Week 72 trial data vs my slow week 28 response?

The part people forget is that around the six-month mark is when stalls tend to show up. Common surprise: one can run almost 8 weeks before it finally breaks, and even then it's slow. Nothing changed except more walking.

Same here. Waist and A1c were trending the right way even when weight stalled, and fasting glucose finally came in under 100 around month eight of tracking.

I’d be careful with that. Waist can shrink from less bloating or measuring at different times. I didn’t trust mine until it was 3+ inches down.

Fair, but my pants size changed before the scale. Hard to fake that.

The week 72 trial had 2539 people across placebo and 5/10/15, so that average is a lot of different curves bundled together. Slow responders often lose little early and then most of it between weeks 30-60. Week 28 isn't the final read. Did glucose change before weight for you? That pattern seems pretty common, and it's a decent reminder that a flat scale doesn't mean nothing is happening.

I hate when people quote the average like it’s a personal forecast. The trial ran to week 72 for a reason.

Yeah, and week 28 is barely past the first trimester of the trial. Way too early to call it.

What are you tracking besides scale? I started measuring thighs and sleep, and both changed before the pounds moved.

My plateau was around week 24-30 too. I stayed consistent and it eventually moved, but slower than the first months. Teh whoosh never came, just a boring downward line.

Yeah, the frustration is real. Around 40 weeks of tracking is where a lot of people seem to land, and the first 20 felt dramatic. Weeks 24-34 were almost flat. The only things that changed were protein and daily steps. The scale started moving again about 1-2 lbs a month. Not huge, but the trend line is still down. That 2539-person, 72-week design makes me think the second half matters a lot, especially for people who don't respond fast. Glucose numbers might be the better signal right now. Averages aren't promises, but watching a slow downward slope sure beats panicking at every flat week.

Week 26-34 was my dead zone. The scale sat inside the same 2 lb window for almost nine weeks while my belt went from the 4th notch to the 6th and my resting heart rate dropped 5 bpm. Then it let go — 6 lbs in 11 days, all at once. Are you tracking anything besides the scale? That's the only reason I didn't throw mine out the window.

I stalled hard weeks 24-31 and it lined up almost exactly with a stretch where I was sleeping 5.5 hours and living on coffee. Nothing else changed — same food, same 8k steps. When work calmed down I got back to 7.5-8 hours and dropped 3.4 lbs in the first 8 days, which honestly felt insulting after six weeks of white-knuckling. The fail part: I tried to "fix" the stall by cutting to 1,200 calories, which just made me sleep worse and eat crackers standing at the counter at 11pm. Went back to normal portions, added a walk after dinner, prioritized sleep, and things moved again. If I were you I'd look at what else changed in the last 6 weeks — sleep, stress, schedule, daylight. Mine lags that stuff by weeks.

Mild pushback: I think staring at trial curves messes with your head, because those are smoothed out of clinic visits every few weeks while you're weighing daily and seeing every 2 lb sodium swing. I spent weeks 25-35 convinced I was a non-responder. Then I pulled 10 weeks of daily weights into a 7-day rolling average and I was actually down 2.4 lbs over that stretch — flat in week-to-week chunks, still moving overall. Boring, slow, moving. So I'd compare month 4 to month 6 to now instead of week 28 to week 30. What does your 30-day trend look like against your starting point?

Weekends were my hidden stall. Friday 189, Monday 194 after a birthday party and takeout, back to 190 by Wednesday — and Monday's number is the one my brain kept. When I started logging only Friday and Monday, my "seven-week plateau" turned out to be a net 3 lb drop with a 4 lb water pendulum sitting on top. The other tell was jeans: a pair from February finally zipped without the lay-down-on-the-bed maneuver around week 30, six weeks after the scale went flat. Do your weekends run way saltier or boozier than your weekdays? That alone could be hiding your last month.

My stall was my Renpho lying about body fat—waist kept dropping 2in while scale froze at week 27, so trut the tape.

