I'm a long-time member here but haven't been on for a while. My goal was to lose 100 pounds. I lost 95 pounds over the course of 2 years...SO CLOSE...but then re-gained 35 pounds last year.
This year, I was determined to get back to where I was before.
I spent 3 month this summer practicing "intuitive eating," where I didn't weigh, tried to listen to my body, focused on eating healthy foods, exercise, etc. Didn't lose a single ounce in 3 months.
Decided to switch to a more intentional mode. I don't like vegetables, but decided to suck it up and just do it to get the weight off. Changed my diet to lower carb (around 110 - 125 net) and ate mainly fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meat, cheese, and full-fat yogurt. Calories around 1500/day. I have exercised regularly (hour a day, 4 - 5 days a week, lifting weights, swimming, tabata intervals, spin class) for years. I've always drank TONS of water every day so that's not an issue. Lost 2 pounds a week for 6 weeks.
Then nothing. Not an ounce. For the last month. Weight goes up a pound, weight goes down a pound.
I tried going SUPER low carb (50 g) and was miserable. Didn't lose an ounce.
I tried Intermittent Fasting, where I didn't eat from 7 p.m. - 11 a.m. Didn't lose an ounce, but love it, so going to keep it up anyway.
I switched up my workouts - first more weights, then more cardio. Didn't lose an ounce.
I weigh 195/196 now, so it's not that I'm really close to my goal. My dr says that I should weigh between 150 - 165.
The only thing I can think is that my weight loss stopped after I was on antibiotics for a week. I've read that you have to repair your gut after taking them so now I'm on high-dosage probiotics for the past week (I've definitely felt "bloated" since the antibiotic incident). But still, no change in the scale.
I've been a lifelong yo-yo dieter and suffered from binge eating disorder too. It's so frustrating that I've finally gotten my nutrition where it needs to be and I'm eating/living healthier than I ever have in my entire life, and the scale isn't budging.
Can anyone think of anything that could be the problem?? I don't have thyroid issues and am a really healthy person.
First things first, has your life recently had elevated stress? I hit a ridiculous plateau even though I was doing everything people suggested to shift it, and for 6 weeks I maintained and got nowhere. Yet those 6 weeks were the last 6 weeks of my 4 year degree. My doctor suggested that the stress prevented me from losing (stress can do weird and wonderful things).
If not
Is it possible that you are now eating too many calories? This may sound ridiculous, but bodies can change, while weight-loss may have worked before at 1500 per day, it is possible that this time you need to treat it differently. I am 290lbs and I can't eat any more than 1350cal or I will gain. My body doesn't work the same way as others because I ruined it at a young age trying to be a vegetarian who didn't like veggies, which means all I ate was carbs. Now I can't eat pasta at all, I eat about 120g of rice every other night and 2 slices of bread. All other carbs are from veggies and beans/pulses. Don't fast, just maybe spend a week down at 1300 and see if there is a weight difference.
or
You say you are quite active when it comes to weekly exercise, do you have enough protein in your diet to help your body recover from these workouts? This could also prevent you from losing weight.
or
Are you doing the same type of exercise every week? Is it possible for your body to of just got used to it? Are you still breaking a good sweat when you workout? Is your heart rate elevated? Do you still get the good workout ache the day after a hard session?
or
Do you weigh yourself daily? I know that some people suggest that you shouldn't, however as long as you don't get caught up in it, daily weigh inns can alert you to maybe some foods that you feel you may not digest as quickly as others, for me its starchy carbs. I could put on 2lbs the morning after eating pasta/lasagne or a larger than normal portion of rice/noodles.
I hope that some of these suggestions have not yet been tried out and are helpful for you. If you have tried all of these, I would suggest a visit to your GP if you go longer than say 5 weeks maintaining.
I have switched up my workouts...I do weigh every morning...I don't eat refined sugar or white flour now...but I might play with the calories. I do eat plenty of protein, but I wonder if I'm not eating ENOUGH calories with the workouts I do. I'm giving myself 2 more weeks and that's the next 'change' I'm doing, adding in an extra 100 calories of pure protein (chicken) to see if that does anything. No stress here, either.
I still wonder if it's tied into the antibiotics. You know that "empty" or "light" feeling you have when you're doing well and know before you get on the scale that you're losing? Ever since those antibiotics, I have felt constantly stuffed - like I have a giant bag of flour in my stomach. I'm not bloated and I feel great, not having any pain, but I feel like something is off. Argh!
