Less than 4 weeks in but stalled for the last 9 days
lmf1012
Posts: 402 Member
I am a wee bit frustrated to say the least and I know weight loss is not linear and it takes time, etc. I am in this for the long haul and understand it did not go on overnight and will not come off overnight. That being said, it feels way too early in the process to have stalled already.
Stats:
Week 1 - 4.6 lb loss
Week 2 - 4.2 lb loss
Last 9 days - .2 lb gain
I get that the first two weeks is probably water weight and is the "honeymoon" period and I expected the rate of loss to slow down but I did not expect it to stop altogether.
Background:
I am 48 years old, 5'4" starting weight 166, trying to lose about 40 lbs
Diet:
I practice Intermittent Fasting 16:8 - I eat between 10am and 6pm daily
I eat around 90-95% whole foods - avoid processed foods almost completely
I get plenty of protein and limit my carbs to mostly whole grain bread, sweet potatoes, berries
I am trying to get around 1200 calories per day but I feel satisfied with what I am eating with the protein and fiber in my diet
I drink plenty of water - I have a water bottle that helps me make sure I am drinking throughout the day
I have a food scale and meticulously weigh everything and I log everything I eat
My diary is public so feel free to take a look
Exercise
I go to the gym 3 days a week for strength training
I walk most days around 30 minutes
I do have a desk job so I try to get up hourly and move around
Lifestyle
I have made efforts to get 7-8 hours of sleep at night
I work hard at managing my stress (deep breathing exercises nightly)
Anyway, I am doing everything I can think of and have read about to lose the fat and I am out of ideas. Any thoughts or ideas that may get my stubborn body to start getting rid of fat would be welcome!
Stats:
Week 1 - 4.6 lb loss
Week 2 - 4.2 lb loss
Last 9 days - .2 lb gain
I get that the first two weeks is probably water weight and is the "honeymoon" period and I expected the rate of loss to slow down but I did not expect it to stop altogether.
Background:
I am 48 years old, 5'4" starting weight 166, trying to lose about 40 lbs
Diet:
I practice Intermittent Fasting 16:8 - I eat between 10am and 6pm daily
I eat around 90-95% whole foods - avoid processed foods almost completely
I get plenty of protein and limit my carbs to mostly whole grain bread, sweet potatoes, berries
I am trying to get around 1200 calories per day but I feel satisfied with what I am eating with the protein and fiber in my diet
I drink plenty of water - I have a water bottle that helps me make sure I am drinking throughout the day
I have a food scale and meticulously weigh everything and I log everything I eat
My diary is public so feel free to take a look
Exercise
I go to the gym 3 days a week for strength training
I walk most days around 30 minutes
I do have a desk job so I try to get up hourly and move around
Lifestyle
I have made efforts to get 7-8 hours of sleep at night
I work hard at managing my stress (deep breathing exercises nightly)
Anyway, I am doing everything I can think of and have read about to lose the fat and I am out of ideas. Any thoughts or ideas that may get my stubborn body to start getting rid of fat would be welcome!
3
Replies
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If you're looking to lose 40 pounds, it's going to be a grind if you consider your body stubborn after nine days without a change on the scale. I know that probably isn't what you want to hear, but as someone who lost 40 pounds . . . there are likely to be periods where you do everything "right" and you just need to be patient.13
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Patience, grasshopper, patience
Often the body will 'recalibrate' its water weight level after those lost water weight lbs at the start of the weight loss journey. It can cause a stall on the scale, but that doesn't mean you're not losing fat.
Aside from that, strength training can also increase water retention for muscle repair, which can also cause your scale weight to stall.
Also: a calorie deficit stresses the body (bigger deficit = more stress), so only eating 1200 calories per day might be causing further water weight 'funkiness'.
