{"id":421,"date":"2020-10-14T08:24:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T08:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marshallbrain.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=421"},"modified":"2020-10-14T08:24:33","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T08:24:33","slug":"dukan-stuck","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marshallbrain.com\/dukan-stuck","title":{"rendered":"What can you do when you “get stuck” at some weight plateau on the Dukan diet (or any diet)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Marshall Brain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you are on a diet like the Dukan diet<\/a> and you \u201cget stuck\u201d at a certain weight. You might have been losing weight for several weeks, and then the weight loss stops. Like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am trying to break the 80 kg barrier since the last 6 weeks or so and I have not been succesful yet. I seem to go up and down with a range of 2 kgs from 80 to 82 and back\u2026 very annoying and not really motivating I can tell you!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Or this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am now in cruise phase and have been stuck on 80kgs for 3 weeks, having lost 10 kgs overall. I don\u2019t know why my weight has stayed there. I am a Landscape Gardener and get way more than the recommended exercise.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Or, in extreme cases, like this at the very start of a diet:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan any body help me. I have been doing the Dukan Diet for 4 full days now and the scales have NOT MOVED\u2026. And yes I am having protein only. Whats going on?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What causes people to get get stuck like that? And how do you get yourself unstuck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the basics of weight loss. It all has to do with calories. The basic reality of the situation is that 3,500 calories = one pound of body weight. You have to burn off 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat. So if the (number of calories being burned) \u2013 (calories you eat) = 500 per day, you will lose one pound every week because 500 * 7 = 3,500. If you manage to burn off 1,000 per day, you lose 2 pounds per week. Most people, unless they are starving themselves or are tremendously overweight, have trouble burning more than 1,000 calories per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you look at that equation and you are burning more calories than you eat, you should be losing weight. If you retain water, it will hide the weight loss, but you are still burning fat. Once the water goes away, the weight loss will be revealed. Water weight changes every day because of things like hormone levels (especially in women, related to monthly cycles), the amount of salt you eat on a given day, medicines you are taking, etc. This page is also interesting and talks about the “Whoosh Effect”, first studied in the “Minnesota Starvation Experiment”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n