Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:01]:
Hello, fabulous. Dr. Stephanie Fein here with weight Loss for fertility. And today we're talking about plateaus. Now, the reason this came to mind is because I just was speaking to a client who's working through a plateau and I think about it a little differently than lots of other people. So it made me want to talk to you about it. The truth is, and definitely I felt that with this client is that it's great news. First, it shows that she can maintain, and in her case, a 20 pound weight loss.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:40]:
Amazing. She can maintain it. So she knows what to do to keep weight off. She's showing herself that her new way of being with food keeps weight off. And that's amazing because eventually she's going to hit a place where there is a really big plateau because that's the place she wants to land. And so she's showing herself that when she gets to certain weight she can maintain it. That's a really wonderful piece of information to have. So that's number one.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:17]:
The other thing, actually this goes under number one is she traveled during this time. So she was on work trips, she was on vacation. So this means that she maintained while she had travel. So technically is that maintaining. I don't know, seems kind of like we could think of it as weight loss because if you are used to when you travel, gaining weight and you did not, that's a difference. That's showing a difference. And that we could say that that's weight loss because normally she would have been up a little and she didn't have to lose those pounds either because she's already lost them. So there's that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:01]:
And also period fluctuations happen and they show up on the scale as increased weight or maybe plateau when in fact you've lost fat. Because remember with your period, you'll. Some people, many people retain water and so we don't really care about water weight. That comes and goes very easily, very quickly. It's fat weight that we care about. And if in your period you're not showing a higher weight like you normally do, again, technically, weight loss, really. So even with all this, which I think can be true, it's still amazing to show that you're maintaining in the face of work trips and vacation and, you know, and premenstrual water retention. And I'm going to take this moment to say that I'll define a plateau as four weeks in the row of the same weight or, you know, you can't be exactly the same way but around the same weight again.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:11]:
Remember, I, I have the caveats. I Mean, if you've been on vacation, if you're having your period, there's going to be. If it's the same, it's actually kind of weight loss. So anyway, there's that at least four weeks, two weeks certainly does not make a plateau because of water. And I mean, two weeks in a row, the same weight is not a plateau. Even three weeks, I wouldn't call that a plateau. You could have had a salty meal the night before and then that's showing that it's the same. But really you've lost fat.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:43]:
So it has to be at least four weeks more would really be something. And also if there wasn't travel and other things in there. So anyway, you can define it how you want, but in terms of how the body works, it has to be at least for maybe months more for it to be a plateau. So the reason why I thought it was great news for this client, first was about the maintenance and all her travel and still maintaining. But the second, to me, it shows that she's ready for the next step, because something that was not possible before, she's now ready for because she's lost £20 and she's able to stay there. It's not wobbly, she's not gaining, you know, some weeks and losing a ton and restricting, you know, because we don't do it that way. So we can see that for sure something has changed in the way she relates to food. And that is fantastic.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:50]:
So this is why I was not unhappy to see this. But of course we want to do something about it. But it showed me and her how far she'd come and that now it's possible that she's ready for something different, more. However we're going to define it, something that was not possible when we first started is now possible. That's because of what she's shown herself in learning the skills. And we're going to particularly hunger scale. She's changed her relationship with food, lost £20 and is now ready for the next level. I think of it like we have to crawl before we can walk, before we can run.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:40]:
Many people want to go straight to the running, especially when it comes to weight loss. Right. We just want to get the pounds off, but we really want to do it sustainably in a way that makes the relationship with food change permanently. You think about food differently, so then it means you can eat well, just what your body needs, be a weight you want to be and keep it forever. That's what we do around here. We don't lose weight For a Kodak moment and then gain it right back. It was clear that she changed the way she thinks about food again because of the 20 pound weight loss. And also I've been speaking with her so I know the way she's thinking about it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:26]:
But she had to change when she started following the hunger scale. When we start following the hunger scale, we'll start to notice our portions, we start to notice how often we're eating, we start to notice if we're emotionally eating. Learning to use the hunger scale is a big deal and she's done an amazing job. So the fact that she's there and consistently doing it and it feels easy and natural to her now, that means we can go to the next step now. It didn't mean there weren't obstacles when she was learning to use the hunger scale. She had to come up against the things that were in her way. And it involved things like her husband's schedule, cooking or not cooking, or how to plan and get food. This is what everyone has to deal with.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:17]:
How to manage our food, how to think about our food, what we like to eat, what we don't, all that, that's the stuff. Planning our food, all that, that sort of walking, right? We went from crawling to walking and now being here, she's ready to try running. And that's the next step in terms of busting the plateau. The main thing with a plateau, the main concept with it is that something has to change. You've reached an equilibrium and that's why things aren't changing. So what's going in is going out and you're staying the same. That's just a good thing to notice. And now we have to shake things up.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:02]:
