Ever hit a plateau like this?

I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.

I have been religiously tracking everything that goes in my mouth. I
manage my calories to a 1000 daily deficit, but I eat 2000+ per day,
as I exercise quite a bit. I am doing 60 minutes of elliptical a day,
staying precisely at 65% max heart rate to hopefully burn fat. I am
playing tennis three times a week, and I have been doing 30 minutes of
strength training three times a week. Given this, I would expect to
lose about 2 pounds a week, and I have been averaging a little more
than that over the last ten weeks. I am 43, 6 ft, and my starting
weight was 262 lbs.

The last three weekly weigh-ins we

11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)

Where is my 2 pounds a week that I am working so hard for?

According to my scale, my body fat percentage has dropped from 30 to
29 over the last three weeks, but my experience is that the body fat %
readings tend to be unreliable to the tune of 1-3%, so who knows?

Anyone ever hit a wall like this? My friends say, just stay the course
and you will drop 3 or 4 pounds on one of your next weigh-ins. And my
weight loss has come in chunks in the past. Why should this be so?
What happened to 3500 calories per pound? There must be some other
mechanism at work here.

I weigh myself with the same scale, on the same day, first thing in
the morning, naked, after visiting the restroom. Don't know how I
could make the weight measurements more reliable.

Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?

Cheers,

-Jeff

I would like to go beyond the "Calorie deficit" and the workout you
do. I would like to know not the quantity of food you're taking in
(number of calories) but the quality of it. What and how much veggies
did you have in the last three days?

wrote in message
...
I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.

I have been religiously tracking everything that goes in my mouth. I
manage my calories to a 1000 daily deficit, but I eat 2000+ per day,
as I exercise quite a bit. I am doing 60 minutes of elliptical a day,
staying precisely at 65% max heart rate to hopefully burn fat. I am
playing tennis three times a week, and I have been doing 30 minutes of
strength training three times a week. Given this, I would expect to
lose about 2 pounds a week, and I have been averaging a little more
than that over the last ten weeks. I am 43, 6 ft, and my starting
weight was 262 lbs.

The last three weekly weigh-ins we

11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)

Where is my 2 pounds a week that I am working so hard for?

According to my scale, my body fat percentage has dropped from 30 to
29 over the last three weeks, but my experience is that the body fat %
readings tend to be unreliable to the tune of 1-3%, so who knows?

Anyone ever hit a wall like this? My friends say, just stay the course
and you will drop 3 or 4 pounds on one of your next weigh-ins. And my
weight loss has come in chunks in the past. Why should this be so?
What happened to 3500 calories per pound? There must be some other
mechanism at work here.

I weigh myself with the same scale, on the same day, first thing in
the morning, naked, after visiting the restroom. Don't know how I
could make the weight measurements more reliable.

Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?

Cheers,

-Jeff

I successfully lost a lot of weight. During the long 2 pound per week
process there were a few months where I did weight training. I saw no
change in my rate of weight loss.

I have not read it yet, but I gather Gary Taubes new book makes a case
against exercise as being effective for weightloss.

To lose weight I need to eat about 1400 calories per day compared to your
2000.

If your calorie measurement is accurate, the good thing is that you have
established your break even burn rate: 2000 calories Now, you just need to
eat less.

Frequent small meals can make "eating less" easier.

On Dec 15, 9:07 pm, "
wrote:
I would like to go beyond the "Calorie deficit" and the workout you
do. I would like to know not the quantity of food you're taking in
(number of calories) but the quality of it. What and how much veggies
did you have in the last three days?

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that
I have eaten hardly any vegetables in the last three days:

2 cups salad (mixed greens)
1 cup mixed vegetables
0.75 cup corn

And here is everything else from the past three days:

1.25 cups raspberries
1 apple

6.75 cups oatmeal
2 corn tortilla
1.75 cup Mexican rice
4 slices garlic bread
4 slices white bread
1 pancake

3 oz almonds

2.5 oz hash browns
4 oz french fries

2.5 eggs
2 sausage links
4 oz beef jerky
6 oz steak
6 oz meatloaf
6 slices bacon

3 tbsp salsa
2 tbsp low fat Italian dressing
0.25 cup brown gravy
2 tbsp pancake syrup
1 tbsp butter

21 tortilla chips
1 oatmeal cookie
6 cups microwave popcorn
15 cups movie popcorn (went crazy when daughter and I saw Enchanted)
1 bite of snickers bar

0.5 cup chicken soup


I am traveling right now, but even at home I eat only slightly more
veggies / salad than this; although I perhaps generally eat a little
more fruit.

