stalled?

Try eating less.

--
Most people are dumb as bricks; some people are dumber than that. -- MFW

"Mark McArthey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey all,
I'm now into my 4th week of LC and have seemingly hit a block. I am aware
of the dreaded "3rd week stall", and seem to have gone through it already
(since I'm beyond my 3rd week, and all). 😉 If I weigh myself throughout
the day, I find that I vary between 238 and 242... or thereabouts. For
the longest time, pre-LC, I was 240. It seemed that no matter how much I
ate, my weight was the same. Then I gained weight. I found myself at 260
which is what spurred me to LC. I started exercising again.. weights,
aerobics. The problem is that despite still eating 20-30g carbs/day, and
remaining in ketosis, I can't seem to break this 240 barrier. I try to
drink lots of water (although it's probably not the gallon a day I'm
supposed to be drinking). Exercise and carbs don't seem to be the
problem. Could it just be "drink more water", or is this just some sort
of built-in barrier that my body has acquired over the last 5 years that
it's resisting breaking through?
By the way, most of my weight loss occurred in the first 2 weeks. I've
been at this 240 barrier for almost 2 weeks now.
Thanks for any helpful thoughts,
Mark

260/240/200 since: 18/01/2005

Mark McArthey wrote:
:: Hey all,
:: I'm now into my 4th week of LC and have seemingly hit a block. I am
:: aware of the dreaded "3rd week stall", and seem to have gone through
:: it already (since I'm beyond my 3rd week, and all). 😉 If I weigh
:: myself throughout the day, I find that I vary between 238 and 242...
:: or thereabouts. For the longest time, pre-LC, I was 240. It seemed
:: that no matter how much I ate, my weight was the same. Then I
:: gained weight. I found myself at 260 which is what spurred me to
:: LC. I started exercising again.. weights, aerobics. The problem is
:: that despite still eating 20-30g carbs/day, and remaining in
:: ketosis, I can't seem to break this 240 barrier. I try to drink
:: lots of water (although it's probably not the gallon a day I'm
:: supposed to be drinking). Exercise and carbs don't seem to be the
:: problem. Could it just be "drink more water", or is this just some
:: sort of built-in barrier that my body has acquired over the last 5
:: years that it's resisting breaking through?
:: By the way, most of my weight loss occurred in the first 2 weeks.
:: I've been at this 240 barrier for almost 2 weeks now.
:: Thanks for any helpful thoughts,

Drinking more water is pretty useless for speeding weight loss. Standing on
the scale throughout the day is also useless. Get in the habit of standing
on the scale first thing in the am - roughly the same time everyday.

As for your rate of weight loss...it could just be that you need to wait
longer to see some results. Depending on how much food you're eating
(independent of carb level) you could just be losing at a very slow rate.
If you want to speed weight loss, I suggest you begin using fitday.com (or
any other method you like) to track your calorie intake. Do it for a week
to get an idea of how many calories you normally eat everyday...and then
systematically lower the level. Generally, a good place to start for weight
loss is 10x bodyweight, which for you is about 2400 kcals per day. You
should be able to easily go to 1900 kcals per day to get a noticable rate of
weight loss on a weekly basis. Exercise will help speed things along, too.

be patient.. remember when you said no matter how much you ate, your weight
was the same? your body is resisting change (stasis....). just give it
time.

--
_____________________________
This be Tia's SIG!!! YAY!

"Mark McArthey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey all,
I'm now into my 4th week of LC and have seemingly hit a block. I am aware
of the dreaded "3rd week stall", and seem to have gone through it already
(since I'm beyond my 3rd week, and all). 😉 If I weigh myself throughout
the day, I find that I vary between 238 and 242... or thereabouts. For
the longest time, pre-LC, I was 240. It seemed that no matter how much I
ate, my weight was the same. Then I gained weight. I found myself at 260
which is what spurred me to LC. I started exercising again.. weights,
aerobics. The problem is that despite still eating 20-30g carbs/day, and
remaining in ketosis, I can't seem to break this 240 barrier. I try to
drink lots of water (although it's probably not the gallon a day I'm
supposed to be drinking). Exercise and carbs don't seem to be the
problem. Could it just be "drink more water", or is this just some sort
of built-in barrier that my body has acquired over the last 5 years that
it's resisting breaking through?
By the way, most of my weight loss occurred in the first 2 weeks. I've
been at this 240 barrier for almost 2 weeks now.
Thanks for any helpful thoughts,
Mark

260/240/200 since: 18/01/2005

Mark McArthey said:

I'm now into my 4th week of LC and have seemingly hit a block. I am
aware of the dreaded "3rd week stall", and seem to have gone through

it

Quoted message said:

already (since I'm beyond my 3rd week, and all).

....

Quoted message said:

260/240/200 since: 18/01/2005

You've lost 20 pounds in the last month. What's the defintion
of a stall again? Four consequative weeks in ketosis, without
a new low, without a lost inch. Dude, 4 weeks ago you were 20
pounds heavier. Get over the stall thing already until you
actually are.

