#201 - You Didn’t Plateau, You Just Zoomed In Too Much

Most women panic the second the scale pauses — and that panic is the real reason progress stalls. In today’s episode, we break down what’s actually happening when your weight stays the same for 7–10 days… and why that’s not a plateau.

I walk you through the exact framework I teach my clients:

Inside this episode:

• Why a 7–10 day “pause” on the scale is normal (and not proof you messed up)
• The 10-second adherence audit that reveals your real leaks
• How small, forgettable choices derail fat loss more than you think
• Why weekends erase more progress than weekdays ever do
• The psychology spiral that actually creates plateaus
• How the women who lose 10–20% of their body weight think during slow weeks
• The #1 lesson every successful client learns: delayed gratification

We also cover why fat loss is never linear, how stress/sleep/water mask real progress, and what to do when the scale pauses so you don’t sabotage yourself.

You’ll walk away with:

• A calmer, more objective way to measure progress
• A simple plan to fix the small leaks that slow you down
• A mindset that keeps you consistent long enough to see real results

If you’ve ever stepped on the scale, felt discouraged, and wanted to throw the whole day away — this episode is the antidote.

Fat loss rewards patience, not panic.
Let’s zoom out, fix what matters, and keep going.

👉 DM me "QUIZ" on Instagram (@johanvesters_ocs) to get help figuring out exactly what your body needs right now - I’ll send you my free Metabolism & Lifestyle Quiz!

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Free gift for our listeners! Download the '5-Minute Meal Plan' Video Training to learn exactly what, how much, when, and how often to eat for your goals: https://bit.ly/4foeWmX

