The good, the bad, and the plateau

I started counting calories on New Year's eve. I started exercising. The goal was not to lose weight, but to become healthier. And it worked for a while. I lost 30 lbs and two sizes, and felt the old confidence coming back.

What a time to get stuck. My weight has been stuck at 170 for the last two months. I have continued exercising through it all (yay!), but am returning to my pattern of over-eating when stressed (even though its mostly healthy stuff.) I know I need to dig in my heels and get past this plateau, but HOW?

Please share tips and advice on how to get past the plateau and stay motivated through it all. I'm mixing exercise routines and just started swimming, but yesterday I went on a weight loss fad diet website for the FIRST time. That's scary.

Is there a particular day of the week that you all weigh and log the weight? How do you log the food on CC. Enter on a paper first and then put it all in into CC or keep writing as you keep eating?

Skinybum,

Hi and welcome! You are more than welcome to join us- this is an open group. We don't have a fixed day of the week for weigh in- as far as I can tell, this is just a bunch of folks stuck at various stages of weight loss and trying to keep each other motivated! I can help you out some with Indian foods- I normally eat a lot of Indian food, though not since I started my new diet today. ;D

I like to log my food on CC as I eat it- I have work access to CC, thank God they didn't decide to block it! I'd suggest do what works for you, and don't lose hope. :)

Sam,

Congratulations!! Its such a heady feeling when you move down a 'decade', isn't it? High fiber granola is a great option- the Instinct diet suggests mixing the high fiber cereals like Fiber one with granola to keep the taste and fiber in balance. I want to make my own granola, so I'm sticking to plain fiber one for now. (Its not half bad.)

Speaking of decades, my new digital scale shows my weight as a full two pounds more than the analog- so I'm back in the 170s. Its probably more accurate, though, since I can't do the little cheating jiggle to make the needle move back. LOL!

Good luck and keep going- we can do this!

Lsami,

Congratulations for staying on top of the exercise! I always slide back when the scale doesn't cooperate, skipping the morning walk or the evening workout. I think its wonderful that you are focusing on the positive and not paying (too much) importance to the numbers.

We rock! :)

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let you know that I got the Instinct diet book and am starting the 8 week program. It seems quite healthy and non-toxic, so I'm willing to give it a shot. I went shopping for all the ingredients early morning, and then made the taco bean salad for lunch. Even though the recipes itself did not seem that great to me, the end result was fabulous! The salad was delicious and very filling.

I plan to add the recipes to the CC database as I make them. Most recipes rely on using a bulk of low-calorie, nutritious food and then dressing it up with some high-fat, delicious, low-quantity additions. I hope you may find some of the recipes helpful. If you would like to know more about the diet or the recipes, let me know!

Good luck to all of us!

Nehajain good luck with your diet. Yes I will be interested in the recipes!!! Please share..

I weighed 142lbs today morning my lowest in a looooong time....i hope i can reach at 135 soon, as thats my first goal, ideally I should be 110lbs....

Thanks

Congratulations!! Thats awesome.

Here is the recipe for low fat granola which I made this morning.

http://caloriecount.about.com/low-fat-granola -2-recipe-r249354

I added 3 tbsp of granola to my fiber one cereal this morning.

This one is for peanut sauce.

http://caloriecount.about.com/peanut-sauce-re cipe-r249167

Not very low fat by itself, but on the dinner menu with broiled tofu/chicken and roasted vegetables. Delicious!

Good luck!

Oooo the peanut sauce sounds yummy! Thanks!

Nehajain, how do you calculate calories in indian foods like lauki or bittergourd made in indian style. I normally try to eat 2 rotis with a bowl of beans or dal and 1 bowl of vegetable with 1 cup home made 1% milk yogurt. I normally add it up to 500 calories..

Any tips for indian food and how to make it weight loss friendly would be great!!

There's several different ways to do that- you can go to recipes on this website, click on my recipes, and create your own recipe. Once you submit it, you will see how many calories there are on one serving. For vegetables like lauki that are not the CC website, I'll either add them separately after googling them or use a similar American vegetable like zucchini to create the recipe.

One average sized roti has about 80 calories. Again, you can calculate that by adding the amount of flour you used and then dividing it by the number of rotis you got out of the dough. Different beans have different calorie content..you can find them at other websites like this one.

http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calori es/food/generic/moong-dal-yellow-split-lentil s

I make my yogurt from 1% milk too! Since I get the same volume of yogurt from the milk, I just use milk calories to get an estimate. Its not very accurate, but can give you a decent approximation.

I think Indian food is already quite diet friendly. I use whole wheat flour for rotis and dont add any oil to the dough. Dal is really healthy too, a great source of fiber and protein. I try to use less oil in the tadka. Ditto for veggies- no more than 1 tbsp oil per recipe.

If you still find you need to cut back, maybe you quite try cutting back to one roti, or 3/4 cup of dal and yogurt. There doesn't seem to be much wiggle room there..:)

Hope this helps.

I too use the same method of analyzing a recipe for Indian foods on CC's food analyzer.

For lauki or tinda or things like that, I think of a similar vegetable (like squash or zucchini).

You could also check out the CC recipe section for common recipes for Indian foods- read the recipe and if yours sounds more or less like it, I use the shoortcut of just adding the recipe to my food log.

