Why Did My Weight Loss Stall? Don't Panic, Give It Two Weeks

Don't panic. Give it two more weeks. That is my answer almost every time.

What is going on in there

The scale does not measure fat. It measures the total amount of stuff that is you: fat, muscle, water, food in your gut, all of it.

A lot changes while you diet. As you lose fat, your hormones shift. A man who loses fat aromatizes less estrogen, and that can change water balance. Cortisol and sleep can change too. Sodium moves around. Eat more fruit and vegetables to stay full and you hold more water, and the extra fiber can slow things down in your gut.

So when the scale stalls, it does not mean the work stopped. It means nothing drastic is changing right now. Good habits are still doing good things that show up a week or two later.

It is very common

I see it in myself and in clients all the time. You sit at the same number for a week, or even 10 days, and then on day 11 you drop 3 pounds out of nowhere. Usually your body finally lets go of the water it was holding.

If two weeks pass and you are still stuck

Now we pull a lever. Check these three things, in this order:

• Hunger. If it is not through the roof, maybe we can pull a few calories back in the right places.
• Movement. Do you have the time, energy and recovery to add more?
• Blood work. Is there anything hormonal that could be getting in the way?

The goal is always the same: find where we can still create a bit more deficit, through one of those three.

Built with Courage. Built with Consistency. Built Anyway.