Sooner or later, it seems to happen to every dieter. After a period of steady, or even spectacular, weight loss, the downward trend halts.
You have landed on a plateau. Weeks go by, and the needle on the scale refuses to budge.
This appears to be my situation. Back on August 27, I weighed 216.8 pounds. Yesterday, September 17, I weighed 215.6 pounds — up a few tenths from the previous week.
Granted, it isn’t much of a plateau — yet. I’ve read of others who have been stuck at a weight for years while still trying to lose. Dr. Atkins’ rule was that you had to go at least four weeks without losing pounds or inches before you could call it a plateau. By that definition, I haven’t reached a plateau.
But this is the closest I’ve come so far. If not an actual plateau, it’s at least a significant slow-down.
And an aggravating one.
On the positive side, I am not gaining, and I have lost 45 pounds since March. That’s 17.3% of my body weight. I recall reading somewhere that people often stall after losing 17-20% of their starting weight. It makes sense. Your body doesn’t know why you are eating less than you used to. There could be a famine going on. Down-shifting the metabolism to conserve resources is a survival mechanism. Our ancestors whose bodies didn’t down-shift that way probably aren’t our ancestors. One long, hard winter would’ve finished them off.
As far as I can tell, I’m eating the same as I ate when I was steadily shedding pounds. Since August 27, I have consumed an average of 1,930 calories and 36 net grams of carbs per day. As for exercise, I have robustly continued to avoid it, but I am busier now that the fall semester has begun. I walk more, climb more stairs. I even pace while speaking in front of class.
Still, some regular exercise might be worth a try. I have no faith in exercise as a weight loss method — not in the sense of burning off body fat. It might do that, but it also makes you hungrier. But I suspect I have lingering insulin resistance, and exercise is said to help with that, especially if you build muscle. Reducing insulin resistance could help reduce me.
Then again, I bought four new pairs of pants to start the semester, and would like to get a few months of use out of them.
No need yet to go to extremes.
I have 2 links that may be of interest to you. The first is a set of youtube videos by Mark Sisson. In them he shows a progression to accomplish his 5 essential movements. They are very well explained and actually make the movements seem achievable. He does not recommend doing them more than 2 x’s a week.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+sisson+progression&aq=f
The second is from a gentleman who has done the Atkins diet and lost quite a bit of weight. However he stalled for 8 months in the middle of his loss. He writes a wonderful article on why stalls happen and possible solutions. Really nice guy it seems, and totally willing to answer questions on how he finally broke his stall and try to help with breaking yours.
http://whyguys.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/why-stalls-happen-part-1-opening-comments/
My last suggestion is to make sure you are using a tape measure as well as a scale, the combined information from the 2 ways of measuring is a much better indicator of whether or not you are in a stall.
Good Luck!!
I agree with you about not doing strenuous exercise. Have you thought of dropping the 36 carbs? I’m at a plateau and I finally decided I had enough and eliminated coffee (both decaf and regular) and heavy cream. It’s less carbs than you’re consuming, but when you have insulin resistance sometimes you really have to go to the extremes to get results. I’ll report back with my progress.
That dreaded plateau! I honestly feel that even the so-called low carb “experts” have no answers to this dilemma.
From July of 2008 till March of 2009, I lost slowly and steadily, then hit a 4 month stall. Drove me crazy. From July of 2009 till December of 2009, the loss began again, very slowly. I also tried fasting at that time and it seemed to help. [I held off eating till nearly noon every day, then ate only during a four hour period, then resumed the fast at 5:00 or so in the late afternoon.] Since 2009, even though my exercise routine has stayed pretty much the same and I am continuing to eat only 20 net carbs a day, I have not lost any more weight. I actually lost only 14% of my original starting weight, so, at least you’ve done better than me. A guy thing???
I finally had a serious talk with myself, put the scale away and quit punishing myself. I reached a point where I was able to once again wear my “skinny” jeans and I am now happy with that result. I will never reach the so-called optimum weight as shown on all those damn medical/insurance charts. But I know this: I am eating healthy, probably more healthy than 90% of the women in my age bracket. I am not gaining it all back as I have done on EVERY SINGLE DIET that I have ever tried since I was 16. I am content that I am finally, after too many years, doing the right thing for my body.
You could try intermittent fasting at least once a week. It’s good for you in small doses.
Kateryna