Breaking through the Plateau

What to do if you hit a wall in your weight loss journey.

Ah yes, the dreaded inevitable unavoidable Plateau. The first few pounds came off so easily. Every time you stepped on the scale the number was lower. That was exciting. That was encouraging. But now you’re a few weeks into it and it’s getting harder to lose weight. You are still putting in the same amount of effort, but the results aren’t there. The number on the scale isn’t dropping as quickly or maybe even not dropping at all. It’s been weeks and you just can not seem to lose any more weight. You feel like it’s impossible to break through a certain “weight floor”. Weeks go by and you feel like you’ve been good, but the scale tells a different story.

Today I am going to walk you through how I personally have dealt with hitting these frustrating “Plateaus” or lulls in progress during my journey to lose 100 pounds. I will highlight the importance of consistency and explain how there is not such thing as a weight floor.

I started my latest weight loss venture in July of 2023. I lost 20 pounds in the first 6 weeks. Since then I have only lost about 8 pounds in the next 6 weeks. During the first few weeks of losing weight, a rapid drop is typical. In part, this is because when you initially cut calories, the body gets needed energy by releasing its stores of glycogen. Glycogen is a type of carbohydrate found in the muscles and the liver.

Glycogen is partly made of water. So when glycogen is burned for energy, it releases water, resulting in weight loss that's mostly water. But this effect is temporary. You may have heard this referred to as “water weight”.

As you lose weight, you lose some muscle along with fat. Muscle helps keep up the rate at which you burn calories (metabolism). So as you lose weight, your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight. Your slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight. When the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau. To lose more weight, you need to either increase your physical activity or decrease the calories you eat. Using the same approach that worked at first may maintain your weight loss, but it won't lead to more weight loss.

Most of your daily calorie burn comes from your metabolism (i.e. BMR). There is a smaller supplemental burn that comes from daily movement & activity, and of course from exercise. But BMR accounts for 2/3 or more of it.

So to sum all of that sciency information up, the habits (Calorie intake & burn) I used to drop from 280 to 255 aren’t the same habits I need to drop from 255 to 230. The same applies to you and your diet. The next 25 pounds are going to require even less calories being taken in and even more calories being burned off. The bright side of this is that our bodies are smart and adjust with us. As I lose weight, I won’t need as much food to feel satisfied and working out will become easier.

The important takeaway for me and hopefully you as a reader: Do not be discouraged by this. Adjust, and march on. In the past I would’ve given up after not seeing the results. That is why most diets fail. People hit the wall, and fall back into old habits.

Don’t turn to a crash diet, don’t start Keto, don’t give up and avalanche your way back to where you started. Embrace the struggle. Think of it like a run. The first 5-10 minutes of a run are easy. You are just getting warmed up. As you get further into the run, it becomes harder the maintain the pace you did in the beginning. At some point during the run your body will hit a wall and want you to stop. You can stop, but you won’t get the benefits of finishing the run. The harder the run or your diet gets, the more rewarding it will be when you push through. I’ve been hovering around 253-259 lbs (Orca Whale Zone) for the last few weeks. It sucks. I want to break into the 240s (Narwahl zone) so badly. And I will. With time. I just need to keep being disciplined, and avoid feeling discouraged. Fall in love with the process, not the progress.

I’ve said it in previous blogs, but I will reiterate it. Weight loss is really simple.

Total Daily Calories Consumed (Food and Drink) - Total Daily Calories Burned (Metabolism + Any physical activity) = Leftover Calories that will either be stored as fat or burned

Or to make it even simpler:

Calories In - Calories Out = Weight Gained/lost

If I continue to adjust my calorie intake to match my height, weight, exercise level, and goals, I will succeed on this health voyage. Same goes for you.

Quick snapshot of where we are at:

Ty’s Starting weight: 285 lbs

Ty’s Week 13 Weigh-in (September 25th) : 254 lbs

Weight goal: 185 lbs

I would love to get the comment section going. I have really appreciated all the DMs and texts. They keep me going. Comment what you would like to see me write about in future blogs! Do you guys want more updates from me? More photos? Do you like the lists? Let me know! I am also considering starting a TikTok about this, so let me know if you think that would be cool or not. Thanks for reading.

-Soon to be Dolphin