Decreased metabolism or poor diet?
Although at the beginning of any low-calorie diet a person loses weight, one day he encounters a plateau when the weight stops falling.
The reasons often remain unclear because many claim to continue to strictly follow the diet. Therefore, the question arises: has the body adapted to losing weight and slowed down the metabolism so that a person has stopped losing weight even on a diet, or do people still break the diet without noticing it? Scientists also studied the causes of diet plateaus, which often occur around the 6-month mark (), and developed two mathematical models based on the first law of thermodynamics. One model must determine the extent of metabolic adaptations. This is the decrease in metabolism that must occur for weight loss to stop during a calorie deficit.
The second model is to determine the number of dietary violations that lead to a plateau. It took into account random (random) increases in caloric intake based on modeled behavioral reactions. These models were confirmed by four large and long-term studies:
- The US NHANES 1999-2004,
- Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy (CALERIE) weight-loss study
- The Bouchard Twin overfeeding study
- The Minnesota Starvation Experiment
It turned out that periodic diet violations are the main cause of the plateau:
“The evidence presented in the study shows that even unrealistically large decreases in metabolic rate in response to dieting (as metabolic adaptation to energy deficiency) do not influence early weight loss plateaus. Seemingly harmless, minor dietary irregularities are one of the main causes of commonly observed weight loss plateaus.”
Thus, the main reason for the lack of progress is non-compliance with the diet, as simple as it may sound. A person does not follow his diet and exercise regime as well as he thinks. I used to comply, but now, imperceptibly for myself, I relaxed, began to eat more, which led to a stop in losing weight.
There are two ways to break your diet: consciously and not. With conscious overeating, everything is clear: the person is tired of the diet, regularly overeats, but is aware of this. For example, uncontrolled cheat meals or even cheat days can easily reset your total weekly calorie deficit. It doesn’t matter that you followed an ideal diet all weekdays if on the weekend the deficit accumulated during the work week is completely canceled out “with the help” of high-calorie foods and alcohol.
The situation is much more complicated when someone losing weight is sure that he is on a diet, but in fact he is not. It’s difficult to track, but this is precisely the most common problem of stagnation. Many studies show that over time, people who lose weight begin to eat more without realizing it.
A good example is the “From A to Z” study (). Participants were divided into four groups, each following a different diet: Atkins, Zone, Ornish and LEARN diet. The purpose of the study is to determine where people will lose weight faster. As for the kilograms lost, there was no difference between the diets - all diets gave the same result, provided the correct caloric intake was observed.
But at the same time, scientists discovered interesting things. It turned out that diet compliance in all four groups gradually worsened over 12 weeks. And this was especially noticeable in groups with a stricter diet. Interestingly (but expectedly), participants in the more “loose” Zone diet showed smaller deviations from their protein, fat, and carbohydrate intakes by the end of the study.
Moreover, about half of the participants on the two most restrictive diets, Ornish and Atkins, quit them before the end of the study. On other more flexible diets, 35% did not reach the finish line.
And this is not the only study that shows that any diet that is not the stupidest works equally well, as long as there is a real calorie deficit. But what really matters is adherence to the diet, the ability of the person losing weight to stay on the diet long enough to achieve their goals.
Unconscious diet violations are well described in the scientific literature using the example of people's self-reports about their diet. Many studies show the same thing: obese people underestimate the number of calories they eat and overestimate their activity level.
Thus, participants in one of the studies tried different diets before the study began, but did not lose weight, despite the calorie deficit. They blamed slow metabolism and genes. But after checking by scientists, it turned out that the participants, even during a controlled experiment, unconsciously underestimated their calories by 47% and overestimated their activity by 51%, although they were sure that they were eating little and moving a lot. Read more about these studies here.
Why does weight stay the same when losing weight?
In desperate attempts to force your body to lose weight, you again and again ask yourself the question of why the weight has risen and does not go away? Nutritionists believe that the main reason that weight has stopped during the period of weight loss is a slowdown in metabolic processes. Due to the depletion of the daily menu and a decrease in the number of calories consumed, the body subconsciously “hibernates” and switches to a modified calorie consumption regime.
Other reasons why the weight has risen, experts include:
- hormonal imbalances (typical for women with very large body weight);
- fluid retention in the body, water balance disorders;
- lipid metabolism failures due to poor nutrition before the diet;
- lack or complete absence of physical activity.
Why doesn't weight come off when exercising?
It happens that you continue intense physical training and even increase the load, but the weight has risen tightly. There may be several reasons why weight does not come off when playing sports:
- you lose fat mass, but gain muscle mass;
- classes are structured incorrectly: the load is either excessive or not enough;
- exercises are performed with errors;
- you don't pay attention to your heart rate and because of this, your workouts are ineffective in terms of fat burning.
