Last updated on April 12th, 2017
Starting weight = 221.6 lbs.
Ending weight = 219.6 lbs.
Since the end of April, my weight has been stuck around 220 pounds, going up a little one week and down a little the next. This week, the direction is downward. I lost two pounds. But although I edged up to 219 pounds nearly a month ago, I’ve yet to fall below that mark.
In short, I’ve been on a diet plateau. Probably everyone who tries to lose weight has to cross one or two plateaus along the way. Maybe more. It can be frustrating.
Even though I lost a couple pounds this week, until I can string together a few weeks of losing weight, I’ll still be on a plateau. I’d be frustrated, except that I feel it has been mostly my fault.
I’ve just been lax in consistently following my low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) eating plan.
You can see it in the table above. The average calories consumed per day last week was fine at 1,757. But it isn’t calories by themselves that matter. It’s the macro-nutrients that supply those calories. As you can see, most of my calories (69%) came from fat. For the vast majority of Americans, that percentage would constitute a high-fat diet, indeed. For me, it isn’t high fat enough.
Back in March and April when I was steadily losing weight, my percentage of calories from fat was in the range of 71-73%. My percentage of calories from carbs was generally under 10%.
I need to get back to those ranges. This past week’s total carbs consumed (68 grams) was too high for me. Even subtracting the fiber, I still ate 49g net carbs a day on average. Perhaps I could get away with 49g net carbs per day if I were consistent in eating right around that amount every day — in a range of, say, 45g – 50g of net carbs. But I haven’t been consistent, either. You have to look beyond daily averages to see that.
Yesterday, for instance, as the result of a bad decision while dining out with the family, I consumed 86g of net carbs. That was by far my high carb day of the week. My low carb day of the week was Wednesday when I consumed only 24g of net carbs.
From 24 to 86 is quite a range!
Interestingly, I was home all day on Wednesday. I ate all of my meals at home on Wednesday and Friday. All of the other days, I was away for at least one meal.
That’s significant because eating away from home can mean less control.
I need to keep my total carbs at 45g – 50g a day, and my net carbs at 30g – 35g. My percentage of calories from fat needs to be at least 72%, day in and day out.
I need to be consistent following that plan.
I know I can do it because I’ve done it before. I don’t feel deprived when I eat LCHF, but sometimes I get careless. That most often happens in social settings, especially away from home.
Especially at restaurants.
It doesn’t help that most restaurants aren’t geared to my way of eating. Maybe that will change, but in the meantime, I need to exercise more care and control when eating out.
Otherwise, I may be wandering around this diet plateau for a long time.
It’s a lonesome, dusty place, and the view is terrible.
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