I am really trying not to see this as a side effect of the new plan, but for the past couple of months my weight has been going up and down. I'll lose 3-5 pounds one week only to gain most or all of it back the next. And it's not like I'm doing anything drastically different food or activity wise from one week to the next. One week I will be cheering and thinking I've finally broken the cycle, only to be disheartened and frustrated when I see that scale jump back up the next week. I weigh just .6 lbs less now than I did mid-November.

Although I'm tempted, I don't plan to switch back to Momentum, at least not yet. I have set up a Sparkpeople account though, and will be tracking my calories alongside my points.

I have always been an emotional eater, and this has been a real test of my new way of life, let me tell you. The old me would have said screw it and dived headfirst into a chocolate cake weeks ago. Some days it's all I can do to hold on and stay on track. I keep telling myself that even if I never lose another pound, I am way better off now than I was when I started, and that how I live and eat now is healthy and good and what I need and want to be doing for the rest of my life anyway.

*sigh* I just had to vent a bit. I've gotten this far and am so close to my goal that it's incredibly frustrating to be stuck like this.

I switched back to Momentum last week because I was having the same issue, I was up and down since I had started PP back in November. After one week on Momentum I had a nice loss of 5.2lbs =D Switch back and see what happens after one week.

Do you know what you are doing differently from Momentum? Are you eating more? Eating different things? Are you measuring and weighing your food? How many calories are you getting?

This close to your goal it's unusual to have a 3-5 pound loss in a week so that maybe why it's coming back on. But if you can look at your old food journals and compare them to now in terms of portions and foods, you might get some insight as to why it's not coming off even slowly.

I always had the same problem with Points+ and just switched back to Momentum. I tracked calories along with Points+ and I found when I was out of calories I still had points left. I wasn't a ton of 0 point+ foods so I don't think that was it. I have found my Momentum points and my daily calorie allowance are close to the same vs. Points+ and calorie allowance.

Kimberly and Pagelynn, I am going to stick with P+, paired with the calorie counting, at least for another few weeks, and see how it goes. I'll definitely be watching your progress to see how you do, though in case I end up following you.


Seagirl, I'm not eating that differently, but perhaps what I'm doing is enough to make a difference. My points quota only went up by 4, so I have been eating more fruits and vegetables and not really worrying too much about portion size for those 0 point items. I've also consistently been getting in the daily oil, which I wasn't doing on the old plan.

I know it's unusual to have the big losses at this point, and honestly, I don't want them! I'd rather have the little, but consistent losses, over this jumping up and down.

Today I had my weigh-in and was up 4.5 pounds. I've done nothing in the past two weeks (or beyond that but I would think it wouldn't take more than a couple weeks for something to show one way or another) to warrant such a large gain.

I am going back to weighing and measuring ALL my foods, no more eyeballing or assuming I know what a portion is.

Yesterday I counted both P+ and calories. I came in at 35 P+ (using some of my weeklies) and 1600 calories. Today I had 29 P+ and 1500 calories. One thing I like about sparkpeople, is that it lets me monitor my sodium intake, which I think might be part of the problem. Also, it tracks my fat, fiber, carbs and protein, and gives me the healthy ranges for those. For instance, one thing I see is that I'm going over on recommended fiber - so I think I will swap out the double fiber bread I've been eating for another whole grain bread.

I'm also looking at my activity. I exercise regularly and have a planned cardio training program (preparing for my second half marathon), but I habitually avoid strength training. So that's another area I need to revamp and start incorporating weights as a regular part of my program.

Oh, and I spoke to my leader this morning and she volunteered to go over my tracker for me and see if she sees anything that could be tweaked, too.

So hopefully all this is enough to get me moving in the right direction again!

Lesley,
Please keep us posted with what your leader says.I was about to start PP and am starting to reconsider.

I am in the same boat!!!! I started about 7 weeks ago and have been diligently following the plan (with one non tracking day on my birthday). I weighed in today and gained to the point where I am right back where I started! 7 weeks and no loss? I have also been tracking on sparkpeople and am eating, on average 1400 calories a day. That alone should lead to some loss, one would think. This is so frustrating!!!

