Lose Weight Now Plateau

Weight-loss plateaus: The bottom line Having a weight loss plateau is almost guaranteed during a weight loss journey, and it’s actually an important part. There are many reasons why you might experience a weight loss plateau, this could be down to reverting your old eating habits, reducing your exercise, or having poor sleep or excess stress. However, the main reason you’ll experience a weight loss plateau is down to your body’s ‘set point’. Your set point is your body’s desired fat levels stored within the body; when you lose weight, your brain responds by lowering your metabolism and trying to store fat. This will slow down your weight loss, but over time, your set point will fall, and you’ll continue losing weight. We often expect weight loss to be a linear journey to the bottom, but you’ll have variations in your weight – this is perfectly natural and normal. Weight loss plateaus may last anywhere between 8-12 weeks.

That said, it can be very easy to start second-guessing yourself and question whether you’re still doing the right things – particularly when the weight doesn’t seem to move for 4+ weeks.

This is an incredibly long time, which is why we often find it helpful to have additional support and reassurance during this time – otherwise, it’s very easy to give up.

So You Hit A Weight Loss Plateau. Here's Why

With Second Nature, you’ll have a group to support you through your weight-loss journey and a registered nutritionist or dietitian to give you 1-2-1 support.

We don’t ask you to track the number of calories you eat, tell you to cut the carbs and go keto or make you follow a strict diet plan to lose weight.

We get to the core of overeating, help you change your mind about healthy living, and support you every step of the way.

How To Overcome Weight Plateaus

If you’d like to join over 150, 000 others who’ve made losing weight feel easier, the first step is to take our health quiz to give the Second Nature programme a try and reach your weight loss goals for the long term.

It’s common for those on a weight loss journey to notice that their weight loss has slowed down or stopped, even if they’re still eating fewer calories.

For those of us sustainably building healthy habits around diet, physical activity, exercise, strength training, sleep, and stress, it can be confusing to see our weight going down steadily for some time and then remaining the same or slightly increasing.

Big Ways To Break Through Weight Loss Plateaus

This is known as a weight-loss plateau and can be incredibly demotivating. It’s essential to understand the science behind why this happens and how we can get past a weight-loss plateau so that we can reach our health goals.

If you’ve had many unsuccessful weight loss efforts in the past, you know how hard it is to continue losing weight and keep it off in the long run. Fat loss is often a short-term experience associated with eventual weight regain.

The ideal weight loss journey will be phased with periods of losing body fat and weight maintenance until we reach our goal weight.

When Does Weight Loss Plateau Happen

Let’s recap the dieting journey many of us have taken in the past: significant initial weight loss after lowering your calorie intake or cutting the carbs, then progress stalls, then progress continues to plateau, and finally, we get disillusioned and quit.

We tend to lose weight quickly in the first few weeks after making lifestyle changes. However, after a few weeks, we might notice the scales come to a complete standstill, or the numbers start to creep back up.

Often when we embark on a weight-loss journey, we assume it will be linear. We think we can keep losing weight at the same rate as when we first started. But this isn’t the case.

You Hit A Weight Loss Plateau—what Next?

Below we can see a graph representing our ‘expectations’ vs the ‘reality’ of a typical weight loss journey. In the graph on the right, we can see intermittent periods of weight loss and weight plateaus.

Although this might not look ideal, the journey on the right represents a more sustainable way to lose weight. It’s worth noting that our weight is still trending downward overall, but we experience fluctuations and plateaus along the way.

Key points: A weight-loss plateau is a period of ‘stalling’ or even weight gain on our weight loss journey No healthy, sustainable weight loss journey is linear and the plateaus are important for long-term weight loss.

What To Do When Your Weight Loss Has Plateaued

Second Nature uses science to help you make healthy choices, ensuring they stick in the long run. Join the 150, 000 people on a Second Nature journey today by taking our quiz. We use your quiz answers to tailor our advice and support on the programme, to ensure you lose weight and keep it off.

