been cutting the carbs right down for about 2-3 weeks now and although you will see ive dropped a bit ive now come to a stand still any ideas to get it kicking back into weight loss...

[sarahinparis]

How much did you lose each week?

How many grams of carb are you eating each day?

I plateaued for several weeks about 2 weeks in and did a few things :
- started checking for ketones in urine first thing in the morning
- counted carbs for several days (and found there were more than I thought in several things, then I cut back to be around 20-30g/day)
- Cut out sweet (and I am someone who eats VERY little artifical sweetener, for me it was only in sugarfree gum, but I cut it out). I've seen some reports that the body reacts to a sweet flavor by putting out insulin even if the sweet comes from calorie-free sweeteners like aspartame or splenda - kind of like a salivating Pavlov dog response...

The main thing I did was STICK WITH IT. It was frustrating, and I had to face that 'I lose slowly' truth, but it's been pretty consistent since then.

good luck

hiya through the week im having between 20-25 carbs a day
then on the weekend it may go up to 30-35

i count everything which is why im a little confused as was hoping to lose a little more than this to be honest

[Leenie]

What is your daily menu like ?

.

Tuesday

grapes 7.1 carbs 0.2 fat 28 cals

5 piece chicken salad
lettuce 2.6 carbs 0.2 g fat 14 cals
half a tomato 1 carb 0.1 fat 5 cals
1/12 onion 0.7 carbs 3.5 cals
50 g cheese 0.2 carbs 57 cals 4.2 g fat
4 pieces of chicken 30 cals 0.2 fat 0.4 carbs

snack 6 pieces of chicken 60 cals 0.7 fat 0.5 carbs

tea
2 egg omelette 1.2 10.6 fat 159 cals
1/12 onion 0.7 carbs 3.5 cals
lettuce 2.6 carbs 0.2 g fat 14 cals
half tomato 1 carb 0.1 fat 5 cals
salad cream 50 cals 3 carbs 4 g fat
5 small mushrooms 2.8 carbs 0.2 g fat 18 cals
7 pieces of chicken 66 cals 0.8fat 0.6 carbs
50 g edam cheese 12.5 g fat 165 cals

egg white 0.3 7 cals

cals 680 fat 34 g fat carbs 24

[sarahinparis]

Whoa, you are starving yourself! Is this a typical day? 680 calories tells your body that it's famine time, no matter what the makeup of those calories are.

Here are a few thoughts :
Grapes - grapes are a high-sugar fruit, that a lot of people doing low carb don't eat. If you do eat them, they will have less of an insulin response if you eat them at the same time as fat and protein vs on their own.

Your breakfast, lunch and last snack (egg white) are all pretty much fat-free (except a bit in the cheese at lunch). Low carb diets replace the carb calories with fat. Usually protein stays about the same or slightly increases, but fat needs to go up...

Also, I have higher carb counts for tomatoes and onions than you do - the references I use say a half medium tomato would have 2.5 g of carbs and the 1/2 onion (assuming a small?) would be 3.5. You might want to double check all your counts - the grapes for example, I don't know how many you are eating for breakfast, but each grape is almost 1 carb...

Keeping track like this is an excellent starting point - I'm sure other people will have suggestions on what you might tweak.

That said, you have lost 9 pounds in 3 weeks, right? I don't know how much more you were expecting, because that seems like quite a successful loss to me....

[Madison]

I agree with the points above:

- you have lost quite a bit of weight quickly already so you may be slowing down now as your body catches up
- I would cut out the grapes
- and start tracking your food on dailyplate.com or fitday.com to help you become more aware of portion sizes etc
- also it looks like you need some more lean protein in your day - I would say the chicken pieces you are eating are quite small if 7 = 66 calories

You have done great so far though! Dont get discouraged

thanks guys

yeah the chicken is wafer chicken
and as for grape portions, id say about half a hand full.
il check my calculations again and see if its a little off...

that day was pretty low but i average about 1000-1200 cals normally

[chubbs]

I've found that when I hit a stand-still, I take a day and eat one meal (usually dinner) that is basically anything I want just in moderation. This is over my carb count but I guess it shocks the system so when I start the next day back on my carb counting within a couple of days I see the scale move. This works for me but it may not work for you. Another thing is how often you are "using the bathroom". As you know fiber is the big thing with low-carb. When I have trouble going I notice the scale not moving either but once I am able to "cleanse" I see I big change.