Hi Nancy, I really think that the weight can not be moving on the scale, but the body is totally losing inches and changing (like the stomach going down)
Good for you tucking in your shirt!

Down a bit this morning and feeling good. I had major "want to eat something sweet" feelings yesterday afternoon. I decided to give in to them but to limit the quantity. I had homemade LC chocolate sauce mixed with natural peanut butter (which is a great substitute for peanut butter cups) and also a cup of LC vanilla ice cream with more chocolate sauce. Dinner was fried cabbage. I had higher calories than I have been having but still an acceptable amount. I was very grateful to see the scale move this AM.

I so enjoy coming here and seeing everyone's progress. Keep up the good work.

I do very long UP cycles of moderate carbs and 2000-2200 calories which maintains my weight. I do 3-16 day DOWN cycles which allow me to lose weight. I have been LCing for 18 months and my DOWN cycles were lower carb until August 04 when I switched to DOWN cycles of lower calorie (800-1200) while maintaining the moderate carb.

asalvato, i'm also doing moderate carb on my carb downs and doing 1200 cals. more and more i see this as helping my metabolism.

great that you are down today. way to go, you are pretty much at your goal weight, just a hair away really. you could probably actually pull a few hairs out and you'd be at goal

Thank you, Bethany! I'll look into it! If I could lose 15+ pounds in what, two months? I'd be ecstatic!

OUCH! The book costs about 40 bucks USED on Amazon! Why so expensive? I noticed you were waffling a bit about staying on it earlier. Do you think it's worth the money? Has anyone else read/heard about this book-Natural Hormone Enhancement?

nepta

I have my goal at 155 but I am working to get below goal so I have some "bounce around" room. I want to never see anything over 155 again and I find that my weight can bounce quite a bit when I maintain.

I added in more good carbs because I am close to goal. I am basically eating "maintenance" on UP cycles. I found that when I went from "low carb" to "moderate carb" I gained a lot of water weight (at least 5 pounds). By upping my carbs to the level I can maintain, I do not have to worry that I will see that water weight gain.

I was at 155.5 in May but bounced up to 164 when I got back to maintenance eating. I had surgery in March and again in May and was treating an abscess for weeks before the second surgery. I wasn't eating much so lost the weight. Once I felt better and my eating returned to "maintenance", I gained a lot quickly. Then in August I went very low calorie and went down to 155 again. I went back up to 162 when I added back calories. I had slowed my metabolism because I wasn't eating and I wasn't exercising.

I spent September and October eating maintenance and exercising a lot. I lost 2 pounds in October. Then on 11/8 I started in WLM.

When I come off my down cycle I plan to up calories gradually. I will add 300 calories a day for 2 days, then another 300 a day for 2 days, etc. until I get to about 2200. I will monitor how my weight responds. Then I am going to slow down a bit on the exercise. I have to learn what will work as an ongoing WOL.

I have learned that it isn't just taking the pounds off, it is finding what will work for me to keep them off.

The cheapest place I found it was wholesalesupplementstore dot com...it was $29 INCLUDING shipping. Honestly, I do think it is worth it. I have already referenced it too many times to count. Don't buy the exercise book (HIE) that goes with it....I just ordered it and now that I am at the other place with a exercise focus, I could have learned the basics without spending $$$ for the book.

Let's see...I guess I HAVE lost 17lbs in 2 months...I guess that's not as bad as I thought! (but on the flip side of that coin, I still have 33 left to go!)

Lost another pound if my scale can be trusted. I usually wait until I see the same number 2 days in a row to "claim it" but I am officially claiming 171. I even changed my profile so there is no going back. That is 2 pounds into VT and only 2 pounds to go into an earlier decade. Can't wait.

How are all you strong, committed cyclers doing?

nutsnseeds Glad to hear you're well into VT. You can lose those next 2!

Weighed in the last two mornings at 140 lbs. I still have to lose two more just to get where I was before carb-up. I guess it's going to be a longer carb-down than I extpected.

asalvato - sounds very sensible. i also want to get down to 120 and keep 125 as a weight i don't want to go over. anyways, it really sounds like you are doing well & have good ideas about eating this way for life.

nutsnseeds great news about vt. way to go hun

apk - hope you get to see some losses soon. crossing my fingers for you. sometimes i don't lose it right away on carb down, in fact more often than not it doesn't come off well until days 4-6. good luck.

good news i'm down a pound into vt & into the 130's. very exciting!

have a great day everybody

sona, i hope you are feeling better!

Good morning! Yes indeed! According to my scales (pinch me) I lost 1.5 pounds! 167.5 is a number I've only landed on for less than 24 hours a couple of times. So I think its really VT for me. Now I probably shouldn't celebrate yet because I've yet to see that number 2 days in a row. So cautiously optomistic that this time I'll hang out at that number longer.

I think though, I'm going to stop trying to cycle, I feel like I'm in Ground Hog day (the movie) because I gain so incredibly rapidly on the carb-up and then it takes me so long to get it off again. Maybe once I'm closer to my goal this might become an option to me again, especially to train myself on how to eat on maintenance.

It sounds like it is working marvelously well for many of you!

Nancy, how long are your CUs? It's important to have short bursts of carb intake in order to reset your leptin levels (which tell your body it's ok to let fat go), as well as to kepe your thyroid functioning properly.

Check out this article...it's pretty short and easy to read: http://www.theministryoffitness.com...s/article18.htm

Have you considered doing CU meals instead of days? I'm finding that I have little to no weight gain with that model, which is really nice. In fact, I CU'd last night, and still lost a Virgin pound this morning. Just something to think about.

You know, that sounds like a good idea for me too. My CU was four days (last thur-sun) and I gained 4-5 lbs and I still have 2lbs of that to get rid of! I could have easily limited CU to a meal or two that weekend; I purposefully ate more carbs. I think I'll try that next time I CU (which won't be for a while since I'm still losing what I gained last CU)

My carb ups were 2 days long and pretty moderate as far as carbs go. Generally around 60g carbs and 1600-1800 calories. I think I tried for about 6 cycles.

I'll definitely try it again, especially as I get closer to my goal. But for now, I just feel like I'm taking 2 steps forward, 2 steps backward with the cycling.

I'm not too concerned about thryoid levels since I get my thyroid from a bottle after having my own thyroid nuked because it was going nuts.

Dana, I'm still here, but I have the flu, with fever of 101 to 102 for the past three days. I'm out for the count for a bit. But I'll post again, rationally, when I start to feel better.

My congratulations to everyone who has lost over the past few days on cycling--and for those who are frustrated, please soldier on. The trend is generally downward, even if it takes a while and there are a few setbacks along the way.

All the best to you-all!! XXXX Sona