A weight-loss plateau: what to check before you cut calories

Your weight was going down, and then it stopped. Your first thought is to eat even less. That’s usually the worst thing you can do: half the time the problem isn’t food but how you read the numbers.

First make sure it’s a plateau

A week with no change isn’t a plateau. Water can easily mask half a kilo of fat you’ve lost: a salty dinner, a hard workout, your cycle. Look at the smoothed weight line over three or four weeks, not at single weigh-ins. If the line is still going down, even if more slowly, nothing is broken.

A plateau is when the line stays flat for three weeks in a row and you weigh yourself under the same conditions.

Check your entries, not your willpower

The longer you keep a diary, the more of it is guesswork. After a couple of months your portions quietly grow while the entries stay the same.

• For a week, weigh what you eat most often: porridge, oil, nuts, cheese.
• Check whether you log drinks, sauces and what you taste while cooking.
• Look at the weekends: two free days can easily eat up the deficit from five weekdays.

Often a week like that shows the deficit was already gone — and what needs cutting isn’t the plan but the margin of error.

Remember that you’re lighter now

A body that weighs less burns less. A target worked out three months ago for a different weight may be plain maintenance today. Your metabolism isn’t broken; it’s just arithmetic.

In Kalorika the weekly review recalculates what you burn from your own data and suggests a new target if the old one no longer fits. Whether to accept it is up to you.

Check your sleep and steps

Sleep and movement change the picture more than you’d think. After a bad night you want to eat more and you move less. Your step count quietly drops too when you eat less: you’re tired, so you sit down instead of walking.

• Compare your steps over the last few weeks with what they were at the start.
• If you’re sleeping noticeably worse, start there, not with your plate.

If you’ve checked everything and the line is still flat

Then change one small thing: a little less food or a little more movement — and wait another two or three weeks. A sharp cut gives a quick result on the scale and an almost guaranteed slip.

Sometimes the best move is a break: one or two weeks at maintenance. Your weight will stay where it is, but your energy will come back and the next stage will be easier.

If your weight hasn’t moved for months on an honest deficit, or you’ve also developed weakness or other symptoms, talk to a doctor — it isn’t a reason to eat even less.