I started recently taking a lot more painkillers than I usually did for bad tendonitis in my elbows, I didn't realise that it would cause me to not be able to poop properly. I was sooooo bloated and like you said, you can actually feel it in your tummy like a bag of flour. So strange that mine is actually bloating, yet yours isn't. Does antibiotics make you retain water maybe? Such a strange situation.
Frances - Well done on your way of eating and exercise! You sound incredibly healthy to me, like 90th percentile healthy, at least!
Antibiotics...Yeah, I think that can definitely slow things down. I had to go on them in the summer and it correlated with messed up weight loss. I gained a couple pounds and then for a while went up and down the same few pounds. It was frustrating. So that could be greatly contributing to it.
Fwiw, my WL didn't pick up again until I started averaging a few hundred more calories a day.
Let's also step back for a moment though. It sounds like in 10 weeks you've lost a total of 12 pounds. (For 6 wks, lost 2 lbs. week; for 4 weeks, lost 0 lbs. a week.) Is that right? That's awesome! I know it's frustrating that there's been no loss for the past 4 weeks, but I think the body occasionally needs to slow the pace to process what's already occurred. I see this a lot in people's posts here and have come across it in my own experience. I personally don't think we're in a real plateau until our total weight loss divided by the number of weeks we've been practicing the behaviors is below 1 pound a week. That's just my own take though.
Good luck! I know first hand how frustrating it is to be doing things "right" and not seeing that effort directly matching up with what's on the scale.
Last edited by Chunkahlunkah; 09-29-2016 at 01:18 PM.
Scotsgal, from what I understand from online reading: antibiotics kill the healthy bacteria in your gut. You have to totally re-build them after you stop taking the antibiotics. So your system is a little out of whack and your digestion is a little off. I'm hoping that the probiotics get me losing again soon!
Chunkahlunkah, thanks for your kind words. I just did a BMR calculation and determined that my BMR is 1594, which is about 100 calories less than I eat a day. Add in strenuous exercise and I'm starting to think I might not be eating enough. I don't feel like I can possibly cram in any more fruits and veggies (because I don't like them!), but I'm going to add some healthy fat/calories through oatmeal and see if that makes a difference!
I just did a BMR calculation and determined that my BMR is 1594, which is about 100 calories less than I eat a day. Add in strenuous exercise and I'm starting to think I might not be eating enough.
I agree! Good luck with your increase. I hope you see results right away!
The fewer extra pounds we're carrying, the more our body dislikes us eating below our BMR, I think. Extra pounds are like calories in the bank, so when we have more, our body freaks out less when we eat below our BMR. It knows it has that savings account to tap into. So it'll typically let us drop weight easily even when we're eating below our BMR.
But I think at a certain point -- and everyone's point probably varies for at which point in weight this occurs -- the body panics at long-term intake that's far below our BMR and resists weight loss. I think that's especially the case when we're very active. So even though you're above your goal weight, you may be low enough that your body now really wants access to at least your BMR calories before it'll cooperate with losing weight, especially since you're burning so many a week.
I hope the probiotic works for you! I've tried several different brands over the years. The one I'm using now is my favorite. It's by Dr Tobias (I got it off Amazon) if you ever wanna give it a try.
EDIT: Oops, sorry. I had brain malfunction and read your comment wrong, read it as you're eating 100 calories less than your BMR. With your exercise though, it sounds like you're well below your BMR, so similar body reaction at play.
Last edited by Chunkahlunkah; 09-30-2016 at 12:10 AM.
I'm going to try to eat at 1650 for the next week to see if that makes a difference! It's a challenge because I want to stay lower carb (I feel better when I eat lower carb) and I already have to struggle to find enough lower-carb food to fill my 1450 - 1500 calories a day. I guess I'll add in oatmeal and chicken!
I got my probiotics off AMZ too. They're high dosage - 25000000 (unit of measure??) - Jarrow, I think. I don't feel any differently yet but it's only been a few days. Fingers crossed!
I've had unexplained stalls before, too. I've found that one of two things will break it for me. The first is to eat about 2/3 of my daily calories in one meal of fairly carby food, and stay within my calorie range that day. Usually I get a break the next day. The second is to do sort of a fasting day. I eat nothing until dinner, and then have a normal meal. It's a toss up which works best for me - it really varies based on the stall.
Breaking A Plateau...thoughts??
