanks to skinny Meg! I am trying to lose the baby weight and (mostly running 4-5days/week) and am getting so frustrated with the scale!!!! I is moving sooooo slowly, like -.2 and -.4 the last 2 weeks!
    I am counting WW points, and eat pretty clean. I am noticing that I have lost inches in my arms and legs, but the damn scale and ababy belly are killing me!!!!!!!!
    Any words of wisdom!?

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    Replies
    1. Leslie,

      There could be a few things. Are you nursing? Are you lifting weights? When a lot of women nurse they just don't lose weight until they are done. If you want to email me I can go more in depth with you. kelli@theturquoisepiano.com. Otherwise, just keep going. It's frustrating but eventually worth it! Be sure to do resistance as well as running.

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  3. Thank you very much for keep this information. Juliana

    ReplyDelete

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