Case Study: Why do we sometimes plateau?

For anyone who sometimes gets frustrated with not losing enough weight fast enough (I am looking in the mirror here), or for anyone who is data-oriented, I thought you might find this little case study valuable.  If you don’t really care about detailed data, definitely feel free to ignore!

Our goal is to get lean and strong, not to lose a lot of weight quickly and get skinny fat.  If we’re consistently hitting the leading indicators that we can impact daily (ie putting green on the scoreboard), specifically consistently eating protein and consistent exercise (w/ strength training), then we’re recomposing our body away from fat and towards muscle.

I started changing my diet and was losing 1-2 pounds/week earlier in 2024, a couple months before this Challenge started, so I’ve been closer to the 0.5-1.0 pounds/week during this Challenge.  I was down from 218 to 203 on 4/1/24. I am at 194.5 as of this morning (6/13).

The stats in the table below are the results of two InBody scans that I got - one on 4/16/24 and one on 6/12/24 - they show an accurate % Body Fat, Muscle Mass, and other stats. 

When we step on the scale at home, we see Metric 1 - Overall Weight.   I went from 199.5 to 195.2 losing 4.3 pounds during this timeframe.  At first glance, it seems a little underwhelming for 8 weeks.

But that top level metric is made up of real changes under the hood.  As you’ll see I actually LOST almost 8 pounds of fat and GAINED a little over 2 pounds of muscle.  

Now, my exercise routine has been pretty lame.  I need to up my game on lifts/squats.  For those of you who are consistent with your protein and who have better exercise routines, you’re probably seeing even more muscle building, so Metric 2 is going up even more.  This would result in net weight changes on the home scale that underplay the real body composition changes even more (fat loss and muscle gains).  

Since this is a long-term game, we can see why so many people may want a quick fix, and can become demoralized with what appears to be a “plateau”, but what is actually real change and progress under the hood.

The bottom line - put up green on the board, make sure you’re exercising consistently, and don’t worry about the day to day home scale changes.  

Daily, slow, steady, consistent - Turning Heads at the Beach!

The image below is an InBody data set for example purposes only: