Can someone explain plateaus to me

[Merc009]

Imagine the following scenario

Im 250lbs losing 2 lbs a week on 2700 calories, when I stop losing weight at 240, I cut calories down to 2500 until I get down to 230


Is that the same as just straight up eating 2500 calories to go from 250-230?


I know im not gonna plateau exactly every 10 lbs i used this example for the sake of simplicity.

Obviously I’ve been eating alot of food , can I just eat what I used to eat at 200 lbs and go from 250 to 200?

[xsquid99]

Sure you're free to drop calories right to the lower point and ride it all the way to the end, but most people find it easier to go in stages. The one downside to going in stages is that is that some people hit a plateau and then sit at that weight for a couple weeks only to find out they're now eating at their maintenance before figuring out they need to drop calories again, and now you have a couple weeks lost as a result. The upside to stepping it down is that if you do plateau you still have somewhere to go from there, instead of going low calorie right out of the gate and then not having a lot of calories left to play with if you do plateau.

You just need to be mindful that you're getting at least 0.7g of protein and 0.4g of fats per lb of bodyweight daily. So if you choose to drop to a low calorie level then you need to ensure you can still hit your minimum daily requirements at that low calorie mark. So for you at 250 lbs that means at least 175g of protein (700 cals) and 100g of fats (900 cals) which only leaves space for 100g of carbs per day. If you're good with that then its fine, but some people might not be.

[Luclin999]

"Plateaus" are generally caused by three things.


1. Person isn't really in a deficit. IE. They are eating more than they think that they are. This is probably the most common reason for the "I've been stuck at XXX pounds for MONTHS!" posts here.

2. Water fluctuation. When a person is in a sustained deficit, the fats cells that are depleted of glycogen tend to take on extra water in order to remain "full". It can take days or sometimes even weeks for the body to trigger those cells to drop the water and when it happens it tends to happen in surges, meaning you may stay the same exact weight for 2+ weeks and then one morning wake up and 2-3 pounds have just dropped off.

3. Overall metabolic decrease. This happens because of two things. One, as you lose mass your TDEE drops but only by something like 5-6 calories/day per pound of fat lost. Two, reduced activity levels. Generally after you have been in a deficit for weeks or months you tend to tire a bit quicker and almost subconsciously become less active overall than you were when you started dieting. The only solution for this is to realize that you have slowed down, get back up and push yourself back to your previous activity levels.