You've been diligently following your weight loss plan, eating healthy, exercising regularly, and seeing results. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, your progress stalls. The scale refuses to budge, leaving you frustrated and wondering what went wrong. This is the infamous weight loss plateau, a common experience in many weight loss journeys. Don't panic! It's a normal part of the process, and there are steps you can take to break through it.
What Is a Weight Loss Plateau?
A weight loss plateau occurs when you stop losing weight despite sticking to your diet and exercise routine. You've been seeing steady progress, but now it feels like your body has slammed on the brakes. It's frustrating, but it's also a normal part of the process.
What's happening is that your body has adapted to the changes you've made. Some experts refer to this as set point theory, which suggests your body tries to maintain weight around a certain point. In other words, it's no longer burning calories at the same rate because it's become more efficient. What worked in the beginning isn't enough to keep the momentum going.
How Many Weeks Is Considered a Weight Loss Plateau?
Before you start panicking after a week of no change, understand that a real weight loss plateau is when your progress stalls for at least 4 weeks. Fluctuations are normal. Water retention, stress, or even a heavy meal can cause your weight to spike temporarily. But if it's been 4 weeks or more and you're seeing zero movement on the scale (even when you're sticking to your plan), that's when you're officially in plateau territory. At that point, it's time to make some adjustments and get things moving again.
Why Do Weight Loss Plateaus Happen?
Disruptions in energy balance, the balance between how many calories you consume versus burn, are at the core of why plateaus happen. Weight loss plateaus can occur even when weight loss efforts such as caloric restriction and increased physical activity are consistently maintained.
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Your Body Adapts to Fewer Calories
When you first start dieting, your body is burning more calories than you consume. This state is called a negative energy balance, which is essential for weight loss. But over time, your metabolism adapts to this new intake. This process is called metabolic adaptation, and it essentially means your body becomes more efficient at using fewer calories. As a result, the calorie deficit you were once in is now no longer as effective. For example, if you start at 2000 calories and cut down to 1500, your body will eventually adjust to 1500 calories as its “new normal.” After you have lost weight, your body’s physiological and metabolic adaptations can make it increasingly difficult to continue losing weight, often leading to plateaus.
Muscle Loss Slows Down Your Metabolism
If you’ve been in a caloric deficit and doing tons of cardio but skipping strength training, you’re losing fat along with muscle. Losing lean muscle mass can further slow your metabolism and make continued weight loss more difficult. For example, if you’ve dropped 10 pounds but lost 3 pounds of muscle along the way, your body now burns fewer calories even when you’re resting. This muscle loss lowers your resting metabolic rate, making it harder to continue shedding fat. This is why adding strength training is key to avoiding plateaus.
Increased Efficiency in Physical Activity
Let’s say you used to burn 150 calories doing a 30-minute run when you first started exercising. But now, months later, your body has become more efficient at running the same distance. As a result, you’re burning fewer calories, maybe only 100 or less for that same workout. Your body has adapted to the exercise, and it no longer demands as much energy. This efficiency contributes to why the same routine isn’t getting you the same results anymore. Changing up your exercise habits can help prevent your body from adapting and stalling progress. Additionally, increasing exercise-by adjusting the intensity, duration, or frequency-can help stimulate further weight loss and overcome plateaus.
Hormonal Changes Affect Hunger and Fat Storage
You’ve been in a caloric deficit for a while, and suddenly, you’re ravenous all the time. Even when you stick to your calorie goals, the cravings won’t quit. This is because, as you lose weight, your levels of leptin (the hormone that tells you you’re full) drop, while ghrelin (the hunger hormone) ramps up. These changes in hormone levels can make it harder to stick to your diet and continue losing weight. For example, after losing 10-15 pounds, you might notice that you’re constantly thinking about food and struggling to resist cravings. Your body is signaling that it wants to return to its previous weight, making it harder to continue losing fat.
Water Retention and Glycogen Replenishment
Ever had a weekend where you enjoyed a bit more food than usual, only to step on the scale and see a sudden 3-4 pound gain? It’s not fat-it’s water retention and glycogen replenishment. This temporary gain is often referred to as water weight. For example, if you’ve been eating low-carb for a while and suddenly add carbs back into your diet, your muscles soak up the glycogen (stored carbs) and hold onto water, leading to a temporary weight increase. This can make it feel like you’ve hit a plateau, even if your body composition is improving.
