Hi ladies, some of you may recognize me from my last post. I had stated my frustration b/c I had only lost a total of 5 lbs in a month. After taking some advice of many of you who graciously sent it, i decided to up the exercising, up the water intake and cut back on snacking on peanut butter (thinking I may have been adding in too much extra calories and fat) Iam getting ready to start my 7th week of SB tomorrow and I am at a standstill STILL.
I am still at 5 lb lost and the scale is not budging. I am just growing more and more frustrated and don't know what to do. There's that part of me that feels like giving up on SB and trying something else. But what? I've tried so many other options before. The only one that worked previously was Atkins and I lost about 17lbs. in 2 months.(about 5 yrs. ago) However, the South Beach plan is much healthier and allows more variety on it so I really do like it especially since its more about a lifestyle than a diet. The thing is, not seeing the scale change after all my hard work and effort starts bringing on that hopeless feeling of "what's the use, I should let myself go pig out every once in a while b/c eating healthy everyday isn't making a difference". I find this attitude creeping up w/in me more and more lately and i know this is an attitude that can lead to failure.
Maybe it's impatience on my part, but maybe some of you could relate- even another 1 lb off would surge my motivation. The majority of peope I know who have done SB and many people on this site are having great success stories and I am so happy for everyone and I am inspired by them as well.
I just find myself even being more frustrated that my success is so minimal.

Can anyone suggest a supplement or something that anyone knows of that would work well with the south beach diet to speed up my weight loss? I had heard something about Alli being good but that's just something I heard and I don't know how safe or effective it is. Does anyone have any other suggestions or recommendations. Thank You so much!

I can surely understand your frustration if you are truly on plan and exercising. I try not to focus too much on the scale but in the end I am always happy if that number goes down and increasingly frustrated if it doesn't. Happily for me, it has always eventually gone down at least a little if I stick with it.
I don't know of any supplements and haven't used anything like Alli. You could try posting your menus for the past few days for us to look at and see what we can figure out. It may be a medical issue or maybe the plan is just not right for you, but I think you are right to stick with it for a while and see if you can make it work for you.
You do not have a lot to lose and that makes a difference, but I agree in 6 weeks you could expect to see something. However, 5 lbs in 6 weeks IS progress. Did the 5 lbs come off in Ph1 and nothing since then? So is that 4 weeks without seeing a loss? How many servings of grains and fruits/day? Are you getting the recommended amount of veggies?

Hi Schmoodle, thanks for your response-
4 lbs came off during phase1 and then one lb on week 3 (phase 2)..
When I started phase two and up til now, my phase 2 is probably closer to phase one. I will add in an apple or small handful of strawberries maybe once or twice a week but really do not each much fruit- (Since I'm not a big fruit eater)-With regards to grains, I may eat 1 serving periodically. For instance, have a bit of brown rice with my dinner. However, if I do this, I likely will not have any fruit that day and since the rice fills me up at dinner, I might be passing an a veggie.
I am not a huge veggie lover either, but I normally, believe I add in at least 2, sometimes 3 servings a day. For instance, I may have a salad at lunchtime and then a veggie or 2 in the evening with my protein (like fish or a sirloin steak).For dessert, I may have a sugar free jello.
Overall, I probably eat more foods in the form of protein, including beans.

I know veggies add many nutrients, will give you fiber, and help fill you up, and are lower in calories.
However, I'm am wondering this- is it possible that not eating enough veggies on SB will hinder weight loss( even though your following the plan and are full)? If so! How come?

I don't know all the nutrition science behind it, I am sure someone else here will know. But I believe that not eating enough veggies will slow or stall weight loss on SBD because you are not getting enough fiber, nutrients and complex carbs, even if you are eating beans. If what you eat is primarily protein and fat (even if it is lower fat) it can cause an imbalance that can slow metabolism. I know that when I don't eat enough veggies on SBD, or when I load up on sugar-free "goodies," my weight stalls. I'm not saying you are eating too much sugar free stuff, but why not try adding more veggies and see what happens?

mickey, from my experience I say yes, it can hinder you. I've noticed the times when I am losing the most weight are the times I am getting in the most veggie servings. I have always liked veggies, but when I started SBD I was not eating nearly enough of them. The kids didn't like them too much, they seemed like more work to prepare, I didn't have a lot of good recipes, so I did not emphasize them in our menus.
It took some work to get up to the amount I eat now, usually 5 - 6 cups/day when measured raw. I had to experiment a lot and find some recipes we really liked that are quick and easy, and one way I got in at least 1 serving a day at the beginning was to drink some V8 or tomato juice every day. I still usually do. I don't know what the magic is, but I guess that all the fiber and nutrients from the veggies help keep your servings of higher calorie foods less. I think SB is based on the fact that you don't have to measure or limit your servings of cheese or meat or other protein, dairy, etc., and as long as you are eating all those veggies, the portion control for the higher calorie things takes care of itself.
What you need to do is really focus on getting some veggies into each meal and snack. Ask yourself, can I put lettuce under or around it, salsa or tomato sauce on top of it, spinach in it? If it has veggies in it, is there any way can I add more? If you are not crazy about them, try pureeing and putting them in soups, chilis, stews, spaghetti sauce. The other night I made chili that had pureed salsa, onions, peppers and zucchini in it. My kids usually reject chili because of the beans and visible chunks of veggies, but they ate this up and loved it. You can hide pureed squash or cauliflower in scrambled eggs. The more the better!