Like you said yourself, weight loss is not linear. You need at least 4 weeks (or one monthly cycle) to determine your weight trend. You've lost nearly 9 lbs in 3-4 weeks, that is nowhere near a stall.6 -
It took me six months to lose the last 20 pounds. As long as you think you are doing everything correctly, patience will be.key.3
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Sounds like your doing amazing to me, I've loss 28.2 lbs so far and its been on average 4 lbs loss a month and I'm bigger than you. Exactly as you said it not linear, some weeks I've been up then down, I count the total loss by month because if I really focus on the daily or weekly I would be frustrated.
You seem to have this though, keep pushing forward. And things will start to move again, don't expect big losses weekly though at your weight that's a lot of loss per week. And usually in the beginning of making changes alot of us drop big pounds for it to slow down to smaller losses per week.
Take care2 -
Losing over 8lbs in three weeks isn't your body being "stubborn" - you really need to recalibrate your expectations and elongate your timescales.
Maybe comparing your weight on a monthly basis might give you a better perspective?8 -
I lose scale weight about a week out of the month at this point.
I'm pretty close to a healthy bmi. I'm a female with a functioning uterus. Between the two I do absolutely nothing for 3 weeks per the scale, then drop two pounds over a week (mostly water at that point as fat is going all the time). Rinse and repeat.
Settle in and relax, trust the process. The weight will go but it's not going to go every week or every two. At least not on the scale.7 -
Try to not compare weight data points in the short term. Like what I weighed yesterday vs today: does not show weight loss/gain but water weight change. The amount of weight one can lose (realistically) in a day is minimal. A few ounces of weight change is going to be masked by whatever water fluctuations are going on. Even if you add up the real weight change over the course of several days or a week, it can still be hard to 'see' the real trend.
So my advice: trust the science. Accurately & honestly log your calories in using a food scale for solids, accounting for condiments/beverages/cooking oils/etc. But compare your weight change over time. One way of thinking of it: if you consistently weigh less TODAY than you did a month ago, you're on the right track. Weight change day to day or even week to week may mean nothing in the overall scheme of things.
Another way to look at it, to help 'ignore' the times the weight fluctuates up: I only 'count' my most recent low weight, even if the scale goes back up. I know the up fluctuations are water change, when I trust the science and consistently eat at or below my maintenance calories. So its not possible for any real weight gain to happen under these conditions.3 -
Women who are in peri-menopause (approx 10 years before menopause) or in menopause often find they have to do things different to lose weight than before.
In this age range, carbs and alcohol might be having a larger impact than they did when you were younger. Look back through your diary to find high net carbs days (or big alcohol days) vs your weigh in 2-3 days later.
I'd recommend that you try a few weeks of keto to see if that helps moving you along.
Best of luck!1 -
Women who are in peri-menopause (approx 10 years before menopause) or in menopause often find they have to do things different to lose weight than before.
In this age range, carbs and alcohol might be having a larger impact than they did when you were younger. Look back through your diary to find high net carbs days (or big alcohol days) vs your weigh in 2-3 days later.
I'd recommend that you try a few weeks of keto to see if that helps moving you along.
Best of luck!
Hi, thanks for the response! I am definitely finding it hard this time around versus ten years ago. I have thought about doing KETO because I am already eating fairly low carb but KETO is too high fat and low protein for me. I have given up alcohol completely so that is not an issue nor am I having any high net carb days.
Obviously, as everyone else has pointed out, I will continue doing what I am doing and TRY to be patient lol2 -
Women who are in peri-menopause (approx 10 years before menopause) or in menopause often find they have to do things different to lose weight than before.
In this age range, carbs and alcohol might be having a larger impact than they did when you were younger. Look back through your diary to find high net carbs days (or big alcohol days) vs your weigh in 2-3 days later.
I'd recommend that you try a few weeks of keto to see if that helps moving you along.
Best of luck!
This wouldn't be related to FAT loss though, would it? I'm peri and have bigger WATER weight swings. (I know it's water because I have full confidence in my food logging and that six pound gain around ovulation certainly was not due to consuming 21,000 extra calories.5 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
This wouldn't be related to FAT loss though, would it? I'm peri and have bigger WATER weight swings. (I know it's water because I have full confidence in my food logging and that six pound gain around ovulation certainly was not due to consuming 21,000 extra calories.
