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The Math Behind Weight Loss Plateaus
Wanted to know why it's so important to count calories and be aware of how much you're putting in your body? Here's why. ...
by Erika Nicole Kendall
As we prepare to wrap up our calorie counting challenge, I imagine you may fall into one of four categories:
- You may have started off counting your calories, but became so disappointed and surprised that you gave up after a few days;
- You may have said you don’t want or need to know your average daily calorie count, and decided not to participate;
- You may have not only started your counting but kept up your counting and still are;
- Or, you may have started off counting and became so disappointed that you immediately started changing your daily diet to try to meet your daily calorie and weight loss needs.
credit: cogdogblog
As long are you don’t fall under number two, I don’t care where, exactly you fall. The reality is that those numbers you collect – be it from two days or twelve – play a monumental part in our ability to maintain and lose weight.
I’ve written about the hard numbers before, but I’d like to get into a little bit more detail about it, today. If you’ve never read my post about the basics of calorie counting, you might want to check it out.
The facts stand as follows:
- Our bodies burn a set number of calories each day based on our height and weight.
- A body carrying more weight than average is going to require more food than average to maintain that weight.
- A body carrying more weight than average is going to require more food than average to gain weight on top of that weight.
- A body carrying less weight than average will require less food than average to maintain that weight.
To put this into action, let’s use a 27 year old female who weighs 170 at 5’8″ with a sedentary lifestyle as an example.
If we plug those numbers into one of my favorite calculators, it says that she burns approximately 2,173 calories per day. What this means, is that in order for her body to manage all of the functions it needs to handle, it will burn 2,173 calories. The body will pull those calories either from the food she eats, or the fat stores in the body.
In order for her to not gain or lose any weight over a one week time frame, she’d have to eat approximately 2,200 calories. That’s what you call a maintenance count.
In order for her to gain a pound in a week, she’d have to eat an extra 3,500 calories worth of food. (Remember, 1lb = 3,500 calories.) Aside from the weight of the actual food still in her system (that is, if she doesn’t go number two regularly), if she eats, on average, 500 calories over her maintenance count each day, she’ll gain a pound.
In order for her to lose a pound in a week, she’d have to cut 500 calories from her maintenance count. So, if she made sure her average daily calorie count never exceeded approximately 1,700 calories, she would lose a pound of weight (not including the weight of the actual food still in her body, because she should be going number two regularly.)
Note: If she wants to burn two pounds a week, she can step it up in the activity department and burn approximately 500 extra calories a day – either through running or swimming or even walking – and knock out another 3,500 calories in a week. But we’re not talking about exercise just yet – that’s for next week. So for this example, she’s not working out.
So we’ve covered the obvious basics, but here’s where we go wrong.
Say she works her tail off, and gets down to 148, but decides she wants to drop down to 140. Okay, now we’ve got a goal. This is great. She keeps up her same routine – eat healthy every day, weigh herself on Saturday – because obviously it’s working for her.
Except… it stops working for her.
All of a sudden, the weight loss slows down. It’s almost two weeks before she even sees a pound fade away. She starts getting discouraged, and starts to feel like she’s ready to give up.
This is where we go wrong.
When we lose 22lbs like this, we HAVE to go back to start. What did I say at the start?
To put this into action, let’s use a 27 year old female who weighs 170 at 5’8″ with a sedentary lifestyle as an example.
If we plug those numbers into one of my favorite calculators, it says that she burns approximately 2,173 calories per day.
A 20lb weight loss alters how many calories our bodies burn in a given day by over100 calories! A woman who is 5’8″, weighing in at now 148 pounds, doesn’t burn 2,173 calories each day – she burns 2,025! If she’s counting to make sure she eats 1,600 calories each day,that’s only a 425 calorie deficit! That’s not enough to burn a pound every 7 days, it’s enough to burn a pound every 9 days. Meaning there may only be two Saturdays in the month where she sees any progress on the scale, depending upon where those nine-day markers fall.
After each successful stride in your journey, you must reassess your metabolic rate, be it for an athlete or a couch potato. You have to know what your body is doing, and you have to remember that as your size changes, your capabilities change. Remember, being conscious is a MAJOR part of not only losing weight, but keeping it off. My favorite line is “If you never eat it, you don’t have to worry about burning it off.” But you have to know what you’re eating in order to know whether or not you should be eating it, right? That’s why I calorie count!
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27 Responses to “The Math Behind Weight Loss Plateaus”
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Thanks for inspiring me to get back on the wagon!
You can do it!
This makes so much sense it’s scary.
Thanks. I needed to read this.
It’s always the smallest of things that slip by us and get us caught up in the biggest ways, so I’m glad I could help a bit.
Thank you for this post. I have lost 70lbs but need to lose at least 15 more. I am doing the same things I have been doing but my weight won’t move as “easily” as it did when I was heavier. It sucks because I feel stuck. Now I have a new plan of attack!
Yep! Time to reshift and restart! Whenever something slows up for me, my first response is always to go back to start!
Ok E, I didnt read futher into the series. now I found it so now I will work the math backwards to calulate how much I should intake, to lose as always thanks
Start with the link to that calculator, and you should do fine.
