[rinku]

Hi,

My weight loss has stalled from the day I started taking WHEY and has not gone down any more. I started my weight loss journey around 80 days back and by the time I completed 2 months I was already down by 20 pounds. I've maintained a diet of around 1500 - 1700 calories everyday.

My First Month : The first month when I started it I was only doing brisk walking for around 45 minutes 6 times a week and some Yoga in the morning. This resulted in around 9 pounds loss in one month's time.

Calorie Intake during this Month : Around 1500 - 1700 Cals
Exercise : 30 minutes Yoga in Morning & 45 Minutes Walk in Evening


Second Month : I joined GYM and along with my walking I started doing 15 minutes stationary cycling on my cardio days and Strength Training 3 times a week with free weights. My weight continued to go down and I reached down by total 20 pounds by the end of second month...

Calorie Intake during this Month : Around 1700 - 1900 Cals
Exercise : 30 minutes Yoga in Morning & 45 Minutes Walk in Evening 6 days
+ 3 days Strength training on Free Weights in Gym.

Third Month : I started doing heavy weights to put on muscle mass (Being a male I do want lot of muscles ) along with the weight loss..and as per suggestions over here I started taking ON's GOLD WHEY One Scoop twice a day. Now its been over 21 days precisely and I have stopped losing anything..my weight has stalled at 207 - 208 pounds. I tried 5 -6 meals a day of 250/300 calories each, I tried increasing the intensity of exercises but nothing has worked so far.

Calorie Intake during this Month : Around 1700 - 1900 Cals
Exercise : 15 Minutes Cycling & 45 Minutes Walk in Evening 6 days
+ 3 days Strength training on Free Weights + Machines in Gym.

I discussed this with my Instructor at GYM and he asked me to stop taking WHEY as he said WHEY can stop the weight loss process, now being a VEGAN I don't have option in foods which contains sufficient amount of proteins and hence I switched to WHEY. My worry is that if I don't take WHEY I risk losing muscles as I need something to come close to my daily protein requirements and if I take and weight doesn't go down then everything is useless. I have still long way to go and I want to reach at 156 lbs but at this point I have become little confused.

Can experts throw in some light over here on this topic, has anyone experiences similar things with WHEY or its only a misconception with my Instructor ? Please help as I'm really desperate to see myself below 205 now.

[RealCdn]

I can't give you specifics, but to share, I use Whey protein after strength training workouts (free weights) and pretty much every evening before I go to bed. That last one is because I've found that it keeps me from looking for food at 2am.

It most definitely has not slowed my weight loss. In fact, since adding it after my strength training using heavier weights, my loss has been more consistent. One thing to watch is that you really are staying within the calories you've picked. I know some people when they add heavier weights can't control their appetite. It may be as simple as weighing a certain amount of food, then picking up more while putting the item away. I would normally say to increase calories while lifting (but it appears you already have). I don't know if you weigh daily/weekly, however, the lowest weight you're likely going to get is 2 days after a lifting session. I weigh daily and I'm almost always heavier after a weights day, then down the day after that.

[fatburner77]

In my opinion, whey did cause me to hold onto weight so I had to stop taking it. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I am a female, but whatever the case, I didn't drop any weight for the three months I was on it. I factored the whey into my caloric intake for the day but the effect appeared to be occurring regardless.
Without changing my workout routine at all, a few weeks after ceasing the whey supplement I reignited my weight loss. (I replaced the calories spent on whey with other foods.) Certainly, I'll never know whether the whey truly caused me to hold onto weight or whether another factor was involved, as most of us don't lose weight in a clinical setting where these effects are measured scientifically.
My advice is to decrease the amount of whey you consume -- don't cut it out completely -- and then make up the calories with high-protein foods. Good luck!

[nelie]

Whey is dairy (nonvegan). One thing about dairy is that it can make you retain water so if you go from not eating dairy to eating dairy, then you will retain water weight.

I don't know what options you may have in India but I follow a vegan diet and we have a variety of vegan protein powders here. Many of them use hemp protein. Also, your protein requirements, even with weight training, may not be as high as you think they are. One interesting book you might want to look into is "Thrive", which was written by a professional vegan athlete (ironman champion). He has various recipes in the book but also talks about nutrition quite a bit.

[fiberlover]

What about soy protein isolate? That's vegan. We use that for our protein powder. If it is the whey itself that is causing the issue, then another type of protein might be a good sub.

[rinku]

Thanks for all the inputs what I have decided to do is to cut down my WHEY intake to one scoop a day from two scoops and to replace it with solid substitute perhaps Tofu and I'll try this for the next one week and see if this helps, if I see a loss here then I'll try to cut it down completely for few weeks and see how it goes for me..

