Hitting A Wall

Agricola

I read somewhere before that during any weight loss program there comes a point where your body begins to rebel and it becomes more difficult to drop the pounds. Im just wondering is this the case or is it just bs?

I began a strict diet (well strict for me!) last Monday the 4th Jan. Just went complete cold turkey on crisps, biscuits, cakes etc. Im sticking rigidly to the 3 daily meals and those meals now consist of mainly porridge breakfasts, soup and brown bread lunches, and dinners of grilled / boiled food, of smaller portions. No takeaways etc for the forseeable future! Due to the weather I havent managed to exercise and because of this i expected to drop maybe 1 or 2 pounds over the last week. Turns out between Monday and Friday I dropped 8 pounds. Im delighted with this and I thought if i kept that up Id be well on the way to getting to my goal weight by early February. But over the last couple of days, despite the fact Ive gotten out for a run and kept to the same eating pattern, my weight is remaining exactly the same....

Now I know its early days and Id probably need to be at it longer and see how it pans out. This may be just a normal blip. I would have thought that as long as you stick to the simple formula of more calories out than in, there would be steady improvement. Generally speaking, is it common / normal to do through afew days where your making no progress?

Pembily

Weigh yourself at the same time, on the same day, on the same scales!!! Only weigh yourself once a week....

8lb in one week is massive and you may not loose any weight the next week but that is ok!!!!! Relax!!!

EileenG

A couple of days and you think you are hitting a wall? A plateau is normally considered to be six weeks at the same weight.

Weight loss is not linear. Most people have periods where there is no movement on the scales, then a sudden drop of a few pounds together. It's normal to lose several pounds in the first week of any diet, especially if you are cutting out sugar and refined carbs. This is mostly water weight. After that, you have to have a bit of patience and wait for the fat loss to kick in.

Getwellsoon

Definitely do what Pembily said, weigh at the same time of day for an accurate reading. Your weight can go up/down so much over one week as well too, so in a way it's better to only weigh once a week or go by how loose your clothes are.

Hitting a plateau doesn't really happen until you've lost a lot of weight. I remember in my journey of losing nearly 4 stone I must have hit several plateaux, but you just have to keep going and not get discouraged. My final plateau was trying to get beneath 8 stone. I was actually trying for MONTHS, and then when I finally did it, a few more pounds came off and I haven't been above 8 stone since (and I don't plan to either, lol, it took SO much effort to break that barrier).

Keep going!!

Agricola

Thanks guys.

I'll definitly stick with it now. The hardest part is always getting to the point where you see a noticeable difference in yourself. Even at this early stage, the bloatedness is gone and my shirts dont feel quite like the straight jackets they did at the height of the Christmass binge! This gives me the motivation to keep going.