I’ve hit a weight loss plateau

Last updated on Wed, 14th Sep 2022

It’s around 2 months since my Gastric Bypass, and for most of the time the weight has fallen off me. However over the last week or more I’ve hit a plateau and not lost any weight!

I’ve not made any major changes to my diet or exercise. I log everything I eat in MyFitnessPal and all my activity in FitBit, and things like my daily calories intake is the same as previous weeks. My protein intake is the same. And my exercise is the same. I’m just not seeing and weight loss on the scales.

Up until now my progress has been good, and I’ve lost an average of over 2 kg a week, which has been amazing. So my recent stall or plateau was not expected.

It can be easy to feel down and frustrated when a weight loss hits a plateau – especially when you know you’ve been doing everything right. These negative emotions don’t help the weight loss process, and can often derail someone that was doing well.

However it helps that I’ve encountered this kind of thing before when losing weight. My body, for no apparent reason, just decides to retain the fat or fluid it would normally have shed. And there’s no reward shown on the scales for all the good work done.

The good news is that the plateau is almost always only temporary, and the weight loss will eventually show on the scales. The important thing it to try not to get too disheartened in the meantime, and to stick with it.

Some things I try to remember:

• This is a marathon, not a sprint. I need to look at my progress over the longer term, rather than day by day. It’s natural for the body weight to vary from day to day, and having a very regular weigh-in, such as daily, can give a false impression of progress. Instead I need to take a long term view, and look at my progress over the last month.
• Not all victories show on the scales. It is all too easy to fixate on the number of kilograms or pounds lost, but at the end of the day, I’m not on this weight loss journey to be a certain weight. I’m doing this to be healthier and have a better quality of life. So I should concentrate on the positive improvements that have already been made to my life. The clothes that I can now fit into, and the activities that are now much easier to do.
• The best things worth achieving in life are not easy. Nobody becomes a concert pianist the first time they sit down at a piano. Nobody becomes a leading brain surgeon on their first day at medical school. And nobody can shift a lot of weight without hard work, sacrifice, and sometimes disappointment and pain. So I try to concentrate on the investment I’m making in myself to reach the goal of being healthier in the future.

Of course, if my current plateau continues for an extended period of time, or indeed if I start gaining weight, then it might be time to take my weight-loss journey back to first principals. I would need to consult the dietician, maybe keep a more detailed food diary, and try and pinpoint where I’m going wrong.