I’m glad you’re forgiving, because I started off dedicated tracking on SparkPeople – for two days. I went to Chicago and clearly didn’t want to log that I ate 8 of those chocolate pecan cookies from Grand Lux Cafe.
So I will reflect on those two days, check out that calculator and log today’s food and activity. FYI, I’m going to use this site for accountability. My goal is to not lie to you, Erica or to the other folks visiting this site. So let me go log onto Sparkpeople now! Good post. Thanks.
Well, are you indulging in all those chocolate cookies regularly? THAT might be something you need to track over an extended period of time, mama… you very well could be sabotaging your own efforts and don’t WANT to realize it.
I may be forgiving, but your body (and your health) are different…. so you’ve got to be vigilant, mama.
I just found myself saying “girl, please I’d be in the gym all night and that aint happening, I want to go home feeling good after my hour, thats why I calorie count”
This series is having more impact on me then I thought.
Erika, my body and my health thank you!
I’m further convinced that I need to count calories. Thanks for the knowledge.
Thank you so much for this. I don’t calorie count, I point count, but may need to use this b/c I lost 20 pounds & now I’m stuck! Back to the drawing board.
Thank you for breaking this down in simplistic terms. So many times I’ve been told about calorie counting and it felt daunting but now I get the jist of it and it makes a heck of a lot more sense.
I am soooo happy that I stumbled across your blog while being nosy(someone’s facebook status said that they “commented on your page” and being nosy I can over to take a look-see at your group/page and then saw the link for the blog).
I am posting because I had hit a bit of a wall in my weight loss and was wondering what I needed to do to get back on track. Never did I think that I needed to reassess my current weight/caloric intake/energy expenditure every time I lost weight. How foolish of me, really.
I am now planning weekly reassessments to ensure that I stay on track with my weight loss plan. Thank you for posting this “Weight Loss Calculations for Dummies” post and thank you for the link to the calculator.
I’m really confused with the calculator, it says I require 2265calories per day to maintain my weight (2159calories if I don’t workout that day), however I eat at most 1400 calories, averaging at 1000 calories per day, and for the past week I’ve not noticed any significant weight loss, can I attribute this to muscle development because before when I lost 4lbs in a week, I didn’t weight lift at all, I just did pure cardio and danced. Now I kick box and weight lift, and I do crunches, squats and lunges. After the week mentioned (4lbs) I only lost 1lb, and since that second week, I’ve been oscillating around the same weight despite working out with a greater intensity and with the weight lifting added on top.
Apart from letting the scale rule over me (because I can see my tummy toning), what could be the issue here (if there is one)?
Not only muscle development, but whether or not you’ve got enough fiber in your diet.
You are so right! I love calorie counting…it is easy and it follows the simple rule of intake and weight gain or loss.
I don’t calorie count but I’m thinking about incorporating it into my routine to lose the last 15 pounds I’d like to drop. I’ve already lost 111. Keep up the great work!
Best explanation ever!
I am doing weight watchers and although it s not calorie counting by numbers, you are counting points to stay accountable with your food intake. And you hit it exactly, being conscious of what you are taking in is the biggest part of the journey to be successful. I was stalling, lsing little bits here and there. Had to get back to basics with tracking everything I ate and cleaner eating, which worked well with ww because they encourage the power foods. Dropped 5 lbs last week as a result. Now I know if things stall, that is an signal to refocus. Great post, as usual.
Hm. I never thought of it that way.
Calorie counting is great, though sometimes I question whether I’m doing it correctly. I’ve been on the verge of being obsessed with counting every little thing that goes into my body, but just like the weight loss challenge, it leaves me with something else to work through.
I think this will help me not worry so much and enjoy the calorie reduction rather than sit by miserably mentally dissecting food and avoiding all the stuff I love.
Thanks so much for this article! I just know it’s going to help!
Thank you so much for writing this the other day i was wondering why after losing 30lbs in 2 months why my weight loss started to slow down. I hit the gym hard core but my calorie count was not up to par. I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with me. Much appreciated
Wow this article was so timely for me. I just lost 22 lbs (like our example above) and my weight loss has gone from an average 4lbs a week over the last 6 weeks to 0.5-0.8 lbs a week. I knew I needed to ramp things up but of course I looked to my exercise regimen instead of my diet because who wants to pull back on more calories (not me!). But this has motivated me to adjust my caloric intake goals again. Thanks!
WOW! I so needed to read this, this is a great way to start the new year!
I totally just had an aha moment. I’ve hit a wall the last month and it’s killing me. I have been using what I used 40lbs ago, so I guess it’s time to reassess.
Thank you so much for this, Erika!! I love your blog so much– even though I’m slowly working up to living a healthier life style in order to lose weight (and it’s taking a little longer than I’d like), your blog is filling my head full of good information. This is by far one of my favorites because it makes all of the sense that no one else makes when it comes to this. Everyone always says that when you plateau it’s because your body is at it’s set point and you have to work extra hard to break it out of that- but obviously we need to go back and re-check. It’s amazing how something that, on paper, is so easy- yet it’s so hard.