We're in much of the same place weight and goal wise. I restarted a very strict Atkins program (staying pretty much on induction eating) on Feb. 13, so I'm now in Week 6, day 40. I make sure I weigh myself every morning no matter what, I never let myself off the hook for that. Every single thing I eat in a day, I want to see how it affects my weight the next day.
I've incorporated some 24 hour fasts here and there, probably at least once or twice a week (not sure that helps or not, to be frank about it). My pattern is typically to lose a few lbs right off the bat (obviously water), and then I settle into a pattern of lose some, go back up a bit, hang there, finally lose some more. There doesn't seem to be a darn thing I can do to change this pattern. I once read that as fat cells lose their fat, the body tries to equalize everything by filling those empty fat cells with "placeholder" water, then after a bit the body will release that water as no longer needed and that is when you get your perceived scale weight drop. It's all a process that is slower than any of us want. HOWEVER....understanding that it's not ever going to be quick (especially if you are within maybe 20 lbs of your goal) and that the only way to reaching your goal is a lot of patience and consistency, this is the key to putting your mind in the right place and staying the course.
So my own goal was to drop 20 lbs in 13 weeks before a Hawaii trip in May. That seemed reasonable and do-able. So far so good...as of today (Week 6, day 40) I'm down 11 pounds, and that averages out to about 1.8 lbs per week, so honestly, I can't complain about that. I hope I can at least keep up this same pace over the next 7 weeks.
By the way....I use keto stix for fun, and for MOST of this last 6 weeks I've gotten somewhat dark readings pretty consistently, although never dark beyond the moderate level. So while the keto stix probably aren't all that informative, they do show some sort of consistency of fat burning as far as I understand the process. Keto stix, scales and the tape measure are all tools to measure progress, that's all. My clothes are fitting better and better, so that's what counts.
I'm putting a little graph of my progress so you can see how up and down it is, despite real consistency of diet. The light gray line is the trend, the darker line is my scale weight. Will I make my goal of 20 lbs in 13 weeks? I can't be sure yet, but what I can do is stay consistent with what I've been doing thus far.
One more thing...if you click on my journal for today's entry, you can see the whole list of weights and what my weight has done, up and down, for every one of the last 40 days.
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