Sleep was mine: 5hrs for 3 weeks, cortisol spike, scale up 2lb then dropped 5 after a vacation.

Week 28 is exactly when my food noise came back quet enough to graze. Logged everything for 10 days, found 300 cal/day sneaking in.

Contrarian take: my second half was actually faster, but only after I stopped weighing daily and let the 4-week trend line do the talking.

My scale sat still 7 weeks while my belt went in another notch. Bodies are weird. Tape beats scale when things stall.

Weekends were my hidden culprit. Friday takeout, Saturday brunch, Sunday chips and salsa, and Monday I'd be up 3.2 lbs, then back to my 'stall' weight by Wednesday, so the six-week flatline was really three good days and four messy ones. What broke it: I started logging Friday through Sunday the same way I logged Mon-Thurs, and weighing daily but only comparing 7-day averages in a notes app. Took two weeks to see the line actually trending down 0.4 lb/week instead of dead flat. Also measured my waist every Sunday morning, same spot, and it dropped 1.5 inches during that 'stalled' stretch, which told me the scale was just lying about the timeline. Are you weighing daily or weekly? If weekly, you might be catching whatever day your body felt like being bloated.

I went from a snug 18 to a loose 14 between week 24 and week 36 while the scale moved maybe 4 lbs total. Two 30-minute strength sessions a week and I stopped chasing the daily number. Recomp is ral and infuriating. With your waist down 4 inches at week 28, something is clearly working even if the scale is on vacation.

I stalled for eight straight weeks starting around week 22, literally 1.5 lbs up and down, same pair of jeans, same mood. I was sure the med had quit on me. Turns out I'd gotten sloppy in tiny ways: finishing my kid's mac and cheese, 'a handful' of almonds that was closer to three, olive oil poured freehand into the pan, creamer in my coffee I stopped counting. So I ran a 10-day experiment: weighed everything, including the oil and the creamer, changed nothing else. I was eating 350-450 calories over what I assumed, mostly on weekends. Here's the weird part, I didn't drop right away. Weeks 30-33 stayed flat and I almost threw the scale in the trash. Then weeks 34-38 it came off like a drain opened, 6.5 lbs, same routine, like my body needed a month of consistent input before it let go. I'm 5'6", started 232, week 28 was 199, now week 40 I'm 186, waist down 7 inches total. I took pics every two weeks in the same leggings, which kept me sane when the number wouldn't move. Nothing changed on the med side the whole time. The boring stuff moved it, not a new trick. If I'd quit at week 28 I'd have missed the best stretch.

My coffee creamer and olive oil were adding about 300 hidden calories a day, and I only found it when I weighed them for a week. Once I measured those two things, the scale started moving again about a pound a week. I wasn't eating 'bad' food, just free-pouring. If you're flat, tracking two days honestly might surprise you.

My stall broke when I fixed sleep, not food. I was averaging 5.5 hours and waking at 3 a.m.; bumped it to 7.5 for a month, resting heart rate dropped 4 bpm, and after a three-week lag I started losing 0.5 to 1 lb a week again. Stress and crappy sleep can mask a real deficit.

Scale stall ≠ fat-loss stall. My weeks 24–31 were flat, same 2-lb bounce. What moved was tape and gym log: I added two full-body lifts/week, kept protein steady, and waist kept dropping while scale didn’t. Then it fell 5 lb over 9 days. If your waist, strength, or glucose are still trending the right way, you may be recompositioning. What are your measurements and fasting glucose doing now vs. week 22?

At goal/maintaining now. My week 26–33 felt identical: scale stuck within 1 lb, but my waist lost another inch and A1c kept creeping down over that stretch. I started tracking monthly averages and waist-to-height instead of daily weigh-ins; the scale eventually followed about 10 weeks later. So my concrete question: are your waist, glucose, or clothes still changing, or have those flattened too? If they’re still moving, the flat scale may be a lag, not a stop. If everything’s flat, that tells you something different.

