Does the weekly loss rate normally taper this fast?

2026-10-06 18:25

I keep a running weekly average in a notes app, mostly because daily weigh-ins lie to me. Started in the mid-290s, hovering around 185 now. What I didn't expect: the average weekly drop went from about 2.4 lbs in the first few months to somewhere near 0.6 now, even though my meals and daily walks haven't changed much.

I'm not panicking, and I'm not looking for anyone to tell me what to do. I just want to know whether that curve is mostly explained by being lighter, or whether it usually points at something else worth checking.

The trial data I can find gives average total loss but rarely breaks it out month by month, and most of what I see online is either "totally normal" with zero numbers behind it or someone selling something.

So: has anyone here tracked their own monthly rate and watched it bend? Or found a study that actually plots the taper? I'd rather read a boring table than another anecdote, honestly.

2026-10-08 12:39

At 290, a 2.4 lb week was ~0.8% of body weight. At 185, 0.6 is ~0.3%. So the relative rate hasn’t collapsed as hard as the raw pounds suggest, but it’s still tapering.

Also, your daily walk is now hauling ~105 fewer pounds, so it burns fewer calories for the same time/distance. Classic systems thing: inputs stayed constant, machine got smaller. I’d start tracking waist and a strength/stairs benchmark; scale rate becomes a lagging indicator.

Sharp question: have you recalculated your weekly drop as % of current weight instead of absolute lbs?

2026-10-11 01:18

Tbh your pattern sounds very normal to me. One thing that helped was comparing my weekly average in four-week blocks, not week to week.

At 185 versus the mid-290s, the same meals and walks represent a smaller calorie deficit simply because a lighter body burns less at rest and during activity. I also started tracking a few non-scale markers—waist measurement, how stairs feel, progress photos every six weeks—because the scale can stall while other things improve.

Have you recalculated roughly what your maintenance might look like now compared with when you started? That comparison made the taper feel less like a failure and more like math catching up.

2026-10-11 02:19

I’ve been here three years and the “slow tail” comes up every few months. For me, going from 2+ lbs to under 1 wasn’t the process quitting—it was math.

At 290, a 30-minute walk and daily life burned way more than at 185. What helped my tracking was switching to a 4-week rolling average and a monthly waist measurement.

Scale stalled six weeks once, but my waist dropped 1.5 inches. Are you measuring anything besides weight?

That’s usually where the real trend shows up when the weekly average flattens.

2026-10-12 01:07

first off — mid-290s to 185 is huge. Congrats on that average, too; it’s a much kinder metric than daily noise.

What I noticed around a similar total loss: the same 30-min walk costs fewer calories now than it did 80 lbs ago, so the gap between intake and burn quietly shrinks. Have you checked whether your step count or pace has drifted, or whether portions have crept up even slightly?

Also, are you lifting or doing anything to protect muscle? My weekly drop slowed a lot until I started tracking protein and a couple strength sessions.

0.6 is still forward, and a taper isn’t a personal failing.

2026-10-16 11:52

Been here since the old Tuesday weigh-in threads, and this exact thing pops up every ~30 lbs. I had a similar curve: ~2.3/wk early, then ~0.5–0.7 once I got under 200.

The thing that reframed it for me was switching from pounds to percent of body weight — 2.4 at 290 is about 0.8%/wk; 0.6 at 185 is about 0.3%/wk. Still a taper, but not a cliff.

Have you looked at your 4-week rolling trend vs. your best single week? Sometimes mine flatlines for 10 days then drops 2 lbs overnight, and the average hides it.