Marathon PR after 80 lbs weight loss — race day report

MikeNYC_runner said:

Nine weeks flat after five months of steady loss, same dose, same routine, and I cannot tell whether to wait or change something.

Plateau breaking story with a stall: I stalled at 198 lbs for 8 weeks. Tried everything — calorie cycling, increased exercise, more water. Nothing worked.

What finally broke the plateau: adding HIIT cardio 2x/week. Lost 10 lbs in the next 3 weeks. Plateaus are temporary — they always break if you stay consistent.

LarryQC_SD said:

Plateau breaking story with a stall: I stalled at 198 lbs for 8 weeks.

That is correct as far as it goes, and here is where it stops going. Most reported plateaus are not plateaus. Weight is a noisy signal — daily variation of one to two kilograms from glycogen, sodium and gut contents — so a fortnight of flat readings is well inside the noise band. Before concluding anything, look at a rolling weekly average over at least four weeks and at a tape measure, because recomposition shows up in circumference before it shows up in weight. Then track intake honestly for a week: appetite suppression fades unevenly, and intake creeping back up is the single commonest cause.

MikeNYC_runner said:

Nine weeks flat after five months of steady loss, same dose, same routine, and I cannot tell whether to wait or change something.

Mine went the same way, slower. The detail I would add is minor and it is already implied above.

Adding the clinical framing, because it changes how the question reads. The version of this that has an answer is narrower than the version being asked. Narrow it and it becomes tractable; leave it broad and the thread will produce nine confident and incompatible replies.