New-a little discouraged

[Eveangelle]

Hi everyone! I stumbled across the McDougall plan on the internet and was completely won over to this new way of eating. I have the maximum weight loss book and follow it to the letter. In the first two weeks, I lost 10 lbs. I was so encouraged and convinced to keep going! My problem is, I have lost nothing more in the past 10 days, and I am getting down about it. I do not know what I am doing wrong. I weigh so much that I expected the weight to melt off quickly (I am 5'6 and 225 lbs). I would appreciate any suggestions to break through this plateau. It cannot be wrong foods as I eat no dairy, meat, or flour products.


Thanks in advance,
eveangelle

[MadcityVegan]

Hi, Maybe post a sample of a days menu? Right off the bat without knowing what you eat I would suggest:

--up your vegetables, eat more RAW too
ALSO:
--don't skip meals
--no cheating!
--stay away from pop/soda, think about tea or coffee to speed your metabolism
--consider added mild/light excersize like after dinner walks
--eat less sugar
--no added fat (no oils, butter etc.)

I hope this helps. I have been struggling too. I was skipping breakfast, eating chicpeas/baked potatoes/bbq sauce for lunch and sweetpotatoes/rice wrap in Nori and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't loosing weight. Hello! NO Vegetables! Starting Fresh again this Thursday--Payday.

Good luck to you!

[Eveangelle]

Generally, I have oatmeal for breakfast, raw veggies and boiled potatos for lunch, for dinner, brown rice with cooked veggies, with the rice being very limited. For snacks I choose from rice cakes, popcorn, or a frozen fruit bar. I have not cheated yet on MWL. But I have to say that I do not get alot of excercise.

[serenity]

Generally, I have oatmeal for breakfast, raw veggies and boiled potatos for lunch, for dinner, brown rice with cooked veggies, with the rice being very limited. For snacks I choose from rice cakes, popcorn, or a frozen fruit bar. I have not cheated yet on MWL. But I have to say that I do not get alot of excercise.

How much are you limiting your rice? How much of the other items? It may be that you are eating too little. Also, I would recommend ditching the frozen fruit bar. Eat a piece of fruit instead.

The thing to remember during plateaus is that this is the best - the very best - way to protect your health. So it's not as if it's all for nothing. Eventually you should start losing again.

However, I suspect that you need to increase your intake and variety. At the 10 day program, we started both lunch and dinner with salad and soup. Then starchy dish with a couple of steamed vegetables. Breakfast was fruit, hot cereal (or cold), and often another dish such as potatoes. Moderate exercise is a component of MWL.

Keep at it. Best wishes.

[Beezy]

Hi there

I'm sorry you're feeling discouraged. I know the feeling. I have lost 5 pounds in 6 weeks. I have absolute confidence, though, that this diet will work for everybody. The above suggestions are good ones. Every body is unique. Try to trust your body's wisdom. It will lose at the rate that is best for you. For me, it's like my body stores up some weight loss and then drops it all at once! I lost 3 pounds between Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm having some fun trying to guess when the next drop will be. Since I know that I have found the diet or way of eating that I can stay on for the rest of my life, I don't feel the pressure to lose weight quickly like I have before with other diets in the past. I have given myself a year to lose the weight I need to lose. I'm keeping a journal so I can look back and see how it all worked. My next goal is to have my blood work done at the end of 3 months' time and see if my cholesterol went down. Hang in there. Time passes very quickly, and soon you will notice all sorts of good changes.

[Eveangelle]

I am thankful for all the replies. They have given me something to think about.
As for the question about how much I limit rice, I would say to about a fourth of a cup.
Perhaps I just need to be a bit more patient. I don't feel ready to throw in the towel yet. I really want to see if this will work for me. Maybe I should just give it a little time.

In the meantime, thanks for the advice.

[stephanie]

Also, remember that weight loss isn't the only way of measuring "downsizing." As your body composition changes (less fat, more muscle), your weight loss may not seem to reflect the fact that you're getting smaller. Muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat, so you may start noticing a loss of inches (e.g., your waistband starts feeling loose) faster than a significant loss of weight.

If seeing the scale moving more slowly than you want is too discouraging, you may want to take a break from weighing yourself. I'm finding that this works best for me. I feel great physically and can tell I'm getting smaller, but when I step on the scale and it hasn't dropped as much as I want as quickly as I want, I get discouraged. So I'm going to wait a good while before I weigh myself again. I figure the weight will come off in its own time, and I'm in this for long-term health more than short-term weight loss.

[serenity]

As for the question about how much I limit rice, I would say to about a fourth of a cup.

Cooked? Oh, you definitely need to eat more. You are probably eating waaay too few calories. Your body is probably reacting by slowing down your metabolism.

This isn't a diet in the sense of something you will go off of eventually and in the meanwhile it is about deprivation. Quite the contrary; this is a WOE that is abundant. Settle into something that you can live with for the long term.