Hi Lesley--you have done such a great job with your weightloss, so it is great to see you sticking with it even through this frustration! You should be really proud of yourself.

I wonder if you might consider counting your fruits (and any starchy vegetables)? You said you weren't really paying attention to those areas, but fruit can have A LOT of calories if you are eating a lot of it. A banana can be well oer 100 as can an apple if its large enough! I remember reading in one of these threads that a lot of WW people are counting their fruit as 1.

I hope you can figure out PP to help you reach your goal! My mom is life-time for two years, and she has been doing the same thing on PP, up 1, down 2, up 3, etc. So its almost like your body thinks you are in maintenance?

Good luck and keep us posted!

Today we talked in the meeting about sticking with it. The leader told a story of someone in one of her meetings who needed to lose 75 pounds. Her first year she lost 60 pounds. She said during year 2 this person lost nothing. She went up and down the entire year and never got a 5 pound star the entire year. The leader said that she lost some intensity and would have a good week, then wasn't so careful the next week. This went on the whole year. But, the leader said that she never gave up and never missed a meeting. Then the following year something clicked and she focused and lost 15 pounds in short order. She has now maintained her loss for 7 years. She told the leader that looking back that time with no loss was very helpful to her because it was then she learned how to maintain. She spent a whole year learning how to gain a couple of pounds then lose them without giving up. That was very valuable.

On another note -- I count calories as well as points. I've been doing much better on Points Plus than Momentum. I have had a bit of up and down. I haven't gained on Points Plus but had a week with no change, then .5 pound for a couple of week, then .6 pounds and this week I lost 1.6 pounds. However, overall I'm now losing at about an average of 1.25 a week when I was at .5 a week on Momentum.

I think if you are eating 1500 with 29 Points Plus you are eating higher calories zero points than I'm eating or are gravitating to foods that are higher calorie for the same number of points.

I posted on another thread 3 weeks of points and calories eaten:

For the last 3 weeks below is shown total calories eaten (includes zero point fruits and veggies), points eaten, and calories per point (by dividing points into the total calories so this calories per point includes the fruits and veggies that I ate). Average calories per point was 40.81.

1000-24-41.7
1130-27-41.9
1160-25-46.4
1370-32-42.8
977-26-37.6
1043-26-40.1
1171-28-41.8
980-25-39.2
1040-22-47.3
1130-30-37.7
1150-30-38.3
1041-26-40
1100-29-37.9
1195-30-39.8
1171-29-40.4
1120-29-39.7
1110-27-41.1
1150-29-39.7
1000-24-41.7
894-21-42.6
1095-27-40.6

On the days that I ate exactly 29 points, I ate 1150, 1120, 1171, and 1100
calories. My highest calorie day was 1370 calories which was 32 points.

I've eaten 33 points today (went out to eat) and my calorie count is showing at 1281.

However, I prefer veggies to fruit so I don't add a lot of calories from my zero point foods. Someone else might eat more higher calorie fruit and have more calories. Also, not sure it matters, but I don't eat beef so my protein is mostly from chicken or fish.

All of that said, as you get closer to goal my experience (regained lifetime member here) was that there was more fluctuation and loss overall did slow down. I had a lot of weeks with small gains, then a big loss, then small gains, and small losses then suddenly a larger loss. I think part of it is that the body has to get used to the new changed weight and that takes a while to get worked out.

Well, I'm about halfway through the week, and the scale is back down to the low 180s, so perhaps it was fluid retention from sodium. I'm not going to get too excited yet though, as this is still following the up/down cycle - I was up last week so this week I am down. If I can keep going down next week then I will be a bit more optimistic that this is working.

I have been diligently weighing, measuring and tracking both on WW and at Spark. Even though it's taking some extra time, I really like putting the info on spark, as it helps me see better where my nutrients and calories are coming from, and what foods are lower or higher in certain things that I perhaps thought.

