Help me break through a plateau...

How long has it been since you've lost? How are you measuring your food intake (i.e. food scale/measuring cups/eyeballing portions)?

This is my incredibly generic advice when someone isn't losing. If you want more specific ideas, it might help to set your diary to public or answer some of the questions people will ask about your routine.

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so since you last saw a drop on the scale, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

ZeroTX wrote: »

3 weeks. Doing low carb without counting, just eating lots of meat, veggies, and some fruit.

I posted without seeing this response. Data will help you troubleshoot and without it there's little we can suggest. I would suggest logging your food for a week or two to see what happens.

ZeroTX wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

You aren't counting calories? That's the issue there. You can't be sure you're eating less than you burn just by going low carb. You have to ensure you're in a calorie deficit.

That's not the theory behind low-carb eating.... In extremely low-carb dieting, the basic theory is: your body burns fat to replace the carbohydrates you're not eating, to include good-for-you fats. Simplified version: not all calories are equal. Not interested in starting a religious war about low-carb dieting, though.

However, I will consider logging to see what my calorie intake is compared with my carb and protein intake.

Thanks all.

The theory is wrong and against all laws of science.

Low carb works in the same way all diets work - by consuming less calories than you burn. Period.

If you're not consuming less calories than you burn - you won't lose weight, regardless of your chosen way of eating.

ZeroTX wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

You aren't counting calories? That's the issue there. You can't be sure you're eating less than you burn just by going low carb. You have to ensure you're in a calorie deficit.

That's not the theory behind low-carb eating.... In extremely low-carb dieting, the basic theory is: your body burns fat to replace the carbohydrates you're not eating, to include good-for-you fats. Simplified version: not all calories are equal. Not interested in starting a religious war about low-carb dieting, though.

However, I will consider logging to see what my calorie intake is compared with my carb and protein intake.

Thanks all.

Malibu927 wasn't positing a theory about low carb eating. She was stating a truth about your diet. Regardless of macronutrient intake, fat loss is largely governed by the number of calories you ingest vs. the number of calories you burn. Anytime you ingest fewer calories than needed to maintain your weight, your body will turn to its internal energy stores (fat plus a bit of lean) to meet those maintenance requirements. This is not a matter of your body burning fat to replace the carbs you're not eating. It is your body burning fat to fulfill its energy needs.

You can eat any way you want--general low carb, keto, high carb, IIFYM, etc.--and lose weight as long as you are eating the right amount (i.e., fewer calories than needed to maintain.) If you are not losing fat, you are eating too much to lose weight.

ZeroTX wrote: »

We'll have to agree to disagree, as I've done various forms of various diets throughout my entire life, and believe me, my calorie intake while LOSING on low-carb is considerably in excess of my MFP goal calories. Now, if I went overboard, obviously I wouldn't lose weight, but not all calories are equal and your body needs dietary fat to work properly. Low-fat, high-sugar is bad for you no matter how few calories it adds up to.

Now I said I didn't want a religious war on my thread, so if there are any more critics of my method, I'll just delete the thread.

You asked for help because you aren't losing. People are trying to help. Calling it a "religious war" has disturbing connotations. This might be better asked in one of the keto or low-carb groups if you don't like our advice.

Nobody is proposing that you eat low fat and high sugar. You are the only person who has posted such a thing.

It's not difficult to lose weight while still eating in excess of your MFP calorie goal. Set your goal low enough and it will happen. As long as you eat less than maintenance, you'll lose, though the speed at which it happens will be affected.

ZeroTX wrote: »

malibu927 wrote: »

You aren't counting calories? That's the issue there. You can't be sure you're eating less than you burn just by going low carb. You have to ensure you're in a calorie deficit.

That's not the theory behind low-carb eating.... In extremely low-carb dieting, the basic theory is: your body burns fat to replace the carbohydrates you're not eating, to include good-for-you fats. Simplified version: not all calories are equal. Not interested in starting a religious war about low-carb dieting, though.

However, I will consider logging to see what my calorie intake is compared with my carb and protein intake.

Thanks all.

They've come up with many theories in an attempt to explain why eating a low carb diet high in fat and protein (e.g. 'naughty' 'fattening' foods like bacon) results in weight loss. The theories don't really pan out, apart from the low carber is unwittingly achieving a caloric deficit.

It's not so easy to eat at maintenance on low carb initially. But it does become easier to do so every day. Spending the majority of your life being taught to be conservative with butter and bacon and so on, to being taught you don't have to be, there is going to be an adjustment period where a pat of butter still seems indulgent but 2 pats feels like too much, to then being liberal and careless with calorie-dense fat is now a new unfortunate habit you've picked up from your new diet that, unsurprisingly, isn't working anymore.

What you have here is a few people who don't understand the principles of ketogenic style dieting. Your hang up could be in a few places as to why your weight has stalled.
1. Are you implementing carb refeeds? Every 7 to 10 days you need to amp your carbs (I would say 300g or so). As you body utilizes fat as an energy source it will begin trying to preserve your bodyfat. To keep this from happening a carb refeed is used.
2. Are you taking in enough fat throughout the day?
3. Are you eating often enough?

ZeroTX wrote: »

but not all calories are equal

Not all foods are equally nutritious, but all calories ARE equal.

I had a similar experience to yours, though. I generally eat at a deficit (had a week or so where I ate at maintenance) and after losing slow but sure, the loss stopped. I just trusted that if I continued at a deficit, I had to lose. Sure enough, after a few weeks I started losing again.

Deficit eating=loss. But due to water weight, exercise, and all sorts of variables, the loss is not linear.