Cutting progress plateau

A

amandal

New member
I’ve been cutting for about 7 weeks and for the first 5 weeks I was losing about 2lb a week and now I haven’t lost any weight on the scale for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been eating slightly less than I was the first 5 weeks to account for the weight loss but I’m not losing scale weight. I know for a fact I’m eating in a deficit. I weigh everything I put into my body and there is no way I’m eating too much food to lose weight (eating 1500 cal a day working out 4x a week at 5’9 20 years old, 157.8lb currently) I’m not expecting steady 2lb per week fat loss for 12+ weeks but I still think I should be losing at least a pound a week. Could it be water weight, need to empty bowels, did I gain muscle. Any advice would help. I’m gonna start doing more cardio on gym days and off days but other than that idk what’s going on or what to do
 
@amandal Your maintenance may not be what you thought it was. If your energy levels are still there, then it’s time to increase the deficit either through less food or more cardio. It’s just a matter of calories unless you’ve got some hormonal issues (which is unlikely as you’d have many other issues as a result)

Edit: just saw that you’re eating 1500 calories that’s nuts man just be patient, don’t burn yourself out
 
@amandal Good luck dude, but just be patient and you’ll get there. Are you trying to get lean for a stage? If not then the time crunch is non existent. Your body is a complex series of mechanisms that doesn’t operate on a “pound per week lost just because we have less calories” in the short term. It just works that way in the long term
 
@amandal Do you track steps? If you're sure about energy intake then the only option is that energy expenditure has decreased.

Or more likely just water weight. You'd pretty much have to be in a coma to be on 1500 kcal and not losing weight at 160lbs. Could be due to stress or recent changes in diet (electrolyte balance, fiber intake, carb ratio etc.)
 
@amandal Any changes in your diet? Are you weighing in at the same time? What's your TDEE & deficit you're running? Are you doing cardio?

There's so many variables, a 2 week plateau though it's normal, but if you aren't breaking it as of next week you might need to do some tweaking but my guess is the first considerable drop in weight would be due to your lack of carbs. That's kind of how it usually goes

I'm currently down from 240 to 195 averaging 1.5lb/week as of this morning so feel free to comment I'll reply the best I can
 
@amandal Usually give it about 2 weeks before I make any changes to activity or macros. If you truly are tracking as accurate as can be, you either do more activity “steps / cardio” or go deeper into a deficit with diet, which 1500 is already very very low. I would recommend the former.
 
@criko Thanks for the input I will definitely give it at least one more week til I change my diet or activity because from all the comments I’ve gotten it seems I’m just holding water. If not I’ll start doing daily cardio and go from there
 
@amandal I was 144.7lbs on Friday April 12th (which was then a new low). And I hit 144.3lbs yesterday (so my weight loss was obviously slowing down). And now I'm 145.1 lbs this morning even though I didn't particularly eat a whole lot and didn't exactly have a whole lot of carbs. 💀 It is what it is. My rate of weight loss has really slowed down. These things happen. On Wednesday March 27 (29 days ago) I was 147.0 lbs. So I have essentially lost only .469 lbs/week (-1.9 lbs) in the last 29 days.

On the bright side, if you are maintaining a smaller calorie surplus, you have more of a chance to build some muscle. And more of a chance of retaining muscle mass. The downside is that maybe we won't be as lean as we'd like by the time beach weather rolls around.

I've been cutting for 51 days. I am currently considering reducing my intake by another 100 calories after my next fortnightly cheat day on Saturday eating out with friends.
 
@kagenonikki I think I’m gonna give it some more time because I have lost scale weight (weighed in at 156.4 after eating a high volume meal and drinking water.) so I know I’m getting somewhere but if I do stagnate for over 3 weeks then I’m taking a diet break for sure
 
@amandal It can ebb and flow. Just curious how the training sessions are going because if you were losing 2lbs a week and already down to 16%, that would be a very aggressive cut.

I would be feeling like death. 1500 cals is nothing - I did my first aggressive cut at those numbers and it was brutal.
 
@elenamaria_9 Workout quality is good but much harder than what I’m used to.I would usually eat 33% to 50% of my carbs for the day 3 hours before a workout and have water/electrolytes/ and a lot of sodium. When I started the cut my workouts were shit because I was dehydrated due to lack of electrolytes and carbs. So I started drinking more water and having most of my carbs for the day before my workout and it’s been working well
 
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