Why has my weight loss stopped!?!?! Help or advice please....

[Gemsie85]

Hiya,

I'm new to the forum but not new to the slimming world 'plan'. I have been on the diet now for 18 months and lost a total of 6 stone 0.5 pound, progress has been relatively steady along the way with no huge weight losses just 1-2 pound each week. Ideally, I would like to lose another 3 stone.

Since Christmas, progress has been VERY slow and I struggle to even lose weight, let alone 1-2 pound!? I have no idea why this is, I do 3 exercise classes a week (and have been for almost a year now) and my method is I keep the syns low all week to allow for a drink and/or meal out at the weekend. I try quite a few new recipes and therefore don't just have the same meals week in, week out and try and incorporate as much SS as possible.

What has changed? I have been racking my brains to place what is going wrong, its not even as if I am almost at my goal!? I do eat huge portions of pasta for my dinner and I keep being told by sister on Rosemary Conley diet to cut back on my portion size, however this defeats the whole point of slimming world and pasta is a free food!?

Am finding it very disheartening to keep going when no progress is being made but do NOT want to go back to my old fatter ways!

Any help or advice is much welcome....

 

[Roziee]

Just because something is free doesn't mean you can eat unlimited amount.

Everything has to be in moderation.


Cut back on the pasta, shake up your exercise.. And if I was you- I'd eat high calorie foods for a few days and then go back to food optimising. Will wake up your metabolism again. Usually helps for me.

 

[AbFab]

I do eat huge portions of pasta for my dinner and I keep being told by sister on Rosemary Conley diet to cut back on my portion size, however this defeats the whole point of slimming world and pasta is a free food!?

Well done on your great loss so far.

Too much of anything is going to impinge on weight loss. While you may have been able to eat massive plates of pasta and still lose weight while you had an awful lot to lose, your new smaller body does not need the same amount of food and massive plates of pasta will absolutely prevent you from getting the results you want. Yes, it's a free food but free within reason and I do think it's a shortfall on SW's part to not have some guildelines as to what a reasonable portion is. Too much pasta will cause weight-gain and/or stall progress.

Do you keep a food diary? Could you maybe post up a typical day so we can have a look for you?

If I was you I'd also up my daily Syns. If you're not having them during the week do you then even count them at the weekend? You say you have a meal out, is it a Flexi Syn night when you're still in control or do you just have a blow out once a week? I think saving them up can cause binging. You'd be better having 10 a day and then once a fortnight having a Flexi-Syn meal or evening and allowing yourself 50 or 60 for example.

You also say you're doing the same exercise classes for a year now. It is probably best to change the class you go to or move to a more advanced level of the class you're doing. As fitness levels improve and the body changes, an exercise regime often needs to be rehauled completely from time to time to really give the body a shock.

 

[RS79]

hi

I am in the same boat ;(- I have lost 4 1/2 stone and was losing around 2-3Ibs a week. Now I am lucky if I lose a pound....

I have tried switching to the Original plan as I find like you I enjoy my pasta a little too much!

I have also hired a personal trainer to try and shake up my exercise routine to see if that helps - I guess the body does get used to things and trying to mix things up both with food and exercise can only be a good thing.

Like you I also saved up my syns for the weekend and am trying to even this out a little. We'll see what the next couple of weeks bring

 

[Gemsie85]

Many thanks for your comments.

Yesterdays food diary looks as follows:

Breakfast: I never eat breakfast
Snack AM: Banana & Mug Shot
Lunch: Salad (lettuce, tomato and spring onion) with 2 hard boiled eggs, prawns and a few tbsp of extra light mayo (2 syns)
Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore - Spaghetti, chicken, bacon, red peppers, garlic, passata, red wine (1.5 syns), chilli and mushrooms
Snack EVE: Galia Melon

HEA - Parmesan
HEB - ??? Oops!

The exercise classes have changed over the last year as it took me a while to find ones that I enjoy and work me hard - believe me I still sweat a lot!