I stalled weeks 24–31 too. What finally shifted it was a planned 10-day maintenance break—same protein, same walking, just more calories from oatmeal, fruit, and

I teach middle school band, and marching season wrecked my step count. Those week-28 trial averages don’t tell you much—week 72 data will include the slow responders. My own six-week plateau wasn’t food; I’d lost about 2k daily steps when rehearsals went late. I was logging waist and steps, not just weigh-ins, and my waist still dropped roughly 0.25 in every two weeks. Scale caught up once I added two short walks before and after school. What did your activity look like before the stall? If steps or lifting volume fell, fix that first. Otherwise look at the three-month trend, not the weekly number.

I stalled weeks 24–31 too. Scale was flat, but waist dropped another ~1.5 in and my main lifts kept adding weight. What helped me was judging monthly, not weekly: 7-day weight average, fasted waist at navel, and gym log. If strength is still climbing and waist is trending down, that’s recomp, not a true stall. If both are flat for 4+ weeks, then I’d audit intake/training. Are your lifts still progressing, or has gym performance flatlined too?

Took me a while to spot the same thing. I'm mid-training for a fall half, so I'd step on the scale right after long runs — two pounds of sweat down, face still hot. Weeks 25–33 the number sat there while my waist kept shrinking. Fix was timing, not food: Sunday weigh-in after a normal night of sleep, nothing hard the day before, and I read the 7-day average instead of any single morning. Turned out the stall was mostly noise. Week 34 finally showed 4 lbs off. Are you going by weekly average or one morning number? Same waist landmark every time? 4 inches in 28 weeks is the part that's actually real.

Since you’re already staring at trial averages, try a 14-day rolling median instead of weekly weigh-ins. Mine went flat weeks 27–34 while leg press went +25 lb and resting HR dropped; the scale eventually caught up. Also check digestion—for me a 3-day backlog adds 2–3 lb of fake stall. If your tape and photos are flat too, what changed in steps, protein, or sleep over those 6 weeks? That’s usually where my real plateaus hide.

Hang in there. What helped me at a similar point was switching from daily scale drama to a 4-week rolling average and photos every 4 weeks. My weeks 26–32 looked dead flat day to day, but the monthly average was still down ~3 lbs, so it was slower, not stopped. I also noticed my NEAT tanked—less snacking meant less shopping/cooking/walking. Are you comparing your current 4-week average to your week-20 average, or just staring at the last six weigh-ins? That comparison changed my whole mindset.

Tbh One thing I’d add: compare 4-week blocks, not week 28 vs week 72 trial averages. My spreadsheet looked dead weeks 24–31, but the 4-week average was still down 1.6 lb; daily swings of 2–3 lb were hiding it. The other variable that mattered for me was weekends—2 takeout meals became 3, sodium/alcohol went up, and my Wednesday weigh-in jumped ~1.5 lb. Are you tracking a weekly average plus a 4-week trend? And did your step count or weekend meals change in the last 6 weeks? That’s usually my culprit.

At my week ~30 I had the same thing: scale parked for almost two months, but my waist still crept down and my usual walk got faster. That mismatch was oddly reassuring. So my question — during your six parked weeks, did waist, glucose, or energy budge at all, or is everything truly flat? If something non-scale moved, I’d trust that over the trial averages for now. If everything froze, I’d look at the small stuff: evening snacking creeping back, olive oil pours, fewer steps on rain days. Empty-nester evenings got me with the cheese-and-cracker drift. Not judging, just what I’d check.

one thing that bit me around month 6: dorm dining hall “international week” doubled my sodium, and my log flatlined even though I was eating the same-ish calories. I started tracking sodium + fiber for 10 days, not just protein, and went back to my sad rotation of rice, frozen veg, rotisserie chicken. Weirdly, the whoosh came after that, not after any calorie change. Are you still doing any resistance stuff? My lifting belt notch and old jeans tell me more during stalls than the scale ever does. Cheap, boring, slightly unhinged—but it worked.

