Plateau already?

[ajhondrngal]

I've been following MWL and was losing really well, but after two weeks of weight loss I've been dancing around the same 2 pounds for a week. This is getting really old.

Here's a sample of my menu:

Breakfast: Steel cut and rolled oats, 1 tsp honey for sweetness, 1/2 cup homemade almond milk, one banana

Lunch: 2 cups Mexican Rice soup from Forks over Knives, 2 cups green salad with 1 Tbsp homemade no fat dressing

Dinner: 1/2 cup cooked rice, 1/3 cup beans over 2 cups lettuce with homemade no fat cilantro lime vinaigrette

I've been completely satisfied eating this way.

Exercise: I've started back at the gym and over the last three weeks I went from only stationary bike to doing the bike three days a week, walking 2 times a week and some weights 2 times per week. I also walk on Saturday with my husband.

I've started measuring with a tape measure so I can see progress although the scale may not. I'll be weighing once a week from here on. I was doing daily as I learned how to eat. I wanted to catch mistakes quickly. Now it's time to weigh less frequently.

Any ideas are welcome.

[roundcoconut]

What you're eating looks really healthy! It is hard to find fault. Mostly I just want to encourage you to continue doing all the good things you are doing, and not to let any feelings of discouragement shake you.

I am curious what others will have to say. Perhaps they will say "Time and Adherence" -- meaning to give it more time to make absolutely sure that you need to further tweak your intake.

Can anyone jump in and advise?

[ajhondrngal]

Part of my problem is I'm greedy. I'd really like it if I could lose 4.5 pounds every single week, but I know that's not possible. I should be happy that although I'm bouncing around on the same two pounds, at least I'm two pounds lighter than last week. I'm just impatient.

[ajhondrngal]

Thanks for the encouragement, roundcoconut.

[Jerry Angelo]

I have a lot to lose and I've had some plateaus but I have stuck with it... mainly because I love my plant based carbs so much!

I'm losing 1.7 pounds per week average for the last 5 months. Not sure if it's true for others but it seems to stay the same and then drop just when you don't think it ever will again... Stay the course, we'll get there soon...

[normaltraffic]

ajhondrngal,

I'm an engineer, so I don't do anything without over analyzing it.

I weigh myself every morning just before I get in the shower, this is my "official weight". I also weigh myself every night before I go to bed and practically anytime I pass my scale at home.

What I have found is that my weight varies drastically throughout the day (sometimes 5 lbs or more). I currently weigh 367.6 which is down 31.9 lbs since January 4th. That is an average of -0.68 lbs a day, but more importantly, an average of 0.13% of my weight a day. I have found that the percentage of your weight you lose over a period of time is a better indicator of your success than how many pounds. Someone once posted on this board that a good rate of weight loss is 0.1% of your weight a day (that's your weight times 0.001), so as long as I am averaging over that - I'm good.

For example, I also am currently going through a period of plateau, in fact I have gained 2.2 lbs since Sunday - eating the same as I was when I was losing weight. When I have times when the weight isn't coming off and I have not been able to determine what I am doing "wrong", I just keep going because I know that it will eventually start coming off again and until then I am at least eating healthy. I think that sometimes your body takes a few days and "adjusts". In your case it could be because you have started lifting weights.

Hang in there!


BTW, I have been McDougalling off and on for about 20 years. I realize that I am not McDougall's poster child, but I do believe if I haven't had the success that I have had, that I would be dead by now. Oddly enough, this has given me a great deal of experience starting McDougalling and losing weight. In fact, I have probably lost more weight than anyone else on this board, but of course it was the SAME 20, 30, or 40 lbs over and over again.

At some point (maybe this time) I will crack the code to figure out how to get myself to do this long term.


Joe

[frozenveg]

ajhondrngal, like normaltraffic, I weigh myself every morning. But I only count Friday morning weigh-ins and write them down. While I was losing I maintained a chart that showed me my weekly weight, the loss from the previous week, the total loss, the percentage of my weight lost, how many weeks had passed, and how many months had passed.

