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Weight Loss Plateau Calculator

Weight loss plateau calculator: age, sex, height, weight, activity and daily calories give maintenance, your deficit and a rough, rule-based weeks estimate. How it works

Use the Weight Loss Plateau Calculator

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Plateau break estimate
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Maintenance — · Deficit —

About the Weight Loss Plateau Calculator

A 35-year-old woman, 165 cm and 75 kg, moderately active and eating 1,600 kcal a day, has a maintenance of 2,240 kcal by the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, so she is 640 kcal (28.6%) below it. This weight loss plateau calculator also gives an assumed adaptation, a loss rate (0.46 kg a week for her) and a count of weeks (3 for her). The adaptation and the weeks count come from the tool’s own rules, not a published model. If the deficit on paper is large and the scale still does not move, check the calories you log and the maintenance figure first.

How to use this tool

  1. Pick sex and enter age, height in cm, weight in kg and the calories you eat a day. These four fields start empty.
  2. Choose an activity level from 1.2 (sedentary) to 1.9 (physical job, intense training).
  3. Enter the weeks your weight has not moved, your protein in grams per kg of body weight and your resistance sessions a week.
  4. Read maintenance and the current deficit first. The adaptation, loss rate and weeks figures are rough estimates from the tool’s rules.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a weight loss plateau last?
No published equation predicts it for one person, and this page does not claim to. Its weeks figure grows with the weeks you have stalled and shrinks with a bigger deficit, more protein and more training sessions. The adaptation it assumes stops growing at 15%, which it reaches after 10 stalled weeks.
Why has my weight stopped going down on a diet?
Part of it is arithmetic: a lighter body needs less. In the Mifflin-St Jeor equation each kilogram lost lowers BMR by 10 kcal, about 15.5 kcal of maintenance at the moderately active factor of 1.55, so 10 kg lost takes about 155 kcal off the deficit you started with. Re-enter your current weight to see the gap you have now, and check that the calories you log match what you eat.
What does the metabolic adaptation percentage mean?
It is an assumption, not a measurement: 1.5% for each week you enter as stalled, up to 15%. The page takes that share off maintenance, so 6% turns 2,240 kcal into 2,106 kcal. Nothing you enter about your body changes it.
How is the loss rate worked out?
It is the effective deficit times 7 days, divided by 7,700 kcal per kg. The effective deficit is the adjusted maintenance minus what you eat, so it is smaller than the deficit on paper. In the example the effective deficit is 506 kcal, giving 506 × 7 ÷ 7,700 = 0.46 kg a week, against 0.58 kg if the full 640 kcal gap were used. The 7,700 kcal rule is itself an approximation, so the figure is not a forecast.

Checking a diet that has stalled

Use it when the scale has not moved for a few weeks and you want to see whether you are really eating below maintenance. Age, height (cm), weight (kg) and daily calories start empty; activity, weeks stalled, protein (g per kg) and resistance sessions start at 1.55, 4, 1.6 and 3. You get maintenance calories, the deficit on paper, an assumed adaptation, a muscle-preservation score and a rough count of weeks.

If maintenance is well above what you eat and the scale still holds, check the inputs first: calories logged lower than eaten, or a maintenance estimate that does not fit you. Mifflin-St Jeor is fitted to a group average, and one person can burn noticeably more or less.

A 35-year-old woman, 165 cm and 75 kg, moderately active, eating 1,600 kcal through 4 stalled weeks with 1.6 g/kg protein and 3 sessions: maintenance 2,240 kcal, deficit 640 kcal (28.6%), adaptation 6%, adaptive TDEE 2,106 kcal, preservation 78%, a loss rate of 0.46 kg a week and an estimate of 3 weeks.

What is a published equation and what is the tool's own rule

Maintenance is the Mifflin-St Jeor BMR times the activity factor (1.2 to 1.9): BMR = 10 × kg + 6.25 × cm − 5 × age + 5 for men, − 161 for women.

The rest is the tool's own model, not a published equation. Adaptation is 1.5% of maintenance per stalled week, capped at 15%. Preservation averages protein ÷ 2.0 g/kg and sessions ÷ 4, each capped at 1. The week count is (adaptation ÷ 15%) × 12 ÷ (max(0.3, deficit% ÷ 20) × boost × (0.5 + 0.5 × preservation)), where boost is 1.3 with at least 2 sessions and 1.4 g/kg protein.

The loss rate shown is the effective deficit (adjusted maintenance minus your intake) times 7, divided by 7,700 kcal per kg, the common rule of thumb. In the example, 506 × 7 ÷ 7,700 = 0.46 kg a week; the full 640 kcal gap would give 0.58 kg. When you eat at or above the adjusted maintenance the rate is 0 kg and the page says no loss is expected at that intake; the weeks estimate then shows a dash, because it needs a deficit. Lean on the maintenance and deficit figures and read the rate and week count as rough.

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