Why do we do it to ourselves!

[poogatch]

Mid week weigh ins, why oh why do I insist on doing this to myself!

I know why really, at the start of the diet mid week weigh ins would show losses because I was losing more! And it's a habit I picked up from CD when I would lose nearly a lb a day and daily weigh ins constantly spurred me on to carry on with it.

Well today, 3 days from weigh in, the scales showed a 3lb gain . I've worked my butt off at the gym this week (Purely cardio so no muscle gain!) and been really good eating wise and drank my water.

Maybe I'm hitting a plateau, I did some reading and people seem to suggest to up calorie intake for a week to try and kick start my metabilism.

Anyone else out there got experience of plateau's and getting out of them?

 

[madchef]

I went to my Docs yesterday for my weigh in and he told me to expect "Plateau" times when dieting, previously I had found this, and he said to ignore the weight increase the exercise and go by your waist measurement, he seems to have a thing about that

 

[lisa0]

Ive been working really hard at the gym and have been very good with food yet my weight has been fluctuating for a while now and have stopped loosing inches. I think ive hit the dreaded Plateau. In the past It has happened everytime I hit the weight I am now.
My plan is to try to increase calories a bit, (im on about 1100 now will increase by 200) eat more earlier in the day and increase water intake. Ive also decided to try the 30 day shred dvd as it is supposed to confuse your body a bit to help avoid a plateau.

I think muscle gain is important as the more muscle you have the more calories you burn also it can really change your shape and make you look and feel good even if you still have weight to lose.

 

[KittyBling]

I'm going to try to start a once a week weigh in and stick to it. Haven't done that for ages so hopefully I can stick to it.

KB

 

[poogatch]

I really don't know what to do, I'm allmost panicking hehe

 

[lisa0]

Try not to worry to much (easier said than done I know) you have had a good loss so far and have done so well, your body may just need a little time to ajust to this loss.
look at what you are doing closely
Are you getting enough rest after workouts to let your body recover?
Are you getting 8 hours sleep per night?
Are you really getting enough water esp on workout days where your sweating lots?
Are you eating to many calories later in the day and not enough in the morning?

The difficulty is there are so many reasons we hit a plateau it can be hard to work it out.
The most commonly found advice Ive seen is to increase calories for a while so maybe try it and see how it goes but remember to look at the issues ive mentioned above as they can have a big impact too.

 

[Kes]

im feeling ya pain.
so if you find the answer help me too!

 

[poogatch]

Another cheeky weigh in and I'm up to 4lbs gain this week, I just don't get it

I'm getting desperate now, I'd prepared myself for the odd STS and slow gains but this I just don't know if I can take it, not without a reason for it happening

 

[Kes]

so your exercising mroe???
are your muscles sore...
have a look at my exercise thread and see what you wrote a while back...

dont be discouraged...

and all im gonna say is stop sneeky weigh ins!

 

[poogatch]

Muscles are fine, I've done no weights this week at all just cardio so far (went to the gym monday and tuesday, weigh in day is a saturday)

 

[Alex_1978]

What about food - how's that looking?

I know you know what you're doing, but maybe it might help to post a couple of days worth of food here, just to see if anyone can spot something you might not have seen?

Do you count calories or just fat - or do you do something else entirely? Are your portion sizes OK? I know nothing about exercise so I can't comment on weight loss/gain due to that, but I understand how frustrating it must be to see a gain when you're trying so hard...

 

[poogatch]

I kind of guestimate calories, I'm not a counter but I take note of what things have. I'm guessing I have between 1.5 to 2k a day but I've been doing this from near enough the start so it's puzzling as to why I've suddenly started putting on weight (although I guess my last 2 weigh ins have been slow last minute losses)

Let's try and think what I ate

Monday
Morning Snack (I have my mid morning snack before my breakfast) - Apple and Banana
Breakfast - Oats so simple golden syrup with skimmed milk
Lunch - Heinze big soup with 2 rounds of bread
Dinner - stir fry turkey meat, chinese sauce, mushroom stir fry veg and egg noodles (the tesco stir fry stuff)

Tuesday
Morning Snack - Apple and Banana
Breakfast - Oats so simple golden syrup with skimmed milk
Lunch - Tesco Italian Pasta
Dinner - Chicken, vegetables and mushrooms in a wok with fry light and nandos mango + lime marinade and rice
Desert - WW choc fudge brownie thing

Wednesday
Morning Snack - Apple and Banana
Breakfast - 2 rounds of toast with low fat marg
Lunch - Tuna melt panini (was slightly over fat limit but only 500 cals)
Dinner - Heinze mexican beans, extra lean mince and rice

 

[Alex_1978]

I can't see anything wrong with that at all to be honest - it doesn't look like you're over-eating at all, especially as you're a bloke.
How many calories are you burning at the gym? Is it possible that you need to eat a bit more on the days when you're exercising?
The others might have an opinion on this - I do no exercise at all, so I'm no expert!!

I don't count calories religiously either - like you, I tend to guesstimate, but I do occasionally get strict with myself when things slow down. If you haven't used it before, MyFitnessPal.com is a good website to use to check how many calories you need daily, and there's also a food diary tool on there that calculates your daily calories/fat etc. for you. It might help you to work out whether you're under/over eating at the moment (I doubt that you're over-eating though!)

Try not to get too disheartened though, it could just be one of those body blips that we all have from time to time, or it just could be something small that needs tweaking...I wouldn't change anything drastically for the moment, because you've been doing really well so far.

 

[celtgirl]

hey there!
take a deep breath and DONT WORRY. Plateau's WILL happen, and the ONLY way through them is to stay with the program your on. your food is good, you say your exercising so try your best not to be too hard on yourself. your body is working hard to get rid of the weight and needs a little nap, thats all. stick with the program and you'll be flying in no time. keep telling yourself it wont last forever, make sure you keep a food diary, maybe write down how your feeling and look back after a week or two to see if you can spot any link. dont let the scales scare you, your going GREAT!

As queens of the stone age say, go with the flow!

 

[Kes]

I agree with all of the above. Please don't give up.... you are doing fine...

 

[Alex_1978]

How are you doing Poogatch? And how was the official weigh-in? Hope it was OK and that you're not losing heart with all this - you're doing so well!

 

[madchef]

Hiya Poogatch how are you doing, don't get too down about it now you have done so well.

Just a thought I notice you still eat bread, have you thought about changing to Pitta bread, the brainwave of someone on this forum. What a difference it makes, my doc says that processed bread stuffs up your liver, just a thought.

 

[poogatch]

I'm not bad thanks, well and truely fell off the wagon but I'd made the decision to do it. The gain was down to 2lb by weigh in day so eating rubbish helped or for some reason I generally wiegh less on saturdays .

Me and the mrs had banded around the idea of doing a VLCD together as I'd done one succesfully before and the gain was all the motivation I needed I'm quite an impatient person hehe.

We decided we know we can eat healthy and lose weight/maintain that way having done this for 4 months quite easily if truth be told. So we are going to stick to VLCD for as long as we can muster then back on the xenical way of life (even if it's without the xenical) to lose what's left or maintain. We have so much more weight to lose than most people and knowing I can stick a VLCD it was just too tempting given the results having had my weightloss slow down and go the other way.

I'll still stick around and pop my head in, see how you ladies are getting on, it was a short stint on here but I've found you all to be lovely people and I want to see you all do very well