I do tend to eat more fruit although I get in quite a few servings of vegetables as well. I am on the high end of my calorie range, but since I exercise daily and fairly intensely (e.g. running 5 miles, biking 30 miles), I don't want to not eat enough.

For example, here's what I ate today, and this would be pretty typical as far as calories, fat, etc. I also met or exceeded all my GHGs:

Breakfast - 1 cup Fage 0% yogurt with 1 cup blueberries & 1/4 cup Uncle Sam cereal (262 calories - 5 P+)

Lunch - Strawberries, fresh, 1 cup, Carrots, raw, 0.5 cup, Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh, 10 serving, Salad dressing - Wishbone Spritzer Caesar Delight, Fresh Express Fancy field greens salad, 2 cup, Feta - President Fat Free Crumbled, 1 oz (163 calories - 2 P+)

Supper - Olive Oil, 2 1tsp, Potato, raw, 1 cup diced, Cheese, Publix Goat Cheese, crumbled, 0.25 cup, Broth, beef: Kitchen Basics, Unsalted, Beef Flavor Cooking Stock, 0.5 serving, Kale, 2 cup, chopped, Chicken Breast, no skin, 6 ounces (547 calories - 13 P+)

Snacks (Mid-Morning, Mid-Afternoon, Night) - Apples, fresh, 1 medium, Naturally More (Natural Peanut Butter), 2 tbsp, Banana, fresh, 1 small (6" to 6-7/8" long), Ghiradelli dark chocolate square 60% cocoa, 1 serving, Cantaloupe, 1 cup, diced, Chobani 0% Fat Vanilla Greek Yogurt, 1 serving (573 calories - 8 P+)

Total Calories: 1543
Points Plus: 28

I am also finding spark helpful in letting me see that while that banana may not add to my points quota, it would put me over calories, so it's making me more mindful of those 0 point foods and giving me a better sense of control.

Koshka, thanks for sharing that story. I do see a little of myself in there, I'd lost some of that intensity over the last couple of months but I think I've found it again.

It might sound counter intuitive but I don't think you are getting enough fat. Why not try to have low fat rather than non fat dairy. And, to be honest - you are eating way too much fruit. Whether or not it's zero points or low in calories it can really raise your blood sugar, which will have an effect on weight loss. I'd cut the fruit down to 2 servings a day, max. Especially if you are eating the fruit without any protein or fat along with it.

Hope you don't mind if I jump in here. I read this post with great interest. I am in much the same position as the person in Koshka's leader's story. I lost the bulk of my weight (80 pounds) in the first year after starting. I lost about 20 pounds in 2010. Now, I want to increase my intensity and get my weight loss moving again.

The difference between me and that lady is that I first lost by counting calories. I moved to WW because I think that the support and meetings will help me. I don't really trust the PP so I have been counting both Points and calories. I am allowed 29 points. I have found that, depending on how I use my points, that 29 points can be 1200 - 1300 calories but can top 1800 calories if I eat much fruit.

I am going to definitely watch the fruit because it can add on lots of calories!

this is weird. So many having the same issue. My scale just moved in weeks. I was tracking and counting and moving. So don't say I'm not doing *something*. but I see, it does happen. I am still conscious of what I eat but some days, I just don't track because, it's that darn oil I have issues with getting in me. I have put it in juice, I have put it on my fruit. I have put it on my vegetables and some days, I still forget. I might just change to fish oils if this keeps up.

Wow, if you exercise that much, I wonder if you aren't eating enough??? Do you eat your WP's and your AP's?? If you really exercise that much every day, that means you are probably burning at least 1000 calories a day! That means, you are only eating around 500 (based on the daily you showed us). I do not think WW expects people to exercise that much, so if you really do that much on a daily basis, you should probably up your points or at least eat some of your WP's and AP's every day!

Interesting thread. When I first started dieting (at age of "It's a girl!") I was a calorie counter. Once 123 Success came along, I stopped counting calories although I still knew them so I could figure out the points in food.

I might track for a bit to see what my average calories to points range is.

Deborah