Weight stall

[egsiue]

Hey, When I began my cut I went into a 500 calorie deficit, I was losing a pound a week for about 5 weeks and all of a sudden my weight plateaued. I was expecting my weight to plateau at some point but I’m just surprised that my weight loss didn’t slow down over time, i just suddenly stopped losing. Is this normal?

[faithbrah]

how long has it plateaued for?

[SuffolkPunch]

Yeah we need to know how long this plateau has lasted.

If you don't weigh yourself every day, it could just be a high reading.

It could also be water retention

Your metabolism adapts but as you correctly surmise, weight loss doesn't abruptly stop.

[egsiue]

I was 175.4 on 2/11, then I dropped to 173.8 on 2/16, but after that my weight came back up to 175 On 2/20 and Has been around 175 ever since. So it’s been about a week and a half. This morning I was 175.2. It seems like I need to drop my calories, so if that’s the case should I drop 500 calories to allow me to drop about 1 lb a week, or should I drop 250 calories and see what happens

[SuffolkPunch]

That's not really enough data to draw any conclusions. You could still be just retaining water.

It would pay to double check all your measurements and portion sizes are genuinely the same as they were when you were losing weight steadily. If you were dropping 1lb a week for 5 weeks, that can't just be a water weight abberation.

[egsiue]

I eat the same things Measured with a food scale everyday, I drink the same amount of water everyday, and my bathroom habits have been completely normal. The only thing I can think of that could be leading to water retention is stress, but that’s only been an issue the last two days. I would also say that poor sleep could be a factor but I don’t think that’s it because other than last night (room mates kept me up) my sleep has been great. I guess I’ll try and sleep well tonight, spend extra time studying to help me calm down about the excessive amount of information I have to memorize in my uni classes, and then see what happens the next few days. If my weight stays the same, I’ll just slightly drop my calories and see what happens

[Tommy W.]

Sudden stall is water plus the fact that it's been such a short time that you've been dieting. If no change for another week then most likely your initial loss was water and you'll need to lower calories even though you think you're in a deficit. No change for 3 weeks means no weekly deficit