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[Dejah]

When dieting or on a weight loss program do you sometimes have "Plateaus" where you find yourself not losing or gaining but staying the same for a week or so, then the weight starts coming off again?

It can get a bit frustrating when hitting plateaus and many times one will fall off a program and say "it's not working anymore" and just give up when you shouldn't...

There are many ideas on what causes these and everyone is different, but what are your thoughts on this?

Could it be...

Not Drinking enough water?

Not enough Activities or Exercise?

Portion sizes have gotten a bit out of control?

[WreckWench]

In order to answer the question more fully one also needs to know how restrictive your calorie counts are?

Many dieters go on a 'limited' calorie diet and the body initially responds by using stored reserves to make up for that deficit and you lose weight. However in time the body percieves the deficit as a chronic 'famine' situation and it gets smart and starts to operate more effeciently meaning it now functions on the number of calories you are supplying it so it doesn't have to dip into its reserves.

Usually the person dieting sees this as a plateau. The typical response is to then further reduce calories. Once again the body will respond in the way that we want...it will use its fat reserves to make up the deficit. However once the body realizes that you are yet again in a chronic famine situation it will yet again adapt to the lower number of calories and become more effecient causing yet another plateau.

This cycle will continue until the dieter gives up and goes back to eating still fewer calories than where they started BUT more than where their body has become effecient at. The result is now the dieter will gain weight on a reduced calorie diet.

Example: Dieter reduces calories to 1200 per day and loses weight for awhile. Then hits plataeu or the point where the body has adapted to the chronic famine situation. Now the dieter reduces calories to 1000 and starts to lose again. Once again the body adapts the dieter gets frustrated. So in one last attempt to lose weight they drop their caloric intake to 800 calories. Well 800 calories a day is not enough to survive on and can not be maintained. So after a short period of time starving theirself, the dieter increases to 1100 calories a day which is still less than the original caloric reduction of 1200 but is now 300 more than the last plateau that the body got used too. So now you start GAINING weight on 1100 calories a day.

This is a vicious cycle that you must first not create and if you do you must break it.