Sorry, I guess I'm hoping to educate someone today. (No one in particular)
Just because a person has slow or even stalled weight loss does NOT always mean that person is self-sabotaging. Sometimes, yes. Maybe even often times. But for those of us who are on plan every, every, every day and who exercise like crazy people....*puh*...It just knocks the wind out of me every time I read it.
Thank Eliana. I think it is great for us to share tidbits of wisdom with each other. This is a good thing for people in stall or plateau mode to remember. The early days of a plan when the weight flies off is super easy to get used to. It's easy to be motivated when everyday your scale moves down. NOT as easy when the scale hovers at the same weight or even goes UP!
When I hit a stall I gave myself permission to try to move off weight loss mode and pratice maintenance for about a month. I weighed myself every day and watched the scale closely. When I felt comfy with that...I decided to kick it up a notch and head back to weight loss mode.
In the past I would have become disgusted with my body's lack of cooperation and went off plan completely. This time, I have embraced the lifestyle change and wanted to try something different.
I think it's okay to look at a plateau as a place where your body is adjusting to the new weight. It's okay to be patient even gentle and loving with ourselves.
I am just in such a state of discouragement thinking something is wrong with what I'm doing, when I KNOW I'm on target. Just need to keep trudging on knowing it's all for a greater good.
Oh, Mama. I feel the wind all the way over here. And then doesn't it just knock the wind out of you to read advice given to someone that perhaps they're just not as on plan as they think they are?
How about measurements? Did you go that route? Or clothing? Do you feel smaller so you were expecting the scale to move in a bigger way?
For me, there's just something about that 200 pound mark that my body seems to like. It's an old sticking point, although honestly, I have many, many sticking points. Right now it's 189.
Michelle-I think that is is awesome that you practiced maintenence. I have never lost weight and maintained it. But my sister lost almost 60 pounds a few years ago, and while she never gained back even close to half of it back, she wasn't able to maintain better than 10 pounds higher than the weight loss she achieved. She is my height, 5'11", and went from ~210 to 150 pounds. She now weight around 160 to 165, and while she looks great, Would love to have settled at 155, which is where I'd like to end up maintaining. I may use your idea when I hit a plateau.
ugh I feel everyone's pain. I lost 50 and maintained for almost a year. Then the next 50. There were MONTHS where the scale didn't move more than 2 or 3 pounds, but I thought to myself "This is what I can live with" so I kept trudging thru it and sure enough, my stubborn fat cells finally relented and knw i wasn't kidding LOL I know I could have dropped calories adn ramped up the exercise and gotten the weight off faster, but I wasn't prepared to "LIVE" that if you know what I mean? I wanted to see where I'd get living a lfiestyle I knew I could do forever.
Since being "on plan" for me means, at its most basic, simply not eating sugar and white refined crap, then yes...I can be 100% on plan and not lose weight, or perhaps lose weight very slowly. I am pretty OK with that, because as a sugar addict, retaining my sanity and health is more important than any weight-loss goal.
I also know, for myself, that the plans that some other people use or endorse (lowering calories, for example) do not work for me. What does work for me is raising my activity level and keeping my calories steady--and by raising my activity level I mean engaging in very vigorous workouts (strength training, HIIT, or steady-state cardio) every day while keeping my level of NEAT up (generally around 8 hours per day on my feet). I have to live like an athlete in order to lose weight; whereas for some people just lowering calories does the job.
We are not all the same, and we should never assume that we are. It's good to give suggestions and guidance based on what has worked for us personally (and to phrase it that way), but it's not good to assume that there is one path through.
That being said, the most common "on plan" mistake that people do make is mis-measuring their food portions, while calorie-counting. Weighing food on a scale rather than measuring it using cups or spoons is a much better method; it's just far too easy to be 10% to 20% or more off in calorie counts when food is measured. So we might think we are "on plan" when there actually has been a math error introduced. But that's pretty easy to correct.
I stalled for 10 very loooong days, driving myself crazy since I was exercising, eating on plan, everything right! I'm glad I'm not alone in that frustration.
On plan for me is 1200-1500 calories, and honestly it's usually more like 1000. Those calories are as whole foods as they can be down to homemade spaghetti sauce. I've restricted the carbs, eliminated red meat and have embraced beans.
Exercise:
M/W/F Spin cycle class (high intensity? Uh...yeah)
T/TH lift 1 hour, swim in the afternoon, walk in the evening
Saturday: Play day- lift 1 hour, swim, walk, hike, etc.
Live like an athlete? Check. Eat like a bird? Check Slow weight loss? Check
This was just what I needed to hear today. To be honest, I've avoided posting (again) about my frustration being stuck at 160 because I didn't want to hear exactly that, that I've been off-plan, because I darn well haven't been. Thank you.
I've had long plateaus of being perfectly on plan and not losing a lb. Counting calories, exercising, etc and still nothing. It does get frustrating
I also do recognize my own self imposed plateaus though and understand when I am doing maintenance but it can be frustrating when everything says you should be losing and you aren't.
I refer you to my post about metablism conversing with fat cells (sorry, have no idea how to link to an old message). I wrote it to amuse myself but also to explain the pauses in weight loss when I figure my body is just making adjustments when I know I've been on plan.
OMG Yes Yes yes! (snicker) This is ME too. I am doing an intense bootcamp program 3 times and week and 3-4 miles running/fast walking 3 days a week. I am eating within calories and clean food most the time. My old habits are BROKEN and I stall or my weight is slow moving and bouncing around.
I no longer do drive thrus, never eat Chinese food, limit Mexican (because of chip temptation), drink water like crazy, don't eat at bedtime,limit bread, eat 1/2 a bun, skip crackers and croutons,no second helpings, only use skim milk, never eat mayo and limit cheese, avoid salt like its poison, look like a b*tch at restaurants because I order everything special , consider granola bars like candy bar treats, crave fruit and get excited over it.
And still there are stalls.
Last edited by Nikki6kidsmom; 04-27-2010 at 01:15 PM.
Slow loss does NOT always mean off plan!
(No one in particular)