So you've gone two weeks without a new low. Shrug. After
dropping an astonishing 20 in the two before that you're body
is reacting to losing too much too fast and it's taking a
break. Quite normal and not the slightest sign that anything
is wrong. Oh,and it is often called the 3rd and 4th week
pause because it's not rare in week 4.

You're doing fine other than insanely high expectations.
Note that from here on out it will all be fat lost not the
fat plus carbs plus the water the carbs were stored in loss
of Induction. Follow the process and loss will resume when
your body is good and ready.

"Mark McArthey" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey all,
I'm now into my 4th week of LC and have seemingly hit a block. I am aware
of the dreaded "3rd week stall", and seem to have gone through it already
(since I'm beyond my 3rd week, and all). 😉 If I weigh myself throughout
the day, I find that I vary between 238 and 242... or thereabouts. For
the longest time, pre-LC, I was 240. It seemed that no matter how much I
ate, my weight was the same. Then I gained weight. I found myself at 260
which is what spurred me to LC. I started exercising again.. weights,
aerobics. The problem is that despite still eating 20-30g carbs/day, and
remaining in ketosis, I can't seem to break this 240 barrier. I try to
drink lots of water (although it's probably not the gallon a day I'm
supposed to be drinking). Exercise and carbs don't seem to be the
problem. Could it just be "drink more water", or is this just some sort
of built-in barrier that my body has acquired over the last 5 years that
it's resisting breaking through?
By the way, most of my weight loss occurred in the first 2 weeks. I've
been at this 240 barrier for almost 2 weeks now.
Thanks for any helpful thoughts,
Mark

260/240/200 since: 18/01/2005

Don't worry about it. Stalls happen. Keep up with it.

Hopefully you are enjoing low-carb enough to make it a permanent lifestyle.
If so, the scales will become less important. If not, I'm afraid it won't
work for you over the long run.

"Bev-Ann" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I thought a true stall was not losing anything (weight or inches) for 6
weeks? I can't remember where I heard or read that, though.

That's right, Bev. A stall has always been defined here as something like 6
weeks "on plan" without a loss of pounds OR inches. Anything less is not
considered a true stall. For some reason, on lc weight loss tends for many
people to be kind of episodic, rather than gradual. I think the fat loss is
probably gradual, but water-weight ups and downs on the scale tend to
obscure it. Anyway, a lot of people won't lose anything for a couple weeks,
than practically overnight one or several pounds will be gone, then nothing
for a couple more weeks, then a little whoosh of a couple more pounds. You
get used to it after a while and don't stress too much when you don't lose
during a given week, if that's your pattern.

HG

Bev-Ann said:

Doug Freyburger said:

What's the defintion
of a stall again? Four consequative weeks in ketosis, without
a new low, without a lost inch.

I thought a true stall was not losing anything (weight or inches) for

6

Quoted message said:

weeks? I can't remember where I heard or read that, though.

Different plan, different definition. The 4 week one comes
from Dr Atkins. Realistically the longer you use for your
definition the fewer pauses end up qualifying as stalls, so
your 6 week citation is better than Dr A's 4 week one in
some ways.

Thanks all, for clarifying things. I guess my expectations were higher
than they should have been. This is my first time on "straight LC". I
had cycled before for weight training, so I'm figuring this out as I go.
I also didn't realize there was a definition for "stalling". Thanks.
I'll keep plugging,
Mark

260/240/200 since: 18/01/2005

Thanks Hannah. I'm following Protein Power Lifeplan and I looked it up in
their book. It uses the "6 week" definition too.
And your description was pretty much my experience. Those little
*whooshes* sure were nice. I also found that I'd have a scale-loss whoosh
one week and then an inch-loss whoosh the next. They rarely occurred
together. :-)

Hannah Gruen said:

That's right, Bev. A stall has always been defined here as something like 6
weeks "on plan" without a loss of pounds OR inches. Anything less is not
considered a true stall. For some reason, on lc weight loss tends for many
people to be kind of episodic, rather than gradual. I think the fat loss is
probably gradual, but water-weight ups and downs on the scale tend to
obscure it. Anyway, a lot of people won't lose anything for a couple weeks,
than practically overnight one or several pounds will be gone, then nothing
for a couple more weeks, then a little whoosh of a couple more pounds. You
get used to it after a while and don't stress too much when you don't lose
during a given week, if that's your pattern.

-----
Bev

"Bev-Ann" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

I also found that I'd have a scale-loss whoosh

Quoted message said:

one week and then an inch-loss whoosh the next. They rarely occurred
together. :-)

Same here, some weeks pounds gone, some weeks inches. Sometimes nothing, of
course, especially as time went on. When I'd been on other plans in the
past, I recall my losses as being more gradual. Maybe it's just the
difference between an ad libitum plan (like most low-carb plans) and one
that rigidly controls calories.(like WW). I find a lot of variation in
caloric intake on lc. Some days a lot, some days very low. Likewise, some
weeks are heavy on calories, others very light. Unclear why.

HG