In this instructional YouTube video, Eric Roberts addresses viewers who think they are stuck in a weight‑loss plateau. He argues that the vast majority of people are not truly plateaued and outlines four diagnostic checks to determine whether a plateau exists: (1) at least 21–28 days of stagnant weight, (2) ≥90% consistency with daily calorie targets over the past month, (3) accurate calorie tracking using a food scale (grams, not volume estimates), and (4) measurable body‑composition changes via measurements or progress photos even if the scale isn’t moving. Roberts explains why each check eliminates most perceived plateaus, shares anecdotes from his coaching clients, and emphasizes honest self‑assessment. If a genuine plateau is confirmed, he recommends modest calorie reductions (50–150 kcal per day) or adding 15–30 minutes of low‑intensity steady‑state cardio 2–3 times per week. Throughout, he adopts a direct, no‑nonsense tone, urging viewers to be brutally honest, patient, and consistent, while also reassuring those who see body‑fat loss despite scale stagnation that they are on the right track.
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What is going on, YouTube? Welcome to the video. Welcome back to the channel. In this video, we are going to be covering what to do if your weight loss plateaus. So we're going to cover a few things. I just realized, I don't know why, why did, why did I put 1 first, 2? I could just put first, second, third, whatever. Um, we're gonna cover 4 main things beforehand, and then we're gonna go into exactly what you should do Step by step, like how you should change your plan if you are in a weight loss plateau. But before we get into that, I'm gonna tell you a stat that you may not believe, and it might actually piss you off. 99.67% of you watching this are not in a weight loss plateau. I know it probably pissed you off, probably makes you very mad. You're like, no, Eric. F off. My weight hasn't gone down. I've been being perfect. Da da da. Let me explain here in this video. Give me a shot. Give me a shot. I promise. All right. First and foremost, if it has not been at least 21 days, you are not in a weight loss plateau. You're not. So if it's been 4 days, it's been 6 days, it's been 10 days, it's been 2 weeks. That is not a weight loss plateau. I'm gonna put a picture here above of one of my online coaching clients. Multiple times throughout our process of her having these tremendous results you're seeing right here, her weight stalled for 4 weeks at a time multiple times, multiple times. And as you can see, she saw tremendous progress. 'Cause each one of those like 4-week stalls was always followed by a big whoosh down. So say for 4 weeks her weight did not move, but on that 5th week she lost about anywhere from 4 to 6 pounds and then kept it off forever. So point being, you not losing weight for 10 days is not a weight loss plateau. And the most important thing to understand is if she— if my client you just saw, if she would have quit When her weight didn't go down for 4 days, or God forbid, not go down for a week, she would have never gotten to that point where that 4-week, 5th-week mark came and she lost 5 or 6 pounds and then kept it off forever. Because if she would have quit, she never would have gotten there and she would have stayed where she was. So it's a testament to her because she never quit. But you have to take the same approach. You not losing weight for 6 days is not a weight loss plateau, okay? It has to be at least 21 days, and honestly, I really want to tell you 28 days because again, I, I've seen multiple, multiple of my clients stall out for 4 to 6 weeks at a time. Like, multiple people have done that. It's not uncommon at all whatsoever. So I really want to tell you 28 days. I'll tell you 21 just because I want you to stick with it. But really, 28 days. If it hasn't been at least 28 days, like, you have no room to be thinking you are in a weight loss plateau. And again, number 2, it's not uncommon, so you shouldn't feel bad. I think so many people, like, they get into this mindset of like, well, my weight's not going down, I'm a failure, I'm doing something wrong, what's wrong with me? And like, you get in this— you get in your head, that little voice in your head starts to talk. So I'm telling that voice Shut the fuck up. You're doing everything right. You're doing everything fine. You not losing weight for 2 weeks is not a weight loss plateau. So that's number 1. So that probably clicked out at least half of you where it has not been 21 days. So you can't say you're in a weight loss plateau. Either way, still keep watching because there's a lot to learn, but if it has been 21 days, you're not in a weight loss plateau. Number 2, have you been at least 90% Consistent with your nutrition. And somehow people like to twist this and they're like, well, what does that mean, Eric? This is what I mean. There are 31 days in a month, right? Give or take. If you have not hit your calories at least 27 days out of those 31 days, you are not in a weight loss plateau. You just need to be more consistent. And I think you'll be surprised when you go back and look at— the lighting just drastically changed. I think you will be surprised when you go back and look at your consistency. And I don't think you're even being malicious. Like, I don't think you're maliciously telling yourself I'm being consistent when you know you're not. I think you don't know how inconsistent you might be being. Literally go back to the last 31 days and literally like tally up how many days did you hit your calories or stayed under your calories? How many days did you either go over your calories Or not track your calories. This is the one that people often forget about the Tuesday night when they went out to eat with their friends and they couldn't really track the calories at dinner, so they