I have been stuck between 227 and 230 for almost 2 weeks now! How do I not get discouraged? How do I just keep going when now I'm freaked out that weight loss won't happen. I don't want to give up, but I definently feel some discouragement from hitting a "plateau" already...

Hi there

I'm quoting from "The Beck Diet Solution" which is a psychological program, not a food plan. It provides a step-by-step program to learn specific techniques to stay on our diet, lose weight, and maintain our weight loss for life. I have a diet partner and we read something new everyday. Today was "Managing Plateaus".

I read from the workbook this morning-Day 38-Manage plateaus. The workbook discusses 5 options for managing plateaus;
1)continue doing exactly what you're doing, and see what happens.
2)go back to careful monitoring to ensure you are sticking to program guidelines.
3)cut your intake
4)increase exercise
5) move on to maintenance

***Finally, give yourself credit for everything you have accomplished to this point-and understand that a plateau is part of the process of losing weight***

Helpful Response-I will continue to lose if I eat less and/or exercise more. If it's not realistic or healthy for me to do that, I will need to work on being proud of the weight I've lost so far and to accept reality.

I'm not sure if you're calorie counting or still following SBD, but I might also suggest posting with your plan specific forum for suggestions.

I plateau a LOT, but I don't actually count calories or carbs or anything--I'm just winging it. I find that if I just keep on keepin' on, the plateau will eventually snap. You just can't let it get you down. If you go to www.dietblog.com and look up plateaus (plateaux?), they have some really good advice.

Take a scale vacation for a bit? Keep doing the rest of your plan and use other things to measure your success, like tracking days on plan, how your clothes fit, measurements of your body, etc.

Also, depending on what plan you are following, maybe look at the specific foods you are eating? Meaning for me as a calorie counter, I do better with a more whole foods orientation vs. processed foods, even when the calorie count is the same.

ETA: I just noticed your signature says you are doing South Beach. IIRC, SB has specific foods but not specific portions? Maybe you are eating the right foods but just need to cut back a little bit?

Thanks for all suggestions. I am still kind of following SBD, kind of not. I'm still just basically not eating a lot of processed carbs. I am trying to do Calorie Counting, and so far have been on track. And I don't eat very many processed foods at all....I can't even think of any that I have eaten yesterday or today...I know I just need to stick it out and hopefully it will go down. I will look up the suggestions too! I just don't want to get discouraged and that's what I'm afraid of the most.
You are all very helpful though!!

How's your exercise going? I really find I need to keep my body moving to keep the scale moving.

Don't get discouraged, it's part of the journey and you're already half way to your 10% goal!

Exercise was bad last week. But on track for this week. I'm wondering if that was it, that I stopped last week. Guess I will see what this weeks weigh in brings. I also am going to try working out with weights this week too. I haven't been good at that either.

Do you measure your foods? Are you tracking each and every bite that goes into your mouth? Is there any way possible that you're underestimating your calories???

And yes - kick up that exercise. It's a great calorie burner.

As far as being discouraged with the scale, I urge you to focus not sole-y (or much on the scale), but instead to focus on the good eating/exercising BEHAVIORS. Focus on eating well, making great choices, tracking those calories, getting strategies in place to avoid stress/social/boredom/mindless, etc eating, pre-planning, customizing your plan, finding healthy foods to enjoy, honing your skills - focus on these things and the scale will follow. The behaviors. Get them down pat - and than you will own that scale!!!

I stall a lot, a lot, a lot. Most of the time I deal with it pretty well. It's after about a month that you'll start to see me whine! LOL! I keep from getting discouraged by focusing on fitness goals. That works really, really well for me. It's hard to be down on yourself when you're feeling so darn good after a run you didn't think you could manage, or after lifting something you couldn't before, or when you realize you just took a hike as a gift to yourself and your family for Mother's Day!

Keep reminding yourself of every little thing you can do now that you couldn't before. Write them down as they appear if it helps.

I just saw the scale move down after a 6 week non-movement period. All I did was keep on going. I KNEW I was on plan with food and activity, so while it was frustrating, there wasn't much more to do.

But man, was it awesome to see the scale move when it did. lol

Sometimes I stall a bit even when perfectly on plan. There have also been times when I stalled and thought I was perfectly on plan but when I measured the few things that I eyeballed, I found that I was consuming more calories than I thought.

You may be accidentally taking in more calories than you think or you may just be in one of those times. Weight loss is not linear.

This thought helps me when I get discouraged - the only way that I can fail is to give up. If I give up, I will gain weight. Therefore I have to put the discouragement out of mind and just keep on keeping on!

I've recently moved to a once-a-month weighing/measuring. I found I was getting too obsessive over the number on the scale. Instead, I'm focusing on behaviors -- did I stay under my calorie limit, did my glucose numbers stay even, did I exercise, are my clothes looser.

It's been an interesting change. I keep thinking that I'll be terribly disappointed if there's no scale change at the end of the month, but even if there isn't, I've made some tremendous changes in how I feel and move.