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Undereating
Believe it or not, eating too little can also cause a weight loss plateau. When you drastically reduce food intake, your body may respond by slowing metabolism to conserve energy. When you suddenly cut down on your calories by a lot, your body goes into “survival mode,” slowing down your metabolism to conserve energy. This is your body’s way of protecting itself from starvation, making it harder for you to lose weight despite eating very little. Let’s say you were eating 2000 calories a day and now overnight you switched to eating 1,000 calories a day. Initially, you may lose weight rapidly, but after a while, your body may recognize the significant calorie deficit and trigger a survival response, slowing down your metabolism to conserve energy. This adaptive mechanism helps the body hold onto every calorie, making further weight loss more difficult.
Why Can't Some People Lose Weight?
These factors can influence not only your weight, but also your body fat levels and overall body composition. For some individuals, participating in a structured weight loss program can provide additional support and resources to overcome these challenges.
Age
Getting older is great-until your metabolism decides to slow down. As you age, your muscle mass naturally decreases, which is a big problem because muscle is more metabolically active than fat. Less muscle means your body burns fewer calories at rest. This is due to a decrease in resting energy expenditure as you age. Plus, aging can lead to hormonal changes (think: lower testosterone and estrogen levels), further slowing down your metabolism. This combo can make it feel like you’re working harder than ever to lose weight, but seeing fewer results.
History Of Being on Restrictive Diets
Have you heard of Yo-yo dieting? Yeah, that’s a culprit too. Repeated cycles of dieting can mess with your metabolism. When you go on a super restrictive diet, your body eventually adapts to the lowered calorie intake, slowing down your metabolism to conserve energy because it thinks you’re starving. This adaptation is a direct response to chronically low energy intake, which signals your body to become more efficient at using fewer calories. Then, when you return to eating normally, your metabolism doesn’t bounce back to where it was, making it harder to lose weight next time around.
Medical Conditions
Conditions like hypothyroidism, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and insulin resistance can make weight loss feel like an uphill battle. Here’s why:
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- Hypothyroidism: This is when your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough hormones. Those hormones are responsible for regulating your metabolism, which is how your body burns calories. When your thyroid is underactive, your metabolism slows down, meaning you burn fewer calories even if you’re eating and exercising the same as before.
- PCOS: With PCOS, your body produces more androgens (male hormones), which can cause weight gain, especially around the belly. And to make things trickier, insulin resistance is often part of the package, which means your body struggles to use insulin effectively. This can lead to higher blood sugar levels and more fat storage.
- Insulin Resistance: When your cells don’t respond well to insulin, your body has a harder time converting sugar in the bloodstream into energy. Instead of burning it off, your body stores it as fat. Over time, this can make losing weight much more difficult, even if you’re eating well.
Addressing these medical conditions is crucial to help patients achieve successful and sustainable weight loss.
Medications
Certain medications such as antidepressants and antipsychotics can mess with your body’s weight-regulating systems. These meds can alter the way your body processes fat and sugars, cause hormonal imbalances, or even slow down your metabolism. For example, some antidepressants increase your appetite, while corticosteroids may promote fat storage-especially around your midsection. So, even though these meds are helping with other health conditions, they can also make it harder to lose weight. If you suspect your medication is affecting your weight, consult your primary care provider for guidance.
Genetics
Blame your genes for more than your eye color-they can also affect your weight. Some people are genetically predisposed to store fat more easily and have a slower metabolism. Basically, your genes can influence how efficiently your body burns calories, regulates hunger, and stores fat. And unfortunately, this can mean that losing weight is naturally harder for some people than others.
Lifestyle Factors
It’s not just about what you eat-how you live day-to-day plays a huge role too.
- Sedentary lifestyle: If you’re sitting more than you’re moving, you’re burning fewer calories. Combine that with a slowed metabolism (thanks to age or medical conditions), and weight loss becomes even harder.
- Poor sleep: Not getting enough quality sleep throws off your hunger hormones-specifically ghrelin (which makes you hungry) and leptin (which tells you when you’re full). This can lead to overeating and make it harder to stick to your calorie goals.
- High stress: Chronic stress increases your body’s production of cortisol, which has been linked to fat storage, especially in the belly. It can also increase cravings for high-calorie, comfort foods, making weight loss feel impossible.
