I think I have stalled. I gained 2 pounds first, and now the scale hasn't budged for 4 days. Needless to say, I am frustrated. I have not measured myself. I wasn't going to do it until next week, since I just did it, and wanted to wait a couple of weeks before doing it again, so I can't say if I've lost inches, just yet.
I am diligent at weighing and measuring, so I know my calories are as accurate as they can possibly be. My water retention seems to be in check, pretty typical for me this time of year. My carbs are 100g or less, and my calorie deficit is close to 1000 per day.
I've been doing this for about 3 weeks. Is a stall about this time normal? How long can a stall last? I know it's not a plateau, yet, but I really want to get things moving again I'm afraid I won't reach my goal if I don't get things moving again right now!
4 days is not even a stall. It's normal. Keep doing what you've been doing so far and leave the scale alone for a few days. Our bodies are not machines that will always lose the same amount of weight every day or every week.
I m quite sure that u can get to ur goal soon...i guess u can have some diet all evenin....daily exercise can help u alot...swimmin is also gud idea.u ll feel great change then!!! wish u for ur successs...!! Best of luck!!
I know you might be impatient for weight to come off faster, but bodies just don't work that way. Little gains and maintain weeks are common and normal.
Keep going forward with what you're doing. If nothing changes in two weeks, then start scrutinizing the details.
Have a look at my weight loss graph (link in signature) and you will see how completely normal it is for your weight not to budge for a few days. It doesn't count as a stall until it's been a lot longer than that!
I know I should not weigh myself daily. It can be discouraging, and frustrating. However at this point in my life I am finding it to be a necessary evil. I am an avoider. If I avoid something, it will go away. If I am not sure about something, avoid it. If I think I have gained weight, or no lost weight, I avoid the scale. I have fallen in to this trap not once, but several times. I'm not even sure how many times. I step away from the scale and then I can't step back on it.
Back in 2007, I was at my goal weight, looked fantastic and felt great! I worked hard to get there, having lost 40 pounds, the healthy way. A slow and steady 1 to 2 pounds a week. My scale broke. The weight crept on. I didn't buy a new scale, my clothes felt tight, I avoided. I gained, and gained. It took a few years with frustrated attempts to lose without real motivation. I felt like if my clothes felt better, if they fit, then I was losing. A scale, in my mind at least, may have shown me that something was happening by a pound or two at a time, or maybe just a few ounces at a time, long before my clothes began to fit differently. Instead, I'd give up and dive in to a bag of powdered gems.
Fast forward to 2010, and 50 pounds.... I purchased my first size 16. I was devastated. I discovered a diet plan that promised fast weight loss, and did it. I bought a scale. I shrunk! I started at 212 pounds, and I dropped to a size 12, and 170 lbs.
I returned to my old ways, though, by avoiding the scale. I was off the diet,. I knew i needed to get back on to a healthy diet and exercise routine, but I lacked motivation. I was scale-avoiding again too, unable to bring myself to stand on it. It's like, the longer I stay away, the harder it is to go back.
My clothes began to feel tight, and the shorts were riding up. I gained 14 pounds. I knew where i was going. I started the weight loss again, but this time, I feel like in order to re-train myself, I need to get on that scale daily, or as many times a week as possible! In my mind, this is just something I have to do for now.
That being said, I can't see how a weekly weigh in showing a two pound gain would have been an easier pill to swallow!
Sorry for rambling on. I just wanted to explain my scale dependency, and why I find it necessary to get on it daily.
Okay, so weigh yourself every day if you feel that will keep you on track. But if you're going to do that, you're also going to have to learn to record the weight and move on. Until you see a pattern over a few weeks, you need to keep on doing what has been working for you so far and not let that number on the scale impact your plan too much. If you're graphing your weight, you will see continual downward progress when you look at the bigger picture instead of just from one WI to the next. If you need to, weigh yourself 5 times a day for a week and then take a look at how wildly those numbers can vary.
Ultimately, I think you need to find other ways to measure your success and progress beyond the number on the scale. What about something like keeping track of the number of days that you stay within your calorie target/on plan? If you start going off your plan too many days in a row, you will know instantly that you need to get yourself back on plan.
Okay, so weigh yourself every day if you feel that will keep you on track. But if you're going to do that, you're also going to have to learn to record the weight and move on. Until you see a pattern over a few weeks, you need to keep on doing what has been working for you so far and not let that number on the scale impact your plan too much.
