Has anyone had any experience with honest to goodness - no cheating - plateaus? I'm getting really grouchy with my weight loss slow down and I'm wondering if it has anything to do with taking prilosec everyday. Thats the only thing I put into my body that is not on the IP sheet!

Swelling of the abdomin and skin inflammation are 2 side effects of Prilosec which could be causing water retention. Other than that nothing I could see from anything the drug would do.

try going into phase two for a couple days then phase one again and see if that helped. Sometimes you just need to confuse your body!

First, let's properly define a plateau. If you are talking about the scale not moving for a week or two, that is not a true plateau. A TRUE stall in weight loss is when there is no change in weight or measurements in at least a month. You will not be doing yourself a favor if you jump to measures like phasing off with only a week or two of no change.

Second, are you experiencing any other side effects with the Prilosec - stomach cramping, abdominal pain, etc? If you are taking Prilosec for acid reflux, it may actually be the reflux causing inflammation water retention, not the medication. Any time your system is irritated your body will retain some water. That can often show up on the scale. The best thing you can do is continue to take your medication and let your body heal, and drink PLENTY of water to flush out your system of that excess water. The best medicine for water retention is more water.

Third, remember that there are a hundred things that affect what the scale tells us. Anything that puts stress on the body can cause water retention. Being more active than usual but not adding an extra packet (even if you aren't doing formal exercise, this is the time of year for yardwork, spring cleaning, etc which is as taxing on the body as structured exercise). Women will see fluctuations in the scales close to their period. The weather is getting warmer and humidity and heat will affect your weight. The bottom line is, until the scale hasn't moved for several WEEKS, you likely have nothing to worry about.

Hmmm, interesting. My "plateau" is a 1 pound loss over 3 week period, so I guess it's not time to do anything rash. I get frustrated because the math says I should be loosing more. . . I think that "eat less, exercise more" should always work (though with IP calorie levels, I don't exercise to burn calories neccesarily).

Stress is such a sneaky thing - I didn't think of that, but as all you moms know, this is the craziest time of the year so maybe my slow down is just plain old stress. Off to get another glass of water. Thanks for the pep talk!

Are you exercising? THAT may actually be your smoking gun here. If you are breaking a sweat or getting out of breath, you may be going at too high an intensity for IP to handle. Even something that doesn't get you out of breath but burns calories requires that you add an extra packet in order to give your body the fuel you need. Try eliminating exercise for two weeks and stick to the Phase 1 protocol as written, see what the scale tells you.