[Chamie]

Ok, I am getting a bit worried here. I had a great loss this past week as you can see by my ticker, but this week (since Tues night) my weight loss is stuck. I do not understand?? I have been very good. I haven't even eaten all my WW points on most days. In fact, I have eaten signifigantly less. (15-20/30) I have even started exercising. I walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill this morning at 3.6 rate. What is going on? I even feel my clothes are looser.

[Heather]

What's going on is normal weight loss. It frequently takes a while for our good behaviors to show themselves on the scale. Really! It's not just like we eat less and the next day drop the weight. The process is more complex than that.

Usually at the beginning, you see losses quicker, because you are losing a lot of water.

Just keep eating healthy and exercising and OVER TIME, you should see results! But don't expect them to come quickly, or you may be disappointed and give up!

But don't starve yourself!! That's not necessarily good for your body. Not to mention you can get really hungry after a while and ditch your plan!

[Chamie]

(whine) But I want to see results now!! I know I am doing this right! I just want to see those #'s change. I am sooo afraid that I will go to my WI Tues and I will be up or the same weight and get discouraged. Because, this is a very big change in my lifestyle. I even feel a bit depressed at times. I am not sure how to comfort myself anymore. Food was my saviour my companion in a sense. KWIM?

[Gale02]

Honestly, IMO, 15-20 WW points isn't enough food. Roughly speaking, you're only talking about 1000 calories per day, that's not nearly enough food to sustain you. I'd say eat the points you're supposed to be (maybe a few[as in 2-3] less), and keep exercising. You'll see results soon enough.

Maybe you need to stop weighing yourself daily? I know that when I first started, I couldn't weigh myself every day or I'd end up doing just what you are. You have to give your body a little grace for the daily fluctuations. Some days I'll wake up weighing 3 lbs more than I did the day before when I know darn well I didn't eat 10,000 extra calories the day before.

Keep going and you'll see results. If you let yourself get discouraged and quit because the scale isn't going down every single day, you'll be in worse shape than before.

[Gale02]

Oh yeah, I wanted to say something about comfort eating, too. I used to eat all the time to comfort myself. My DH works long hours on a graveyard shift and loneliness is my trigger emotion. I had to find something else to comfort me besides food. First, I had to become aware of when that emotion hit, otherwise I'd head to the kitchen because I was "hungry" (yeah, right.) I find that reading, doing my Bible study or doing my stitchery are all good replacements for eating. I also exercise when I can (it's not terribly feasible at 3am, for example.) I need to have something in my hands, so those three things all work well for me.

Find something you like to do and replace eating with it if you're not truly hungry. It'll be a habit before you know it.

[Heather]

Chamie -- Take a deep breath. Of course we know what you mean, we have all been there! Really! And one thing I have learned in this process is that it is NOT a race. In fact, thinking of it like a race may hinder your success! You can spend so much energy thinking and agonizing over everything that you start viewing everything you do in absolute terms. This kind of all-or-nothing thinking has killed countless dieting attempts.

I would really encourage you to look at your long term goals. For me, the goal was not just to LOSE weight but to keep it off. And in order to do that, I needed to learn strategies I could use every single day of my life... not just however long it took me to lose the weight!

Other long term goals help keep the focus off the scale. I am able to do so much more, both in the gym and in my life. I can buy smaller clothes and don't get so hyped up about social situations. Think about the non-scale victories too, rather than just relying on the scale.

Let's say you do weigh in on Tuesday and haven't lost an ounce or even goes up. So what? The scale does not merely reflect your FAT, and so it is going to bounce around. Are you going to let that silly number on the scale dictate whether your week was a success or not??? We give that scale a lot of power over us!!! I can tell you right now that you will have weeks where you do everything right and don't lose, and others where you lose, even though you weren't perfect. It happens. Don't let it control you.

Of COURSE you want to wave a wand and lose all the weight now. But unless you learn how to KEEP it off, it's only going to come back and bring friends. So, for your own mental health, try to take the focus off the scale, okay??