I have always been under the impression that as long as the calories
in / out trended correctly, from a weight loss perspective rather than
an overall health / nutritional standpoint, WHAT I ate should not make
any difference. Is this not correct?

Thanks for your help.

-Jeff

On Dec 16, 7:49 am, "Cubit" wrote:
wrote in message

...



I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.

I have been religiously tracking everything that goes in my mouth. I
manage my calories to a 1000 daily deficit, but I eat 2000+ per day,
as I exercise quite a bit. I am doing 60 minutes of elliptical a day,
staying precisely at 65% max heart rate to hopefully burn fat. I am
playing tennis three times a week, and I have been doing 30 minutes of
strength training three times a week. Given this, I would expect to
lose about 2 pounds a week, and I have been averaging a little more
than that over the last ten weeks. I am 43, 6 ft, and my starting
weight was 262 lbs.

The last three weekly weigh-ins we

11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)

Where is my 2 pounds a week that I am working so hard for?

According to my scale, my body fat percentage has dropped from 30 to
29 over the last three weeks, but my experience is that the body fat %
readings tend to be unreliable to the tune of 1-3%, so who knows?

Anyone ever hit a wall like this? My friends say, just stay the course
and you will drop 3 or 4 pounds on one of your next weigh-ins. And my
weight loss has come in chunks in the past. Why should this be so?
What happened to 3500 calories per pound? There must be some other
mechanism at work here.

I weigh myself with the same scale, on the same day, first thing in
the morning, naked, after visiting the restroom. Don't know how I
could make the weight measurements more reliable.

Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?

Cheers,

-Jeff

I successfully lost a lot of weight. During the long 2 pound per week
process there were a few months where I did weight training. I saw no
change in my rate of weight loss.

I have not read it yet, but I gather Gary Taubes new book makes a case
against exercise as being effective for weightloss.

To lose weight I need to eat about 1400 calories per day compared to your
2000.

If your calorie measurement is accurate, the good thing is that you have
established your break even burn rate: 2000 calories Now, you just need to
eat less.

Frequent small meals can make "eating less" easier.

Thanks for replying. Small meals makes sense to me too, and I
generally try to do this; will focus on it more.

I sure hope that I can continue to lose weight on 2000 calories or so
through exercise, as eating 1400 is just really tough for me (tried it
for a while). I'll take a look at " Good Calories, Bad Calories", if
that is the book you are referring to; maybe it will provide some new
distinctions for me. Frankly, though, the more I read the more
confusing it all gets; there are so many conflicting opinions. I've
always sort of subscribed to the Dr. Dean school of its just calories
in vs. out. Eat less and move more. I just don't want to eat THAT much
less :-) Would rather move more if at all possible, and eat
reasonably. I was hoping to use a level of eating and exercise that I
could follow for the rest of my life, so I don't yo-yo. I just don't
think I could go through the rest of my life eating fewer than about
2000 calories.

My highest weight was 296 lbs. A couple of years ago, I lost 70 lbs,
following a similar program of watching calories and exercising. In
that weight loss run I did hit a short 2 week plateau, and eventually
the weight started coming back off again, but I'll be darned if I can
explain why. If anything, I ate slightly more coming out of the
plateau rather than less. Weird.

When I was re-gaining weight recently, I was probably eating about
5,000 cals a day!! So, I guess I should take some heart in the fact
that, if nothing else, I have bucked the upward trend :-) Thanks for
your support.

Best Wishes,

-Jeff

Thanks for the reply. Actually, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that
I have eaten hardly any vegetables in the last three days:

I have always been under the impression that as long as the calories
in / out trended correctly, from a weight loss perspective rather than
an overall health / nutritional standpoint, WHAT I ate should not make
any difference. Is this not correct?

Thanks for your help.

-Jeff

Don't be embarassed with the past. The past is gone. What matters is
what you're doing from now on.

It's my theory that what you eat does matter because what really
matters is the vitamins, minerals and other stuff like Omega-3 that
you take in. I would be glad to hear about a study that surveyed two
guys of the same height and weight, one eating 2000 calories of
tortillas, french fries, and pancake syrup and the other guy eating
2000 calories of salad with some fish, chicken and meat for a month. I
would like to have these results after those two months: 1. Weight 2.
Blood results. 3. Heart condition

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position yet where I can give lots of
advice as I'm still overweight. The day I'll be skinny, I'll be able
to talk with authority. Until then, I'll stay humble.