[marybeth0051]

The soup and salad plan prior to eating other foods for lunch and supper soundslike an excellent idea! I'm going to try that.

[LJ]

Also, remember that weight loss isn't the only way of measuring "downsizing." As your body composition changes (less fat, more muscle), your weight loss may not seem to reflect the fact that you're getting smaller. Muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat, so you may start noticing a loss of inches (e.g., your waistband starts feeling loose) faster than a significant loss of weight.

If seeing the scale moving more slowly than you want is too discouraging, you may want to take a break from weighing yourself. I'm finding that this works best for me. I feel great physically and can tell I'm getting smaller, but when I step on the scale and it hasn't dropped as much as I want as quickly as I want, I get discouraged. So I'm going to wait a good while before I weigh myself again. I figure the weight will come off in its own time, and I'm in this for long-term health more than short-term weight loss.

This is so very true, which is why I take measurements too. When I thought my weight loss had stalled, turns out I had lost an inch on my waist, even though the scale wasn't moving. The body knows what its doing even when it isn't reflected in the scale. Eat right and everything will fall into place.

[Faith in DC]

I swear the body has to adjust to weight loss every 10 lbs. I use to get into a month long plateau each 10 lbs. Then when it was over, bang, down 5. I could notice changes in my body during that time, like fat shuffling

I agree with the increasing of food, especially the rice. Learn to sense your hunger. It's hard, and it takes really tuning into yourself, but once learned you will be grateful.

Get a piece of clothing, that is just shy of fitting, and try it on each week.

[Kathy Fullmer]

Fatih, your comment about plateaus reminded me of "set point" which I read about womewhere in the McDougall program.
Also the concept of grazing is helpful, when the choices are vegetables of low calorie densitiy. The huge green lettuce salad with cooked grains added along with other vegetables and fat free salad dressing is probabley one of the most satisfying thisngs we eat here these days.
So I would ask anybody on Maximum Weight loss, "What are your vegetables and How much of them are you eating??"
Kathy

[DianeR]

Look at it this way ... in 3 1/2 weeks you lost 10 pounds. Isn't the standard for healthy weight loss over a prolonged period something like 1 to 2 pounds per week? A five pound weight loss per week is not a sustainable pace.

I imagine what you dropped was due to your use of your glycogen stores. Each pound of glycogen is bound to several pounds of water. Burn the glycogen as fuel and weight can drop quickly. But a body only has so much glycogen. (This is the same reason one can seem to gain a lot of weight from seemingly not enough calories. If you are adding to your glycogen stores, your body is holding onto more water.)

The scale goes up and down depending on hydration, sodium, time of the month (for menstruating women), etc., etc. You only get a real sense of where you are over a period of time. My weight can bob up and down by a couple pounds a day.

Plateaus are common too. I've had them and for much longer than 10 days. Just stay patient. You are getting healthier each day, even if you don't notice a difference on the scale.

Exercise is key to weight loss also, particularly the older you get. It not only helps with the loss but it helps assure that the weight loss is fat and not muscle. When I was in weight loss mode, I found it very difficult to lose if I didn't exercise. I think my metabolism slowed down to try to hold onto its fat stores.

If I were to guess, it would be that things have stalled because you aren't exercising.

[karin_kiwi]

Weight loss isn't a constant process for everyone. For example, I'll lose weight for four weeks and not the fifth - that happens a LOT for me.

From your comments, I'd echo what other people said... you're probably not eating enough. I know that my weight loss slowed down when I was only eating small amounts and it sped back up again when I was eating three big meals a day plus snacks (all McD, of course). A quarter cup of rice? My lunch or dinner would be close to 2 cups of (white, smack!) rice with vegetables. Breakfast would be a cup (measured uncooked) of oatmeal with a tablespoon of jam, lunch would be the aforementioned rice with steamed veggies, dinner perhaps 2 cups of mashed potato (salt only). At least 2-3 pieces of fresh fruit, cut up veggies, half a dozen popcorn cakes and so on during the day. When eating what looks like large amounts of food, but total fairly low calories, I'd lose around 10 pounds a month (even factoring in that fifth week).

Please don't get discouraged. Make sure you're eating enough... Increase potatoes, yams, and whole grains to make sure you're getting the sensation of being full. Obviously keep eating the salad-type veggies, too. Do not limit yourself on portions for healthy foods - if you're hungry, eat. Eat until you're satisfied. It's very hard to make that mental adjustment, I know.

An obvious one - you're eating air popped popcorn, right? Not the commercial microwave stuff that's full of fat?

[susie]

I was wondering about the white rice Karin kiwi. One billion Chinese eat white rice and the majority don't have weight problems. In fact the numbers would be larger when you take all the other Chinese/Asian nations who base their diet on white rice.

I wonder if they suffer from arthritis?