You've been hitting your macros. The first few weeks, the scale dropped. Now it hasn't budged in what feels like forever.
First: this is normal. Almost everyone hits a stall. And the instinct to slash calories or quit is usually the wrong move. Run through these 4 steps in order instead.
Step 1: Make Sure It's Actually a Plateau
Your weight can swing a few pounds day to day without any change in body fat. Water, salt, carbs, a hard workout, stress, poor sleep and your menstrual cycle can all move the scale.
Weigh daily, first thing in the morning, after the bathroom, before eating.
Look at your weekly average, not single days.
Measure your waist once a week. Sometimes the scale stalls while your waist keeps shrinking.
If your weekly average hasn't dropped in 2 to 3 weeks and your waist hasn't changed, that's a real plateau. Anything shorter is probably just noise.
Step 2: Audit Your Tracking
Before you change your numbers, check that you're actually hitting them. Most plateaus turn out to be tracking gaps, not a slow metabolism. For one week, check for these:
Are you weighing food, or eyeballing it again?
Are you logging cooking oil, butter, sauces and drinks?
Are you mixing up raw and cooked entries?
Are you tracking weekends as carefully as weekdays?
If you find gaps, fix them and give it another 2 weeks before changing anything else.
Step 3: Check Your Movement
As you diet, many people start moving less without noticing: fewer steps, less fidgeting, more sitting. That can quietly shrink your calorie burn.
Check your daily step count. If it's dropped, bring it back up. Adding a daily walk is one of the easiest ways to restart progress without eating less.
Step 4: Adjust Your Macros
Tracking is accurate, movement is steady, and it's still a real plateau? Now it's time to adjust. As you lose weight, your body burns fewer calories, so the numbers that worked at the start may now be closer to maintenance.
Cut 100 to 200 calories a day. Small changes, not crash diets.
Take it from carbs or fats. For example, 25g less carbs (100 calories) or 11g less fat (about 100 calories).
Keep protein the same. It's what protects your muscle while you diet.
Give it 2 to 3 weeks before you judge the change.
You can also re-run your numbers at your new body weight in our free calculator:
Been Dieting for Months? Consider a Break
If you've been cutting for a long time and you're tired, hungry and losing motivation, the answer might not be fewer calories. A planned break of 1 to 2 weeks eating at maintenance can make the next phase of your diet much easier to stick to. It's a pause, not quitting.
The Bottom Line
Plateaus don't mean macros stopped working. They mean something needs checking: your data, your movement, or your numbers. Work through the steps in order, make one change at a time, and give each change time to work.
The Macro Shred Start Here Series
What to Do When You Hit a Plateau (you are here)
