A Bit Discouraged

mesaint

I'm having a day where I feel fairly discouraged. I'm no newbie to the low carb life (lost 70lbs the first time!), but I'm back after a hiatus, and planning to stick with low carb indefinitely. That said, I lost 11lbs in my first week back on low carb, and this week... absolutely no movement.

Does anyone have any tips for not being discouraged by this? Similar experiences? Things that have worked particularly well for you?

I'm in it to win it, but dang... feels tough today!

cstehansen

First, it is common to lose a lot of water right away, so that first 11 lbs is not going to be the norm.

Next, depending on metabolic health, hormone balance, etc., the next most common change is your body converting white fat to brown fat. This is good. Brown fat has more mitochondria and actually burns fat. It is also denser.

During this time, you may lose no weight, but you may lose size. It is important to measure everywhere you store fat (i.e. waist, hips, thighs, arms, etc.) to see if you are losing size. You may also notice it just because your clothes start fitting differently.

Even if this is not happening, losses happen in stair step fashion, not linear. Don't be surprised at having weeks with no loss followed by a "whoosh" type loss followed by another period of loss and so on.

I would suggest you do one of two things. The better idea, IMHO, is to only weigh about once a month. This way you don't get caught up in stressing about these stair step changes and you don't get caught up in freaking out about extra water retention now and then.

If you just can't do that, then track weight in a spreadsheet with a graph or use one of the apps out there to track weight so you can see the long term trend rather than just the day to day weight. I haven't used any of these, but I think one of them is called happy scale or happy weight or something like that. I know I have seen it referenced in other threads.

Anyway, hang in there. This is a marathon, not a sprint. You can do this.

mesaint

Thanks so much, I really needed that. I think the measuring piece is the direction I'm leaning in. I already feel things fitting differently for sure, so maybe that will be more encouraging.

I'm a results based person, and can be pretty hard on myself if I'm not performing the way I'd like to, so I guess I should just change the result I'm measuring most often.

Thanks again!

AlexandraCarlyle

@mesaint, how's your support group?
By that, I mean partner, family, colleagues, friends..... anyone joining you and walking alongside you on your journey?

I just know it's an amazing boost if you have someone there with you sharing.....

mesaint

My boyfriend is incredibly supportive, for sure. He's not doing the low carb thing, but we're doing active things and we're trying to be helpful. He just doesn't have quite as much weight to lose

My family and friends are also very supportive. My best friend and I track together with our Apple watches, so that's great. It's not a lack of support, I think it's just hard to do generally.

cstehansen

Whenever it seems hard, just think of this:

mesaint

So, so true. I'm back in there

kpk54

I'm no fun in threads like these. Fun was eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted for about 10 years. It took me a whole darn year to get rid of those 60 pounds I gained during that 10 year time frame. And it has been 3 whole darn years of being mindful of what I eat in order to keep it off. The upside is I no longer think about food all day everyday. I could still overeat. Not gonna lie.

Look at it this way. If you do everything "right" for the next 3 weeks and don't lose a single pound, you'll still be averaging slightly over 2 pounds per week. Be persistent in you're program. Persistence is how you win this game. You keep from being discouraged by doing what you need to do every day and knowing it will come off if you don't quit and don't get discouraged.

mesaint

Thank you--I love this. A very helpful reminder. I'm doing this for long term health and to feel good about myself, and not to count pounds.

KnitOrMiss

Not to mention that many folks with an initial water loss often have a rebound GAIN as the body balances out the electrolytes again! It is entirely possible that you had a water/electrolyte REGAIN at the same time you had additional fat LOSSES... Or conversion of fat types as was suggested above.

We keep trying to do basic math (+, -, *, /) while our bodies are doing advanced chemistry, physics, biometric math, calculus, and goodness only knows what on Earth else!!! It doesn't hold up. What our bodies do is not as simple as what we see as numbers to punch in a calculator.

I always tell people that there are too many factors for us to control every aspect. Very few of us know exactly what our bodies burn at rest. Even fewer of us know (HRM aside - separate convo) exactly what we burn through activity or exercise. Calorie numbers on labels allow something like 20% error rate, so even if we're meticulous as we can be, we still have a significant margin of error on intake. Then add in things like sleep (quality/quantity/etc.), fluid intake, inflammation triggers, ongoing health conditions, the amount of sun/fresh air you got, your micronutrients, medications, stress levels, etc., etc., etc...and it could go on, further into the danger zone...