The other day I was talking to a very skinny guy about my weight
problems. He told me, "You just have to avoid fast food restaurants
and you should be fine." Pfff! I never go to those places!

wrote:
On Dec 16, 7:49 am, "Cubit" wrote:
wrote in message

...



I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.
I have been religiously tracking everything that goes in my mouth. I
manage my calories to a 1000 daily deficit, but I eat 2000+ per day,
as I exercise quite a bit. I am doing 60 minutes of elliptical a day,
staying precisely at 65% max heart rate to hopefully burn fat. I am
playing tennis three times a week, and I have been doing 30 minutes of
strength training three times a week. Given this, I would expect to
lose about 2 pounds a week, and I have been averaging a little more
than that over the last ten weeks. I am 43, 6 ft, and my starting
weight was 262 lbs.
The last three weekly weigh-ins we
11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)
Where is my 2 pounds a week that I am working so hard for?
According to my scale, my body fat percentage has dropped from 30 to
29 over the last three weeks, but my experience is that the body fat %
readings tend to be unreliable to the tune of 1-3%, so who knows?
Anyone ever hit a wall like this? My friends say, just stay the course
and you will drop 3 or 4 pounds on one of your next weigh-ins. And my
weight loss has come in chunks in the past. Why should this be so?
What happened to 3500 calories per pound? There must be some other
mechanism at work here.
I weigh myself with the same scale, on the same day, first thing in
the morning, naked, after visiting the restroom. Don't know how I
could make the weight measurements more reliable.
Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?
Cheers,
-Jeff
I successfully lost a lot of weight. During the long 2 pound per week
process there were a few months where I did weight training. I saw no
change in my rate of weight loss.

I have not read it yet, but I gather Gary Taubes new book makes a case
against exercise as being effective for weightloss.

To lose weight I need to eat about 1400 calories per day compared to your
2000.

If your calorie measurement is accurate, the good thing is that you have
established your break even burn rate: 2000 calories Now, you just need to
eat less.

Frequent small meals can make "eating less" easier.

Thanks for replying. Small meals makes sense to me too, and I
generally try to do this; will focus on it more.

I sure hope that I can continue to lose weight on 2000 calories or so
through exercise, as eating 1400 is just really tough for me (tried it
for a while). I'll take a look at " Good Calories, Bad Calories", if
that is the book you are referring to; maybe it will provide some new
distinctions for me. Frankly, though, the more I read the more
confusing it all gets; there are so many conflicting opinions. I've
always sort of subscribed to the Dr. Dean school of its just calories
in vs. out. Eat less and move more. I just don't want to eat THAT much
less :-) Would rather move more if at all possible, and eat
reasonably. I was hoping to use a level of eating and exercise that I
could follow for the rest of my life, so I don't yo-yo. I just don't
think I could go through the rest of my life eating fewer than about
2000 calories.

My highest weight was 296 lbs. A couple of years ago, I lost 70 lbs,
following a similar program of watching calories and exercising. In
that weight loss run I did hit a short 2 week plateau, and eventually
the weight started coming back off again, but I'll be darned if I can
explain why. If anything, I ate slightly more coming out of the
plateau rather than less. Weird.

When I was re-gaining weight recently, I was probably eating about
5,000 cals a day!! So, I guess I should take some heart in the fact
that, if nothing else, I have bucked the upward trend :-) Thanks for
your support.

Best Wishes,

-Jeff
Yes, and I have attributed it to fluid retention. Sometimes your body
seems to want to hold on to water. It can be discouraging to see the
scale stick or even jump up. If you have been eating out, that will do
it because restaurant food is high in salt.

wrote:

I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.

I have been religiously tracking everything that goes in my mouth. I
manage my calories to a 1000 daily deficit, but I eat 2000+ per day,
as I exercise quite a bit. I am doing 60 minutes of elliptical a day,
staying precisely at 65% max heart rate to hopefully burn fat. I am
playing tennis three times a week, and I have been doing 30 minutes of
strength training three times a week. Given this, I would expect to
lose about 2 pounds a week, and I have been averaging a little more
than that over the last ten weeks. I am 43, 6 ft, and my starting
weight was 262 lbs.

The last three weekly weigh-ins we

11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)

Where is my 2 pounds a week that I am working so hard for?

According to my scale, my body fat percentage has dropped from 30 to
29 over the last three weeks, but my experience is that the body fat %
readings tend to be unreliable to the tune of 1-3%, so who knows?

