I have been dieting since September and I have
lost 22 pounds but for the last 2 weeks, I haven't
lost a pound. Before that, I lost an average of 2 pounds per week.
Have a hit a plateau already??
2 weeks with no loss is most likely not really a plateau. Maybe you're retaining a little extra water, have funky hormone levels, have been exercising differently, or any number of things. I wouldn't constitue a few weks of no loss as a plateau until it's been probably at least a month (but that's just me--some people think of 1 week of no loss as a plateau!). It's very rare to lose steadily from the day you start till the day you reach your goal. You'll have some ups and down in between, and often, after a few weeks, your body will catch up with you, and you'll have a loss of even more than 2 pounds. Only time will tell--just keep going strong! If you're really worried about it, try varying your exercise or eating patterns slightly to shake things up. That seems to help most people.
Try drinking a good amount of water in the afternoon and even a glass right before bed (although you might have to get up a time or two) and weigh yourself in the morning. I bet you are retaining water. Sometimes when I am dieting I eat lower fat and lower sugar, but I forget about the sodium content, which is often high in these types of foods.
Try doing a little more excercise if you can stand it. And try to avoid as much salt as you can for a few days, you are prabably just retaining water. I know I went through the same thing a few weeks ago. The scale would not move, but I knew I had lost weight, but then I realized I had been eating a lot of prepackaged soups and those things have so much sodium in them. Once I stopped eating them the water weight just came off. Good Luck. Even if the scale is not budging right now, remember that you are making healthy choices and doing a good job, but somethimes the scale does not reflect it.
Congrats on your loss so far! You haven't said what kind of exercise (frequency, type, duration) you are already doing. Depending on what you do already, you might want to think about CHANGING the type of exercise. Like....if you're doing tapes at home and you do the same 1 or 2 tapes all the time? Your body will adapt. Shake it up by trying something new. Ditto for food. Are you within your plan (calories, whatever), but are you eating the same things day after day? Your body may be adapting. Are you eating too FEW calories? If you got really excited at your early success and then got very strict about your food, you may be putting your body into "starvation" mode. All that means essentially is that you've scared your metabolism into think it's not going to get enough energy each day (because of what you eat/don't eat...how much you exercise) so it is hanging onto every gram of fat in can "just in case" (this not being a highly scientific explanation LOL).
The intensity of your exercise is key, too. I know that as my cardiovascular stamina grew I was psyched that cardio was getting "easier." Yeah, it was "easier," but I wasn't getting the same benefits because I wasn't adapting my intensity level to my new fitness level -- and therefore, I wasn't burning as many calories while doing the same exercise. My cardio is exclusively the elliptical, and now I'm VERY conscious of keeping my body challenged by increasing the resistence every two weeks or so. So the next time you're exercising, ask yourself if your body is working as hard now as it was when you started. If the same old workout is easier now, CONGRATULATE YOURSELF, and then kick it up a notch or two!
Example: If your current exercise is to walk for say 20 minutes, that's great. But now you need to walk faster, and maybe add on another 5 minutes.
I'm clueless!