[SwimGirl]

You really have to eat all your WW points! Their program was designed to work - but you have to follow it. No point in paying for a program you aren't going to follow.

How many servings of fruits and veggies are you getting each day? Thats been a REALLY important thing for me and everyone I've known who has been successful with this change.

Heather and Gale have given you some great advice!

-Aimee

[famograham]

I agree that the advice given here is very, VERY important...and I'm glad to hear it for myself too.

We can do this, just try and settle into the rhythm...and remember to eat what you need...starving yourself will not work in the long run.



Linda

[missy3gal]

Almost no one see significant weight loss every day or even every week. Our bodies just don't work that way. Please, please don't weigh yourself every day until you're further along. I have fallen off of my diets so many times because I would give up when I didn't see daily results and it took me months to get remotivated. Stick with this no matter what and keep coming back here.

I'm at home with a lot of children too, and it can be a real challenge to eat right when they are snacking. I also find that I need to take quiet time in order to gain some peace and perspective. This time around I have eliminated most of their snack treats except those I know I can turn down and I make a point of being by myself every few hours even if it's only to go in the bathroom and turn on the fan for 10 minutes while I read a diet book.

I've found coming to this site several times a day helps. Don't stop coming here, even if you feel like you have failed. Borrow books on weight loss from your library. Any book on that topic will have at least a few chapters that will keep you motivated. Keep them in the bathroom and read them when you can sneak away.

PM me if you want to talk.

This time around is different for me because of a book I read. I've mentioned it before, but here's a copy of what I posted yesterday

I've been here on and off for a long time. I started and stopped, started and stopped. I know beyond a doubt that I will continue to eat properly from now on because I read a book that wasn't a diet, but a book about how our thinking effects our eating. We've basically been brainwashed and brainwash ourselves to overeat or eat poorly.

This book was written by a psychologist and it contains a series of simple, daily exercises related to thinking. You don't even start off dieting until after several weeks, although you can start your diet at any time (you pick the diet...this book is not a diet.) It took me three weeks to get through the first 6 days of exercises because I was so resistant, but once I hit day 7 I knew my thinking had permanently changed. I borrowed the book from our public library and kept renewing it until I finally bought it. It's The Beck Diet Solution by Beck. Here's what the author says (and it's true)

Quote:
The Beck Diet Solution is different from other diet books because it is a psychological program, not a food plan. With the step-by-step program in this book, you will learn specific techniques to stay on your diet, lose weight, and maintain your weight loss for life. The Beck Diet Solution is based on clinical research in Cognitive Therapy.

[Purplefirefly]

I agree with all the excellent advice you've already been given...listen to them, these people have helped me get out of ruts like this, and they will help you if you really listen and take it to heart.

I wanted to add that if you have just started exercising and aren't eating all your points, that could be doing you in. I was limiting my calories to 1200 when I first started and working out, and would be lucky to lose 1 lb. a week. Then I went by a book for figuring weekly calories, and found out I needed to eat a lot more calories. So I am now eating 1400-1600 most days and I am losing more each week...average 3 lb. compared to 1 just by eating more.

So, eat your points! Especially if you are working out, your body needs that energy to sustain your activity. If you have a few leftover and aren't hungry, then stop for the day, but I think you are holding out too many calories for your body. With my calories, I make any that I don't eat on one day "Freebies" for the rest of the week, and use them whenever I want an extra snack, a higher calorie treat, etc. But I have learned my lesson...I need to eat to lose!

[modkittn]

Excellent advice here. Your WW target is the minimum number of points you should be eating in a day. If you are eating less, you are starving yourself. Try to reach at least your target every day. And don't worry, the losses will come. Patience is definitely a virtue when it comes to weight loss!

[CT Cabo Girl]

Hi Chamie and Chicks,

I'm in the same position you are. Been doing great on plan, but the scale hasn;t moved in 2 weeks. It actually increased by a few pounds for a day or 2 and I know it's insane, since I stay at 5 - 10 carbs a day. It moved back to where it should be, but it's so hard to be so good and see no results. It's so frustrating! I know how you feel righ now, but you can do this and so can I. It's just a stall. When the scale starts moving again, we'll both be pleased and proud for staying on track!!!