My scale goes up and down. When it goes up, it doesn't just collapse down again - I have to work it back down.
I made a huge effort to lose 10 pounds about 2 years ago, and was very good for 22 weeks to only lose 4 pounds. When mustering up the gumption for another try, I researched a lot on why women around 50 can't lost weight. My research pointed to intermittent fasting and Keto making a difference for women our age, who are not making much if any estrogen or other hormones anymore.
I'm a few weeks in this time and I've developed an excel spreadsheet with graphs and charts to try to pick out causes vs effects. I've charted calories, how many carbs (and net carbs), exercise hours and other details. I've been finding my scale goes up 2 days after a higher carb day. It doesn't come back down again without the work to get it back down.
I'm still in the stage of gathering the metadata on myself so I can develop reports to gain more insight on how to succeed with my health for the rest of my life, but so far it's pointing to Keto, intermittent fasting & a significant reduction of alcohol. I loved to enjoy a glass of wine most nights and now I'm limiting to one per week or less or else my results are sabotaged.
You will have to study options and study yourself to figure out the new you. I can only saw what I'm finding about me, but it might not be universal to every woman who's approaching 50.
1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
This wouldn't be related to FAT loss though, would it? I'm peri and have bigger WATER weight swings. (I know it's water because I have full confidence in my food logging and that six pound gain around ovulation certainly was not due to consuming 21,000 extra calories.
My scale goes up and down. When it goes up, it doesn't just collapse down again - I have to work it back down.
I made a huge effort to lose 10 pounds about 2 years ago, and was very good for 22 weeks to only lose 4 pounds. When mustering up the gumption for another try, I researched a lot on why women around 50 can't lost weight. My research pointed to intermittent fasting and Keto making a difference for women our age, who are not making much if any estrogen or other hormones anymore.
I'm a few weeks in this time and I've developed an excel spreadsheet with graphs and charts to try to pick out causes vs effects. I've charted calories, how many carbs (and net carbs), exercise hours and other details. I've been finding my scale goes up 2 days after a higher carb day. It doesn't come back down again without the work to get it back down.
I'm still in the stage of gathering the metadata on myself so I can develop reports to gain more insight on how to succeed with my health for the rest of my life, but so far it's pointing to Keto, intermittent fasting & a significant reduction of alcohol. I loved to enjoy a glass of wine most nights and now I'm limiting to one per week or less or else my results are sabotaged.
You will have to study options and study yourself to figure out the new you. I can only saw what I'm finding about me, but it might not be universal to every woman who's approaching 50.
Regardless of woman, man, pre-post-or peri menopausal.... if you are lowering your carb intake to keto levels and then adding carbs and seeing your weight go up, you are definitely playing with water weight and nothing more BECAUSE.
The issue you're encountering is that a large part of the initial loss on keto is the reduction of the ready carbs stored in your body.
These carbs are stored near the muscles and in the liver in order to provide quick energy. They are stored as glycogen. Glycogen binds approximately 1g of carbs to 3 to 4g of water. So when you draw down your body's reserves of glycogen on keto induction, you shed about 4g of mass from your body for each 4 Calories of carbs you burn off. Since you're losing water and peeing electrolytes you also potentially suffer from keto flu if you don't replenish the electrolites.
But this is a non fat level related borrowed water weight reduction which gives impressive results on keto startup, and provides for intense disappointment when people who are not aware of this "ooopsies" and consume too many carbs.
Resulting in "OMG: I can't eat carbs I blow up everytime I do so".
You may want to consider that establishing your actual weight level takes several observations over time and that a weight trend application or web site may aid you in more correctly figuring out your current weight level.
This may help with the construction of a more accurate (for you) spreadsheet.