didn't track calories. They forget about the Saturday night when they had the kids' soccer game and we went out to, you know, our kids' friends' parents asked us out to eat, so we went out to eat there and didn't really track calories. Like, all those times count. But often, and again, I don't think you're being malicious. There's something in my eye. I don't think you're being malicious. I think you're just literally forgetting about those times because your head is always so wrapped up in dieting and weight loss that you literally just don't remember that like you had 7, 8, 7 or 8 days throughout the month that led you to be inconsistent. And so you're not in a weight loss plateau. You just need to be more consistent before you can tell yourself that you're in a weight loss plateau. Go back at the last 31 days, and honestly, I'd probably say 25% of people watching this haven't even been at this for 31 days yet. So I mean, that's one thing in and of itself. But either way, go back at the last 31 days, tally up how many days have you hit your calories, how many days have you either gone over calories or not tracked. Because I guarantee you, if you didn't track, you probably went over your calories. So if you're not at least 90% consistent, once again, You are not in a weight loss plateau. You just need to be more consistent and then you'll see the progress you wanna see. So that's number 2. Those 2 things right there probably knocked out, I'd say, a good 75% of people watching. Third one is probably gonna knock 99.67% of people out watching. Third one is you're not tracking your calories accurately. And I'm not saying this with malicious intent or anything like that. 95% of people watching this probably do not track their calories accurately. And it's just— and I'm not saying that to be like negative or pessimistic. I'm just saying that from the amount of DMs I get per day, the amount of comments I get per day, the amount of emails I get per day of people telling me they're eating 1,200 calories, 800 calories, 500 calories, and not losing weight. And then I send them this video that you can go watch on how to accurately count calories. Every single time they send me back like, oh yeah, I wasn't using a food scale. I was just kind of guesstimating. I just kind of scanned it in my Fitness Pal and put it in. I was using, I was using cups or tablespoons or measurement or whatever the hell it is, like ounces. That's not tracking calories accurately. There is a massive, massive difference in counting your calories with a food scale versus just fucking guesstimating. Those are 2 massively different things. Again, if you need to know how to accurately count calories, I have a free video on YouTube. It's the same video I send to my online coaching clients. I'm not holding anything back from you. Go watch the video so you can see progress. Number 2, I wrote an entire article on the most common calorie counting mistakes. You can— I'll put that here in the description below. You can read that, but you should see a common theme. I'm creating content around this because a lot of people struggle with this, and that might be you, and that's okay because if you don't know, you don't know. But now you know, so now I have no sympathy for you anymore because now you know. If you are not weighing your food on a food scale in grams, not ounces, not cups, not tablespoons, if you are not weighing your food on a food scale in grams, you are not counting calories. You're just guesstimating. So if you're just guesstimating, you're going to get guesstimating results. You have really no clue how many calories you're actually eating. And if people do 2 things in fitness, it's overestimate how consistent they're being and underestimate how many calories they are actually eating. Those 2 things are probably why you are not seeing progress. Everybody always goes to starvation mode or metabolic adaptation or all these other things. If if you have, it's one thing if you were a bikini competitor who weighed 115 pounds with you know eight percent body fat and is stepping on stage. That individual, yeah, she might have some serious metabolic adaptation to where she cannot lose body fat on lower calories. She had she had to go super low in calories because. The only way you're gonna lose body fat is to be in a calorie deficit. But if you have 50, 75, 140, 30 pounds to lose and you claim you're eating 1,000 calories and not losing weight, you're not eating 1,000 calories. And again, people are gonna get super mad at me, but I would just challenge you to those things I said earlier. Check your consistency, check if it's been at least 21 days, and check your calorie counting. Check those 3 things. I'm not saying this to be an asshole. I'm not taking the time out of like go through my content on my YouTube, whether it's YouTube or my articles or Instagram and TikTok. I don't care where it is podcast. I don't care. I literally give you all of my information for free every single day of my life. I have no reason to lie to you. I'm not lying to you here either. If you're not losing weight and you think you're eating a thousand calories, put the time in. Watch that calorie counting video. Read the calorie counting article. Do the other 2 things here and I promise you, like with all of my heart, you will see progress. Okay? So that's number 3. Number 4, if your measurements and your progress pictures are changing, but the scale isn't going down, you are not in a weight loss plateau. And this is probably— that probably knocked out 100% of people watching this video. So honestly, that's why I left this for last because it don't fucking matter because you probably don't gotta do it. If you're— let's, you know, for example, if— number 1, if you're not taking measurements, please start taking measurements. If you're not taking progress pictures, please start taking