There is also a great website called LifeMojo.com, which is India based. Once you sign up with them, you can chat with them (in a google chat window, for example)  and check various options for Indian foods like dosas, rotis, dal, khakra, coconut chutney, sambar, etc. The only thing is, sometimes its hard to distinguish home made recipes from restaurant ones which have a lot more oil or ghee.

I agree that Home made Indian food is pretty weight loss friendly! Dont get too desperate and cut intake too much. You will just end up eating more later.

Thanks Nehajain and Isami for all the feedback, great to know all this information...

I will try on adding to my recipes...

I was 142 and have been doing exercise and eating well btween 12-1300 cals but today morning my weight was 144, may be due to the monthly visitor that came today?

Nehajain, I read on some online articles that swimming is not that good for weight loss.. you might want to dig into that....apparently it increases appetite. do you do weight training exercises?

what has been your experience on weight loss? I want to achieve 1lb a week weight loss, is it too much?

Swimming is aerobic activity, so it will have the same effect as any other aerobic activity (cycling, running, walking) which makes your heart rate go up depending on how long and how intense your session is.

I try to do at least an hour of exercise each day and to get in a mix of different kinds of exercise- somedays I do yoga; other days I weight train; and 4-5 days a week some moderate to intense cardio (walking; elliptical; stairclimber, etc).

Its quite common for weight to fluctuate just before or during your period. Also a high sodium (salt) diet can lead to water retention. Drink plenty of water. It helps digestion also which can affect your weight.

I find setting weekly 'goals' for weight loss (1 lb/ 1/2 lb) quite frustrating. I prefer to focus on how I am eating and exercising and not worry too much whether I lose a pound a week or not. Your body doesnt always obey you and that can be annoying! Especially as you get closer to your goal weight, weight loss slows down a lot.

Sometimes if you are not losing weight it may be best to increase your activity level and also slightly increase your food intake- that helps jolt your body out of a plateau.

Good luck!

Hi skinybum and lsami!

I read about swimming not being good for weight loss as well, because your body temperature does not go up in the water and you get an appetite. It doesn't really matter to me because I'm swimming for fun and to mix up my routine. I do 30-50 minutes of aerobic exercise each day (walking, biking) and have done free weights in the past. They tire me out, though, so I'm planning to start again under sunpervision at the gym and not on my own.

My weight fluctuates quite a bit too. There is a couple of things you can do:

1. Make sure you have a good scale.

2. Rather than going by weight alone, try measuring yourself around waist and thighs. See if your clothes fit better.

3. Chart your weight on CC. The graph will give you a trend, that is much more accurate than the actual weight that day.

4. Measure your body fat at a gym (some scales can do it too). You may be gaining weight because you are losing fat but building muscle. Thats a good thing!

1 lb a week is a decent weight loss goal. My body has its own rhythm- I will lose several lbs in one day and then stay stationary for several more. I do gain some water weight before my periods.

After going on the Instinct diet, I lost 3 lbs in one day! (Likely water.) It has stabilized since then but still trending downward. I don't crave carbs all the time and my clothes are already fitting better. I'm in a good place right now- hoping this can be maintained.

skinybum,

I agree with lsami here:

"I find setting weekly 'goals' for weight loss (1 lb/ 1/2 lb) quite frustrating."

In fact, I think the best you can do is target the calorie deficit needed to lose the lbs/week you want and hope your body follows the plan.  But it won't always.

When I started, I was trying for a 1lbs a week and I was hitting twice that for months.  But eventually, despite staying on track and making my goals, I've slowed wayyyyyyy down now.

Hi guys!

Wanted to check in with everyone to see how they are doing.

I'm on day 6 of my diet- its been hard keeping myself motivated the last couple of days, but I'm hanging by the skin of my teeth. :) I've chosen a new 'reward' for resisting temptation- to put away 5 bucks each time I resist a particularly evil craving, and then to use the money as I like! It has to be spent on an personal indulgence, though.

Any other reward techniques that work for people?

Whenever I lose motivation, I "reward" myself by looking at my before pictures.  I took a very unflattering photo of myself to kick this off, plus a friend is a big photo buff and has dozens of snaps of me at her home during holidays.

Those pictures are now 47lbs ago as of this morning.  That means I have 74lbs to go... sometimes it seems so daunting I feel overwhelmed, but every time I look at those photos and see the, literally, huge difference; I just want to keep it up and find even more ways to get healthier.

yes to me compliments from others as reminders and my dres size is also a motivator!!I have decided not to buy any new clothes till I fit into 1 size lower than what I wear now....

Does any know the effect of fasting on weight loss? is fasting 1 day a week okay?

Oh, man, I really should do the picture thing- I used to hide so much at my max weight that there are very few pictures! I had to go to the DMV for a new license pic, though, and could tell the difference in my face..

I'm not sure about fasting, skinybum..what I've read on CC and elsewhere suggests that it is not a good technique for weight loss- your body would go into starvation mode and bounce back too fast when you resume normal diet.

Yes Neha I think pictures are great!!! So how was everyones weekend? I had a good weekend with some good food and good exercise! Weighed 141.5 yesterday so 0.5 less than before.....really need magic to get below 140, will need lot of motivation and support from you all!!! I am wanting to be at 135 by Sept 10!!!!!