When I first set out to make this blog a few months ago I made a list of all the topics I wanted to cover. Although I had not been through one yet, going through a a plateau was on my list.
As luck would have it (haha), in the interim time between my first post and today I went through and conquered my first plateau. When I made my first post on February 8, 2017, I weighed 185 pounds. On February 25, 2017 I weighed 185 pounds. On March 8, 2017 I weighed 185.8 pounds. Needless to say, I was about to lose my mind come mid-March when I was still hovering around 185 pounds.
Why Do I Think It Happened?
That is hard to say. Plateaus are normal and they come about regularly. If you are a parent you probably know babies have very predictable growth spurts. They have them at 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months. These are predictable, common, and expected. Weight loss plateaus are very similar.
It is also predictable that in the first few weeks of a new diet or exercise routine people
lose weight very fast. This is common because of water weight and other
factors. I was about two months in my journey of losing weight, so I knew it was around time for things to slow down. I was already anticipating the inevitable plateau that was headed my way.
Also I have to point out, the heavier you are the faster you lose weight. That is why people who are morbidly obese can often drop twenty pounds in a month, while a healthy-weight person could take a year using the exact same methods. I am a few pounds away from being no longer obese, but instead just plain old "overweight". So I know that from here on out things are going to be a lot slower and a lot less exciting.
Another factor, in my case at least, is that I started to focus very heavily on weight training shortly after I started this blog. I also increased my calories by around 243-300 per day in order to support my new activity level and muscle growth. This can sometimes stop things for a minute or even lead to an increase. However, despite because of strength training, I was losing inches at the same time I was in this plateau (but more about that later).
So What Did I Do?
First and foremost, I reminded myself of everything in the "Why do I think it happened" section. I focused on the facts. That I am working out and eating at a deficit. I am going to lose weight. There is a formula and it is undeniable. I focused on this everyday.
I kept my calories the same. Even though I increased my daily amount, I was exercising more than enough to make up for it and I was still at a deficit. In fact my workouts improved significantly with the slight bump in calories and paid for themselves over again. At 1200 calories I might have worked out enough to burn 200 calories a day. At 1400 to 1500 calories I started easily working out enough to burn 600 to 800 calories per day. The slight pump in "fuel" was well worth the reward in output.
I kept weighing myself every day and taking the average of the 10 day total. For a while, it stayed the same.
Then, suddenly, this week the weight just started to fall off. In the last 30 days I've lost 4 pounds and 3.5 of them were lost in the last six days. Amazing, right?
Trust the Formula
So there you have it. I accepted my plateau as part of life. I did get discouraged. I did get upset. But what would I accomplish my going back to eating whatever I wanted and lying around the house? What would I accomplish by giving up? Nothing at all. So I kept doing what I knew was right. I kept doing my workouts. I kept eating 1300 to 1500 (sometimes a bit less, often a bit more). I kept my protein level high. I kept lifting increasingly heavier weights.
and the result?
Today, April 2, 2017, I am 179 pounds and once again dropping a few ounces every day!