I also note that introduction of exercise also increases water weight for muscle repairs and this often remains (depending on type of exercise) for a long time period and definitely while people are continuing to feel muscle soreness. People who stop exercising (and lose that pump) often see a short term decrease in scale weight subsequent to cessation of exercise... again... this ain't a fat level change.14 -
Have you thought about relying on body measurements in addition to the scale? The measuring tape does not lie. Make sure to measure in the same exact spots every time and keep a record. I also recently got a bodyfat calibrator which pinches and measures bodyfat. I found in my case for it to be extremely accurate. While the scale may not be moving, your measurements may be changing.
I am going through a weight loss stall myself right now. Because of dental work, I am blending all of my greens which is leaving me constipated. I am thinking if I can get my bowels flowing again, the weight will once again start coming off. So, I am working on getting more insoluble fiber into my diet.
The important thing is that I keep going. Keep eating very well, keep logging, keep sleeping and managing stress levels, and keep up my walking and other exercises. If I stop because of discouragement or impatience, then I will definitely not have the success I want.
I am a 53 yo woman. Definitely in perio. I don't understand all that was posted on hormones and carbs. I am trying to listen to my body and pay attention to what it's actually saying to me. I have unsuccessfully tried what feels like every thing else. Getting clear and listening to my body can't do me wrong.4 -
As a point of interest I've lost 3lbs in the past 3 days, after not losing at all for the previous month. I mean per the scale that is.
I did not drop 3lbs of fat in 3 days.
I started my period and my body dropped water weight that it was hanging onto. That allowed the scale to show the actual fat loss I had achieved over the month.4 -
purplebeetsalad wrote: »Have you thought about relying on body measurements in addition to the scale? The measuring tape does not lie. Make sure to measure in the same exact spots every time and keep a record. I also recently got a bodyfat calibrator which pinches and measures bodyfat. I found in my case for it to be extremely accurate. While the scale may not be moving, your measurements may be changing.
I am going through a weight loss stall myself right now. Because of dental work, I am blending all of my greens which is leaving me constipated. I am thinking if I can get my bowels flowing again, the weight will once again start coming off. So, I am working on getting more insoluble fiber into my diet.
The important thing is that I keep going. Keep eating very well, keep logging, keep sleeping and managing stress levels, and keep up my walking and other exercises. If I stop because of discouragement or impatience, then I will definitely not have the success I want.
I am a 53 yo woman. Definitely in perio. I don't understand all that was posted on hormones and carbs. I am trying to listen to my body and pay attention to what it's actually saying to me. I have unsuccessfully tried what feels like every thing else. Getting clear and listening to my body can't do me wrong.
I agree with this. I noticed years ago that my scales stalled and it concerned me, but I went almost strictly to measurements and realized I was still decreasing in inches if not in pounds. I was eating well, counting calories, working with weights 3-4 times a week and walking/running at least 2 days a week. The scales stopped dropping. Even went up a few pounds. Inches were still coming off though and that was my goal so I put the scales away.
I too am 53 years old and have found that things have really changed over the years as to what works. More effort is definitely needed, but I agree you need to listen to your body and do what is right for it. I feel we are all uniquely different and therefore have unique requirements. Thank you for your response2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »
This wouldn't be related to FAT loss though, would it? I'm peri and have bigger WATER weight swings. (I know it's water because I have full confidence in my food logging and that six pound gain around ovulation certainly was not due to consuming 21,000 extra calories.
My scale goes up and down. When it goes up, it doesn't just collapse down again - I have to work it back down.
I made a huge effort to lose 10 pounds about 2 years ago, and was very good for 22 weeks to only lose 4 pounds. When mustering up the gumption for another try, I researched a lot on why women around 50 can't lost weight. My research pointed to intermittent fasting and Keto making a difference for women our age, who are not making much if any estrogen or other hormones anymore.
I'm a few weeks in this time and I've developed an excel spreadsheet with graphs and charts to try to pick out causes vs effects. I've charted calories, how many carbs (and net carbs), exercise hours and other details. I've been finding my scale goes up 2 days after a higher carb day. It doesn't come back down again without the work to get it back down.
