Calorie-Cutting, Exercise & Weight Loss Plateaus

You changed your eating habits and cut calories. Your weight dropped. Then weight loss stopped. Most people who have tried to lose weight have been there.  What happens?

In previous portions of my video interview with Steven Heymsfield, MD, Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and respected researcher on weight, we talked about short-term influences on weight loss: why the”3500 Calorie Rule” is obsolete, and how physical activity and age affect weight loss. In this final portion of our interview, Dr. Heymsfield explains what research shows about long-term weight loss and maintenance.

Weight Loss Expectations

In the first portion of our interview, Dr. Heymsfield explained why the old “3500 Calorie Rule” is not a good guide to how much weight you’ll lose in a month following any particular cut you make in calorie consumption.  The same holds true long-term. Based on the old 3500 Calorie Rule, someone who weighs 156 pounds and changes food choices to cut 150 calories a day would expect weight loss of 16 pounds in a year, and hope to see a scale reading of 140 pounds.  Yet based on the Dynamic Model, based on stronger research and discussed earlier in this series, we see that such a calorie cut is more likely to produce a one-year weight loss of six pounds, and the expected result at one year is a weight of 150 pounds.

As Dr. Heymsfield says, weight loss lower than what that person expected based on the 3500 Calorie Rule does not mean they did something wrong – it’s exactly what current science says is expected.

Pattern of Weight Loss

Dr. Heymsfield offers three key messages about the pattern of weight loss:

• Initially, weight drops relatively quickly, although a significant part of the weight lost is actually water.
• With time, rate of weight loss slows, but much more of what you lose is body fat.
• Even when you don’t see weight change on the scale, metabolic changes in response to reduced calorie consumption continue, and the steady state body composition of the “new you” may not be established for a year or two from the time you initially changed your eating habits.

Weight Loss Plateaus

Let’s say you changed your eating habits and reduce the amount of calories you’re consuming. As Dr. Heymsfield noted, initially your weight dropped noticeably each week. Then weight loss slowed. Then weight loss seemed to stop altogether – you hit what people call a “plateau”.

What does it mean? What should you do? Here are three possibilities to consider:

1) Maybe your body composition is still in final adjustments before full effects of your eating changes can be seen. As noted above and in our video interview, Dr. Heymsfield says that “steady state” endpoint takes longer to reach than you think. You just need to keep doing exactly what you’re doing.

2) Maybe your calorie consumption has been gradually creeping back up. Perhaps you initially measured food portions to help you cut back, but then switched to “guesstimating” a smaller portion, and over time you’ve slipped back to old portions as you live surrounded by super-sized everything. Perhaps you started by making delicious vegetables to fill up on at dinner, or cut back on eating out, or packed healthy lunches. But then, because you weren’t fully ready with workable new strategies, bit by bit the “old” way of doing things became the norm once again. For many people, new habits take a year or more to get established, and it’s not easy to stay intentionally focused on your choices that long.

3) Maybe this is the weight that the changes you made support.  It takes fewer calories to maintain a lighter weight than a heavier one.  If you continue the reduction in calorie consumption you began, you may reach a point when you need to decide if you can be happy with the new weight you’ve achieved or if you want to identify additional  eating changes to cut calorie consumption further.

Previously in this series, we looked at how we need fewer calories to maintain the same weight when we are older compared to when we were younger. Here’s another factor that changes the calorie level that maintains your weight. Using the currently recommended formula to estimate calorie needs, look at the difference at different weights:

For a 50-year old woman who is 5’6” and moderately active:

• At 180 pounds, we expect her to maintain weight with 1802 calories/day
• At 160 pounds, we expect her to maintain weight with 1687 calories/day
• At 140 pounds, we expect her to maintain weight with 1583 calories/day

Regardless of age or gender, each 20 pounds less you weigh, you need about 100 calories less each day to stay there if physical activity is unchanged.

Healthy Weight for the Long Run

When you’ve changed eating habits to promote weight loss, and weight loss stalls after a few weeks or months, remember that you may be in the final stages of body composition readjustment. If you continue your lower-calorie eating habits, a bit more weight loss – and most importantly, loss of excess body fat – may still be coming.

However, changes in eating habits can be a “slippery slope”;  what is initially an exception to the new habits you’ve been developing somehow becomes the norm once again. Tracking your eating changes on paper, online or with one of the many smart phone apps now available can be a big help in keeping more aware of the choices you make. Some people like tracking everything they eat and drink. If that feels like too much, you can also simply track how you’re doing each day with specific goals you set (such as vegetables at dinner, fruit for a snack or a balanced breakfast).

Eventually, even when you continue a drop in calorie consumption, weight loss will stop.

If there are further changes you feel ready to tackle, they may bring you to that healthier weight. However, if you don’t see any more changes in eating habits you are willing to make or that you can make while still eating enough to meet your nutrient needs, that’s a different story.  I encourage you to see a Registered Dietitian, who has the expertise to see potential changes you might not have considered.  Or perhaps it’s time to accept the weight you’ve reached, and switch your focus to how you can be the healthiest you at this weight.

Healthy Habits as a Focus

Emerging research results suggest that strategies for long-term weight loss and maintenance may differ from strategies that bring short-term weight loss. Based on the WOMAN (Women on the Move through Activity and Nutrition) Study, results from the National Weight Control Registry (which follows people who achieved at least a 10 percent weight loss and maintained the loss for at least a year) and other studies with a longer-term look at weight loss, here are some habits that are among the choices consistently linked with maintenance of weight loss:

• Keep sweets to occasional use only
• Limit sugar-sweetened drinks
• Reduce fried foods
• Choose fish more often (see above – this doesn’t mean fried fish)
• Boost the servings of vegetables and fruits you eat each day
• Eat breakfast
• Ramp up physical activity – aim for bouts of 10 minutes or more to total 40 to 60 minutes every day
• Keep track of your weight

When you’re aiming for long-term healthy habits, you need to balance staying aware of the choices you make until they really become habit while keeping a positive mindset that doesn’t leave you feeling deprived or unable to enjoy life. Foster Flexible Restraint without rigid rules.

Bottom line on Plateaus and a Healthy Weight Long-Term:  

A goal of maintaining the weight loss you’ve already achieved is a meaningful step for health. People often underestimate the challenge of continuing new habits without the excitement of weight loss and the reinforcement of people’s praise. Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight for the long-run means responding thoughtfully when you hit a plateau. It is a challenge…but a challenge that pays off in health. Keep coming back here for tips and to keep you focused on health as the true goal.

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References

Thomas DM et al. Can a weight loss of one pound a week be achieved with a 3500-kcal deficit? Commentary on a commonly accepted rule.  International Journal of Obesity, advance online publication  April 30,2013. doi: 10.1038/ijo.2013.51

Frankenfield, D et al. Comparison of Predictive Equations for Resting Metabolic Rate in Healthy Nonobese and Obese Adults: A Systematic Review. J Acad Nutr Dietetics. 2012; 112(9): 1415-1420.

Barone Gibbs B et al. Short- and Long-Term Eating Habit Modification Predicts Weight Change in Overweight, Postmenopausal Women:  Results from the WOMAN Study. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2012; 112:1347-1355.