Ohhh! The Dreaded Plateau
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collegefbfan
Posts: 346 Member
Well, weigh in was today, and I lost nothing. Stuck at 240. I know there are NSV, but I hadn't even snacked at all this week. I am eating strictly a breakfast, small lunch, and dinner. No cheats, only water to drink except for a little bourbon last weekend. Could that be the problem. I mean like about 6 ounces if that. I know fluctuations happen. My scale said 236 this morning and the one at work said 240. When I compared them before, the one at work was only a pound off of mine.
Don't want to lose the motivation.
Suggestions???
Don't want to lose the motivation.
Suggestions???
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Replies
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suggestions:
pick one scale and stick with it, weighing on two and trying to correlate them will drive you mad
be patient, everyone has weeks when they don't lose
realize that a "plateau" is no weight loss in 6 weeks or more - not 1 week
Yes, the bourbon could have done it although I would think that would have been out of your system and had its ill effects by now2 -
After a certain amount of weight loss your body has some housecleaning to do.
Your skin is the largest organ in your body and now you have a bit more of it in places than you need. It's thought that periods of what we call "plateau" are when the body does some maintenance with connective tissues and skin.
You can adjust your diet or do any number of things to force your body to give up more scale weight loss or you can continue to treat it well, feed it right and respect its right to do what it knows is best.
Your thoughts and ideas make you want that scale weight loss more than anything else. Some people will actually sacrifice health for a lower scale number because the emotional need for it is so demanding.
You can do that or work on acceptance that your body is smarter than you. Feed it the right foods, real foods, and it will be able to do the things it needs to do to be healthy and regulate weight. But it won't do it on your schedule.10 -
That helps a lot. Thanks!!!1
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Just seeing 15.5 pounds peel off of me in the last 3 or 4 weeks has my motivation through the roof. Then, boom. This little deal. Especially when my scale reads one thing and the one at work reads another. Well, @Sunny_Bunny_ thanks for all the advice.0
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I agree that your body needs to do a little housekeeping from time to time.
I wouldn't call a week a plateau, just a blip.
Don't sweat it. You've lost 15 pounds!!0 -
Don't think of it as a plateau, think of it as time for your body to adjust to the changes its giing through.
My weightloss really slowed this summer and as disappointing as it was not to watch the scale drop fast, I was really proud of myself for the consistency in my woe and I considered the time my "practice session" for future maintenance, even though I still have a lot of weight left to lose. It was like a stabilizing period in my weight loss journey, I think our bodies need those periodically.2 -
I am only 4 weeks in, maybe 5. Is it too early to try intermittent fasting? I am thinking exercise like riding my bike or walking. This will burn extra calories, but some folks here did mention it causing swelling or some muscle building which could result in an increase in the scale. Amy suggestions?0
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You're not going to experience consistent weight loss each week or month. I don't think Intermittent Fasting (IF) has a time requirement. I find that exercise does not burn that many calories to be used for weight loss per se but it does tone your body and build muscles that burn fat. Any swelling will subside and weight from muscle is better than weight from fat. Try not to be so focused on the scale...easier said than done...2
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collegefbfan wrote: »I am only 4 weeks in, maybe 5. Is it too early to try intermittent fasting? I am thinking exercise like riding my bike or walking. This will burn extra calories, but some folks here did mention it causing swelling or some muscle building which could result in an increase in the scale. Amy suggestions?
Many people intentionally or unintentionally eat back their exercise calories, so it may not help create a calorie deficit. And, yes, you may also find that the inflammation that comes hand-in-hand with exercise does not help you in the scale department.
But that said, I don't think anyone is going to say that exercise isn't a good thing, but do it for your cardiovascular health, muscle strengthening, balance improvement, etc, not directly for weight loss. I workout now to help reduce my blood glucose, for the overall mental wellbeing benefits and because it makes me feel good about being healthy, which in turn reduces my desire to eat off plan... so sure, in a round about way it helps my weight loss, but that's not the primary objective.
Hang in there and keep treating your body right
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Super news... Thanks peeps.0
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collegefbfan wrote: »I am only 4 weeks in, maybe 5. Is it too early to try intermittent fasting? I am thinking exercise like riding my bike or walking. This will burn extra calories, but some folks here did mention it causing swelling or some muscle building which could result in an increase in the scale. Amy suggestions?
See, this statement is concerning to me.