Transcript

0:35

What is up and welcome back to talking Nutrition. Today is episode two and one, and we are diving into weight loss plateaus, which I know are very, very common, very frustrating, potentially, and you might not even be at a truth plateau. I'll just start with that nine out of 10 times when I hear this one, I'm like, No, you're not at a plateau. You're either getting impatient or you're doing all the right things already, you just need to wait for weight to catch up. Sometimes, though, you might actually see kind of like a bit of weight loss resistance. You might really not be seeing anything come from lowering calories and all that, and then it's just time to do maintenance. So let's dive in. There's going to be a few points to touch on, a few things to discuss. I want you to not make these mistakes. I want you to keep going first of all, and I want you to just objectively look at, hey, am I actually at a true plateau, or is the real plateau me? Is the real plateau me just not doing the things I should be doing anyway, but I kind of stopped doing it, because the skill went up for a day or two. Let's dive in. Of course, if you're new here, feel free to rate the podcast. Feel free to share it with a friend, because obviously we don't do any ads here, and I know ads are annoying, but I do want you to pay it forward and let me know as well how you like the podcast. You know what I mean? You can also always DM me on Instagram. I will always link the link to my profile in the show notes, and then we're gonna dive right in, because plateaus are very, very common, and like I said, you might not even be at a true plateau. So let's, let's discuss. Let me tell you this, if this scale has paused for like seven to 10 days, like you haven't plateaued first of all, but let's first do a bit of an adherence audit. This is going to take 10 seconds. First of all, did you hit your macros yesterday? The day before? Did you hit your average macros within range? Let's say the last one or two weeks? That's first your steps. We know that non exercise activity tends to go down the rd fat loss phase. So what does your step count look like? Are you still hitting your eight, 910, or maybe more per day? And I mean eight, nine or 10,000 right? I will say, like for the general health benefits, 7500 plenty. That's based on research. But if you're walking more, of course, we are burning more calories without that stress from like cardio and all any on track bites. I know a lot of moms are listening to this podcast. I know a lot of moms who cook for their kids and partner, and those little licks and bites, the tastes right? The little hell even, like the the teaspoon of peanut butter, the extra cookie, maybe the leftovers from, you know, your kids meal and they didn't finish their meal. You know what I mean? Like those little things they really do add up. To be honest with you, that's your sleep. Suck. You know sleep is going to slow things down. Hell, even if you feel more stressed, like the skill is going to go up, because cortisol, that stress hormone, leads to water tension. So if it's a stressful period, that may very much be the case, or is the weekend still lingering? Because a lot of times I do see people have a little bit more food, or at least different kind of foods, maybe more sodium, maybe you drank, which that would be a different story. Because if you're in a fat loss phase, do you really want to spend those calories? But hey, we'll talk about alcohols again soon, because try, January is coming up. But okay, it's weekend still link ring, because honestly, I see this all the time with my clients. They have a little bit more over the weekend, and of course, we try to dial these things in over time. But like, if that's the case, skill is probably going to be up. Mind you, if you have more carbs over the weekend, your muscle glycogen is being more restored, right, replenished. There is your fuel tank. And think about this too. A car that is driving around with a full tank is going to be heavier than a car driving around with an anti tank. Doesn't make it fat or not. You know what I mean? It's just fuel. So if you have more carbs of weekend, your muscle glycogen might be a little restored, kind of depending on how much plus carbohydrate, right? Hold on to water. So every gram of muscle glycogen pulls in three grams of water and even just the food in your stomach too, right? So keep those kind of things in mind. I want you to fix the leak here if these kind of things are not in check, right? Because, honestly, if those things aren't done, your macros, your daily steps, by the way, food quality, that's a really big one, too. If you're not eating at least 90% of your calories from whole foods, like, what are we doing? You know what I mean? Bring that up first. Track all the bites, fix your sleep, fix your stress, right? And control things over the weekend. Cool, if those things aren't in check, you're not at a plateau, like you're just not doing the thing consistently. Right? Needs to be said, Look, because most women think a plateau means they failed, and you start thinking, right? I messed up. I didn't try hard enough. I need to cut calories again. And this is what you do, right? Especially after that big weekend, you drop your calories even lower and you barely eat you skip another meal. You feel like you ruined everything. But the truth is that you didn't fail. You just zoomed in too much. The scale pauses. Your mood's now shitty. You have this tunnel vision just looking at the skill just from today, and you go into fuck it mode. You cannot allow your emotions to take. Cover because, look, if that scale is up, it's very common. First of all, even if you do everything perfect, the skill might fluctuate one to 2% or up to one to 2% it's completely normal. It's just differences in water and look like you don't live like a robot, either you have different foods most days, who might be a little up and down with your salt intake, your water intake, like these are all massive factors. Hell, your menstrual cycle, the kind of even want you to compare day to day, or even week to week. In that case, if you have a natural cycle, because we know that with those hormones fluctuating, there's going to be some changes. Compare week one to week one, and I talk about your average here, right? Average weight of week one compared to last