Almost three weeks of progess, then a wall

ConfusedCartman

ConfusedCartman

New member
Let me preface this with the fact that I realize it's been an extremely short while and I should probably just continue what I'm doing and wait to break through the wall, but I wanted to get a few opinions regardless to help verify what I'm thinking.

So, I started working out on January 3rd, and have been doing so consistently every day since. I have gone down from 202lbs to 195lbs in that span of time. I have been aiming for 1800 calories a day, which is about 300-400 under my maintenance level (male, 17 years old). Coupled with exercise, I'm probably at a daily deficit of 500-700 calories. Now, at the end of week 2 I weighed 196lbs. Four days later, I was down to 194.8lbs, and then for the past three days I've hovered between that and 196lbs. I realize that I have to consider things like time of day, food weight, water consumption, etc, but previously I was dropping up to .6lbs from day-to-day and although I haven't changed anything, it's just halted. I've looked into a few things and one suggested that my body had simply adapted to my new regimen, and I should up my calorie intake for a day and then go back to what I was at. Supposedly the idea was to jump-start my metabolism so that it burns through more calories the next day. I did so yesterday, and after working out and watching what I eat today, I'm still hovering in the 195-196lb range. Should I just continue what I'm doing and wait it out? Or should I try to up my daily calorie intake a couple hundred calories and see if that gets things going again?
 
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You should weigh yourself every week instead, or even better every two-three weeks. You'll save yourself some valuable sanity, because you will be seeing a downwards trend with your weight (assuming you are still in a deficit), not the up-down-up-down-up-up-not moving-ARRG!! that you get from doing it day to day. In other words continue what you're doing, you've already lost an impressive amount for such short amount of time. If you see no change in two-three weeks, then start asking questions.
 
there's instances when the body will retain water after some fat loss. have a carb day, get ready for a monster pee, and don't worry about it for a week.
 
Tamago said:
You should weigh yourself every week instead, or even better every two-three weeks. You'll save yourself some valuable sanity, because you will be seeing a downwards trend with your weight (assuming you are still in a deficit), not the up-down-up-down-up-up-not moving-ARRG!! that you get from doing it day to day. In other words continue what you're doing, you've already lost an impressive amount for such short amount of time. If you see no change in two-three weeks, then start asking questions.
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Alright, I can do that. I think it was just part of being excited about the weight loss - I wanted to have that "Yay progress!" moment every day. I can switch over to weekly, though.

Big D said:
there's instances when the body will retain water after some fat loss. have a carb day, get ready for a monster pee, and don't worry about it for a week.
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A carb day? As in, eat mostly carbs and it will flush out the water? I'd be willing to try that.
 
I recommend the do nothing option. You are seeing normal variations. You should monitor your weight, but look for long term trends. Measure your daily and weekly progress by your calorie intake, adjusting that as needed based on several weeks, not days, of weight loss data. Where the calories go, the weight will follow, eventually. The laws of physics will prevail.
 
Alright, well, I woke up this morning and surprise, surprise: I had that "monster pee" Big D mentioned. I'm now down to 193.4. I guess I was retaining a bunch of water. From now on I'll worry less about it now that I know about this phenomenon. Thanks guys!
 
I suggest you start modifying your workouts to this. It's the best way to build strength and muscle, and even losing weight. (diet will determine the weight loss more than the weight lifting)

The only way to kick a plateau is to jump start the metabolism. I know you've been doing alot of cardio from the get go, which is generally why i don't do much cardio until i start plateauing. The way to jump start it is usually increasing cardio, cross training (doing something different in cardio) and keep pounding away at the compound weights.
 
You're expecting too much, too fast. Your body is not a machine where it always does the same thing every day all the time. There are all kinds of thing that can affect your rate of loss - how much salt you ate, what's going on with your hormones (and yes, this applies to men as well as women), what the weather is like, and so forth.

People who change their plans every 3 weeks because they don't see what they want on the scale are doing more harm than good. And "shocking your metabolism" or "keeping your metabolism guessing" is overrated.

Keep doing what you're doing and remember it's the long term results that matter, not what happens between yesterday and today.
 
ConfusedCartman said:
Alright, well, I woke up this morning and surprise, surprise: I had that "monster pee" Big D mentioned. I'm now down to 193.4. I guess I was retaining a bunch of water. From now on I'll worry less about it now that I know about this phenomenon. Thanks guys!
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Awesome to hear man. I love being right. :p

But for real, a number of people I've researched and also talked to in person who have lost weight and kept it off for a long time all seem to mention the same thing. Throw the damn scale in a closet and only pull it out on the 1st of the month. It takes a while before people learn that you just can't micromanage weight loss, no matter how neurotically they track every bit of food and exercise, etc.
 
i am also 17 and a male and i have been dealing with loosing weight for the last few months and i started off real bad and wasnt eating that much at all with a lot of exercise for like 2 months and i dropped a ton of weight but i was in starvation mode probably eating like 1100 calories per day along with lots of exercise. since then, i have upped my calories to about 2500 per day with hiit 3 days a week and on my off days i lift weights and have a physical job that i collect carriages for hours. I gained weight for a few weeks because i was coming out of stavation mode but it has stabled now. I have been at a plateau for weeks and im not sure how many calories i should eat each day along with my exercise to lose weight. I am at 170 right now and i want to get to 160 and ill be happy. some websites say that i am a teen and should eat like 3000 calories which seems way to much. what should i do? 1800 a day seems low and i dont want to drop back into starvation mode
 
well dude, you're in luck. see, as a teen, especially a guy, you're still growing, and your body needs energy to grow. if you're at 3000 calories and you're stable, then good, you know what you need to maintain your weight. do a 10% cut and with your activity level, you'll likely be at your goal weight in about a month or two. Just don't go too gonzo with it all. I know there were times at that age, I'd pack on weight for no reason at all, then have a growth spurt and be back at my previous body comp.
 
Guitarpro - you should start a new thread with your questions. For one thing, you'll get more responses and for another, it's really not considered good form to "highjack" someone else's thread with your questions and issues.
 
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