Please remember the most important factor of weight loss is still energy burned vs energy consumed. Watching carbs just helps us moderate energy consumption, and upping fat helps us burn more energy. The magic behind low carb is nothing more complicated than that.
I think most stalls can be broken if people just carefully examine how much energy they are expending vs energy they are consuming. Even though watching energy consumption is easy enough, it is
much harder to accurately gauge how much energy we are burning. Even though one woman of your height age and weight eats 1600 calories and still loses, you may have to go down to 1200 to create a calorie deficit. Our metabolisms are all different. One lady who weighs the same as you might be much more active and have much more metabolically active tissue than you. Old age also is a deterrent for energy usage, old people need less calories than young people. How long we have been on a diet is also very important in determining energy expendature... after extended periods of negative energy balance (fat always leaving the fat cells), your body will naturally cause a hormonal shift which "turns down" the thermostat a bit. Your body will start being less liberal with energy expendature... your body has never heard of a diet, and thinks you are starving a bit. Thyroid function begins to slighly decrease after long enough on any diet.
Here are my recommendations to you.
1) Carefully watch the calories. Even something as small as a tablespoon of oil adds 100 extra calories which need to be burned.
2) If you are doing high intensity aerobics and cardio, I would stop this asap and switch to something less strenuous like power walking for twice as long.
Exercising like a fiend when not on a sugar based metabolism often is counter productive, since you are puting demands on your body for quick fuel... and our chosen way of eating has been specially designed
not to include foods which are broken down quickly. Too much intense cardio on low carb often leads to muscle wasting, which then leads to decreased energy expendature, which then leads plateaus. Say you do 300 calories worth of cardio a day, but because you are not eating enough carbs % wise, you wind up over time losing a muscle mass amount which burned 350 calories a day. As you can see from this example, sometimes exercise which is incompatable with your way of eating can actually cause weight gain.
If you are doing intense cardio and wish to keep doing it, consider upping your carbs a bit (preferably right before your exercise).
3) Consider getting your basal metabolism measured:
http://www.healthetech.com/consumer...em_locator.html
This simple and relatively inexpensive test will tell you exactly how many calories you are burning at rest. This will give you a rough idea of your caloric needs.
4) Go to the doctor and check for any health disturbances which would abnormally lower metabolism, such as low thyroid function. While slightly low t3 and t4 levels are somewhat normal on a diet after awhile, hypothyroidism is
never normal. If you are hypothyroid because of disease you should get that treated, as it can really interfere with weight loss. If you are hypothyroid because of diet, try taking a week or two off, and even gaining a pound. Putting fat in your fat cells raises leptin levels , and leptin has master control over the thyroid. During starvation (or severe dieting) leptin plummets, along with it thyroid function.
I hope these suggestions help.
What was your longest stall---and how did you break it?
Linear Mode