It sounds like you'd rather see scale weight loss than to build muscle, lose fat and possible not see so much scale weight loss. That's not healthy.
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Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »collegefbfan wrote: »I am only 4 weeks in, maybe 5. Is it too early to try intermittent fasting? I am thinking exercise like riding my bike or walking. This will burn extra calories, but some folks here did mention it causing swelling or some muscle building which could result in an increase in the scale. Amy suggestions?
See, this statement is concerning to me.
It sounds like you'd rather see scale weight loss than to build muscle, lose fat and possible not see so much scale weight loss. That's not healthy.
I agree with @Sunny_Bunny_
I am of the 'eff the scale' variety and have actually gained scale weight since my lowest weight. But I have lost inches and clothing sizes. Nobody knows what the scale says when looking at you. It is very possible to look smaller but weigh more.
The scale is only one indicator of progress and it's really not the best one.3 -
That is true. I agree.0
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My scale hasn't been moving as much as I'd like it to this month either, so on top of the excellent advice from others here I'll add that it's important that you think about your NSVs as much as your SVs. They can be anything that has positively impacted your diet and your body.
Examples would be fitting into a smaller pants size, learning a new healthy recipe, finding a new snack that helps you to stay on track, reading through a weight loss or diet book and learning something that helps you, walking faster, increased step counts, better skin, having less "brain fog", lifting a higher amount of weights, running faster etc. Anything that is not measurable by a scale but improves your body and mind.
I've gone into stores just to try on different sizes of pants and have been surprised that even though I wasn't losing weight I was still getting smaller and was able to fit into smaller jeans. I do that at least once or twice a month, it gives me something to look forward to LOL.
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The thing is I love this WOE. I am going to stick with it and I can cancel out the bad carbs forever. I have seen donuts, cake, pies, pastas, etc. at the work place and they haven't phased me a bit. I love seeing the 16 pounds come off in the last almost month or so.
We are having a work place competition and I have always paid my money, joined it and then quit after 2 weeks. This WOE has me going strong, in first place, and close to winning. A lady coworker has been three pounds behind me at the last 3 weigh-ins. To put it nicely, she has a big mouth, and her constant yapping makes my ears bleed.
So, needless to say, I want to win, but I am also enjoying this new WOE. All the help from you all, the ideas, suggestions, advice, etc.
My body does feel better, lighter, and like I could actually do some form of exercise.
Many thanks again.1 -
Ok. I get it now.
For the sake of short term competition you could try a 24 hour water fast that you break at lunch time assuming that's after your weight in.
So after lunch one day, only drink water, tea, coffee, broth or pickle juice with nothing added and fast until that time the next day.
Should produce a little loss. However, you'll likely put a little of it back on afterward once you're eating again. This is even fine to do once or twice a week as long as you feel good while fasting.
If you experience any issues that drinking some broth or pickle juice don't fix, you should break the fast. And no matter when you break the fast, you want to do it with a light meal first.
It's important to realize the scale will go down and back up a little again once you break the fast. So don't get disappointed when you see that.2 -
Also, I wouldn't doubt your competitor is due for a serious slow down too.
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@Sunny_Bunny_ Yeah she gained two pounds. We had goodie day last Friday. I didn't even look at the dessert table. She hovered around it and grazed is what I heard. So a fast might be good to try. From lunch to lunch sounds good. We weigh in in the morning. When you say broth, how much? I don't want to be eating gallons when I should be eating cups. Also if we weigh in on Friday, which day would be the best for the fast? Thursday?
Thanks.0 -
My experience with fasting is to say yes to Thursday. You're not going to want to eat more than a cup of broth. It varies for me. My broth if from boiled chicken with salt because of gut issues. I boil then simmer leg quarters for 4 hours. You may want to add ACV and additional fresh herbs to make it more yummy.
Good luck to you. I won a similar contest in 2010.1 -
Usually if low sodium symptoms sneak up on you a cup of broth (boullion cube or whatever) being about 1000mg of sodium is enough to perk you up if that is indeed what the issue is. If it didn't, I personally would probably try at least half another cup and if I still felt icky and tired or headache, then I would break the fast.
Over the course of an entire day, you could have 3-8 cups if you wanted as long as you felt good. Space them out so it's not too much at once of course. Drink other stuff too. You don't have to drink that much broth specifically. But you will want some sodium especially if you're drinking a fair amount of other fluids.
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