Anyone ever hit a wall like this? My friends say, just stay the course
and you will drop 3 or 4 pounds on one of your next weigh-ins. And my
weight loss has come in chunks in the past. Why should this be so?
What happened to 3500 calories per pound? There must be some other
mechanism at work here.

I weigh myself with the same scale, on the same day, first thing in
the morning, naked, after visiting the restroom. Don't know how I
could make the weight measurements more reliable.

Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?

Cheers,

-Jeff

Don't forget to shock the monkey. I run and weight train for my
exercise. During the summer my runs are usually between 3 - 3.8 miles
depending on how hot it is. This winter, as the temperatures cooled I
took my runs up to 5.1 miles and noticed a change in my body composition
towards the more lean side as well as losing about 2 - 3 pounds. Keep in
mind I am at the last ten pound stage and on a good day you can just
make out some definition in my abs. This from a starting weight of 285
about 12 years ago and now I hover in the 180's.

Patrick

wrote:

I have hit a plateau like never before. Frustrating.
...
The last three weekly weigh-ins we

11/26/07 237.5
12/3/07 236.4 (lost 1.1)
12/10/07 236.6 (gained .2?)

Any thoughts from all you good folks on the subject?

Advice from Dr Atkins that really applies across the board -

A stall is defined as 4+ weeks without a cheat, without a new
low, without a lost inch.

This definition is not arbitrary. It is to teach what are and aren't
realisitic in expectations. The blunt fact of it is the time scale
for loss is month to month no matter that fact's been hated by
every dieter in history. Scale inaccuracies, water retnetion
bounce, you name it. They all conspire against any realistic
expectation that loss is possible each and every week.

Your most recent new low is 2 weeks ago. Therefore nothing is
wrong and no reaction is called for. It's really that simple and
that difficult to accept. But accept it anyways.

Another consideration - Rate of loss is proportional to amount left
to lose. Not, calorie deficts do NOT enter into this. Someone
with 100 to lose loses faster than someone with 50 to lose loses
after than someone in the last 10 pounds. By the time you no
longer have 100+ to lose the rate is no longer fast enough for the
weekly loss rate to overwhelm water retention bounce, and further
caloric reduction does nothing to change this.

You are doing fine. Really. Breath deeply. Relax. Stay with
your plan.

On Dec 16, 10:11 am, "
wrote:
Thanks for the reply. Actually, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that

I have eaten hardly any vegetables in the last three days:

I have always been under the impression that as long as the calories

in / out trended correctly, from a weight loss perspective rather than
an overall health / nutritional standpoint, WHAT I ate should not make
any difference. Is this not correct?

Thanks for your help.

-Jeff

Don't be embarassed with the past. The past is gone. What matters is
what you're doing from now on.

It's my theory that what you eat does matter because what really
matters is the vitamins, minerals and other stuff like Omega-3 that
you take in. I would be glad to hear about a study that surveyed two
guys of the same height and weight, one eating 2000 calories of
tortillas, french fries, and pancake syrup and the other guy eating
2000 calories of salad with some fish, chicken and meat for a month. I
would like to have these results after those two months: 1. Weight 2.
Blood results. 3. Heart condition

Unfortunately, I'm not in a position yet where I can give lots of
advice as I'm still overweight. The day I'll be skinny, I'll be able
to talk with authority. Until then, I'll stay humble.

The other day I was talking to a very skinny guy about my weight
problems. He told me, "You just have to avoid fast food restaurants
and you should be fine." Pfff! I never go to those places!

I think what you suggest would make a fantastic study. If they could
somehow do it with a reasonable sample of folks, some eating anything
they want (junk included), and others on a strict "healthy" diet, but
all with the same number of calories and comparable activity regimen,
would be very interesting to know any differences in terms of weight
loss. From an overall health standpoint, I'm sure you are right about
what you eat making a difference.

Personally, I kind of felt that I would take things in stages; lose
some weight, make some healthier eating choices; lose more weight, eat
even better. It is hard to change everything at once. At least I'm
eating one bowl of oatmeal for breakfast instead of half a box of
Lucky Charms :-)

As for staying humble, I lost lots of weight before, but put it back
on at an alarming rate when I went off the program. I can speak with
complete authority on how to gain weight in a hurry. Taking weight off
is a whole different story, but I certainly value the opinion of those
who really know what it means to be heavy. Thanks for your help. Let's
get skinnier together.

Best,

-Jeff