Stuck at one weight for over a week

MelissaPhippsFeagins

I personally refuse to acknowledge what is commonly referred to as the "plateau"....

When the scale seems to not want to move, I take some drastic measures to confuse my body as to what is really happening. NO GETTING INTO A RUT, BODY!

4- Treat Day - this is my favorite one...sometimes your body detects your intentions as detrimental. Unless you have been cheating and not being honest with yourself first, give your body the chance to take a day off and know that you are not intending to deprive it of every simple pleasure. This is not an opportunity to drink two bottles of wine, but have a glass or two; don't eat the 32 ounce porterhouse, but enjoy the 6 oz filet; don't eat the loaf of fresh baked sourdough and the whole cube of butter, but enjoy a nice hot melty treat piece. Still eat your veggies, still eat your fruit, still eat your dairy, but maybe as icecream instead of cottage cheese.

8- Pick a NEW diet habit to focus on: like taking vitamins if you don't - or - discontinuing eating after 5 pm - or - trying to learn how to prepare the odd vegetables we never buy in a tasty diet friendly way (jicama? fennel? bok choy? collard greens?) Be creative and inventive.

, drank the rest of the yummy scotch I had on my last fat day ($$$ = too pricey to dump - had to drink it)

Those are my secrets. Happy to share what has worked for me in the past.

I am totally in agreement with not getting into a rut.

Your #4) Love the treat days - had one yesterday and still dropped .5lbs on the scale. :-) At the cookout I went to, someone mentioned that he could see a difference in my appearance in the last three weeks. (He's a good family friend and I run by his house every other day...)

Your #8) I chuckled at the thought that collard greens are an unusual food. I am a good rural Southern girl...I've been fixing collard greens forever. They are best with soup beans (no ham or bacon if you're trying to go low fat) and cornbread. Do wilt them in real butter though. The extra calories are worth it. :-)

I would have kept the Scotch for treat days or for days like this one when I feel a cold coming on....

Sarauk2sf

I think debbs1970 has some very good tips for changing up what you're doing when stuck at a weight.

I think some of them are terrible tbh.

OP: as others have said, weight loss is not linear. Large deficits can stress the body and be more likely to lead to water retention. I realize that you need to lose weight pretty quickly for surgery. However, I urge you to up your calories after. Eating more will help healing and recovery. There are a bunch is reasons not to continue on those very low calories, including greater risk of loss of LBM, insufficient protein and fats, insufficient micronutrients, the risk of adherence and energy issues, hormonal issues...

guessrs

I lose weight in about 5 pound chunks once a month. So be patient. It will fall off.

MelissaPhippsFeagins

Ray,
I just want to wish you luck with your surgery and that I totally understand the surgeon's recommendation that you lose the weight first. In addition to the hernia having allowed your fat to take over the space where the organs should be, there can be anesthesia complications in morbidly obese patients. (I don't know if you personally are/were clinically morbidly obese, and since you working at fixing it, I don't care, I'm just pointing it out to some readers who don't know that about anesthesia.)
Take care,
Myssi

SLLRunner

rben1e,

What you describe is normal. In fact, when I figured out I'd gained weight back over the last five years and started using MFP, I didn't lose for the first month or so. Now, I lose but it's different amounts each week. I think I've had a week where I didn't lose at all, but that's okay too. Nobody weighs exactly the same all the time.

I appreciate everyone's concern. I've upped my calories to 1300 and will raise them more if I need to.

Scheduled operations are generally a month to several weeks out from the date you schedule them, unless the illness/problem is life threatening. I would also raise your calorie intake to more than 1300, since you are male. If you are having an operation soon, your body must be in the best condition that you can make it.

Also, have you gotten a second opinion on needing to lose 20 lbs before you can have a hernia operation? It seems a strange thing for a doctor to say when there are overweight and obese people who have hernia operations.

itsjustdawn

Why are you eating so little??

CMB1979

I went from 265 to 185 in about 5 months. I've been stuck between 180-185 now for 2 years. Each time I hit 180, I bounce back up to 185. That's a plateau.

meeper123

Week isnt long enough to br stuck -.0

connie_messina

I've gotten past that first hump, apparently. Now I'm down to 203, only 13 lbs more to go to reach my first goal. Once I've reached 190, I'll slow down to about one pound a week.

BTW, my ticker doesn't seem to work, never shows any progress. Is there a way to fix it?

If your weight loss is not correctly reflected in your account, or if your weight loss graph is showing unusual results, you may have an accidental weight or date entry. We recommend checking your past entries. The program calculates your weight loss by subtracting your very last weight entry from your very first.

For example, if you start the program on January 1st, with a weight entry of 200 pounds, take some time away from the site, and return on February 1st with a weight entry of 205 pounds, MyFitnessPal still considers your starting weight to be 200 pounds. Your ticker will not reflect a weight loss until you log a weight lower than 200 pounds. To use a weight entry other than your very first entry for calculating your total weight loss, we recommend deleting entries earlier than your desired starting weight.

After you have made any needed corrections, the next time you log your weight, the correct amount of total weight loss should be reflected in your ticker.

grumpadon

Have to lose 20 lbs in order to schedule some surgery I need. I'll stick to 1200 calories until I get that far, at least. The more I lose, the safer the surgery will be.

Ray

you will have a better chance at losing the 20 pounds if you increase your calories. you don't have to do a drastic change. go to 1500. if your body doesn't get enough nutrients. your metabolism slows down. when you finish your food diary for the day. you should see a note in red warning of starvation mode. I was stuck at one weight for 3 months after an initial 16 pound loss when I first joined a gym. I tried all kinds of small things to kick start the loss again. it finally worked when I increased my calories. just a suggestion. btw. my total weight loss is 85 pounds. it's been 15 pounds since joining MFP. joining got me past the 3 month plateau.

funkim55

Don't worry about being stuck at the same weight for a week. For the first 2 months of my diet, I would lose 4 pounds every other week. The weeks in between I would lose nothing. The body is shocked you are watching your calories and exercising. Keep up the good work.

Also, try and get 8 hours of sleep each night. The body needs to rest in order to be in peak condition. Otherwise, you might not lose weight as fast.

Congratulations on your weight loss!!!

rben1e

I'm down about nine pounds, now. Only 2 more to go to break 200 lbs. Thanks again to everyone for their support.