Real Life Fitness Questions Answered

Is my weight loss plateau to do with fluid retention?

Hi there, So I started Nutracheck on the 3rd May, to date I have lost round about 1st 9lbs and am only half a stone (ish) away from my target weight of 10.7. I tend to stick to around 1200-300 calories a day despite my allowance being 1545, and I tend to exercise at least 4 times a week and if I don't exercise one day, I make sure I do double the next day, for example, I have a minimum of 200 calories to burn daily, so if on Monday I don't exercise, I will ensure that I burn 400 on Tuesday to make sure that the 200 calories is being met. I hope this makes sense! My exercise consists of me running, I own a treadmill and do interval training, I "jog" on 9.5kph and "sprint" on 12.0 and I do this on average for 30-40 minutes. However, my weight loss seems to of completely stumped for the past month. Also my weight fluctuates dramatically throughout the day. For example, this morning I was 11.4 then 2 hours later I was 11.3 then another 2 hours later I was 11.6. I have looked into the symptoms of fluid retention as I believe extreme fluctuations in weight are one of them. As well as this, I need to pee more frequently including waking up in the middle of the night and I often have a bloated feeling in my stomach. Could this fluctuating weight issue be down to water retention do you think? Or is there something wrong with what I am doing in terms of exercise? Really stuck at the moment and any help is really appreciated! Many thanks! Alice

Our expert says...

Hi Alice,

Weight fluctuations during a day can occur through variables as simple as eating, going to the loo (or not), changes in body temperature and hormones. I would recommend you don’t weight yourself more than once a day and always do it at the same time of day/night to suit you. Fluctuations in a given day are not important at 20 years of age and fluid retention is extremely unlikely given your exercise level, calorie intake, age, weight, height and health.

The body goes through natural slows in weight loss as the human body does not want to be in a negative, calorie deficit state for prolonged periods so even when we do everything right for creating the best environment for weight loss we do get plateaus.

With relation to waking up in the night to pee I would recommend you make sure:

- You don’t consume caffeine or soft drinks 2 hours before going to bed

- You make sure you go to the toilet just before going to bed – to give your body the chance to empty

 - Don’t eat 3 hours before bed so your intestine can work through the meal

With relation to your exercise, the intervals sound good but I would also recommend you mix it up with longer, slower runs as well as pyramid-type and hill-style workouts. Variety is key to stop your body getting use to the demand you give it (as this reduces calories burned for the same activity, as the body adapts and becomes more efficient). If you could incorporate classes or bodyweight strength circuits this would also be a great way to get you past this plateau.

Hope this helps,

Kelly