Misty, the plateau point idea presumes that there is a general downward trend that then flattens out (and i understand issues of body working more efficiently at lower weights & requiring fewer calories etc) ...that's different to your body maintaining at a particular weight for years.

In my case, if I look at my weight-gain over a number of years, it has not been associated with a long time trend of eating badly & not exercising...rather my weight has been stable until significant biological 'events' have taken place - ie each of my pregnancies, treatment with steroids, period of unusual physical inactivity...then there has been a sudden gain which has leveled out when the biological event has ceased. I'm figuring this would be a FANTASTIC survival mechanism if you lived in an environment of food scarcity & probably biologically entrenched.

Did anyone see that show on SBS last Tues night about Why aren't thin people fat? They got all these lean volunteers then fed them twice the daily number of calories & limited their physical activity for four weeks then watched what happened. Most had a small-moderate weight gain, a couple self-limited because they physically could not force that number of calories down, and the really interesting one gained weight but absolutely no fat - just converted it immediately to muscle - despite the limit on physical activity.

There is so much we don't understand about why our bodies behave like this!