Originally Posted by
CraigB
Thanks for the encouraging words, and for offering a couple of fresh perspectives. They're always welcome. As far as muscle mass gain is concerned, I'd love to suggest that's what's happening, but for the fact that my exercise hasn't increased in intensity or duration during this troublesome time. That being said, I know very little about the biology of exercise and weight loss, and understand even less, so I guess I wouldn't rule it out completely. I do still detect minor changes in how clothing fits and things like that. In fact I said to the missus just the other day that even though the scale hasn't shown a net drop during the past 5 weeks or so (I'm still a half-pound heavier than I was on September 25), I get the sensation things body-wise are still "shifting around."
The last time I lost a substantial amount of weight was almost 30 years ago, and I don't have any specific recollection of hitting any protracted snags or plateaus, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen. And even now, this time around, I feel like I'm in no position to objectively call this a plateau. I know there have been instances of falling off the proverbial wagon. Frankly, I had a bad week or two that were followed up by too much food while on vacation (but I was expecting that - it was, after all, a vacation). Consequently, while I still have to deal with my own shortcomings, I can glean at least some small comfort in knowing that I'm not in a situation that is completely out of my control. To hear others talk, there are genuine plateaus - times when you can remain steadfast in your careful eating and degree of activity, and still see no results on the scale. When that happens, I suppose there really will be nothing to do but HTFU and keep at it, and rely on pure faith that sooner or later the losses will begin again.
Isn't "plateau" a technical term at Weight Watchers? I've seen it generally used to mean a stall of five weeks or more. it could mean nothing, or it could mean you need to refine what you are doing.
Hmm, I see you've lost nearly 50 pounds. Have you congratulated yourself on doing so?