How to break a possible set point plateau?

[joycie]

I am bobbing up and down between 264 and 267 pounds for the past 3 1/2 weeks. I am still doing Induction. Pretty clean, may be eating slightly too much cheese. Now making sure I am am getting lots of water. My exercise dipped as DD was off school with the UK Easter holiday. Back at gym this week - 3 times since Sunday. This is pretty much what I weighed after I gave birth to DD nearly 8 years ago - and haven't weighed it since. So that is an achievement. But I would dearly like to weigh even less. Going to reduce cheese, keep up the water and the exercise....
Should I try something else to break my stall? Up the carbs? Down the carbs? Meat only? Just keep plugging away?
:wave: :help:
Thanks for looking.

[cnmLisa]

Just keep plugging away.

Your body is doing the waiting game. It knows that you were this weight before. Your body is sneaky. It thinks that if it holds on and holds on, you'll eventually throw in the towel--then, it will say, see, I'm smarter than you are, you were not serious. Just keep plugging away. As long as your menus are in line, you're not overeating, you're getting in your veg and water, I'd just keep on keepn' on.

You haven't said how long you've been on induction???

Progress not perfection.

Patience grasshopper.

Lisa

[lcgwen]

I dont have anything to tell you other than I wanted to let you know I am in a similar situation. I have been on Atkins for 3 wks now and already lost 15 pounds and several inches. However this past week I have been sitting at 230 pounds. Not going up but not going down either. I too am a cheese lover and I wonder if that is what is hindering my weight loss, so I have opted to cut down on my cheese intake to see if that helps some and I have def started funneling the water, hopefully I will begin to see a change soon and drop some more, even if it is only a pound, Ill know something is working. I havent really been counting my carbs, which may be affecting my stall. So effective today I am going to count everything that goes into my mouth and start tracking it that way. I am also going to force my fat but to get out and go for a brisk walk this evening. Good luck and keep me posted on your progress! :wave:

[bkloots]

Ditto what Lisa said.

And a bit more...

After three-plus weeks on induction, it might be time for you to begin adding some foods as you move into OWL. The point of induction is only to "shock" your body--get rid of glycogen stores and prepare it for fat-burning.

Now you're working on establishing an eating pattern you can continue for life. That means adding variety and pleasure to your daily menus.

For some of us, 30-50 carbs might be a lifetime limit. Adding a few now might actually break through your plateau. Yes, reduce the cheese if you think that could help. Make sure you're getting enough fat to fuel your exercise.

Best wishes.

[CMCM]

This seems to be the norm for me. I'll lose a bit, then get totally stuck for awhile. Then I'll lose a bit more, then get stuck again. Last time that happened, I shook things up a bit: I cut down on the cheese, limiting to about 1 oz per day, and not even eating it every day. I raised my fat levels a bit so the fat grams measured higher than protein. I was careful to keep carbs at about 15. I added some exercise (not a lot, I'll add). Added more water. These things helped. But I think this is always the pattern: the body loses some weight, then pauses to adjust, then it's ready to lose a bit more. Other than some initial fast weight loss, I think after that all loss is sporadic and in spurts. The important thing is to know this, expect it, and always stay on track even though you think nothing is happening. As long as you are being careful with your diet, you KNOW you can't actually gain weight, and you know something will surely happen soon. One key seems to be to keep your body guessing with changes. The body adapts very quickly and easily to everything.

[joycie]

Thanks for your replies.
I have been doing Induction since January 2nd (?) (thereabouts). As I have still so much to lose I thought that I would stay on Induction until I had about 45 pounds to go which would give me plenty of scope to do OWL etc.
I count my carbs weighing all my veg and salad items.
I make a 3 egg omlette with cheese cooked in butter for breakfast. Lunch is a salad with mayo (full fat) and tuna or another protein and vinagrette (sp?) I make with 3 Ts of olive oil. Dinner is meat with veg stir fried in a good slosh of olive oil. I will often make a daily cheese/other flaxseed muffin with butter. I'm actually quite satisfied with the variety of my diet and make sure I have fat with every meal.
I think I shall keep going at 20 carbs/day for now and try adding 5g in a week if still no progress....

[Elizellen]

I don't know why but many Atkineers who have stopped losing weight on a long induction have reported that once they do move to OWL and add more carbs in the form of more induction vegetables it seems to 'kickstart' their losing again.

Why not try adding a 5 net carb portion off the 'other veg' list (as it will be a smaller amount than most off the 'salad veg' list) and see what happens?