It's time to experiment, it's time to change things. That can be a little, I don't know what the word is. It's not disappointing, but it's hard, unwelcome, something like that where it feels like you're in a groove and you're ready to be in the groove, but you've landed on the plateau and plateaus are so common. Not everyone goes through a plateau. But. But pretty much at some point in the weight loss journey we can go through one of these because we just reached that point that our body is happy with the new normal and we have to shake up the new normal. And I'm going to tell you how to do that. So that's the first idea is that when we plateau, all we have to do is change something amazing.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:49]:
Sometimes that feels a little challenging because we're like, ugh, again. But I have good news there too. So the first thing we do when we're asking ourselves about change when we've hit a plateau, is to ask yourself, is there anything I know I need to change? It's really a good habit to get into to use your own wisdom to check in with yourself. Ask yourself often. We'll know something like, oh yeah, I started getting the vanilla latte at Starbucks, or I'm definitely eating to a positive three at dinner almost every night. So yeah, there's a couple. Like, I know if I change that, that's changing something. So first you can just check in with yourself.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:38]:
You're teaching yourself that you can trust yourself around food decisions, which is new for most of us who are losing weight. Asking ourselves about food decisions can feel scary because we didn't trust ourselves before. But when you're using the hunger scale and losing weight, the weight loss for fertility way, you are building the trust with yourself. So asking yourself is reinforcing that. Getting in the habit of looking inward to yourself because you do have the answers. That is so radical in diet thinking, right? Traditional diets have you looking outward for the answer. Always expert, a list, do's and don'ts eat this, not that. But we want to build trust with your own self and you are wise.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:32]:
And if you've been through this, and this client in particular with 20 pound weight loss, clearly she's doing something right, something that's working for her. And so she has built a knowledge base for herself. She's been checking in with herself. She will have some sort of answer if she asks herself this question. Creating that as the first line that you think, oh, I'm going to check in with myself, I'm going to ask myself. That is a huge win. That's another huge win from using the hunger scale. Losing weight this way is that you're building the trust with yourself around food, something that has been hard in the past.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:13]:
And you're looking for your own wisdom there. So that's number one. You're always gonna ask yourself. Now you may ask yourself and really have no idea. And that's totally fine. That's why I'm here. I'm happy to help if you get yourself in that position. And I'm gonna tell you something now too, so you'll have this bit of knowledge for yourself later.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:33]:
But remember to always ask yourself first. You could have a really clear answer and then, and that would be really helpful. So the next thing after you ask yourself and you get an answer that may be all you need, but if not, when we use the hunger scale, the natural next step in terms of changing up our food will be to fine tune the hunger scale. You may have gone from overeating every single meal and now you're using the hunger scale and you're overeating so much less. You're really finding a positive too. It's really working. When we get to a plateau, that's the time to check in more, even with the hunger scale. And what that means is you're getting even more present with yourself.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:26]:
So what can happen if you've been doing well for a while is you're sort of on autopilot, like it's working great, you have a certain portion of your lunch, let's say, and you just eat it. But really using the hunger scale means that we're checking in each meal. And that is what I mean by starting to learn to run. This is the next step. The first step is getting a handle on just hunger scale in general. What's my plus two? What's my minus two? This step, the next step is fine tuning it. Listening even deeper to ourselves. And the reason why this is important is because as we lose weight, our body needs less energy to keep itself going, right? This, it's smaller, so it needs less.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:24]:
And our body actually will calibrate, it will do this naturally and the hunger cues will adjust according to what the body needs. We just have to listen to it. And this can be a hard thing to think about when we're just starting. So usually in the beginning we just need to not be eating at negative three and positive three. We just need to start to find our negative two and positive two. And when we're at this stage, we need to be fine tuning on a more consistent basis and it's easier to do, right? This is again, walking to running. Because you're already really familiar with checking in with yourself for the hunger scale. We're just going to listen even more carefully.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:12]:
And the way you do that is you're just present when you're eating. You're eating distraction free for the most part. Way better to eat at a table than in front of the television, ideally without. You know, it's so funny I'm like saying ideally without, you know, a podcast or reading a book, that I do think it's better. But if you're eating with a person, you know, I'm not going to say don't eat with people, but be aware that there's distraction there and then just be Very conscious about checking in. And we're looking for, in particular with once we're eating for the positive, two is satisfied, not full. And you may have been on autopilot. Like, you know, your portion was a lot smaller than what you used to eat, but you still put out that portion and you eat the whole thing without thinking about it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:11]:
In general, I have to say, I like that idea where you have the smaller portion and that's the portion you take. But now we're at the place where we're going to be listening the whole time, because maybe, maybe today I'm satisfied at all of it, except for four bites. And maybe the next day it's two bites, and maybe the next day I need the whole thing, and then the next day I leave four bites. You know, it's like, this is what. And I hesitate to say this because I don't want it to sound wrong, but four bites will add up. Now, remember, we're not restricting ourselves. This is so important. If this is your first episode, I want you to go back and listen to the hunger scale episodes because this is nuanced and this is never restriction.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:02]:
We're never saying, I can only have this many bites of my food. We're never saying that. This is why this is advanced, because we are really listening. We're eating food that we enjoy, that gives us energy, that doesn't make us feel terrible, bloaty, whatever. We like this food. We're not forcing ourselves to have dry anything. We're eating things we like. But we want to stop when we're satisfied, not full.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:34]:
And the better we get at that, the easier weight loss will be, and it will just continue because will be able to leave food on the plate when we're no longer hungry for it. Not for a diet, not for weight loss, but because we're listening to our cues and it's telling us we've had enough food. Now, this is the trick, right? This is again why this is an advanced technique. Because leaving food on the plate can make our brain go nutty. It can bring up lots of thoughts and feelings. There's scarcity, wasting, you know, difficulty. There's lots of thoughts that can happen. Now, that's a.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:24]:
In this world, that's a pretty good thing. Because what we want to do, we want to look for the feelings and the thoughts. We want to know what they are. Because when we can bring them to light, we can handle them. And then they're gone. And we no longer have obstacles, barriers to eating when we're hungry. Stopping when we're satisfied, not full. One of the ways we can do this that what we ultimately want are the thoughts that our brain is thinking around this.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:17:52]:
But sometimes we have to go with the feeling. If we're leaving a couple bites on our plate and we have feelings about it, if it feels weird, we can notice that feeling and then try to find the thought that created that feeling. And I'll give you a few that are typical, but it's I don't want to waste it. I won't ever have this again. I saved the best for last, so I don't want to leave the last bites. When you see these thoughts, we find them and then we gently question them with curiosity, not judgment. Judgment at this stage, we've usually encountered these thoughts and feelings before and this is just another iteration. It's like a nuanced version of it, but we need to understand it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:18:44]:
And so if we find those thoughts again, then we get to question them and handle it. And in terms of the wasting food, I always have that thought about either my body is a garbage can or I put the food in the actual garbage can. That visual and idea really works for me because I really don't want my body to be a garbage can. The money has been paid for the food. It's fulfilled its purpose for us. We're so grateful for it. It's very hard to get the exact amount that you're going to need for your hunger cue that day. I don't think that's a reasonable thing to ask of a portion of food.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:19:26]:
So we may always have a little on our plate and that's part of our eating experience that there's food left over. And the amount that's left over depends on our hunger cue that day. But looking for the thoughts is a really valuable thing that may come up here. The other thing that can happen if we're starting to leave food on our plate when we hadn't done it before is that we could just be breaking a habit. We're really used to finishing something and so it feels strange not to. And breaking a habit is not a problem. I talk about it feeling like you're writing with your left hand. If you're a right handed person, it's not painful, it's just different and strange.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:20:11]:
But you get used to it over time. And so if it's a habit of eating everything and you're starting to leave some on the plate and you've looked for thoughts and you don't see any that are causing problems, it may Just be a habit and within a very short amount of time, you'll be able to leave things without having discomfort. We make the changes to catch up with our bodies. This is our brain. Our brain is the one that's having the problem, not our body. Our body knows exactly what to do. It's like, I only need this much fuel now. And so our brain is the thing that's in the way.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:20:52]:
And we're making changes with our brain by questioning the thoughts or changing a habit. And we're letting our brain catch up with our bodies and then we'll see the scale move again. We can't always skip over a plateau. Sometimes we can. I mean, some bodies don't need plateaus, but some bodies do. So your body may just work that way. It's just not a problem. You just catch it because you're weighing yourself once a week.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:21:23]:
And then you check in on your hunger scale. First, of course, you ask yourself, is there anything I know I need to change? And then you start tweaking your hunger scale. This is one of the many reasons I love the hunger scale. It's dynamic, it changes with you. It's part of your body. It came with the factory settings and we just have to have our brain catch up with it. Our body knows and it's really good at it. And so we just want to be good at it too with our brain, stay in tune with the body.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:22:01]:
So as our recap plateaus mean same weight for at least four weeks, I'd be generous if there's lots of travel or cycles in there or anything like that. That would be a big reason why we would be staying or gaining that we know has nothing to do with fat. So that's the caveat with the four weeks. Plateaus are not a bad place to be. It's showing yourself you can maintain and you know you're ready for the next step. Plateaus means something needs to change. It's time to shake things up. Ask yourself first.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:22:45]:
You're building trust with yourself and your body has wisdom. And then try that idea in a kind, conscious way. We're not shaming ourselves, we're not feeling guilty, we're not restricting. It's an idea, a hypothesis that comes and you follow that advice as an experiment. It either will work or it won't and you'll move on. And then because the hunger scale is so fantastic, we just re engage with it. We're more present and we're tweaking it a bit. We're reexamining our negative 2 and positive 2 and that may end up meaning we're leaving bites on the plate.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:23:29]:
When we're leaving food on the plate, we we may discover thoughts and feelings there that make it challenging to leave food on the plate. When we clean that up, when we gently question those thoughts, we are at a whole new level. Running from walking. I am so happy to help you with any of this. If you want some support, find me @StephanieFeinMD on Instagram or LinkedIn. You can DM me right there. Also, you can find me at the website stephaniefeinmd.com you can click the Lose Weight with me button or the Contact Me page and I am happy to answer any questions you have. Please send them my way until next week.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:24:13]:
I'm sending you so much love.
