Plateaus

Plateaus, an unexplained temporary hiatus in weight loss progress is
a favorite topic among reducers. It can cause stress and worse
plateaus can cause people to needlessly quit.

Searching around I found a number of plateau stories. 3 things stood
out to me:

1. They go away.

2. They can last a long time, even 4 weeks.

3. Everyone's method seems to differ, though it seems a dramatic
change in diet and/or exercise routine seems to get things going.

Since they are such a morale drain I thought it would be cool if
everyone contributed a plateau story. Please consider including your
original weight, your current/goal weight, how long your plateau
lasted and what you think cleared it up.

Since the title of this thread is "Plateaus" your story will most
likely help out people searching usenet in the future.

Haven't had one yet, though I am currently having intermittent
slowdowns after months of steady progress.

I am looking forward to reading all of your accounts.

Thanks

Steve

I don't have a specific pleateau story, but I can say that I've had many of
them. Things that have helped me break through a pleateau:

change up my exercise routine - do something I don't normally do for
exercise. ie - treadmill vs. elliptical, cycling vs. running, etc.

eat more for a week - go on a "diet break"

take a week off of exercise

change up the carb/protein/fat ratio

go back to measuring portions - sometimes our judgement gets a little off.

"Steve" wrote in message
oups.com...
Plateaus, an unexplained temporary hiatus in weight loss progress is
a favorite topic among reducers. It can cause stress and worse
plateaus can cause people to needlessly quit.

Searching around I found a number of plateau stories. 3 things stood
out to me:

1. They go away.

2. They can last a long time, even 4 weeks.

3. Everyone's method seems to differ, though it seems a dramatic
change in diet and/or exercise routine seems to get things going.

Since they are such a morale drain I thought it would be cool if
everyone contributed a plateau story. Please consider including your
original weight, your current/goal weight, how long your plateau
lasted and what you think cleared it up.

Since the title of this thread is "Plateaus" your story will most
likely help out people searching usenet in the future.

Haven't had one yet, though I am currently having intermittent
slowdowns after months of steady progress.

I am looking forward to reading all of your accounts.

Thanks

Steve

On Jun 26, 11:11 am, "determined" wrote:
I don't have a specific pleateau story, but I can say that I've had many of
them. Things that have helped me break through a pleateau:

change up my exercise routine - do something I don't normally do for
exercise. ie - treadmill vs. elliptical, cycling vs. running, etc.

eat more for a week - go on a "diet break"

take a week off of exercise

change up the carb/protein/fat ratio

go back to measuring portions - sometimes our judgement gets a little off.

"Steve" wrote in message

oups.com...

Plateaus, an unexplained temporary hiatus in weight loss progress is
a favorite topic among reducers. It can cause stress and worse
plateaus can cause people to needlessly quit.

Searching around I found a number of plateau stories. 3 things stood
out to me:

1. They go away.

2. They can last a long time, even 4 weeks.

3. Everyone's method seems to differ, though it seems a dramatic
change in diet and/or exercise routine seems to get things going.

Since they are such a morale drain I thought it would be cool if
everyone contributed a plateau story. Please consider including your
original weight, your current/goal weight, how long your plateau
lasted and what you think cleared it up.

Since the title of this thread is "Plateaus" your story will most
likely help out people searching usenet in the future.

Haven't had one yet, though I am currently having intermittent
slowdowns after months of steady progress.

I am looking forward to reading all of your accounts.

Thanks

Steve

Since I started running in January I have lost about 25 pounds, from
220 to 195. I have hung around 195 for about 4 weeks now. I think the
main reason is that I enjoy the running and I am now eating to be sure
and recover well from my runs. This means more carbs and calories than
I have eaten in over 1 and a 1/2 years. This morning I weighed in at
189, so maybe I fell off of the plateau. Not a big deal, though I
would like to stabilize at about 185. I feel like that would be a good
running weight.

"Darrin" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 26, 11:11 am, "determined" wrote:
I don't have a specific pleateau story, but I can say that I've had many
of
them. Things that have helped me break through a pleateau:

change up my exercise routine - do something I don't normally do for
exercise. ie - treadmill vs. elliptical, cycling vs. running, etc.

eat more for a week - go on a "diet break"

take a week off of exercise

change up the carb/protein/fat ratio

go back to measuring portions - sometimes our judgement gets a little
off.

"Steve" wrote in message

oups.com...

Plateaus, an unexplained temporary hiatus in weight loss progress is
a favorite topic among reducers. It can cause stress and worse
plateaus can cause people to needlessly quit.

Searching around I found a number of plateau stories. 3 things stood
out to me:

1. They go away.

2. They can last a long time, even 4 weeks.

3. Everyone's method seems to differ, though it seems a dramatic
change in diet and/or exercise routine seems to get things going.

Since they are such a morale drain I thought it would be cool if
everyone contributed a plateau story. Please consider including your
original weight, your current/goal weight, how long your plateau
lasted and what you think cleared it up.

Since the title of this thread is "Plateaus" your story will most
likely help out people searching usenet in the future.

Haven't had one yet, though I am currently having intermittent
slowdowns after months of steady progress.

I am looking forward to reading all of your accounts.

Thanks

Steve

Since I started running in January I have lost about 25 pounds, from
220 to 195. I have hung around 195 for about 4 weeks now. I think the
main reason is that I enjoy the running and I am now eating to be sure
and recover well from my runs. This means more carbs and calories than
I have eaten in over 1 and a 1/2 years. This morning I weighed in at
189, so maybe I fell off of the plateau. Not a big deal, though I
would like to stabilize at about 185. I feel like that would be a good
running weight.

