My weight loss has hit a plateau?

chmcke01

I am a man, 5 foot 7 and a half inches tall. I now weigh 262, down from 282 a week and a half ago. I lost the weight by dieting, exercise, and for the past week the diet pill Adipex. Five days per week I walk 1.5 miles at 3-4 MPH and then I swim for an hour. The other two days I just swim.

I have started eating healthier foods with vegetables, fruit, whole grains...I even switched to skim milk. I usually only eat about 1700 calories total and less than 1000 net calories per day (net as in calories eaten minus calories burned). I eat a serving size of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with skim milk for breakfast, for lunch I usually eat one cup of leftovers from whatever we had the night before, and for dinner we make different things, but we try to keep it pretty healthy. For example, the other night we had a salad and whole grain pasta with lean ground beef. Breakfast is usually roughly 250 calories while lunch and dinner are usually 400 each. The rest of the calories come from occasional snacks. As for drinks, I mostly drink water, but I also drink a little 100% juice no sugar added grape juice. Not a lot, what I like to do is drink down to the top of the label on my Deer Park bottle, then I top it off with grape juice. That way, I am only drinking like 2-3 ounces of juice and the other 13-14 ounces are water, and to me it still tastes a lot like grape juice and I can drink it much easier than straight water.

According to my doctor I should be losing weight. However, I hit 262 on Monday and have not lost any more since. So, I dropped 20 pounds from last Monday to this Monday, but have not lost a single pound since. I know it wasn't water weight because I have been on a pill for a while that prevents my body from retaining too much water, but there isn't visible loss.

What should I do to "jump start" the loss again?

psychmz3

You are on a plateau when you remain the same weight for WEEKS or MONTHS. Not for a week or a few days. You lost water weight. Trust me. I lost 17lbs. in 9 days when I first started. It was water weight. If you lost 17lbs. of fat, it would be highly visible and EXTREMELY unhealthy. What you eat also has a lot of carbs. That makes you retain water and then flushes out when you lower them and drink more water.

Make sure also you track everything that enters your mouth. Oils you use, mayo, bbq sauce etc..

Keep at your deficit and keep working hard. It'll pay off.

chmcke01

As to the water weight, I am on a hydrochlorothiazide for my blood pressure and my doctor tells me that I should not have had much water weight to lose, let alone 20 pounds worth. Also, I am taking Adipex and it is not unusual to lose 15-20 pounds your first week, but it is unusual to lose 20 the first week and ZERO the next.

I realize I am not on a plateau exactly, but I am well over 100 pounds overweight and SUPPOSEDLY the more overweight you are the faster it comes off and then as you get closer to your goal it gets more difficult. As to the not visible, I am told that dropping 20 pounds for someone of my size probably won't make a visible change, but I have noticed that my stomach used to be on the firm side kinda like a fully inflated balloon, whereas now it is much softer, like Jello.