That is a lot of data, and that hardly even scratches the surface! But I found that collecting that data calmed me and carried me through the places where I was feeling like I was plateauing.

You cannot--I repeat, CANNOT--look at your weight daily and expect to get anything informative from it! Weight fluctuates so much from moment to moment that you could drive yourself nuts watching it on a micro scale! You can't have plateaued if you are in the middle of week 3--it isn't even time to weigh in again. You will not lose 4 or 5 pounds every week. in my first year, my average weekly loss - which included gains and stagnations--was 1.4 pounds. It went way down from there in year 2. And I lost 95 or so pounds. And I've kept it off for 3 years now. Time and adherence. This works. Results (as Dr. McD says) are typical! Don't stress! If you keep doing what you're doing, you will lose and get healthy!

[ajhondrngal]

Jerry Angelo, thanks for the encouragement.

Normaltraffic, I tend to over analyze, too. I've been tracking my exercise, food intake and weight loss thinking I can catch mistakes early. It worked once so far. Hubby tried a new recipe, and I tasted. Oooops. Won't do that again. That's a good reminder about how much is a good rate. I can celebrate that I'm losing faster than that. ha ha!

frozenveg, I've been tracking daily on one gadget, but only tracking once a week on my actually calendar. My "weekend" is Wednesday since I started on a Wednesday. I have to wonder if some of it's being a little OCD. I hate how the daily line bounces around, but weekly it's nice and smooth. ha ha.

I'm feeling better about it now that I'm starting to think more realistically from week to week. And I can't complain about how much I've lost although it's been slowing down. I'm doing better than three weeks ago, and I'll be better still in another three weeks.

Just a note about my food tracking. I do use a program that counts calories, but I'm really not all that concerned about them. I find it interesting that I can eat so few calories and be totally satisfied all day long. The good thing is they are all good calories!

You can see on my tracker that I've lost a total of 35 pounds. I lost 24 or so while on a SAD diet years ago and managed to keep it off for 10 years. I include it because it is part of my journey.

[sjsilver]

Frozenveg, I love your Friday morning weigh in idea. You say that you weigh yourself every morning though. Doesn't it stress you out a little, when on Thursday morning you are up 2 lbs? Do you then cut back on what you eat? I would tend to be a little stressed, knowing that the Friday morning number is the one that counts. I really should stay away from weigh scales.

[frozenveg]

Frozenveg, I love your Friday morning weigh in idea. You say that you weigh yourself every morning though. Doesn't it stress you out a little, when on Thursday morning you are up 2 lbs? Do you then cut back on what you eat? I would tend to be a little stressed, knowing that the Friday morning number is the one that counts. I really should stay away from weigh scales.

Well, you have to know yourself. I'm a bit of an analyzer--I'm an accountant--so I like to see data. But then I have to amass the data and make judgment and planning calls by analyzing it. There is a tiny sliver of that tendency to want to skip dinner the night before Friday morning--but really, who is "counting" but you? It's not like anyone's going to dock you pay for your weight being up on Friday morning! or--Former Weight Watcher member here--that you have to pay for another weekly meeting if you haven't gotten to your goal yet!

Like ajhondrngal said, daily can (not always, but often) let me know if I've made a bad choice, or if I'm on the right track. Other folks--ETeSelle comes to mind--believe that it's counter-productive to weigh too often, because it's kind of OCD, and only weigh themselves like, once a month. I like weighing in in the morning because it gives me some motivation to get out of bed (out of curiosity!) Otherwise, I'd sleep till the last possible minute--and I'm not a quick starter, so that would lead to tears!

[sjsilver]

I am going to start weighing myself once a week and documenting. I hadn't weighed myself in years, before I started Mcdougalling. I knew my weight was climbing as I was outgrowing my clothes. Every time I was at the doctors and they weighed me, I would say, "Don't tell me, I don't want to know!" My doctor didn't let me get away with that though and mentioned it as soon as he walked in the room. LOL. Now I weigh myself about 3 times per week. I don't mind if I haven't lost any. I just don't want to gain anything back.