The FastDay Forum

Maybe you lost too much weight too soon TML13? 4kgs in 6 weeks is still over average weight loss on 5:2. I'm sure you will be off the plateau very soon as you seem to be doing everything you should on the diet.

16/8 means within 24 hours you fast for 16 of them and eat within an 8 hour window only. So eat nothing after 7pm until 11am the following day, then eat sensibly until 7pm. I have found I have to stick to two meals and no snacks, no sugar at all, sip water through the evening, strict calorie count everything, to stay within 73kgs. I'm not sure the livestrong app I use is particularly accurate, it's a bit guesstimate on calories most times, though the graphs are useful.

OK the awkward squad have turned up! (that's me BTW)

Firstly though, Susan's point is a good one, you are doing well TML, so don't beat yourself up too much...

I don't believe there is a such a thing as a 'plateau' in the sense of a stage that you reach after a given period of dieting. It is just the label that people attach to a situation in which they have stopped losing.

It is most often suggested that a plateau occurs after you have lost 10% of your body weight. I don't believe this (I know some experts here will disagree) - and it's not your situation TML in any case.

What I think happens is that as you lose weight your TDEE reduces. And I think that this reduction might be more than you think. If you have been/are overweight, your body is moving inefficiently and your muscles are having to overwork to get you around. As your weight moves closer to or into the zone for which your frame was designed, everything starts to work more efficiently. Obviously there is less mass to push about the place, but more than that the 'engine' works better because it is now doing something closer to the job it was designed to do. And as it works better, it uses fewer calories i.e. your metabolism slows down.

Although it seems as if your body is working against you here, I suspect that a significant part of the overall health benefits of not being overweight comes from that slower metabolism. Engines last longer when they aren't revving the whole time. (Sorry for the automobile analogy, it's a boy thing...)

So for a person otherwise in good health my answer to an apparent plateau (i.e. weight loss has reduced or stalled for more than just a couple of weeks) is to reduce your overall calorie intake a bit on the feed days.

A consequence of this is that when you finally reach your 'target' (as I just have) you have to accept that while you no longer have to 'diet' to lose weight, you will not be able to go back to your previous eating style, because your TDEE is now significantly lower. Those days are gone. This way of eating is for life!

I agree with Dominic. Once you lose weight you need less as your TDEE reduces. The amount I can eat now at 57kgs without gaining weight to what I ate when I was 70kgs is vastly reduced. As Dominic says being (and remaining) slim means changing your eating habits for life.

16/8 means within 24 hours you fast for 16 of them and eat within an 8 hour window only. So eat nothing after 7pm until 11am the following day, then eat sensibly until 7pm. I have found I have to stick to two meals and no snacks, no sugar at all, sip water through the evening, strict calorie count everything, to stay within 73kgs. I'm not sure the livestrong app I use is particularly accurate, it's a bit guesstimate on calories most times, though the graphs are useful.

I think it is really good that you have found something that works for you Azureblue. I couldn't do this because I like my breakfast too much and can't be bothered to calorie count everything, but it is nice to know there are alternatives!

humans usually like to look for patterns in this type of stuff.

I love looking at your charts Ken and thanks for posting! IMO you hit the nail on the head here...

Dominic, I can't reduce my calories more. It took me a while to get out of starvation mode (I was eating under 1000 calories and wasn't losing) and I don't want to do this again to my body.
Last week's average was 1031 calories and on the week before that it was 950, I can't go lower, in fact perhaps I should go higher...
I will do 2 more 4:3s, one before Easter and one after (both will be after two weekends of overeating so I think that it's the best way to balance things up) and then I'll do what I did in the beginning. 5:2 with no calorie counting. If that doesn't work, we'll see...

Although I'm not a salt-eater (I add some but it's fewer than the norm) I could try that as well. I do take a diuretic once a week though...

Kencc, that's a great chart. It shows a good 2-month example where there's a 3 week stretch in the middle that would be discouraging to many people who are looking at the past week or even the past two or three weeks without looking at the overall weight loss over a longer period of time. That period around March 19th would be especially frustrating for some! But when you back away and are able to draw a straight downward line from late February to late April that's obviously good, steady progress.

I recommend anyone who weighs themselves every day get a tracker like this that allows them to zoom out and see the bigger picture -- and use the zoom out feature!

Perhaps I'm not a math/chart person but I don't need a chart to see my pattern/progress. I have a calendar, I note down my weight and I cross reference the same days of different weeks.
But perhaps that's just me and my hatred for anything like making charts, inserting numbers etc. I like looking at charts but I don't like doing them. Blame my math teachers, not me!!!

humans usually like to look for patterns in this type of stuff.

I love looking at your charts Ken and thanks for posting! IMO you hit the nail on the head here...

yes, like charting on the stock exchange or astrology.

Ken's steps are pretty arbitrary - if they had been a fixed width until broken through and then gone down a notch or if they dropped when broken through to the next measurement it would be more analytical.

sure, but a more objective step definition would surely have put a step up around day 17 ?

I agree that it's "no more nonsensical than talking about plateaus and over-eating substantially above TDEE for a day in order to kick start the body into starting to shed weight again" so let's not create another one in the genre

Good post kencc, tho I don't think TML is a chart type of girl! Your graphs are excellent and I take your point that people can look at their stats (or just remember over the past few weeks) and feel they are stuck when actually it is just the natural variations in that descending rocky ridge that makes it look or feel like a plateau.

I wrote a 'comfort youself with the math' post a while ago that might also help some who feel they are stuck. The gist of which is: don't worry what the scales say, if you are being good and consuming under your TDEE, the real weight loss is happening and will show through in time.

If I did a chart, the line would be downwards till 3 weeks ago and then it would be an horizontal line with small ups and downs. Overall it would go downwards since I lost 4 kilos in total but that was in the first 3 weeks. Now, I gain and lose the same one kilo.
I might not be extra-clever but I can tell a trend by looking at a calendar of daily weights...

BTW, you can look at my tracker and see exactly what I'm saying.

Weighed myself this morning and wished I hadn't. I couldn't believe it as I had actually put a few pounds on. Oh well looks like I shall have to try the 4:3 diet next week and see what happens.