Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

I am a 5 ft female who is 40-50 lbs overweight. I have been on the Starch Solution for a month now and have been extremely diligent. I lost 1.5 lbs the first week, 1 lb the next, and by the fourth week my weight loss had completely stalled.
I was not vegan before this, so I'd assumed switching to a total plant based diet the weight would be "melting off" as it has for countless people on such programs.
I don't understand why my body gives me such a hard time losing weight? I have a small appetite so there is absolutely no way I'm overeating, or going beyond 1200-1400 calories a day.

I have a lot of weight to lose so there is no reason that weight loss should plateau right now but my body is already failing me 4 weeks into the weight loss attempt. What gives?
Any advice is appreciated!

P.S. I take weekly averages from mornings so yes I'm weighing myself properly.
And i do use salt for seasoning in dinners but never sugar.

Are you following the MWL plan, or regular McDougall? It does seem odd that your body isn't shedding weight more quickly, seeing that you're starting this up "brand new" without having eaten this way before. Most times, the sort of shock or surprise of drastically changing your fuel kind of jolts the body into dropping poundage. Even water weight, you'd think there would be a larger initial drop.

But I can tell you, I was stuck until I really committed to the MWL. As in, soup or salad before meals, push my plate away when satiated, no high fat foods (no avocado, nuts, nut butters), no flour products, etc. Essentially: zero processed, no animal proteins, and 30 ish minutes of exercise per day. It's working for me, but for some reason it wasn't when I was having chocolate espresso beans "only on weekends" or having "just a tiny spoonful of that gooey dessert"

Keep on with it, and keep us posted.