Week 5 Day 4 - Plateaus

I haven't hit one yet but I know a plateau is in my future.  I've hit them before.  2 years ago when I lost 50 pounds I hit several slow spots, the longest one at 30 pounds.  I know that adding exercise this week will work well to keep me going.  I didn't get up and walk this morning, but I did walk today.  Fast and in the rain.

Was reading online about plateaus and some good points to be made:

1.  What might be causing your plateau:
Most people lose very quickly when they first start a weight-loss plan. You’ll often hear this referred to as losing “water weight.” When you reduce calorie intake, your body releases stores of glycogen, a stored carbohydrate. After glycogen is exhausted, your body burns fat stores – which is good, but…fat burns slower than glycogen. So weight loss may slow down. Don’t start thinking it’s a plateau until your weight-loss has halted for several consecutive weeks.   Other things that might be causing the plateau - too much loss too quickly (you start with muscle loss), a body's changing needs (smaller body = less calories needed), new medication (yeah, lots of meds can cause this)

2. Pushing past a plateau:
Eat more filling foods, don't forget to track everything you eat, make sure you aren't eating too many zero points foods, consider using half of your weekly values (!!) and consider measuring your food (you might be underestimating the sizes).
Move more - a pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat, but the muscle takes less space, so the fat loss might still be happening but the newly un-earthed muscle may be standing in your way.

It is predictable to lose more at the beginning of a dietary change. "When calories from food are reduced, the body gets needed energy by releasing its stores of glycogen, a type of carbohydrate found in the muscles and liver. Glycogen holds onto water, so when glycogen is burned for energy, it also releases the water—about 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen—resulting in substantial weight loss that's mostly water. "

"Once the body uses up its glycogen stores, it starts to burn fat for energy. Unlike glycogen, fat does not store much water and each gram of fat releases more than twice the amount of energy (i.e., calories) than a gram of glycogen. The result is that weight loss slows down substantially. At this point, the recommended rate of weight loss is no more than an average of 2 pounds per week. Losing weight faster than this is generally a sign that amounts of lean muscle mass, which like glycogen is largely water, are being broken down for energy."

The article goes on to state that a plateau around 6 months is likely to occur (great...something to look forward to) and that research is still unclear as to whether or not hormones related to fat might affect this, and metabolic changes may also affect the process.  Regardless, it's worth it to keep going because plateaus are not brick walls.  They are just things to move across.

(article from: http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=23561&sc=801)

I'm not giving up if/when I hit one.  Because if I can get my ass out of bed at 6:30 and go walk up heart-attack hill, I can work my way through a plateau.

One day.  One pound.  One step at a time.
~N