I've been doing a ton of running and cycling. I have found that I gain
about 5 lbs during and after a particularly strenuous session (4 hrs on the
bike or like a 10 mile run). If I take it easy for a couple days, I start
to dump all the excess fluid.

I have been trying, really hard, to not buy a scale. (Its been tempting,
though.) I just watch what size clothes I buy when I buy clothes, and what
my belt notch does. I've lost like 2" off my waste this month in pants size,
and two notches in my belt. I don't know if that's great progress, but its
progress. Watching the scale drives me mad!

Soooo.... I don't buy clothes that often, so.... if I hit a flat spot I
probably won't notice the difference.

Is this bad?

On Jun 26, 4:55 pm, "em" wrote:
I have been trying, really hard, to not buy a scale. (Its been tempting,
though.) I just watch what size clothes I buy when I buy clothes, and what
my belt notch does. I've lost like 2" off my waste this month in pants size,
and two notches in my belt. I don't know if that's great progress, but its
progress. Watching the scale drives me mad!

Soooo.... I don't buy clothes that often, so.... if I hit a flat spot I
probably won't notice the difference.

Is this bad?

I'm positive a lot of people have opinions about that.

I would like to gently ask those people to express those opinions in
another thread and keep this one about plateau stories.

No offense, no cliche, I really mean that.

Thanks in advance

Steve

Steve wrote:

Plateaus, an unexplained temporary hiatus in weight loss progress is
a favorite topic among reducers. It can cause stress and worse
plateaus can cause people to needlessly quit.

For people who think they are on a "diet" rather than a
permanent change in their eating style.

Searching around I found a number of plateau stories. 3 things stood
out to me:

1. They go away.

Depending on what causes the plateau.

2. They can last a long time, even 4 weeks.

A lesson from Atkins that really applies across the board -
Dr A defined a "stall" as 4+ weeks without a new low and
without a lost inch and without any cheating plus some
low-carb specific requirements.

It's not an arbitrary definition no matter that I doubt a
single dieter in history is happy with it. It tells what is and
what is not realistic when it comes to expectations. Let
people make up their own expectations and they will want
a new low daily but the harsh reality of fat loss isn't like
that. The more you have to lose the faster it drops and
the less you have to lose the slower it drops and that
gives people who started out losing fast bad expectations.

It also takes into account the reality of random water
bounce. Articles like "Why he scale lies" address the topic.

It also points out that for most people with under 100 pounds
to lose the reason they are dieting is no longer weight but
size. At some point stuff like bone damage in the feet
stops mattering and it becomes about fitting into smaller
clothes. For some reason lots of folks see a cycle of new
lows on the scale for a while then losing size for a while.
Losing inches is even more important than losing pounds by
then but it is so easy to focus on the scale and miss that
you're progressing in a more important way.

It also points out that a cheat can have an impact for a long
time.

So saying they can last "as long as 4 weeks" does not make
sense. If it hasn't been 4 weeks the real reaction called for
is to examine your own impatience not to react too soon and
end up going off your plan without a valid reason.

3. Everyone's method seems to differ, though it seems a dramatic
change in diet and/or exercise routine seems to get things going.

Since they are such a morale drain I thought it would be cool if
everyone contributed a plateau story. Please consider including your
original weight, your current/goal weight, how long your plateau
lasted and what you think cleared it up.

My plateau story is specific to Atkins but the lesson I learned
works in general. The lesson - Step out in faith and follow the
directions of your plan of choice. Start making stuff up because
you want it to work or because to want to go the easy route or
because you don't believe something in the directions is foolish.
All of the plans in the popular books have a decade or more of
work that went into them. You're not going to be able to improve
on your book's directions without several years of study and even
then your improvements will be through including the strengths of
other plans not in making stuff up.

I started Atkins 21-Jul-1999 with 50 pounds to lose. I followed the
directions in the 1993 edition of the book very close to exactly
for 6 months. Atkins is a process that arrives at foods and carb
counts custom tuned to your own individual body so it was a
fair amount of work, but in those first 6 months I lost 30 pounds.
The effort was very much worth it. Even better in that time I
learned my major trigger and intolerance food (I an wheat
intolerant) and my carb quota to lose (stay near 50 grams total
and I lose, go over and my loss tapers to near zero).

After 6 months I wanted it to be easier. So I paid attention to
all of those people who claimed they lost better at lower
counts. I set my daily carb intake to 30 not 50. It was so easy
to eat lower in carbs. It's so obvious that lower should be better,
too. Nope, doesn't work that way. For 6 months I stayed within
a fixed range of 6 months. At least I learned that my random
water retention bounce is 6 pounds.

By the end of the 6 months not only had I not lost another
pound with 20 still to go, but I fell out of ketosis. My body
had adjusted to low carb as a permanent state and stopped
losing. I studied if this had happened before. Mention of it
was in the book. I pondered what to do to repair the damage
I had done by not following the directions.

I spent mid-2000 through mid-2001 at Atkins Maintenance levels
then I started again following the directions. In the next 6 months
I lost another 10 pounds until I only had 10 left to lose.

My plateau had lasted 18 months. I finally figured out what had
happened. I learned my lesson to follow the directions, including
the parts I didn't believe and thought didn't make sense.