Week 3 - no weight loss?!

[Barfly11]

So frustrated and feel like giving up now!

I begin week 4 of SS (with occasional SS+ meals) on Monday and week 3 has been a washout - not a single pound lost

I know plateaus happen, but so quickly?! I didn't expect a week like this until further down the line.

I haven't cheated once - otherwise I wouldn't be so annoyed.

Anyone else been through something like this so early on? Did things sort themselves out quickly?

[Chlo]

It's swings and roundabouts on this diet, if you don't lose as much as you expect one week, you will have a great loss the next week. Don't let it demoralise you. The other thing to do is get the tape measure out and take your measurements weekly, sometimes you don't lose on the scales but you lose inches.

Stick with it, the diet can't fail to work.

[lass321]

I agree. Very frustrating, but overall you will have a fantastic result. Keep going, you will get there.

[Lily]

This happens to lots of people actually. It happens to some folk in week 2 and others in week 4. But most commonly, it happens in week 3 and frustrated Cambridgers blame everything from not having enough water to having bars.

But it's not anything you've done or not done - it's entirely normal. After a few weeks in ketosis, body composition adapts and you actually regain some of the water you lose during the early days of going into ketosis - when you lose glycogen and water very quickly. That's the reason scales get sticky a few weeks in. You're still losing fat but the regained water masks the fat loss.

Absolutely nothing to worry about, though believe me I know it's hard not to see the scales move as fast as you'd like them too.

[Lily]

Just to add that weight loss never happens in even chunks - some weeks you'll lose a pound, others you'll lose five pounds. Best to keep thinking about the big picture rather than week by week results. Doing a VLCD is the fastest way to lose weight outside of weight loss surgery.