month's cycle, week one, week two to week two, week three, week three, week four to week four. We notice fluctuations there too, right? Even in your metabolism, your body isn't really stalling. You know what I mean? Like your expectations might just be unrealistic. Fat Loss is literally never linear. Fat Loss isn't maintenance isn't muscle gain isn't reverse. Diets aren't all these faces come with fluctuation. This is a human thing. You're not a robot, you know. We're all gonna have these. My skill was up by a full kilo this morning. I don't freak out. I know I'm a coach, but look like I also still am a human, you know. So like, I still go through things just like you I'm a coach, but like, doesn't make me any better, you know what I mean? Doesn't make me an exception, like we're all human. And in my case, I'm like, Okay, so the skill was up by a kilo. Let me reflect on yesterday. Actually, you know what? I had a little bit more in the evening. I was a bit late actually eating. So I ate later, and I had more food as well because it was a little bit behind. I had a really busy day. And this is also to show you I'm not perfect either. You know what I mean? I mean. I know exactly what I should be doing, but look like we all have these kind of things, you know? But okay, so if you're hitting these basics, the macros, the whole foods, the steps, like, progress is gonna happen. It is. And the skill might just not be the first place it shows up, you know what I mean. So there's a few things though, like, here's the thing, there's a few things that will really derail your progress, and you might even forget about, like, the little bites that I talked about earlier, right? Thinking, Oh, it's just one handful of nuts. Look, it's still a fat source. It still has a lot of calories. Your steps being done. I'm kind of recapping the things that I just mentioned because, look, we have to discuss these things first. We have to look at your daily actions first before even thinking, like, Hey, this is a plateau. Like, no. Like, most of the time it's not, you know what I mean? Couple nights of bad sleep, stress, all of these things really start to add up. So I can't state this enough, like, we have to look at those things first, because most women don't plateau during the week. They plateau because they kind of allow a day to turn into a week, into two weeks, right? But here's another big one, too, the weekends, right? So let's dive into weekends. You're not weak, if you overeat over the weekend, you're not undisciplined, you're exhausted and you're overwhelmed. You just ran around all week taking care of the kids. You're skipping breakfast lunch is maybe another coffee or protein bar or maybe a cracker with jam. You're not eating real meals. Your tank is absolutely drained, like you're running on fumes, basically on caffeine, and that weekend becomes your release valve, right? And even just one weekend day of let's say three to 4000 calories is going to erase all the hard work you do, especially if you have two high days for the week or the weekend. And that becomes this cycle. If you try really hard during the week, you try really hard, you really do your best. Like, here I got to give it to you like you're trying. You know what? I mean? You're trying. I know that. But look like, if you're running on Mt, you're running around stressed because you have the kids to take care of the chores and your full time job and everything else. You're still trying to get to the gym as well, and you might do it fast and even right all these things, like you push yourself so hard during the week and then it just backfires over the weekend. It only makes sense that you overeat sometimes. You know what I mean. I see this all the time, with the Ketos, the low carbs, with with people trying their best to really go hard on that fat loss. But like I said, it usually backfires. So let's keep focusing on the basics. Because when I talk about your daily steps, when I talk about the whole foods and your macros, these are all things that should also go into the weekend, of course. But here's the thing, right? If you always under eat, it's just a matter of time, like it's gonna backfire, like eating so little throughout the day or even week, right? It's not gonna last. No matter how motivated you feel, no matter how disciplined you are, you gotta keep a basic meal structure in. Like I said, if the scale is up over the weekend, by the way, I just had a client come back from vacation two kilos heavier. I told him, Look, dude, don't worry about it. Go back to your usual plan. See what happens. Within two days, the scale dropped again by full like two full kilos. It was just water weight. So even if you do overeat over the weekend, don't stress if that scales up by multiple kilos, it's going to go down if you eat normal. For the next few days, it's going to go down again. But look like, keep you're filling meals in during the week. Don't think that starving yourself is going to do it for fat loss like it's not. You know what? I mean, you need fuel throughout the day, even in the deficit, right? Even when you're dieting, you're going to keep your three meal anchors and maybe, like, one snack, let's say, between lunch and dinner, or maybe after dinner, kind of depending on your preferences, you're going to keep protein in every single meal. 3040, grams. You're going to keep fiber high, 2030, plus grams. Depending on your calories, you want to have at least 15 grams of fiber per 1000 calories, by the way. So that means that, if you are eating, let's say, 1600 calories, I'm going to just calculate this really quick for you, to 1600 and then we have 15 grams per 1000 calories. Yeah, that's just about 14, sorry, 24 grams of fiber. You know, like you got to hit these basics. And of course, your steps and your training and your training is mostly like muscle maintenance, right? It's not fat loss, but keep doing these things. But the most important thing for a calorie deficit, a fat loss phase, is trying to get away with as much food as possible. Drop carbohydrate, sorry, drop your fats to a minimum. That's probably going to be around 50 grams if you're female. Protein, 2.2 grams per kilo, or one gram per pound of your goal weight, not body weight, not current body weight, with cold weight. Keep fats low. Keep that protein, eyes and high. If you feel really hungry and