Oh, and I didn't mean to suggest that you should not be eating grains and fruits. They are healthy and good for you too, and your body needs them. Once you are done transitioning from Ph1, you should at least be eating one serving of each/day. Whether you bump it up to two or three as mentioned in the book is up to you. I find I can't lose well if I go above an average of 1.5 servings of whole grains/day. It's different for each person.

Two ways to get veggies in the diet is to cook a huge pot of vegetable or minestrone soup, freeze or refrigerate into serving sizes, and have some with dinner every night. And always eat a veggie with breakfast, like a sliced tomato or some tomato juice, or veggies in an omelet.

In general, you'll find most people don't recommend supplements for aiding weightloss, however, I really like Dr. Melina Jampolis (her book is, "The No Time to Lose Diet" and "In 2005, Dr. Melina hosted a 10 episode diet program on the Discovery Network's FIT TV titled "Fit TV's Diet Doctor.") Anyway, she lives in the SF Bay area and I've gone to a couple of talks she's had here locally. I asked her this very question, "Will supplements help?"...she recommended Green Tea (EGCG) 500 MG twice a day and then less so, but it may possibly help (my current doctor thinks it can), is CLA (I've been taking it 3 times a day).

I don't think that any supplements are going to make a super big difference, but they can help some. The only thing that helped me budge the scale was to up my exercise to an hour or more a day (as well as eating a healthy diet...I eat as much food that is non-processed and organic as possible; I've cut back on Diet Coke to where I'm hardly drinking it at all, etc.) I'm also trying to use weights to build up my muscles as much as possible because muscles burn calories better than fat. I just kept having to try different things until I found some things that seemed to help. Also, I recommend a book to you to read called "UltraMetabolism" by Dr. Mark Hyman. Good luck!

There are lots of creative ways to prepare veggies! I was NOT a veggie eater before SBD - now I miss them if I don't get enough during the day. As previously suggested - start the day with a glass of V-8 - they have spicy and regular - so pick what appeals to you! From there, just some sliced peppers with hummus or celery with peanut butter ( you mentioned liking peanut butter) are a great snack and way to keep those veggies going....Try the veggie chili - since you're in phase 2, add some ground turkey to it....you'll get lots of veggies in a serving. I love a good chopped salad this time of year - with all of the fresh local produce: chop up some sliced turkey breast, maybe a small handful of olives, tomato, cucumber, peppers, scallions, basil, arugala or lettuce, a small splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar....mix it up and yummy! You will be FULL and have gotten a TON of veggies into you!!!! Bon Appetit!

Whoa, that is craaaazy, that's so crazy I would try it. It sounds interesting. (No sarcasm, I fully intend on trying that. Yum!)

I was telling my husband tonight why I threw in a salad with dinner.

We were already having roasted cauliflower, sweet potato fries, and turkey smoked sausage. I told him I threw in the salad, so that I eat more veggies and less meat.

"but the meat is lower in carbs", he says.

And I say, "yeah, but a cup of most vegetables are 40-90 calories, and 6-8 oz of meat is probably well over 500".

Yep, I'd say if you're not having more veggies, your meat (and to a lesser extent, legumes) are much higher in calories.

Have you done fitday or similar to do a calorie count?

You also don't have that much weight to lose. I go to the gym 6 days a week (2 hours a day) With a friend of mine who is much heavier than I am. SInce she started she has lost over 70 pounds and I lost about 20 ( she was well over 300 and I was about 189 or whatever)
Point is the less you have to lose the harder it is. I think I lost about 5 pounds this month.. and I am so much happier with that than gaining 5.

Maybe you should start counting the calories you eat. You might be eating more than you should.

This is coming from someone who had plateaued for months, how are your clothes fitting? If you exercise alot you might be adding more muscle than fat that you are losing, they both weigh the same but if you are adding muscle and replacing fat that could be why you haven't lost. Have you measured yourself?

For me I finally figured out why I wasn't losing weight- I was not keeping food logs anymore- and when I started back up doing them I was eating way too many calories- all from good for you food but too much. Last week I went on phase 1 for one week to get rid of cravings and today starting Phase 2, I lost all the weight that creeped back on and am back down to ticker weight, but still have 5 more to go to get back to where I was before.

Post your menus for us to see and we might be able to help

Do you get the dairy servings in too? There is speculation that eating enough dairy will help with weight loss. I think it's the conjugated linoleic acid in it.

From Wikipedia:
Studies of CLA in human diets show that it tends to reduce body fat,[8] particularly abdominal fat, improves serum lipid profiles, and decreases whole-body glucose uptake.

Definitely make sure you get in your dairy and please share detailed food logs with us. Most likely you are still not eating enough and that is why you are stalling. The important thing is to keep on the plan since you know that it is a healthy way to eat for life.

I too not only have a stahl, but a weight gain... I picked up SBD book yesterday and what everyone is saying, MORE VEGGIES is what I was getting from the book! Nice job all!