Five days is too short a time to decide that there is anything wrong with your food plan. On any plan, weight loss can be affected by sodium intake, pms/tom issues, exercise water retention - all sorts of things. Expecting daily weight loss is unreasonable, and when your expectation is unreasonable, you're going to be disappointed. You can only be disappointed and discouraged when your expectations don't match reality. You can change the disappointment by changing your expectations, but you're asking how to get your body to meet your expectations, and I don't believer there is a way.
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Originally Posted by Irish Michelle
I'm not quite two weeks into low carbing, and from my previous experience with LC, I should still be losing pretty rapidly at this point.
That's a big myth. There is no "should be able to," just because you have in the past, doesn't mean you will in the future. It's fairly common for pople to find that the first time on a lc diet (or any diet for that matter) produces the best results. Each successive attempt is harder, and the weight loss slower. You may never match your "old" record.
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Originally Posted by Irish Michelle
I know I should probably stop weighing myself daily.
There's nothing wrong with weighing yourself dailly (or even more often), but you do have to change your expectations. If you expect daily or even weekly weight loss every time you get on the scale, you're going to be disappointed. If you have realistic expectations, you can weigh yourself 48 times a day and not lose motivation.
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Originally Posted by Irish Michelle
I really need to see that to help keep my motivation when the nutritional changes are difficult for me.
No, you really don't. This is something everyone says and thinks, but it's not true. We make it true by believing it. Unrealistic expectations are the number one killer of weight loss plans. I don't believe anyone quits because they're failing, they quit because the success they're experience isn't good enough for them. They see failure where there is success because they have false expectations and beliefs about the results they "should be" experiencing and false beliefs about how "everyone else" is doing.
Slow weight loss is normal, even on low-carb. Low-carb is the fastest way for me to lose weight, but it's still not fast. Apparently my body doesn't do fast anymore. I can accept it or I can quit, and quitting doesn't help the situation.
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Originally Posted by Irish Michelle
it's very discouraging to have had it grind almost to a halt so early, when at this point I'm still usually seeing a steady decline.
This also doesn't have to be true. It's only true because you've decided that it's true. You're doing great, stop seeing failure where there is only success. "Usually" doesn't matter. What happened before isn't what's happening today, you've got to deal with that without getting disappointed and discouraged. You have to change your belief system or you're going to quit, because it is what "everyone else" does. It's the diet tradition in this culture... be disappointed in your weight loss, get frustration, get sick of the frustration, and give up.
By setting a pace that's "required" for you to stay motivated, you're giving yourself a reason to quit if you don't meet that expectation. You need to find a way to stay motivated regardless of the speed of your weight loss. By saying "I have to lose steadily and rapidly or I'll lose motivfation" you're setting a goal that isn't acheiveable.
It's like starting a business and saying "if the money doesn't come in steadily and in large amounts, I'm going to quit." It's not how business works, and it's not how weight loss works. Irregular weight loss is part of normal weight loss. If you can't handle that, or can't learn to handle that, you're going to fail, because you're going to quit. Your weight is your business, and your business is going to fail if you don't understand why steady, regular, rapid weight loss isn't always possible.