Hitting Plateau - any advice?

vikashsinha

Hi Guys

I have been on low carb high fat diet since Mid July this year. I lost 10 kgs by september. Then in October I hit plateau. I have tried all approaches in Nov till now, but my weight doesn't seem to budge much. Nor I havent gained back.

I am sure you must have hit plateau some time during your LCHF endeavor. Can you please advice me what I may be doing wrong?

I drink bulletproof coffee for breakfast (with tablespoon grass fed butter and 1 tablespoon brain octane oil) every morning. Then three to four days in a week I go to gym around noon for either running (5 kms) or weight training - overall 45 mins exercise. In Aug and Sep when I lost most of my weight, I was running 5 kms daily.

For lunch and dinner I eat mostly low carb meal - ranging from burger without bun, beef cheese steak without bun, homemade lamb or chicken curry, omelettes, kebab etc. Sometimes I do add green leafy vegetables and soups at lunch.

I do not count calories anymore, nor I focus on macros in the in last two months. I probably take alcohol 4-5 times in a week, usually whiskey. Occasionally beer or wine during weekends. I do take peanuts (2 oz) along with my drinks usually.

I sleep 5-6 hrs a day during weekday and much more during weekends

I do feel good in general, but I am not progressing in my weight loss. I still have 12 kgs to lose. I currently weigh 90 kg. How do I come out of this deadlock?

Thanks

Lucille4444

vikashsinha wrote: »

I do not count calories anymore, nor I focus on macros in the in last two months. I probably take alcohol 4-5 times in a week, usually whiskey. Occasionally beer or wine during weekends. I do take peanuts (2 oz) along with my drinks usually.

If you eat less calories than you burn, your trend will be downward. Period. But it is not always a straight line, salt, water weight, hormones can ll combine to temporary fluctuations.
However, you may also be eating more than you think if you are not weighing/counting. For many, counting their carbs is adequate, but it seems that a lot of sneaky calories are at play here- a couple tablespoons of fat, alcoholic drinks, peanuts, along with your regular meals might add up to more than you think. Maybe just for now, weigh weekly, and count calories for a few weeks.

Sunny_Bunny_

While I don't believe calories are the be all end all of weight loss, I do think they are important to a degree and the timing of your discontinued counting seems to coincide with your maintenance weight.

nvmomketo

I stopped losing in October too, but my calories and carbs went up. The past few ays I went lw also ride and it kick started the losses again. You may just be eating too much or too close to maintenance for your current weight,

Sometimes I find that eating more for a day and then going back to a losing calorie goal will start losses too. No idea why that seemed to work for me in the past.

Careful of the carbs in beer. Most seem to have around 10g of carbs in a 12 oz serving but some go low to 2 g or high to 25 g.

KarlaYP

Tracking macros is important! Knowing what's going in matters tremendously. You may be surprised if you log the wine...the carbs can add up quickly without realizing. It's great that you're maintaining low carb meals, but wine, that many times in a week, can be an issue for the scale (it's great that you haven't gained!).

I have experienced the stall from he!!, not losing any new weight since June!! During that time I did lose almost two sizes in clothing, plus I measure too. Sticking with it through all this time has been a choice, since I was seeing health improvements too!

Please measure, if you haven't. This is a great motivator when the scale is stubborn! If I had based my motivation on the scale, I wouldn't be here! I'm sooooo glad I stuck with it! Finally had a 1.1 pound drop today!!

Hang in there!!

balesalicia

vikashsinha wrote: »

Hi Guys

I have been on low carb high fat diet since Mid July this year. I lost 10 kgs by september. Then in October I hit plateau. I have tried all approaches in Nov till now, but my weight doesn't seem to budge much. Nor I havent gained back.

I am sure you must have hit plateau some time during your LCHF endeavor. Can you please advice me what I may be doing wrong?

I drink bulletproof coffee for breakfast (with tablespoon grass fed butter and 1 tablespoon brain octane oil) every morning. Then three to four days in a week I go to gym around noon for either running (5 kms) or weight training - overall 45 mins exercise. In Aug and Sep when I lost most of my weight, I was running 5 kms daily.

For lunch and dinner I eat mostly low carb meal - ranging from burger without bun, beef cheese steak without bun, homemade lamb or chicken curry, omelettes, kebab etc. Sometimes I do add green leafy vegetables and soups at lunch.