In respect of the weekend meal out, I generally try and remain pretty good as this usually involves a curry and I have a lower syn option e.g. Jal Fraizi with a plain rice, it is the wine that I tend to not count! ;-)

SW leads you to believe that if you want to eat a load of pasta, then you can, the same goes for a whole pack of ham (if it's free!).

I used to try having some Green days as felt that this helped my weight loss but then gave up on that theory when it stopped working and have just been sticking with Extra Easy.

 

[AbFab]

OK, well I don't need to tell you about having breakfast hon. The moment you start eating in the morning, the moment your metabolism gets woken up too. Would you think of maybe having that banana earlier and then having an apple or some melon at Mugshot time? The sooner you eat, the sooner your system fires up and starts burning.

I think your diary looks good. On the cacciatore, a lot of recipes call for cheese or marscapone. Are you using parmesan for this and are you actually weighing it?

You need to eat your Hex B, it's so important to have your Hex A and Hex B every day. A slice of high-fiber bread with your salad at lunch or indeed a slice of toast with your morning banana would be good healthy fiber for you.

The exercise sounds really great so well done on doing something you enjoy but also find hard. Have you set yourself a Body Magic challenge? You should if you're doing regular exercise, nice to have a goal to focus on if you're doing it anyway!

Well done on sensible choices like jalfrezi. Great to have something so tasty but that's not going to do too much damage

BUT......and you know where this is leading!

BUT unfortunately not counting wine and being heavy handed with the pasta is where you're falling down hon. I honestly love wine and enjoyed it regularly before starting SW but I made the decision that if I want to lose weight then I have to quit it. I now have a couple of vodka and slimlines when I want a drink and while I did have lots of prosecco at the weekend because it was a special occasion, I now take it for granted that my days of wine drinking can not be what they used to. How much (honestly) do you drink at the weekends?

Also, yes, pasta and ham are free foods. But they are free on the condition that you stop eating them when you're full. While we don't calorie count in SW (thank God!) it might be worth having a look at what a recommended portion of pasta is compared to what you're actually eating. If you're eating four times the recommended amount every evening for example then that's really going to effect the results you get.

You sound like you're doing most of the things really well. A good diet with lots of exercise and sensible take-away choices. It also seems though that ignoring the Syns in booze and thinking that free = unlimited when it comes to pasta are where your problems lie.

Why don't you for the next week reduce your pasta intake and go onto low-cal drinks (and Syn them!) and see how you get on?

 

[clairej03]

I think what AbFab has put is very sound advice and pretty much what i would have said.
I know alot of people are struggling to get their heads aroung the 'free food/unlimited amounts' thing, but just because its free doesnt mean you should eat more than a normal helping. I find that hard too but try cutting part of your pasta portion out and replacing with more superfree like veg, or things like mushroom/peppers etc in your pasta dishes.

Also as AbFab said - breakfast is possibly the major sticking point. Not just with SW its been proven lately that people who eat breakfast lose more weight than those who skip it. it wakes the body up and kicks starts the metabolism to burn from the get-go. Even if you can eat a slice of toast (your HexB), a yogurt or a small bowl of cereal, anything will be better than nothing.

Youve done amazing to lose 6st hun, so you are obviously doing it right! You just need a little kickstart to get it going again and i'd say smaller 'free' portions, more superfree and try brekkie! let us know how you get on

 

[kerryathome]

can't really add anything other than the fab advice you've already been given.

The only other thing I would say is maybe give yourself a break and lighten up on yourself, you have done AMAZINGLY well up to now, sometimes we need to look back at where we've come from and breathe out a bit.

Dig out some old photos of yourself, take a new pic and post them on facebook/minimins anywhere where people can see you, wallow in the compliments and praise that will come and pick yourself up, shake yourself down and start all over again as the song goes.

Get your books out and have yourself a 'first week' you'll be back on track in no time and continue your already successful journey.

Good luck hun and keep your chin up xx