So we do what we can do - we use a consistent set of measures (food scale, same scale at home, same timing, consistent sleep, stress reducers, etc.) and methods as much as possible. And we hope for the best, because we can only control so much.

So let's do our math and remember that the body is a grand and mysterious thing - let's wait for it's magic, too, and just check in wholly every 4-12 weeks! (It takes 4 weeks for any changes to truly start showing reasonable results...and 12 weeks to reevaluate if something really is or absolutely is not working as expected - trends are more important in the long run than any temporary blip of a reading!)...

mesaint

I'm definitely feeling better about all this now! It's easy to get sucked into believing that what you're doing isn't worth it when you're only looking at one piece. But there are so many moving pieces--you're right. Thanks for the reminder, it's truly appreciated

mesaint

Also, if anyone is looking for a new friend, feel free to add me! We're all in this together, after all!

mesaint

Thank you @KnitOrMiss @kpk54 and @cstehansen for your encouragement!

1thankful_momma

How much are you trying to lose?

Are you tracking everything you eat? If not, try that to see if something over your limit is sneaking in.

Verify sodium intake. I was low for a few days and didn't lose anything. Upped my sodium and off came 2 pounds.

Check your macros with a Keto calculator to make sure they are where they should be.

And if all that is good, give it time and maybe look into IF or one of those other food fasts (egg, fat fast or I saw a Keto soup one too) if you stay at that weight/size in a couple of weeks.

Sabine_Stroehm

Think positively and wait for the whoosh.

JohnnyLowCarb

My weight chart looks like a cardio gram bounces all over the place but I give it a solid month to see if the chart is downward sloping

KnitOrMiss

A beloved friend reminded me that our weight charts often look like an EKG for a cracked out kangaroo, so as long as the jagged line still trends downward over time, we're doing GREAT! @baconslave

Another friend reminded me that sometimes a setback or stall is the exact distance we need to get a running start to leap over our current obstacle! - Annie

nvmomketo

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Think positively and wait for the whoosh.

Love the whoosh.

I cut my carbs again, fairly severely, from low carb to almost no carb. I felt better and I could feel myself getting smaller, but the scale went up almost 10 lbs before it finally drifted back below where I started after a month. LOL It was a long month.

I knew I had not eaten thousands of extra calories so I stuck with it. Stick with it. If you are at a caloric deficit, the scale will move eventually.

swezeytba

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

We keep trying to do basic math (+, -, *, /) while our bodies are doing advanced chemistry, physics, biometric math, calculus, and goodness only knows what on Earth else!!! It doesn't hold up. What our bodies do is not as simple as what we see as numbers to punch in a calculator.
.

This! So much!

mesaint

The whoosh. I love this concept. I can feel the changes, so I guess I'll just wait for... the whoosh

bluets2011

So glad to read this post today. Since I've started, on May 20th, I got high every morning with losing mist days. Then last Thursday nothing. And yesterday 2 pound gain. I felt discouraged and doubt myself. Then looked at what I've logged, my exercise and I've been really meticulous about everything. So can't be weight gain. Breath. Trust the process. My mantras. And yes @nvmomketo I agree with you :-)

mesaint

So I did end up having a bit more weight loss (a few pounds), and I've definitely had some changes in my body measurements... but how long is normal to hover around the same weight? I'm trying to be patient, but the scale hasn't budged in like, two weeks!

LizinLowell

@mesaint This is how it goes for me too, makes me so impatient!! I try things like eliminating dairy, mixing up my intermittent fasting schedule so I don't get into a routine, then I wait. And wait. And the scale goes down then right back up! Omg it's maddening. I don't have any advice except to hang in there & switch things up, don't be too predictable or your body adapts. I think things are adjusting in there & the weight loss will eventually resume.

KarlaYP

I call them healing pauses! Your body is healing itself and when it's finished it will resume weight loss. Keep on going! You'll be happy that you did!