- Unhealthy eating habits: Mindless snacking, overeating, or relying on processed foods all contribute to excess calorie intake. Monitoring your food intake is essential for identifying and correcting these habits. Even small, seemingly innocent habits can add up over time and prevent weight loss.
Weight Loss Plateau Myths
These are the most commonly heard myths regarding weight loss plateaus. Reassessing your weight loss plan is often necessary to overcome plateaus and continue making progress. It is important to focus on practical strategies, such as tailored dietary and exercise modifications, to effectively overcome weight loss plateaus.
Myth 1: You Just Need to Cut More Calories
When people hit a plateau, their first instinct is usually to cut even more calories. While eating fewer calories can help with weight loss initially, it is not always the best solution for breaking a plateau. Dropping your intake too low can backfire big time. Because when you cut calories too much, your body adjusts and starts burning fewer calories (again, that sneaky metabolic adaptation). Plus, cutting down calories too hard can mess with your thyroid function, leading to slower metabolism, lower energy, and a higher risk of muscle loss. In fact, if you’ve been in a calorie deficit for too long, your body might need a reverse diet to bring your metabolism back up to speed before you can break through the plateau.
Myth 2: You Need to Exercise More and Harder
This myth assumes that more is always better - but in reality, overtraining can stall your progress. When you’re constantly pushing your body without enough recovery, you run into elevated cortisol levels (the stress hormone). High cortisol can make it harder to lose fat and easier to hold onto fat stores. Your body needs rest to recover and build muscle, which helps burn fat more efficiently. So, if you’re training too much without enough recovery, you could be hurting your progress instead of helping it. Incorporating a variety of exercises, including both strength and aerobic activities, is often more effective for weight management than simply increasing workout intensity.
Myth 3: If You Don't Lose Weight in a Specified Period, You've Failed
Weight loss isn’t a straight line - it’s more like a roller coaster. Some weeks, the scale moves; other weeks, it feels like nothing’s happening, but that doesn’t mean you’re failing. Plateaus are a normal part of the process. Sometimes they can actually be a sign that your body is reaching a new set point, where it’s adjusting to the changes. It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong; it just means your body is catching up. So, don’t throw in the towel just because things slow down. Reaching your goal weight often requires patience and persistence, especially when you hit plateaus along the way.
Myth 4: Plateaus Are a Sign That You Should Give Up
Plateaus aren’t a sign that you should give up. Sustained weight loss is well-known to be challenging. Everywhere one looks, a new diet or exercise strategy promises to be the magic bullet to lose weight. In reality, weight loss is a complex process encompassing changes in diet, physical activity, and other behavioral modifications. Following an initial period of steady weight reduction, individuals attempting to lose weight frequently experience a frustrating plateau where progress halts.
The Sudden Drop After a Plateau
After a long weight loss diet, a high carbohydrate meal can be beneficial to drop water weight. During long periods of caloric restriction, especially when accompanied by high exercises volume, the cortisol level (stress hormone) increases. Too much cortisol is associated with muscle degradation, decreased immune function, impeded recovery and water retention (see Minnesota Starvation Experiment). One of cortisol’s physiological roles is to guarantee energy availability in times of energy deficit (to keep blood sugar high enough for essential functions). For this reason, we have the highest cortisol levels in the morning after an overnight fast. A carbohydrate rich meal increases blood sugar and decreases the need for cortisol secretion. This decreases cortisol level and leads to the “magic” water loss overnight.
Theoretical Considerations About Weight Loss
Often, when we diet and see only slow weight loss (less than one pound per week) we feel as if our diet doesn’t work. However, one pound for week is a good number, considering that the general recommendation is not losing more than 0.5-1% of body weight per week. A reasonable calorie deficit of 500 kcal per day results in approx. 400 g fat loss (1g fat = 9kcal) per week, in theory (although biological system, such a human bodies, don't necessarily follow theories). Sadly, 400 g per week we often don’t even consider as weight loss and are disappointed about the results.
Well, a high calorie deficit (such as ~ 800kcal/ day) is very likely to lead to significant muscle loss, as seen in a recent study on a competitive bodybuilder. The weight he lost dieting for a competition consisted of 43% lean body mass. This is definitely not ideal, as most people would like to lose fat and not muscle. Additionally, high training volume and short rest periods result in increased cortisol secretion, which can lead to problems mentioned above (such as catabolic effects). For this reason, drastic calorie restrictions and very high training volumes are not an optimal dieting strategy in my opinion.