you have a lot of cravings, crank it up. But look, it's also not just about protein. Like you got to keep your carbs in my clients, even in a deficit, like we go with a high carb approach. Now mind you, of course, calories are going to go down at some point, and we're going to have to tweak things. And carbs are also going to go down at some point. Because I'm not going to lower your fats below what you need for for Hormonal Health. We're not going to drop protein that needs to stay in if anything needs to go higher in the fallows phase. So the carbs are going to have to go down at some point. But like, we're trying to get away with as much as possible which goes against what goes against what you thought, right? Because you always think, I look hard, but the real plateau is you just slowing down before progress does the moment the skill doesn't reward you, you get more strict, you tighten the screws, then you burn out, then you start slipping again, you judge yourself, you give up. That's when progress really starts. That is a true plateau. The plateau usually has nothing to do with your metabolism, hormones or anything else, usually and everything with your adherence to the plan, because a flu a few slow days on the skill really don't mean that you get stuck. And here's the secret or not secret, but here's the truth of what my clients, who lose 10 to 20% or more do because they see that skill go up, and they also have the feelings, but they don't panic when the skill pauses. They just keep stacking those basics long enough they stick with it. I send my clients this type of feedback every single week. No changes to your macros keep going. No changes to your macros keep going. I had one client who was most definitely in a deficit. He was tracking accurately. I had to ask him twice, are you tracking Yes. Are you weighing everything? Yes. Are you eating mostly Whole Foods? Yes. Are you hitting your step? Yes? I told him, No. Changes. Keep going. Stay patient. Fat Loss rewards patience, not panic. He kept going another week. Week two went by, no scale drop. Week three went by, nothing changed. And I told him, dude, you have to be in a def. Like, there's no way you are not in a deficit right now. You're doing everything right. Stick with it. I can promise you this, like it's gonna catch up. And after three weeks of no skill changes, on average, even his weight began to drop one kilo, 1.5 kilos, another kilo, another kilo. He had the same targets after that for seven weeks. You see, patience is key here, and I know you don't want to hear it. I know you want to lose a kilo a week. It doesn't always happen that way. Mind, you also look at your measurements right, because sometimes the scale is not going to go down, but if your measurements are going to go down or going down, you're losing body fat, right? If you're doing everything right, and it's only been a few one or two or even three weeks like you didn't hit a plateau, you just hit the exact lesson every single one of my successful clients learns. And that's that results always come but only if you stay consistent long enough to see them. Delayed gratification, that's the key, right? Delayed gratification, we all hate it. We're all human. I know you want to do something and you want to see the result right away. You want to hit your macros. You want to lose weight that next day, right? You want to train and see that that defined look immediately. It doesn't work that way. Sorry. The hardest part of this whole health of fitness thing is patience, sticking with it long enough, just doing the work, even though you really kind of don't feel like it's because you you don't get the immediate reward on the scale. Makes sense. I hope this gave you a little bit of clarity around plateaus. Now, the exception being, and this needs to be said, I see a lot of women diet way too much. They've been living in low calories. And if you have truly. Been living on low calories, because that's not always the case, because we can't, and everything else in binging and if you've truly been living on low calories, and I recently talked about my client who came in at 1000 calories, she couldn't lose weight. If that's truly happening, I'm still not going to call it a plateau. It's just your your data. It's the information you need. Is your body telling you, hey, right now we got to go to maintenance, and then we're going to feel you back up. We're going to nourish the body, and we're going to give the body two to three months or longer, depending on how long you've been under eating, to catch up hormones, come back, menstrual cycle. Come back. That same client, right? I talked about, she came in at 1000 calories. She had fertility issues, she had menstrual cycle issues. She had no cycle or super irregular and that was the case for years. She's had her cycle every single month for the last three months. How well we brought calories out. And your menstrual cycle, for example, is a really good proxy for your body being in a good or bad place. You know what I mean. So even then, if you're truly not seeing anything happening, you're living in low calories. It's not a plateau. It's just time to go to maintenance. It's really just information. Like I said, it's your sign to stop dieting. Thank you for listening. Once again. Wanted to keep these ones short, thanks for tuning in. If you don't follow me on Instagram, please do. So if you want to just ask me a couple questions. Hit me up there. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not here to be like, hey, buy my coaching. Don't I really care about my followers and anyone who takes time to check on my podcast. And you know, like, let's chat, right, whether you're looking for coaching or not. Like, I'm happy to help. I have a lot of free downloads, a lot of episodes here too, on the podcast that you can go through, you know? So if you are new here, just take a bit of time like scroll through episodes. We have a lot of great guest episodes too. With that being said, wish you a great week. I will talk to you very soon again. I'll be heading out to Dallas first week of December. Very much, looking forward to that conference with my my mentor and her clients. I'm going to see a lot of my friends again, but of course, I'm going to be making sure there's going to be an episode then as well, so I will talk to you very soon. Thanks for listening.