Hiya all. I've been looking around this great forum for a while. I finally decided to say something! I'm so glad to have found this site. I've always been over weight but never this bad. I topped off at 268 lbs and have gotten down to 240 in the last 3 months.

I do have some questions. I think i've reached a plateau. I have been 240 lbs for almost 3 weeks now. I eat well. I use the fitday.com site. I walk for an hour everymorning vigorously 7 days a week and 2 times a week i tone. My calories have been cut to 1500. I don't eat fast food. My typical food day is slim fast for breakfast, high protein lunch with maybe a "light" yogurt if i'm still hungry and a sensible dinner with sensible portians. Sometimes I have a snack later if i hadn't gone over my calories. I don't eat red meat. Only chicken and fish and never drown my vegies in butter and my potatoes rice and pasta portions are small...

I'm about at the end of my rope. I won't give up becuase i've found i'm in love with my new lifestyle and have kept it up for 3 months now and can't stand not excersising anymore. I need it like a drug.

But any advice for plateaus i would surely appreciate.
Also are there any women out there around age 30 who have lost a close to a 100 lbs and had your skin go back? I'm very frightened of my skin not going back and no way will have surgery to take it off.

Thanks for being here!!

Catrina

hey catrina, great job on your weight loss so far!!! i admire your determination especially with all the exercise. i have heard that when you hit a plateau that you need to change up your exercise program. my trainer told me that if you do the same exercise program over and over you body gets used and stops responding. and through weight watchers i learned that you have to lower your calories from time to time. hope this helps. i know all to well how stressful it is to be doing everything right and still not see results. good luck and keep up the good work!!!!!

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try the change up excersise thing. I walk at our park behind my house. It has a track and it's easier using it one way verses the other. All around it has good hills for cardio but if you go one direction verses the other it can either be harder or easier. Well I usually opt for the easier direction hehe. I'm going to try going the other direction and see what happens. I will see what happens with a 3rd toning day thrown in as well. If that doesnt' work then i'll cut my calories a little.


Thanks for the advice!!

catrina -- congrats on your new life and your success so far!

Plateaus are, sadly, an unfortunate part of weight loss for many of us. In fact, I don't think it's even called a plateau unless it lasts at least 3 weeks! Just know it's normal and if you keep focusing on your new behaviors, it should pass. Perhaps you're retaining water for some reason and one day it will just whoosh away!

I have found that as I continue on this journey my weight loss has slowed and I have started to turn away from the scale as my primary measure of progress and started to focus more on other indicators: how clothes fit, measurements, and my behaviors! I know if I stay on plan then I am better off, no matter what the scale says!

Just keep doing what you're doing and think about the other indicators that you are better off! WELCOME!!

Welcome catrina ~ this is a wonderful place ~ the people are the best!!!

you will get off your plateau and get back on track. You just need to push through it. I myself am on a plateau right now. You will make it and just think while you are on plateau you are not gaining any weight so that is better than before. You may not loose but you are not gaining anymore that you have to loose anyway.

Trish

An old WW leader told our group that your body "remembers" weights that you were at for any duration of time. So, for instance, if you had been around 240 for 6 months of more during any point of your life, your body will "settle" at that weight for a while before moving on. Your body "remembers" this weight and thinks -"Oh good, we are going to stop here! I like it here." It usually takes a good "kick in the pants" to convince your body that you are not ready to stop! You might want to try doing your walks at a different time of day, and I think going the other direction is a good choice. The other thing you may want to try is NOT walking one day and then doing two miles the next.

Something else to try is upping your calories for a couple of days. I know this sounds counter-productive, but it really does work. Your body uses what you give it, if you are exercising daily, you may need a few more calories to fuel your "engine". You might also find you have more energy. A good gauge to go by is if you feel hungry. If you are feeling hungry that means your body has "gone thorugh" what you have given it and is ready for more. Not eating when your body is ready for more can actually stunt your metabolism. The key is to eat quality food, and not a lot, just enough to keep going. I find that the fat-free yogurt smoothies really work for me. I'm on WW and they are only 1 point AND they have all that good calcium we need for healthy weight loss!

Good luck on breaking through this plateau!

Kathi

Welcome to the boards. Plateau's are so frustrating for all of us, we like to see the scale moving to give us the feedback that we are doing well. It sounds like you are doing everything right, just hang in there, the scale will move, it's probably just your body adjusting to where you are right now. Hang in there!

Just wanted to say welcome to the boards! This is a great place for support.

Plateaus are tough but they aren't forever!!! I was on one for the last 3 weeks and then this morning, 4 pounds gone! I tend to lose weight this way.

Welcome!!! Good luck working through your plateau. It really sounds like you've been given some good advice -- which is what we have a lot of here!! There are many people in this group who have done a wonderful job of getting healthy!

Thanks for great advice! I finally broke 240's over the weekend and the scale said 239.0
It was seriously stuck at 240 and 241 for weeks! I went ahead and went in an opposite direction at the track. Hills were much tougher <ugh>. I'm going to throw in a 3rd toning day in as well.

Thanks for answering my question I was seriously getting bummed. hehe now i feel like dancing! : P

Welcome and I'm glad to hear the scales dropped for you again!

to the forum!

This is EXACTLY my experience! I was at this weight 10 years ago when I got married and before I recommitted to losing earlier this month, no matter how much junk I ate, I stayed w/i 5 lbs of my current weight. I had the same experience in the past where I seemed to maintain @ 150 lbs without really trying because it seemed like my body really wanted to stay at that weight. Actually, I guess this is the opposite of what you're saying, because I'm talking about not gaining and you're talking about not losing . Either way, I swear my body "decides" on a certain weight and it's hard to get it to go up or down without a real effort.

Along these same lines, I recently saw a co-worker of my husband's who had not seen me since my wedding 10 years ago. He said "You look exactly the same." Little did he know that since the wedding I'd gained, then lost, 50 lbs, which meant I ended up looking the same to him!!

Oh, almost forgot - WELCOME to the board!