Help.... I seem to have a hit a plateau. I've lost 77 lbs so far since 6/11/13 -- but the past 4 weeks it seems like I've hit a wall. Has anyone else experienced plateau's - and if so, what did you do to get past it and start losing weight again? I have 30 more lbs to lose !! thanks

Yes, happened to me a few weeks ago. A solid month with no pounds or inches lost.

We're similar starting weights, heights, and goal weights...we're totally going to get there!

What helped me get past my plateau was using 4 non-restricted packets/day for a week. After doing that I dropped 1.5. I kept up with the 4 packets for another week and dropped another 4.5.

That was two weeks ago, I am back to 3 packets and weigh in on Friday morning. Hopefully that was enough to shake my body up!

Let me know what you think!

I usually have 2 non-restricted (breakfast & mid afternoon), salad at lunch w/2 cups of veggies in the salad - dinner 8 oz. protein & 2 cups of veggies and then 1 restricted (snack) at night.

That's what I was doing also, except I was having my restricted at breakfast.

What broke my plateau was using 4 non-restricted packets per day. It upped my calories slightly while keeping my carbs low.

thanks -- I'll try that ! Can you give me an example of what you have each day ?

Sure!

Breakfast: Dark Chocolate pudding

Lunch: Rotini, 2 cups of veggies (zucchini, rutabaga, asparagus, cabbage, cucumber, spinach, cauliflower, okra, etc), romaine lettuce with oil, cider vinegar, pepper, garlic powder, mustard and lemon juice

Snack: RTD Vanilla shake

Dinner: 8 oz meat (chicken, lean ground beef, lean pork, etc) 2 cups of veggies (same mixture as lunch) romaine and same salad dressing as lunch

Snack: Raspberry Jelly

Now I'm back to normal Phase 1 (2 non-restricted and 1 restricted per day)

Thanks ladies, I haven't hit it yet but I keep worring about it! Since I am around the same size/weight as you when we started.

I know a guy friend of mine who ran into the same problem was told to add in another packet OR to eat a small carb item the day after weigh in. He did that for 2 weeks and it kicked his weight loss back into gear.

He goes to a different coach than I go to and I know his coach changes things up from what the plan says.

I definitely wouldn't eat the carb but that's just me.

Better to stick with another IP product if you run into a plateau!

same here, I know many have said it helps but I would be too worried to do it.

Make sure you haven't gone too low in fat. This happened to me and I realized my evening meal was always chicken breast or shrimp and I was using the olive oil to cook. I put the olive oil on my salad every day and mixed up the animal protein to include beef and salmon and the weight started to go down again. You need some fat to lose fat.

The information in this thread is wrong. There is a difference between fat loss and water loss. At the risk of insulting anyone's intelligence it is important to understand the difference and how they work.

Fat loss or gain is an equation of energy. Your body converts food to energy. Eat more energy than your body uses and you add to fat stores. up the difference. Energy is measured in calories.

No matter what you think now, or what your IP coach told you, or what you read on the internet on in a book or whatever - the above is the only way fat is ever lost. This is a very basic fundamental principle.

Sadly - there is no easy way to measure fat loss or gain over short periods of time so we stand on a scale which measures our weight. Water flux affects the scale in the short run much more than fat loss or gain, especially in women.

The point of this is that you may be losing fat still and the scale may not be reflecting it. If you're following the IP protocol 100% then for sure, you're losing fat. You're just retaining water.

This is very common. Weight loss is rarely linear. People (even very smart ones) use their own experience to determine how to break a "plateau". Common ways you'll read about are to have a "cheat meal", or to change up one's exercise routine, or to eat an extra packet, or mix up one's diet. The truth is, your body is going to release the water it's holding sooner or later and you'll experience a "whoosh" whether you change anything or not.

Good article on the subject.

Seems like most coaches recommend a week of phase 3 to break a plateau.

I'm doing a phase 3 week now in hopes that when I get back on phase 1 it will get me back to losing. I had a 3+ week stall and it followed with a 1.8 lb loss(not exactly a woosh).

I'm worried that my body is just getting used to the lower calories. I'm hoping phase 3 will break up the routing enough that I can get back on track.

I had a few weeks of stalling last November, and that's what i did - went on P3 for a week, then returned to P1. It did get my weight loss going again. I had read here of Wuv's coach having her do that when she stalled.

this couldn't have been written at a better time. I am experiencing my first stall as well - after 90 pounds and 28 weeks. I think when I weigh in on Friday I will ask my coach about the recommendations here and see how she wants me to proceed.

I am trying very hard not to get frustrated and eat anything off plan. It gets hard though and I still have 70 pounds to go.

CW 190.8

Don't get frustrated, you've come so far! Hopefully some of what the folks said upthread will help get things moving again.