I'm still in the stage of gathering the metadata on myself so I can develop reports to gain more insight on how to succeed with my health for the rest of my life, but so far it's pointing to Keto, intermittent fasting & a significant reduction of alcohol. I loved to enjoy a glass of wine most nights and now I'm limiting to one per week or less or else my results are sabotaged.
You will have to study options and study yourself to figure out the new you. I can only saw what I'm finding about me, but it might not be universal to every woman who's approaching 50.
It's definitely not universal *over* 50. I lost weight fine at age 59-60. I honestly don't pay attention to carbs (for me, protein & fat are minimums; carbs are to balance . . . or sometimes alcohol, within reason). Looking backward, I ate just under 50% carbs through losing 50+ pounds in a bit less than a year, and have done likewise for 5+ years since, still maintaining a healthy weight. I ate (and still eat) pretty freely through my waking hours, including right up to bedtime. (I never fasted, unless you count that annoying colonoscopy prep sort of stuff.)
I prioritize nutrition and calorie goal (on an averaged-out basis), but when those are dialed in, I do drink alcohol. (That was less frequent during loss, because with fewer calories available, it dropped off more often because of taking a back seat to protein, fats, calories.)
My scale will go up after higher-than-normal eating days, but it's hard to isolate the effects of just the carbs, because salt/sodium and calories are also in the mix, given my eating style, and of course I'm not carb-depleted at baseline weight, since I routinely eat close to 250g of them daily these days (more like 150 during loss). It's true for me, though, that the over-goal eating weight spike is fairly quick (and often surprisingly high, certainly disproportionate to calories); then it does take several days for my AM weight to gradually subside back to its normal range. (I don't particularly do anything different to work it down, just get back to my normal routine.)
I don't know whether things would be different if I prioritized alcohol above nutrition, but I see no special effect on body weight from alcohol calories vs. any other calories, personally. (Resting heart rate may go up a bit for a day.)
Sincerely, it's great that you've figured out your personally happy formula for weight loss. That experimentation, observation, adjustment leads to a personalized approach, and I think that personalization is a strong contributor to success. If it requires lots of willpower or determination or vigilance to manage bodyweight, that's going to make things harder. Personalization can make it easier, and "easier" helps when going through periods when other parts of life get stressful, IME.
Every experience is individual to some extent, until we get down to physics. But certainly, different ways of eating can increase/decrease weight via water retention and digestive volume, increase fatigue so decrease activity (even subtle, spontaneous activity) and reduce calorie expenditure, can increase or decrease cravings, etc. It's a great idea to figure that all out, on an individual basis.3 -
I definitely needed to read through this all of this advice. Not because I don't know these things, but I need to be reminded and check my emotions.
Like you, OP, I finally hit my grove with weight lost in the past few weeks. Now, I am on that 3rd week and saw a .10 loss on the scale this week. The fun beginning losses are gone and now it is just time to stay the course with realistic losses and water shifts. I know my math is right and I am in a deficit.
But there is a weird, negative, mental thing going on that I am having to push through. We can do this! Just keep going and this will seem like a blip on the radar later.5 -
My weight can go up and down by a couple of pounds in day - which from the point of view of fat lose OR gain is clearly impossible.
Instead it is a function of how much food, drink, poo and wee you have passing through your system.
So.... it is the trend you need to be looking at and that will be across weeks and months, not a few days.
