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A few thoughts on plateaus or apparent plateaus...
For those that didn't catch my intro in the new members forum, I'm a second timer. First time around I lost 130 pounds. The only problem was that I managed to put 105 back on again, not such a good thing.
Still, I've been up the mountain once or I *was* the mountain once and there is one thing I think I can contribute that may be useful to some.
There's already abundant information in the various forums here on what is and what isn't a plateau as well as a lot of very solid info on how to deal with the nasty little buggers. There is one thing that I found in my first time around that was very helpful to me that I have not seen stated concisely elsewhere on the board so I'll throw this in.
My initial success on Atkins was phenomenal. I went from 350 to 315 ( that's right, 35 pounds) during my induction phase. For the next two months I stayed on extended induction and lost another 50 pounds. Almost a pound a day and it was painless. Oh, to be sure I missed my pasta but the rest was easy. Who could complain about a pound of steak with a green salad with blue cheese dressing. That's a diet meal? What's not to love?
Keep in mind that up to that point I had been on a steady parade of falling weights, averaging over a pound a day lost. I had some trepidation with that much weight lost that rapidly, but between a steadily increasing maximum lift weight in the gym and steadily improving blood chemistry and blood pressure I reassured myself.
Then I slammed into 265 pounds so hard my nose bled. The first day or three that the scale didn't move didn't bother me too much, who could expect such a streak to last forever? After a week I was getting a little concerned. After two weeks I was more than a little concerned. After four weeks I was losing my mind.
Time to re-evaluate the diet. Had I changed anything, anything at all? Not that I was aware of. Had anything I was eating changed without my knowledge? Re-reading the labels on those few products that I bought pre-made (salad dressing in the main) revealed no changes.
Now, by profession I have to be an extremely analytical little bugger, so I started looking farther afield. Any time you have something that has been functioning properly that suddenly does not, SOMETHING has changed. These things just don't happen by themselves.
Diet? Checked out fine, but I checked everything out again. I looked a portions, I looked at food prep, I looked at every last ingredient under the metaphorical microscope. Still nothing. (I'm sure there are several of you out there grinning by now, knowing exactly where this is going). No matter where I looked, absolutely nothing had changed.
Oh, wait. There *was* one thing that had changed. Me. There was a whooooole lot less me than there used to be. 85 pounds less me to be precise.
That's when the light came on. What was it the Doobie Brothers once said? Right, what were once vices are now habits.
I had changed but my habits had not.
There's a lot of reference on this board about eating until you're not hungry as opposed to eating until you're full. I was still eating exactly what I had when I first started the diet; same menu, same portions, same schedule. That combination was a weight loss powerhouse for someone who tipped the scales at over a sixth of a ton (scary to phrase it like that, isn't it) but it was waaaay too many calories, Atkins or not, for someone who tipped in at only a bit over an eighth of a ton, 265 pounds.
Looking at it through that lense, I dialled back my meals in proportion to my new weight and the pounds started blithely slipping off once again.
'Nother words, if you hit a plateau that you can't explain, maybe it's time to really seriously consider the difference between not hungry and full. There's a world of difference and a world of weight loss that can hide in that crack. Habits themselves can be another habit you have to get through.
Of course, then came one holiday and ten thousand excuses and 105 pounds of regained weight and here I am...
Hope this helps someone or at least amuses.
QSECOFR
327/316/199 in four days.
For those that didn't catch my intro in the new members forum, I'm a second timer. First time around I lost 130 pounds. The only problem was that I managed to put 105 back on again, not such a good thing.
Still, I've been up the mountain once or I *was* the mountain once and there is one thing I think I can contribute that may be useful to some.
There's already abundant information in the various forums here on what is and what isn't a plateau as well as a lot of very solid info on how to deal with the nasty little buggers. There is one thing that I found in my first time around that was very helpful to me that I have not seen stated concisely elsewhere on the board so I'll throw this in.
My initial success on Atkins was phenomenal. I went from 350 to 315 ( that's right, 35 pounds) during my induction phase. For the next two months I stayed on extended induction and lost another 50 pounds. Almost a pound a day and it was painless. Oh, to be sure I missed my pasta but the rest was easy. Who could complain about a pound of steak with a green salad with blue cheese dressing. That's a diet meal? What's not to love?
Keep in mind that up to that point I had been on a steady parade of falling weights, averaging over a pound a day lost. I had some trepidation with that much weight lost that rapidly, but between a steadily increasing maximum lift weight in the gym and steadily improving blood chemistry and blood pressure I reassured myself.
Then I slammed into 265 pounds so hard my nose bled. The first day or three that the scale didn't move didn't bother me too much, who could expect such a streak to last forever? After a week I was getting a little concerned. After two weeks I was more than a little concerned. After four weeks I was losing my mind.
Time to re-evaluate the diet. Had I changed anything, anything at all? Not that I was aware of. Had anything I was eating changed without my knowledge? Re-reading the labels on those few products that I bought pre-made (salad dressing in the main) revealed no changes.
Now, by profession I have to be an extremely analytical little bugger, so I started looking farther afield. Any time you have something that has been functioning properly that suddenly does not, SOMETHING has changed. These things just don't happen by themselves.
Diet? Checked out fine, but I checked everything out again. I looked a portions, I looked at food prep, I looked at every last ingredient under the metaphorical microscope. Still nothing. (I'm sure there are several of you out there grinning by now, knowing exactly where this is going). No matter where I looked, absolutely nothing had changed.
Oh, wait. There *was* one thing that had changed. Me. There was a whooooole lot less me than there used to be. 85 pounds less me to be precise.
That's when the light came on. What was it the Doobie Brothers once said? Right, what were once vices are now habits.
I had changed but my habits had not.
There's a lot of reference on this board about eating until you're not hungry as opposed to eating until you're full. I was still eating exactly what I had when I first started the diet; same menu, same portions, same schedule. That combination was a weight loss powerhouse for someone who tipped the scales at over a sixth of a ton (scary to phrase it like that, isn't it) but it was waaaay too many calories, Atkins or not, for someone who tipped in at only a bit over an eighth of a ton, 265 pounds.
Looking at it through that lense, I dialled back my meals in proportion to my new weight and the pounds started blithely slipping off once again.
'Nother words, if you hit a plateau that you can't explain, maybe it's time to really seriously consider the difference between not hungry and full. There's a world of difference and a world of weight loss that can hide in that crack. Habits themselves can be another habit you have to get through.
Of course, then came one holiday and ten thousand excuses and 105 pounds of regained weight and here I am...
Hope this helps someone or at least amuses.
QSECOFR
327/316/199 in four days.
Now THAT is the whooshie fairy I want over my house.
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