[barbygirl43]

Nothing much else to add except maybe you are adding muscle so your weight on the scale may not show as much. I know this past week I worked my butt off in the exercise dept. doing 1-2 hours a day. I only had a 1.5 pound loss this week, but I was too tempted by my tape measure and checked my belly measurement and I've lost 1.5 inches in my waist in 1 week. So my exercise is definitely paying off. What Heather said about looking at the long-term is what I'm doing. Yes the weight falling off is wonderful and who wouldn't like to see a 3-5 pound loss each week when you have over 100 pounds to lose. I would rather lose one pound a week and learn how to eat right and exercise than to drop all the weight in 6 months and be right where I'm at now in a year.
Just hang in there.

[pamatga]

It looks like you are the same weight as I am. I think there are a few things we need to park at the door if we are going to lose the weight once and for all. They haven't been mentioned so I will bring them up.

We are all impatient for results. It is interesting that we weren't impatient to gain the weight but once we decide that we want to lose it, boy, watch out!

Use that energy to focus on recreating a new lifestyle that will support your new eventual weight. Beck discusses this in her book. You start in the mind and in your thoughts but just like you imagine how you will do something else you need to let your mind recreate that lifestyle you will have eventually so when it does happen, it will seem like you were there all along.

What do you envision your normal weight sized life to be like? Start living that life now. Like others who mentioned about activity. People who are not so food-oriented fit eating into their lives not the other way around. Eating should and will become like brushing your teeth or vacuuming. It is just another thing to do during your already busy and active day. Life is and can be lived without extra food and when you realize that then you will relax and start seeing it that way.

Guess what, you are going to have to sweat, deny and suffer to realize your goal. No one else said it in those terms but those here who have been successful know exactly what I am talking about. There is a quote floating around here that I just love: "Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Being thin is hard. Choose your hard."

So, park the impatience, the "I won't survive another moment feeling this way" and get busy, girl. You can do it or you wouldn't be reaching out to us to affirm that. You need to believe in yourself. "Fake it until you make it". Tell yourself you are going to do this until you believe you are going to do this.

Then, share all of your glorious accomplishments. We will be here waiting to hear all of your victories and cheering you on.

[Trazey34]

Originally Posted by Heather

Chamie -- Take a deep breath. Of course we know what you mean, we have all been there! Really! And one thing I have learned in this process is that it is NOT a race. In fact, thinking of it like a race may hinder your success! You can spend so much energy thinking and agonizing over everything that you start viewing everything you do in absolute terms. This kind of all-or-nothing thinking has killed countless dieting attempts.

I would really encourage you to look at your long term goals. For me, the goal was not just to LOSE weight but to keep it off. And in order to do that, I needed to learn strategies I could use every single day of my life... not just however long it took me to lose the weight!

Other long term goals help keep the focus off the scale. I am able to do so much more, both in the gym and in my life. I can buy smaller clothes and don't get so hyped up about social situations. Think about the non-scale victories too, rather than just relying on the scale.

Let's say you do weigh in on Tuesday and haven't lost an ounce or even goes up. So what? The scale does not merely reflect your FAT, and so it is going to bounce around. Are you going to let that silly number on the scale dictate whether your week was a success or not??? We give that scale a lot of power over us!!! I can tell you right now that you will have weeks where you do everything right and don't lose, and others where you lose, even though you weren't perfect. It happens. Don't let it control you.

Of COURSE you want to wave a wand and lose all the weight now. But unless you learn how to KEEP it off, it's only going to come back and bring friends. So, for your own mental health, try to take the focus off the scale, okay??

yah, what she said!!!

I was the same way, I'd "eat perfectly" for 4 days and HEY I"M STILL FAT!!! how come?? i should be skinny by now!!! and then quit because there was no point...but then of course I realized it's the long haul that matters, days and weeks go by, and little incremental changes add up big time! yay!

it's not very dramatic (like the Biggest Loser where every week it's "You're lost another 37 pounds this week") but it's stable and steady and works!