And while I can go through periods of weighing myself daily, when I am going through a patch where my weight is sticking, I simply stop weighing myself for a week or two. As long as I stick to my eating and exercise programme, which I know works (I have lost 125 pounds), my weight day-to-day is really neither here-nor-there.5 -
Menstration adds around 5lbs of water retention(average women) so if you're stalling it may be pre period weight or for you the weight drops 2 weeks and stalls a bit. It's never even weightloss over each week. That being said I weigh in after using the rest room every morning in my birthday suit. If you're backed up or not weighing in the morning it will effect your weight same thing with clothes.1
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Some additional information as I have read through all of the comments:
1. I have not done measurements (I agree I need to do this) but there is no obvious evidence of inches lost - my clothes fit essentially the same, maybe slightly less snug, but again barely noticeable. I do not really think I am losing inches while the scale remains the same
2. I eat relatively low carb and limit those carbs to berries, sweet potatoes and whole grain bread
3. My period is not an issue... I am somewhere on the menopause timeline because it is super infrequent
4. Edited to add: I do use a trending app, which is the only reason I am weighing daily.
Thanks everyone for the comments - the patience thing is what I definitely struggle with especially when I think I am doing everything right.4 -
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Yep, I'm also Perimenopausal. The big sign my period is about to show up is a stall followed by an abrupt loss on the scale. It's not the physical act that does it, it's hormones. And peri is like the epitome of hormones gone wild, LOL.1 -
Hi @Imf1012, if it is any consolation, I’ve been here around 9 weeks and for the previous three weeks I have battled with a 1.2 lb gain, partial loss & gain again and then this week lost 3lb!
The weighing scales make no sense ... but CICO works! You won’t want to hear this again, but patience is key, along with everything else you are doing
Wishing you well & I hope the scale moves in the right direction for you soon 🙂2 -
Some additional information as I have read through all of the comments:
1. I have not done measurements (I agree I need to do this) but there is no obvious evidence of inches lost - my clothes fit essentially the same, maybe slightly less snug, but again barely noticeable. I do not really think I am losing inches while the scale remains the same
2. I eat relatively low carb and limit those carbs to berries, sweet potatoes and whole grain bread
3. My period is not an issue... I am somewhere on the menopause timeline because it is super infrequent
4. Edited to add: I do use a trending app, which is the only reason I am weighing daily.
Thanks everyone for the comments - the patience thing is what I definitely struggle with especially when I think I am doing everything right.
If your body happens to be queueing up one of those infrequent ones, it could be a factor. (I've seen women here say peri was worse for water weight fluctuations, more unpredictable/extreme than when in regular cycles. I have no experience, personally - I went from pre-menopausal to menopause in one month due to chemotherapy, then took anti-estrogen drugs for years (sort of a hyper-menopause state.)
Did anyone link this yet, in case you haven't already read it? So useful.
https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
Unfortunately, I think you're right in your implication that patience is the answer. Hang in there!0 -
Yeah patience.
Look at what you expected to be at vs what you saw.
I am the same height and wanted to lose 1 pound a week. Second week (I forgot to measure the first week) I lose 5 pounds, third week 0.5 pounds, fourth week I lose 4 pounds, and then two weeks of "stalled". During this time I SHOULD have lost 6 pounds but the scale shows 9.5 pounds.
I am dead certain water weight is playing fun games and I know what I am doing is working because I am using other methods to track progress other than weight. In fact, today I managed to use a belt loop I haven't in over 2 years.4 -
As a women with hormone issues, I have Endometriosis which makes weightloss harder I've learned some tricks that may also help someone entering menopause. Removing dairy and gluten remove a ton fat steadily because those are inflammatory foods also the alternatives for things like muffins end up lower calorie. All walking is not the same, I have to power walk 30 minutes minimum daily for my weight to drop. Weightlifting causes water retention. So when I start any lifting program my weight will stall for around 3 weeks and then magically straighten out. I read that until you hit day 14 it's not a real weightloss plateau in a lifting program book once too. A lot of the time you're gaining muscle and losing fat but can't tell on the scale. I also hate stalling, that first 3 weeks where my weight stays the same kills me emotionally but we just gotta power through it and keep consistent.0
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some great advice above.
I lost 30 out of my intended 40. I have also had periods of nearly half a month with almost no weight loss, despite being incredibly dedicated and consistent. It happens, be patient. It can be frustrating but keep working hard and think of this as a lifelong commitment.1
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