[joycie]

I might just do that.
It's odd but I do have a bit of thing about adding more carbs. Feels a bit of a worry somehow.

[madeyna]

Changing my exercise walk to a little harder up hill walks always works for me to break a stall. Since I,m doing the hill now the next stall breaker I do will be to either add some weight to a backback and wear it on my walk or up the speed I walk. I don,t really care for fatty food so the first thing I do now is review my journal to make sure I,m eating enough fat.

[cnmLisa]

I might just do that.
It's odd but I do have a bit of thing about adding more carbs. Feels a bit of a worry somehow.

It may feel like a bit of a worry, but in the long run it will pay off. I have found over the past 5 years of being a member of this forum, that many people fail because they want to stay on induction until they lose all their weight. There are many reasons for this....the safety of induction, the fear of the unkown, the perception that they will lose the weight faster on induction, etc. If you can't find your CCL and your CCM IMO you've set yourself up for failure. (Think about the posts where someone has been on induction for a long time, eat off plan, gain 9 pounds etc....we see it all the time). By slowly increasing your carbs following the carb ladder, you figure out the foods that cause you cravings, the foods that make you stall, the foods that make you sick. Plus, as you slowly increase your carbs via the carb ladder, you find out what foods or rungs you may do better without--for me--grains and legumes. Plus I would have never found out that strawberries are a major trigger. These days, in maintenance, I can eat an more than carby meal and I don't even see a blip in the radar. OWL is worth the effort IMO.

You may want to take a look at the OWL sticky at the top of the Atkins page.
It may help you dip your pinky toe in to test the waters. It's not as scary as you think, but it does take patience.

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

[joycie]

I have started to add more 'other vegetables' to add the additional 5g of carbs. Skipped the cheese in my omlette this morning and added some sliced tomatoes to the butter before I added the eggs. Lets see how it goes. I shall report back in this thread. THanks for all your support and ideas.

[none2012]

Thanks everyone- the original poster as well as the
responders. I've hit plateaus too and they are very frustrating. However, most times, I am losing inches and can tell by how my jeans fit (best test clothing for me is jeans!). Just Saturday, I realized jeans went on with ease and then felt a wee tight after a big (atkins) meal. My brain immediately went into the oh S$%^ mode-- then I had to remind myself that these jeans are 2 sizes smaller from where I started and the BIGGER jeans felt tight all of the time! LOL. I've realized that half of this is not letting your brain push you into the mode of thinking this won't work -- it does and as others have said, patience is the key. I found really low carb pretzels and if I hit a stall, sometimes I will add just ONE pretzel for about 1-2 days and I start losing again. (pretzels are only 2 grams of carb each).
Also, thyroid, especially hypo is a HUGE factor. Many tests and doctors say that being as high as 4.5 TSH is ok but you really need to be at 2.0 or lower to lose weight. So talk to your doctor (hopefully you are seeing an endocrinologist) and see if your levels are right-- if not, adjust meds. Without being at 2 or less, you will find it very hard to lose.
Best of luck and thanks again to everyone for the posts. They helped me with the slump I'm in now~

[CMCM]

Slumps are part of this journey, no doubt about it. We all hit them. You'll eventually come out the other side if you persist...consistency and time, that what it takes!

[BIW2012]

I haven't had a chance to read everyone elses advice so sorry if this is a repeat.

Good on you for looking at cutting down/out cheese.

I did this recently and saw results. I still ate the same amount of calories (which I still count along with carbs), but I get the extra cals from bacon/chicken/mayo etc.

It's easier than you think and you can still have mayo and heavy cream (or at least, I can :)).

When it comes to stalling, I think we all know there are always things we can do to improve our commitment:

- Drink more water
- Cut out sweetners - they could affect you
- Add an extra hour or two of exercise per week
- Be honest with food journals - or start if you haven't already!

Some things you have already mentioned. Sounds like you have the motivation to lose and that's the main thing. Good luck on your next weight in.

xx

[FatIsGood]

One way to get out of a stall is to do the Atkins recommended "fat fast". Dana Carpender - author of several great low carb cookbooks - recently published another book: Fat Fast Cookbook...chock full of misc. info and recipes for the fat fast. Her book gives details of what constitutes a fat fast.

[WereBear]

Don't forget that our bodies aren't spreadsheets; they have priorities we don't understand. If they think they have lost weight at too much of a speed, they put on the brakes. They think they are saving our lives!

If we keep the good, low-carb food coming (the opposite thinking we've been trained to associate with "diets") they will relax and know they don't need the fat on our behinds.