One thing trial averages hide: the shape of the curve. In most of those datasets, loss is front-loaded across the first 6-8 months, then it flattens and drifts for the rest of the year. A six-week flat stretch around week 28 fits that pattern way more than it fits "failure."

Curious — were you dropping fast early and then it stopped, or has it been a slow steady half-pound a week the whole time? Those are totally different situations, and the second one often just keeps grinding.

Also, can you trace the last 6 weeks to anything? Mine always traced back to bad sleep or a run of restaurant weekends, not the scale being broken.

At 28 weeks, 11% down with a 4-inch waist drop and A1c 5.9 is a different phenotype than the average trial participant. Scale can park while visceral/liver fat and glucose keep improving—those often respond before subcutaneous weight moves. What’s your fasting glucose trend over those same 6 weeks? If it’s still drifting down, I’d ignore the scale and track waist:height plus grip/strength. If glucose is also flat, that’s a true plateau—then audit sleep, steps, protein, and recent stress/illness. Data over vibes.

One thing I wish I’d tracked earlier in my own 6-week park: resting heart rate and sleep. My scale was flat, but RHR was up ~4 bpm and sleep was garbage for a month. When that settled, I dropped 3 lb in 10 days without changing anything obvious. Do you have RHR/sleep data from the last 6 weeks? If those moved too, it’s probably a recovery/water-noise phase rather than your response stalling. Also curious whether your fasting glucose 104 is a single reading or a trend—labs can be way less noisy than the scale.

I feel this. My worst park was 7 weeks. What finally helped was tracking two dumb things: average daily steps and how many pushups I could do before failure. Scale stayed flat, but steps went from ~5k to ~8k and pushups from 8 to 15. That gave me proof something was still changing. Then the scale dropped 3.5 lb in 10 days. Not saying it’s the same, but have your step or strength numbers moved in those 6 weeks? If they’re improving while weight is flat, it’s easier to wait it out.

During that 6-week scale plateau, did your fasting glucose/A1c move at all, or are they flat too? That’s the fork I’d check. I had a similar park around week 28; scale didn’t budge, but my 7-day median fasting glucose fell from 112 to 98 and A1c dropped 0.2 over the next 8 weeks. If your glucose/A1c are still improving, the scale is the least interesting variable. If they’re flat too, then I’d audit measurement consistency: same scale, same time, post-void, fasted. That alone can hide 1–2 lbs of noise.

I run a cafe too, and my six-week park was mostly “invisible” bites — broken cookie halves, a spoon of ganache, tasting the soup for salt. When I actually weighed those over three days it was 250–400 cal/day, enough to hold me flat. What helped me see progress again was measuring waist at navel and hip and taking a monthly photo in the same apron. The scale didn’t move, but the hip measurement did first. Are you tracking the cafe taste-tests, or just the meals you sit down for?

Have your lifts moved in those 6 weeks? That's the number I'd watch over the scale. My own scale parked for almost two months while my squat and row kept creeping up and waist kept dropping about a quarter inch a month. If you're lifting 4x and protein is solid, a flat scale can just be water and glycogen masking fat loss. I switched to comparing monthly average waist-to-weight instead of weekly weigh-ins, and it made the recomp visible when the scale wasn't. What does your training log say?

One thing I wish I’d done earlier at my own week-30 park: overlay a 10-day rolling weight average with waist and resting HR. Scale looked dead flat, but RHR was down 4 bpm and waist another 0.5 in over that stretch. The trial curves are averages, so they smooth out individual stalls. If your log has daily weights, try the rolling line—mine showed a tiny downward slope that daily numbers buried. Did your waist or resting HR budge at all during those 6 weeks, or was it truly nothing?

Honestly, 11% down and 4 inches off your waist by week 28 is a huge win, even if the scale is being a brat. When my last 6-week park happened, I stopped weighing daily and looked at monthly averages. The other thing that helped was a 10-minute walk after dinner, rain or shine. Are you tracking steps or any strength work right now? Sometimes the scale stalls while your