The weight-loss plateaus are essential to allow time for our body to ‘reset’ before we can continue losing weight again. This is explained through a theory called the ‘set-point theory’.

Our body’s average temperature is 37 degrees. If we go above or below that, the body will do everything in its power to get us back to that normal temperature – it’ll sweat to cool down or shiver to keep warm.

Will A Weight Loss Plateau Go Away On Its Own?

Everyone has a natural ‘set point’, the weight our body hovers at when we eat healthily. Our DNA and the environment around us determine our set point.

Slow, gradual weight gain over many years can trick our body into thinking its set point is higher than it should be, which causes our body to resettle at a new, higher weight.

Scientists estimate that the average person will have a set-point range of 5-10% of their body weight, which means that at any given time, our body can lose or gain between that amount without much resistance.

Tips To Beat A Weight Loss Plateau

For example, if your current ‘set point’ is 12 stone (76kg), your body could lose or gain between ~8-17lbs (4-8kg) without too much resistance.

However, going below this range would be highly challenging. Our body is programmed to function optimally within our set-point range and will do everything to maintain it.

It’s important to remember that everyone is unique, so some people might have a different set-point range, meaning their body allows a much smaller or more significant weight loss before meeting resistance.

How To Lose Weight Naturally

Key points: ‘Set-point theory’ explains why it’s important to allow time for our body to ‘reset’ before we can continue losing weight again Everyone has a unique set-point weight and going below this weight is extremely challenging.

The set-point theory explains why some people reach a ‘stalemate’ situation when losing weight naturally, despite continually practising healthy habits around diet, exercise, sleep, and stress.

Our natural set point might not be what we want it to be or even what society thinks it should be. Some of us will naturally have a higher weight set point, and others will have a lower one.

After Losing 70 Pounds, Woman Shares 7 Tips To Get Past A Weight Loss Plateau

It’s essential to take this into account when making lifestyle changes. If our goal is unrealistic, it can be demotivating when it’s not realised quickly enough, resulting in us giving up and returning to unhealthy habits.

Key points: Set-point theory explains why some people reach a ‘stalemate’ situation when losing weight naturally, despite continually practising healthy habits Some of us will naturally have a higher weight set point, and some of us will have a lower one.

A weight-loss plateau doesn’t mean our healthy lifestyle changes aren’t working. If they’re a result of reaching our set-point weight, it’s a necessary part of our body’s process to readjust and reset.

Proven) Steps To Break A Weight Loss Plateau

Research shows that two-thirds of people regain all the weight they lost, and then some follow a strict diet, so we need to remember that maintaining the weight we’ve already lost is a significant achievement.

The weight maintenance phase, or weight loss plateau, is essential to allow our body time to adapt. If we ignore this maintenance phase, continuing to lose weight will be a monumental battle.

From an evolutionary point of view, this makes sense. For our ancestors, periods of weight loss generally indicated a risk of starvation due to a lack of food availability.

Weight Loss Plateau: How To Get Over It

Therefore, our body would try its best to hold onto the energy stores that we already have. This is achieved by lowering our basal metabolic rate (BMR).

BMR measures the energy our body requires to stay functioning at rest. This is how much energy is needed to perform essential functions like breathing, keeping our heart pumping, and digestion.

If we lose weight, our body will become much better at rationing what it has to make it last longer. It will reduce our body temperature, thyroid activity, and fat oxidation (or the amount of fat we burn) and help our muscles move more efficiently.

Keto Plateau: Causes And How To Break Weight Loss Plateaus

On top of this, research indicates that people who’ve lost weight have higher levels of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) than those who’ve kept the same weight for years.

A weight-loss plateau is important to allow our body’s metabolic rate and ghrelin signalling to readjust back to normal. This happens when our body ‘resets’ to a new, lower set-point weight.

Key points: A weight-loss plateau doesn’t mean our healthy lifestyle changes aren’t working The weight maintenance phase, or weight loss plateau, is essential to allow our body time to adapt

Weight Loss Plateaus: Why They Happen And What To Do