I know I have to keep my patience with the scale and I am in a way but the unknown is what is irking me.

I haven't lost anything since around June 1st. I know that is not horrible and I know that I have already lost some weight (which I am happy with)

But what I want to know is if I am in a stall or am I doing something wrong.
I woulnd't exactly say I am craving anything. But I am hungry a lot. On phase 1, I wasn't hungry that often. I only crave something sweet or starchy when I get really really hungry.

I should add that I have had two cheats. One last weekend with alcohol and rice and another this morning with a small piece of cake (never ate all of it, just the healthy nutritious icing) Afterwards there were no cravings and the scale hasn't gone up, just not down.

I added 1/2 pita the first week with a bit of fruit when I felt like it. That worked fine but I know fruit may be my problem.
This week I have added the pita plus whole wheat spaghetti and kept some fruit as well. Last night I was really hungry so I think I need to cut out the pasta, but it could have still been the fruit.

I don't know if I am as in tune with my body as some people seem to be. How long should I wait to see if it is working before I cut back again?

Steph I wish I knew what to tell you on this topic- I feel the same way. My scale at home shows me with very little weight loss in 4 weeks, while my mom's scale is 8-9 pounds.

I try so hard to not focus on the numbers, but after doing WW for so many years, numbers are important!!

Since I am on day 6 of phase I, I don't have any advice to give you.. I think Karen is right. Scales are kind of tricky. I weighed myself on my mom's scale, I weighed the same as I did three days ago. A few hours later, I was at the gym and weighed myself there.. it showed a 15 lb difference. don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to think that I lost 15 pounds in three days, but find it very hard to believe. (call me a skeptic). I don't feel thinner, my clothes feels the same, no one has said "boy you have lost some weight", so I am doubting the scale at the gym...

SCALES ARE EVIL!! :-)

lisa z.

I am also 5' and 1/2" and I've found that the only way for me to keep losing is to limit myself to one small starch and one small fruit per day.

If you're not eating anymore than that now and your servings are small, I'd consider cutting back to either one or the other, alternating a starch day and a fruit day. That advice really worked for me.

Incredibly large amounts of water seems to be an extremely important element in this diet to keep the scale moving down, especially for me. It's something that you wouldn't think would be so-very-ultra-important ("so I didn't drink 64oz today, I drank a lot of crystal lite", bah!). But it really, really is. I hate water. But I drown myself in 72 or more oz. a day because I know I have to if I want to see the scale move.

Kaetra... do you count Crystal Lite as water? I have been, but maybe I shouldn't be. I do know, I pee like a race-horse when I drink a lot of that stuff!

Thanks for your responses everyone. I know I can't place total faith in the scales because they play tricks sometimes. I think I am going to stick to the way I am doing things another week and see if I lose. I might just be stalling naturally. Afterall, I did lose 10lbs in 3 weeks.

SBNewbie: That is a crazy difference in the scales. You should go back to them and see which one says the same thing. In my opinion, I would think the gym scale would be the correct one because they usually have balance scales. So maybe you weren't as heavy as you thought you were in the beginning. You should double check to be sure.

Kaetra: I already drink close to 100 ounces of water--just water--per day. I am a thirsty person so once I got into the habit of the drink being water, it is easy. I do also drink Diet Pepsi but that is in addition to tons of water. It doesn't give me cravings and I don't drink coffee so that's my vice. I don't want to have one starch a day (pouts) haha I don't think that is the purpose of the diet but I suppose some people have to have just one a day

I have cut out all additional sodium to my diet as of today. I usually add salt to cook and afterwards. I'm an addict. I figured this might be a detriment to my weighloss because of bloat alone.

Thanks again for your support

MittennKim: You can count I think up to 2 glasses or something towards your water intake but no more than that. And the racehorce thing....it will subside as your body gets used to the water intake. I used to have to go after two big sips but now I can drink a whole liter before I have to really go

Interesting! Do you know why that is, why it's limited? Does it have to do with all of the chemicals you're consuming? Sodium?

Well first of all I read that somewhere on some forum, it may not be true but I think weight watchers also follow something along those lines. Crystal light is not limited, you can drink it (I think Dr. A said it wasn't limited like Diet pepsi is) but you can't replace the water for it. So if you had to have 8 glasses of water a day, you can have crystal light for 2 and the other 6 have to be water. But you can keep drinking Cl as long as you get your water amount in. All I was meaning, was to keep drinking your water in addition to your juice. I could be wrong but I would believe water is the best option. Good luck.

I don't count crystal lite as water. I wish it counted!

Maybe a ray of hope...

I've been on SB for approximately 2 months. I didn't weigh in prior to starting, so I "lost" that initial psychological boost of seeing a lot of week come off. But since then, my weight loss has been really slow. In fact, after this evening's weigh-in, if I hadn't lost much, I was all set to go back to Weight Watchers.

HowEVER, I was pleasantly surprised to see an 8 pound loss (I weigh generally every 2 weeks), so I'm doing a happy dance right now!!

I was so disgruntled 2 weeks ago, that this was the last ditch effort. I cut out my Smart Pop popcorn fix which is taboo and really bumped up my exercise. Maybe that did the trick or perhaps it was just "one of those things".

ANYhoo, for those whose scales aren't moving - and YES, they ARE evil - take heart. You may see a big download jump when you're least expecting it!

Congrats! It's probably the Smart Pop popcorn that was causing you problems -- as my friend said to me, "How on earth do you expect to lose weight if you're cheating on your diet?" She was right!! Heh.

It's just so hard... and my will power? Very low.

Pan, I think the best way to remember why we can't have the carbs in Ph1, is to remember that the point of Ph1 is to get your body into the mode of burning FAT for fuel. If you give it carbs, like popcorn, it's not going to burn that fat... especially once you re-introduce the good carbs in Ph2.

But don't worry, we've all made the mistakes. In the first few days, I was eating Ricotta cheese like there's no tomorrow. But I had no idea there were SO MANY CALORIES IN IT!! OMG! So now I only have it once a day, even though I wish I could have it every meal. (Can you imagine a diet where you only ate ricotta cremes? I'd die happy.)

We learn as we go along. So don't sweat it.

Ack!! I would be one skinny individual if I were on that one!! I loathe ricotta cremes!!