Before starting any type of training, be sure to calculate your fat-burning heart rate zone and carefully monitor your heart rate during exercise. Excruciating overload does not produce any results in terms of weight loss, because when the pulse exceeds 160 beats per minute, the body stops supplying oxygen to the tissues, and fat burning processes stop. Be sure to monitor your heart rate and ensure that it does not leave the fat-burning zone.
Why does your weight stay the same when you diet?
You chose a diet, planned your diet, and everything seemed to be going well, the kilograms were falling off every day, and suddenly there was a plateau on the diet. Why did I gain weight while losing weight? The reasons may be as follows:
- too slow removal of water from the body;
- too strict diet;
- functional restructuring of the body;
- slowing down metabolic processes.
If the reasons for your weight gain are related to fluid retention, then stop consuming salt to force your body to lose weight again. Remember that if you drink little, this does not lead to the removal of fluids, but to their accumulation. If the amount of calories coming from food is too small and does not cover their daily consumption, you need to reconsider the caloric content of the diet in order to speed up metabolic processes.
Why weight doesn't come off with proper nutrition
You have switched to the principles of proper nutrition, but you cannot force your body to lose weight again. Why doesn’t the weight go off on PP? If you are actively involved in sports, and previously such activities were not regular, then the reason for the plateau effect on proper nutrition may be that you began to gain muscle mass while simultaneously losing fat. The process of building muscle mass can be accompanied by water retention, which also does not contribute to weight loss.
Why volumes go away, but weight stays
Don't focus on quickly losing extra pounds. If the weight remains stable, the volume decreases - the weight loss process continues and there is no reason to panic. A plateau can be due to a huge number of reasons, up to the phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle. The body is a very complex system, and a slim body is not the only result that you will achieve with the help of a diet. Make an effort and force yourself to have a positive attitude if you want the weight to start falling again.
Sometimes a huge role in the fact that the weight has risen is simply a psychological infusion. Do not torture yourself with fasting and other grueling methods, just switch to a split diet with a sufficient level of protein and slow carbohydrates. Add more tasty and healthy products to your menu. To keep yourself in shape and have excellent skin condition, you just need to walk for an hour or an hour and a half a day in the fresh air.
Plateau: understand and accept
In fact, the plateau is not as bad as it might seem. Weight loss is not a linear process. It is more like going down steps, and the plateau is one of its steps. When a person sets big and long-term goals, periods of stagnation are inevitable. People should be aware that there will be several plateaus along the way to their goal, and each new one will likely be longer than the previous one.
Plateaus are usually discussed in a negative light, but this is a good thing because the ultimate goal of any weight loss is a long, lifelong plateau at your new weight. So intermediate plateaus are an opportunity to test your ability to maintain weight. So you can treat it as consolidating the achieved result, albeit an intermediate one.
How long does the plateau effect last?
When the weight has stopped due to the plateau effect, it can be very difficult to maintain the mood to continue working on yourself. This stage of weight loss, depending on the reasons for its onset, can last from three weeks to three months. The most important thing during this period is to continue to adhere to the correct diet (or switch to it from a strict diet if it caused a plateau), continue to train and ultimately ensure that the extra pounds begin to disappear again.
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How to overcome a plateau
First, you need to honestly evaluate your diet for hidden calories. It's a behavioral fact: the longer the diet, the more careless people eat, especially if they've lost a decent amount of weight and look good.
It is also necessary to evaluate the level of activity - many, even with regular training, are far from being defined as an “active person.”
If your workouts have not become less frequent or less intense, and the amount of food has not increased, you need to recalculate your calorie intake for the new weight and make a deficit based on the new figure. Then there are three options:
- Eat less (reduce calorie intake)
- Move more (increase consumption)
- Combinations of both
If your goal is to resume weight loss, then you need to re-look at your training and nutrition program. If people are not sticking to their exercise and/or nutrition program, we need to understand why. Most often, a plateau is exactly about this. How much room is there for increasing the intensity, duration, or frequency of your workouts? How much room is there for cutting calories? How radical and urgent is the goal that the person sets for himself?
The “plateau” effect in action: why weight stays the same when losing weight
The first reason why strange weight loss occurs after numerous attempts to get rid of extra pounds is hormonal changes that occur in the second phase of the cycle. It is at this time that progesterone levels increase, accompanied by fluid retention in the body. We often “accumulate” up to 3 liters of water in ourselves.
Should you panic in this case? No, because after completing the cycle, the weight will begin to decrease - provided that you adhere to the correct method, which involves following the advice of a nutritionist, regular meals, a balanced and healthy diet. Otherwise, the extra pounds will not be slow to return - however, already in double the volume.
