Plateau and recomposition

Normal: minus 2-4 kg of water in the first two weeks, then 0.3-0.7 kg per week with cycle-related fluctuations. One week without change is not a plateau; it is water and the cycle. A plateau is four weeks with no change in weight and no change in waist measurement. The list of causes, by frequency: snacks have returned, portions have unknowingly increased by a third, sleep is under 7 hours, too little salt means water is retained, the workouts have been the same for three months, stress. A calorie deficit is the last thing to change. A checklist-based breakdown is here: plateau.

A beginner in strength training, someone returning after a break, and someone with excess weight can lose fat and build muscle at the same time. A kilogram of fat is lost, a kilogram of muscle is gained — the scales show zero, while jeans become looser because muscle takes up 15% less space. Conditions: protein 1,6 g/kg, strength training 2-3 times with progression, a moderate deficit through the eating window, and sleep. The only way to see this is with a tape measure, photos, and strength in your sets. Breakdown: recomposition.

The brain remembers the weight at which it lived for a long time and protects it: after a deficit, it reduces expenditure, increases hunger, and saves energy on heat and movement. Participants in a weight-loss show were measured six years later: their metabolism was 500 kcal per day lower than expected — the body still “remembered” starvation. This is adaptive thermogenesis, strongest after sharp deficits and without strength training. The method bypasses it: a deficit with pauses rather than hunger; muscles through strength training; high protein; no “hunger” signal means no conservation. The set point shifts over 6-12 months at a new weight. Breakdown: set point and adaptation.

Skin is an organ weighing 3-4 kg, and it can contract, but slowly: collagen remodels over months. What matters: speed (0,5 kg per week gives skin time, 2 kg does not), age, volume (minus 10 kg tightens for almost everyone, minus 40 only partially), strength training (muscle fills the volume), protein, and water. Creams and wraps — no. Breakdown: skin after weight loss.

You reached your goal — and the method “ended”: sugar returns, the window disappears, and a year later everything is as before. This is not a relapse; it is the absence of a second stage. The set point shifts over 6-12 months at the new weight, and all this time you need to convince the body that the new weight is normal: the same plate, a gentler window, do not abandon strength training, measure your waist every two weeks. An extra 2 cm is a signal to restore the window for a week, not a reason to panic. Maintenance is not the “end of the diet” but half of the method, and it is what sustains a result that does not return. The full journey is the method journey.