I do not count calories anymore, nor I focus on macros in the in last two months. I probably take alcohol 4-5 times in a week, usually whiskey. Occasionally beer or wine during weekends. I do take peanuts (2 oz) along with my drinks usually.

I sleep 5-6 hrs a day during weekday and much more during weekends

I do feel good in general, but I am not progressing in my weight loss. I still have 12 kgs to lose. I currently weigh 90 kg. How do I come out of this deadlock?

Thanks

Lack of Sleep and alcohol are probably your biggest culprits. If you have to sleep a lot more on weekends, then your not sleeping enough during the week. Also check your fats! If they aren't high enough on low carb, you'll go into starvation and either stall (like I did until I upped my fats again last week) or lose muscle and bone!

Unknown

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vikashsinha

Thanks for your input

My T3 is ok. How do you shock your metabolism?

I sleep avg 5 hrs during the weekday, this hasnt changed since I started LCHF diet in July.
So based on your advice - I will start logging in my food in mfp again.
Regarding calorie intake, shall I target 1000 kcal deficit diet? But then I am defeating the whole purpose of LCHF diet. Or shall I target to eat my required Kcal per day which is 2560?

20 gms carbs, 78 gms protein, and remaining fat
does this sound ok?

Will try to restrict my alcohol to weekends only and eliminate beer and wine totally.

vikashsinha

my macros in mfp -

Calories 1742
Carbohydrates 5 % 20 g
Fat 77 % 150 g
Protein 18 % 78 g

do they look ok? my daily cal requirement is 2560 kCal

Unknown

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ms_smartypants

When I plateau in 09/2010 all I did was eat (ex. 2000 calories one day.....1300 the next day alternating that for about a week) and my plateau was gone but I wasn't doing LCHF back then ....GOOD LUCK I know how fusterating it is

vikashsinha

I am not very fond of pancakes. I can try lower Kcal diet. But I have been listening to scientific podcast on ketogenic diet. They all recommend, not eating less, as this may result in body going to starvation mode, and catabolism of muscles, eventually you gain weight than lose weight

would like to hear from your personal experiences rather than literature which may be conflicting

Christine_72

vikashsinha wrote: »

I am not very fond of pancakes. I can try lower Kcal diet. But I have been listening to scientific podcast on ketogenic diet. They all recommend, not eating less, as this may result in body going to starvation mode, and catabolism of muscles, eventually you gain weight than lose weight

would like to hear from your personal experiences rather than literature which may be conflicting

Starvation mode in this sense is a myth. Have you ever seen an overweight anorexic or starving folks in third world countries. .

Whenever I've plateaued in the past, it has always been because my logging had slacked off. Watch those calories

Christine_72

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

Sunny_Bunny_

I would recommend logging food again. I would aim for 10-20% calorie deficit. 1000 calories seems like a lot... No need to go that drastic. Probably wouldn't be healthy to have it that low every day. Maybe try some intermittent fasting.???
I know you always hear about not needing to count calories, but those people are making a huge assumption that you will naturally not overeat... You have to slightly underwear to get the weight to come off. So, without tracking, you must be naturally eating at your maintenance level.
Just cut back a few hundred calories a day and things will get going again. Or add in a few days of intermittent fasting each week as a way to create the deficit... Then there may be no need to track. Just remember not to go overboard eating on the non fasting days.

Unknown

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SuesNewImage

Also check your fats! If they aren't high enough on low carb, you'll go into starvation and either stall (like I did until I upped my fats again last week) or lose muscle and bone! [/quote]

I concur with not enough fats and also watch calories during this difficult time - my nutritionist (also a Dr.) said women with hormonec inbalances & under 1500 calories go into starvation mode & plateau. So calories arnt really important until you need to do some troubleshooting. Logging everything in MFP gave me the info so he could see how things are going on & how my body is responsible.

lodro

lose the alcohol and the peanuts and start tracking calories.

Abm4n

From what understand, the body prefers to burn alcohol first, then other macros like carbs, protein and fat. I would be looking at reducing the alcohol + peanuts combo especially beer + peanuts combo which would be too carby.

Also make sure that you are not short changing yourself on sleep. I generally find it easier to lose weight by fasting at night: i.e. laying on my back in a quiet, dark room rather than by running around or pumping iron in a sweaty gym. Then there are the more subtle "lifestyle" tweeks i.e. less stress, more sleep, more low impact movement and less time sitting down at a desk looking at a flat screen.