progress pictures. Measurements every 2 weeks, progress pictures every 4 weeks. If your measurements are going down, like you're losing inches off your waist, your clothes are fitting differently, you're not in a weight loss plateau. You're losing body fat. The best way to know if you're losing body fat is if your inches are going down and if your clothes are fitting differently. are fitting differently. Those are the, that's, those are 2 best ways and progress pictures, the 3 best ways to know if you're losing body fat. You can lose body fat without losing weight on the scale. So if those things are happening to you, if your progress pictures look different, if people are telling you you look different, if your measurements are going down, but the scale really isn't going down, you are not in a weight loss plateau. And you need to keep going. Once again, people ask me, what am I doing wrong, Eric? My measurements are going down, but the scale isn't. You're not doing anything wrong, Carol. You're doing everything right. That means you're losing body fat. That means you're losing body fat and building muscle at the same time, which is phenomenal, which is the hardest thing to do. So you need to keep going because what you're doing is working to a T. Okay, so those 4 things right there, literally 99.9% of people That is what's going on with you. I promise you with all my heart. Again, I have no reason to sit here and lie to you. It just wouldn't make sense for me to take the time out of my day to make this video to lie to you. It just doesn't make sense. Okay? Those 4 things. So, you're probably not in a weight loss plateau. So, go back and look at your consistency. Go back and look at how you're counting calories. Go back and look at your measurements. Go back and look at if it's been at least 21 days. I promise you from there, you'll probably find the answer. You can fix it and then you can see tremendous progress. Okay? Now, I'll make this very quick because, again, I really don't think 98% of you need to watch this. If you checked out on all those things, if you've been at least 90% consistent over the last 31 days, if you are tracking your food scale to a T, if you're tracking your calories with a food scale to a T, if your measurements aren't going down, if your progress pictures don't look different, if your weight's not going down, then yeah, you'd probably be in a weight loss plateau. Which again, I cannot stress enough, uh, maybe 0.01% of people who watch this video are actually in a weight loss plateau. Let's just say you are. There's 2 things you would do. You would either decrease calories or increase your energy expenditure, because again, losing weight comes down to a calorie balance equation. You have to eat less calories than your body burns. So if you are in a weight loss plateau, which for the 900th time during this video, you're probably not, but let's just say you are. You would either decrease calories to decrease your energy intake or you would increase your energy to increase your energy expenditure. If you're going to decrease calories, I would decrease calories by anywhere from 50 to 150 per day. So let's just say you're eating 1,500 calories. I'd go to maybe say 1,450 or 1,400. The higher calories you have, the more I'd take away. So let's say you're a male who is eating 2,000 calories right now. I would look to possibly take away 100 to 150. So you'd be in the 1,850 to 1,900 range. If you're a female who's eating 1,500 calories, I'd look to decrease less 'cause you just need less calories to decrease to see a change. So I'd change anywhere from 50 to 100 max. So you go from like 1,500 to 1,450/1,400. Okay? Or I would increase your energy expenditure. So I would look to add 2 to 3 days a week of 15 to 30 minutes of like steady state, low intensity cardio, like walking or, you know, on the treadmill or doing the bike or whatever it is. You don't have to do HIIT cardio. It's not like the secret to fat loss, but anything— you can if you want to, but you don't have to. So just like steady-state cardio, 15 to 30 minutes, and you'll be good to go. So literally, that's it. But again, I can't reiterate it enough. You probably don't have to do any one of those things. You probably just have to learn how to count calories accurately, be more consistent, or be more patient. Any one of those, any one of those 3 things. Or number 4, if you are actually seeing progress with your measurements and your progress pictures, then— You're not doing anything wrong. You're not in a weight loss plateau. You just need to keep going. So, hope you enjoyed the video or at least learned something. You might not enjoy it 'cause again, you might be mad at me and you might leave a negative comment and say I'm an asshole and— I hope you're not too mad at me. If you have any questions, drop below. I'll try to answer as many as I can. Hope you at least enjoyed the video and learned something from it. And again, go back and reassess. I know it's very hard sometimes to be— to be very honest with yourself. It's hard. It's not easy. Well, for all of us, not for me, not for you, not for anybody. But if you be brutally honest with yourself about, are you really using your food scale for every single thing? Are you really tracking all the bites and snacks you're eating throughout the day? Are you really making sure on the weekends you're being as accurate as you can be with your calorie counting? Are you really 90% consistent or are you just forgetting about those days and have to go back and look at, did you actually log in MyFitnessPal? Ask yourself all these things. And I promise you, as hard as it may be to come to that kind of conclusion, It's gonna get you closer to your goals. So guys, hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, leave a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and we'll talk soon, okay?