I still look forward to more information on this as this is something I could not find even though I googled a lot about it.

[lifechange]

I haven't seen weight gain with whey protein but I take the whey protein isolate. One form of whey protein, whey protein isolate, contains less than 1 percent lactose and is often recommended for vegetarians and for those who are lactose or gluten intolerant. So if the lactose in regular whey contributes to water retention, the isolate form should not.
Give is a shot. You also haven't said how long the scale hasn't moved- if it has only been a couple of weeks your body could be holding onto water and adjusting to your fat loss. You also might have to adjust your calories down as you lose weight-I know weight watchers does by 50-100 calories

[PhotoChick]

I also haven't seen any weight gain with whey. In fact when I consistently supplement my diet with extra protein (and I only use whey protein), I find I lose weight better and faster.

HOwever by eating more protein, you are ramping up buildng muscle, so it's possible that you're putting on some muscle weight. For some reason I get the impression you're a guy (I could be wrong - if so I apologise! ) and guys do put on muscle a LOT faster than women do.

.

[rinku]

Dear Lifechange

Its been over 22 days since I have lost any weight. After joining the Gym I increased my intake to around 200 calories, the reason is that I'd been adding up a lot of activities which keeps me active through out the day and then with 45 -60 minutes of cardio daily & 45 minutes of weight training my body did required little more energy. I'm not too sure if I'd be able to remain functional & energetic if I further cut down my calorie intake..

Dear PhotoChick,

Yes I'm a guy and the idea that I may be putting on some muscle mass did hit my mind too as I'd started doing heavy weights for last one month...but what experts on body building say is that you can't put on 4 -5 pounds of muscles in 3 weeks and I'd been fairly looking at this much loss in the last 3 weeks. I did tried increasing my water intake from 8-10 glasses to 14 -15 glasses a day but that has not helped much. I believe the same as you mentioned...eating more protein would help accelerate your weight loss but something is not working in my case.

[PhotoChick]

In general it's true youcan't put on 5lb of muscle in 3 weeks.

However, there are two things I noticed in your schedule:
One is that you said you started lifting weights in the 2nd month, so it's possible that you have put on a couple of pounds in muscle mass (maybe 2 or so).
The other is that you said in month 3, you started lifting heavy. Now, it's true you won't gain another 3 lbs of muscle that quickly, but when you lift heavy your muscles will retain water - often for a period of several days after you lift. It *is* possible to retain a couple of pounds of water in your muscles after you lift.

Regardless, I'd try some other form of protein for a while and see if that helps.

Good luck.

.

[rinku]

Thanks for your inputs...I'd be trying and update this thread when I see any results

[rinku]

Hi Guys, As promised here's the update on the current situation...I've actually broke the plateau and today morning I stand at 202.8 lbs from the 207/208 plateau

How did I do it ?

1) I cut down my whey intake from 3 scoops to 1 scoop a day.

2) Closely monitored my diet again and ensured that I'm sticking to 1700 - 1900 calories.

3) On last Sunday I ate every 2 hours to boost my metabolism ( Mostly veggies like Cucumber, Apples, Tomatoes, Oats, Nuts and at the end of the day I ate a cheat meal with high calorie intake..( something which I have stopped taking in last three months )

4) Monday onwards I again got back to my routine low cal diet.

5) I have maintained 6 times a day diet which includes 3 snacks & 3 regular diets.

6) I have not stopped taking WHEY, just cut it down from 3 scoops to 1 but I have increased the intake of sprouts, tofu & other sources of proteins.

Changes in Exercises :

Till last week I used to do my cardio & weight training sessions at a single go in the evening....reading all posts here motivated me to give a surprise to my body..last Friday a bought a bike for myself and started biking in the morning along with 40 minutes of walking that previously I used to do in the evening..making a total of around 60 / 70 minutes of cardio 6 days a week. Now I go to gym in the evening 3 days a week for weight training.

I have realized that my body loves morning sessions of cardio and react on it positively..Everyday the scale has been going down and today it stand at 202.8..even if it has got a water loss..I still have lost something and that counts

I'm so happy today, I don't have words to express...3fc has given me so much strength and you all guys rock..I know for sure if I had not been reading experiences which people have shared at 3fc I would have given up easily with this plateau..but now I realize its a only a small block but not the dead end...and though I may see more plateaus and more blocks in the coming time.. I know I'll overcome all of them this time.

Time for one more scoop of WHEY to treat me

[JayEll]

Congratulations, rinku, in adjusting what you have been doing and getting off that darned plateau!

Jay

[Mrs Snark]

I don't know if you missed it up in the thread, but whey isn't vegan! Just wanted to make sure you knew!

[fiberlover]

Congrats - and keep up the good work!