monika7724's Journal, 04 September 2012

Don't worry. Plateaus are normal. I have hit two plateaus...the important thing to figure out is : 1) What might be causing it? Is it the carb intake or is there a physical reason that it slowed down? 2)Is the plateau the result of the weight loss slowing down the speed of your weight loss? Personally, I have found that plateaus can be caused by the following: 1) Constipation...if you don't flush it out then you don't lose it. 2) Dehydration - If you are not drinking enough water then you get dehyrdated and you will stop losing weight. 3) Starchy Carb Intake - you may not have noticed but maybe there is an uptick in your starchy carbs. 4) Muscle being built - If you start working out and it involves weights then the "plateau" is actually muscle replacing fat. So you have lost bad weight and gained good muscle weight. Anyway, review your situation and you will soon figure out what may be happening. Good luck. (I am in a plateau now..a slight one.) 

I'm sure it's a combination of two of those things. One, I don't drink nearly enough water. I was doing good for a while and now I can't get the stuff down. Two, even if not a lot, I have been eating potatoes and pasta. Tiny amounts but still. I can't seem to get out of the mind frame that no food equals pounds gone. I am extremely under my RDI and yet my weight loss is not going nearly as fast as I'd like it. I know that I have lost a lot and I am starting to think that I am maybe dealing with anorexia because I can look at pictures of me before and still feel the same way about myself now even though I have lost 50lbs. Something is always bothering me about the way I look. Once a pound is gone I am confident and I feel good about myself but the next day if I stay steady on the scale then it's back to being depressed about it. Or maybe I just feel like I am not doing well enough or that I should do more. I do know that I can't eat less, I already don't have energy so that is not an option. I have also figured out that I can not function on no carb so that is frustrating. My carb intake isn't horrible and I stay under 100 every day, I even try to stay under 50 on most days. So to me right now it's trying to figure out what works for me and what doesn't, but the more I look into things and try different stuff the more I confuse my body. Like I said...frustrating! 

Ok, lets step back a second. Look at your total caloric intake. A rule of thumb that had been widely accepted a while back is to look at what you weigh now..multiply that by 10. That is what you should need to maintain your weight. If you subtract 300-600 calories from that, you will lose weight while still giving your body enough energy. You do not want to starve yourself by limiting yourself to very few calories. Your body may go into starvation mode which will stanch your diet and weight loss. Without enough fuel, your body will conserve its energy and you will not lose weight. Please be careful, weight loss in and of itself is not the way to be happy, you have to engage other areas as well. You need to thank God that you are relatively healthy, seek out people you care about to talk, read things you like, enjoy being out in the sun, take a swim and basically enjoy life. Weight is just a number if the rest of your life is not being enjoyed.