Well, after a successful August in which I met my goal, I've now been horribly stuck at 173 since then. I'm starting to feel a little discouraged about the scale not moving like it used to....

Is this normal? If I'm not losing a pound a day like I did on P1, then what should I expect now? Any advice on how to jump start the scale again?

Thanks chickies~

Did you add too many carbs as in bread and fruit? If so, cut back for a while.
A pound a day is incredible for Phase I - Congratulations! Your body is just getting used to it's new shape.... a re-org.
During Phase II, a loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week is good. Some weeks will be less.
Hang in there.

Thanks for your reply Ruth. I forgot to mention about the carbs... I haven't really added too much. I'm not a real carb kind of girl to begin with. I would say that I'm eating pretty similarly to P1 with the exception of an apple every other day or so. Some blueberries mixed with my cottage cheese other days.... Nothing crazy...

I feel myself falling into the whole mind trap of "OMG! I need to eat less to lose more!" It has been more a struggle lately to remind myself to keep eating. Thanks for the reminder about the body reorg... that made sense to me! Thanks!

Noles...after phase 1 I was losing about a lb or lb1/2 a week...then I just got stuck at the same 4 or 5 lbs down or 4 or 5 lbs up for a long time...a couple of months at least. I was really discouraged sometimes, but knew I just had to keep plugging away. I kept eating the same, but added more water and exercised more and still it seemed stuck. I finally just quit looking at the scales and went by how my clothes and body felt...and by those measurements I was still losing although the scales did not say so. I got on the scales for the first time in over a month the other day and it was way down. I really don't know exactly how much I weighed when I started cause I didn't have scales then, but it was somewhere between 173-180. I'm around 147 now. So, I have now promised myself that I will only weigh maybe once a month and keep going by how my clothes fit. I was in a very tight 16 when I started and now my "new" 12's are now loose. I've decided not to really stress over the numbers and now I actually don't really think about food all that much in the sense of that I am on a "diet"...it's just the way that I now eat and it is now "normal" to me. Kind of hard to explain in words. I'm letting letting my body do it's own thing and take care of business for me...I'm not trying to "control" it anymore.

So, just keep it up and don't worry about the lbs and you'll find that you will be less stressed and your body will cooperate!

I agree with femmecreole, I have now have had two periods of weightloss stalls but after about a month started losing again. This time I have been stuck for about 4 weeks at the same weight but my clothes are fitting looser than before, so I am going by that. I am not worrying about it because this is my new eating lifestyle not a diet.

noleschick,
Well, I haven't hit one of those stalls yet (fingers crossed), but I have lost steadily at a rate of just about two pounds a week (even in Ph1) for 3 months now. If I do hit a stall, I would take a look at what I'm eating and mix it up, more exercise, etc. But if I understand correctly, this is the first week you haven't shown a loss? I wouldn't consider that a stall. I have had a few weeks where I don't show a loss, it has usually been around TOM or if I had a lot of salty food. And I've gotten "paid back" at weigh-in the following week. A pound a day is amazing, but your body can't continue to lose at that rate. I only weigh once a week to avoid driving myself crazy over small fluctuations.
I thinking cutting your food back too much is a sure way to get into a plateau. I understand the temptation, for a while there I had to really keep track and make myself eat enough to stay above a certain calorie level. So be careful! and remember, Ph1 is not a healthy WOE for longterm.

you chicks are awesome! Thanks so much for telling me all the things I "knew" but needed to hear from someone else! And I feel like "slap my forehead and yell out 'duh!'" Its TOM for me here so I am feeling a little...blah....

The weight loss program (excel spreadsheet) I use to keep track of everything is set up to weigh every morning and measure once a week. Maybe I should change the weighing to once a week as wellss.s

Thanks again!

Hi, Noles! You are a pleasure to help!

During TOM, most of us go up a couple pounds from water retention. It goes away afterwards...that might have something to do with the lack of loss.

Hon, even if you aren't a carb person (lucky you!), you really should consider adding it at least one starch/carb a day. You need the fiber and the nutrients to be healthy. There are tons of things to choose from...find one that you like and try adding it in.

You'll find TONS of help on P2 in the FAQ. Some threads you might want to check out are the "Emergency Phase 2 Handbook" and "What is Your P2 Combo?"

All that said, plateau-ing is a very common part of dieting. No one I've talked with seems to know why it exists (though I really like the 're-org' idea!), but it's a standard part of pretty much everyone's experience. One of the keys to busting out of a plateau is changing how you do things, when you do them, and perhaps how you do them. Do different kinds of exercise at a different time of day than normal. If you normally have fruit at breakfast, try it at dinner. It is possible to eat too many calories and that might cause a plateau, but the truth is that I've heard of many more people, especially in the SBD forum, who weren't eating enough. Often, they found through a binge that they needed more food.

I went through the typical pattern last year--I was counting calories at the time and suddenly I plateaued. I started shaving off 100 calories and when I still didn't lose, I cut off another 100 and then another until I was down to like 1600 cals a day. I was so deprived, so cranky, and the scale STILL wouldn't move! I was so frustrated that the next day, I ate everything in sight! It was all OP food, just way too much of it. I dreaded facing the scale. The next day I weighed in and I had LOST!!! Go figure, eh? I put my calorie level up higher than it had originally been and ended up losing consistently again. So even though your head might tell you that you have to eat less to lose more...it's not always true. In fact, I just read that when you are actually eating, the act itself revs your metabolism! If you eat every three hours, you are not only stablizing your blood sugar, you're revving up your metabolism and keeping it active. Who knew?

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes, hon!