Gotcha! I think you're right. In reading the message board, I learned that a plateau needs to last more than a month to really be considered such. That's a long time to wait, but experience knows how it goes. I figured 4 days was a long time to not see the scale budge a single ounce. Last week, I watched it climb, drop and climb again but it resulted in an overall 2 pound loss, which was my goal, and I was OK with that. This week, the lack of movement is more upsetting, and the fact that my overall goal was a gain instead of any type of loss. If I had just lost a pound or a half a pound, I'd have been happy.
OK, well, I'll just keep moving along, and see if I get a drop in the next few days.
I think the hardest thing about it is, I really, really, really want to lose this weight before my trip next month because everyone always sees me fat. I want my friends to see the thin me... even though none of them really care one way or the other what size I am. When your goal is 15 pounds, the loss of one week of weight loss seems like a lot! But, the bigger picture is that I have a lot of weeks left to lose the weight and I'm probably losing inches while I'm at it.
Thanks to everyone for the insight and the pep talk!
OK after all that BMW (B*tch, Moan, Whine) my body released 2 pounds this morning. I hope that two pounds doesn't come back so I can start working on the next two pounds. I'm going to try not to get on the scale for at least 2 days.
Hang on a minute, you were upset because the scale didn't move for 4 days? How fast are you expecting to lose weight? According to the stats on your profile, you've been dieting for three weeks and lost 4lb. A rate of around 1lb/week is perfectly normal, and indeed excellent. If you're losing 1lb/week, then of course you aren't likely to see a change over as little as 4 days. Am I missing something here?
I stalled out for almost 3 weeks this month, I was getting extremely upset with the lack of movement on the scale but I pushed myself to keep going. This week however I have gone from 156 - 152. It's okay to stall out, and its also okay to feel upset/angry about it, but try not to let it get you down. Use it as motivation to keep going.
Hang on a minute, you were upset because the scale didn't move for 4 days?
Um, pretty much. Yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by QuilterInVA
4 days is so far from a stall - it takes 6 weeks at the same weight. Your expectations are unreal.
Um, wow. You would think that someone who has worked as hard as you have, and who has lost what you lost would be a little kinder and a lot more supportive.
Quote:
How fast are you expecting to lose weight? According to the stats on your profile, you've been dieting for three weeks and lost 4lb. A rate of around 1lb/week is perfectly normal, and indeed excellent. If you're losing 1lb/week, then of course you aren't likely to see a change over as little as 4 days. Am I missing something here?
No, you're not missing anything. I am. Or I was. I thought 4 days was a lot. Thanks to the wonderful advice and support from everyone here (including you... loving that graph, BTW), I learned that 4 days is really quite short, and maybe even typical.... Certainly not worth getting upset about (much). Which won't mean I won't be upset, but I certainly won't post about it.
Please keep in mind, when I originally posted this, I had lost 1.6 pounds in 3 weeks after eating and working for a 2 pound a week loss. That amounts to about a half a pound a week after all that hard work. I'm sure you can understand the frustration there. The 4 pounds you see now is because I changed my ticker once that extra 2 pounds came off.
My goal? Lose 2 pounds a week until I lose 15 pounds, or 15 pounds by mid-October. Yikes that's right around the corner! So this 4 day......um....lag in loss was alarming to me. I felt like I lost 2 weeks worth of work!
Why 15? Because that's where I was last time I saw a lot of the friends I'll be seeing in October, and heaven forbid I go back heavier! Not that they'd care in the least..... it's all in that crazy noodle of mine.
So after I hit my 15 pound goal (or mid-October, whichever comes first), I will focus more on smaller losses. Maybe a pound a week, more or less.
This is all about learning, and there is much to be learned! I have done this type of weight loss before, but it was a long time ago, and I don't remember much about plateaus or stalls or the like. I will be sure to be more patient in the future. And I'm going to try very hard to stay away from the scale until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Again, thanks to everyone for the advice, feed back, and support! It's good to have feedback that comes from personal experience.
Stalled!
Needless to say, I am frustrated. I have not measured myself. I wasn't going to do it until next week, since I just did it, and wanted to wait a couple of weeks before doing it again, so I can't say if I've lost inches, just yet. 
