I don't see a journal listing meals and nutrient breakdowns, and you don't give us your macros, but from what you've posted I wonder if you are eating enough fat.

For me upping the fat keeps me from being hungry and speeds weight loss. Just my own experience, but I've seen it noted again and again on this forum as well. I've incorporated coconut oil which is a nice way to get fat without carbs or protein.

Hi Kristy -

Just popping by to say HI and hope you have a super weekend!!

Enjoy!
Deanna

Also, I'm convinced that our own thinking can be as much of a barrier as anything else.

We are so used to suffering through a "diet" until we lose the weight, and then going back to the way we used to eat... the way that got us so unhappy.

Low carb is the chance to break out of that miserable pattern, and truly change the way we eat, for life. If we look at it that way, as a path to health which includes weight loss, we will find our sufferings ease incredibly. We learn to enjoy our food... and, enjoy not eating.

I handled low carb very differently from most; I was so shocked at the loss of carbs, so uncertain that such a radical change from the way I'd been told to eat was either healthy, or would work, that I didn't do Induction. I slashed my daily intake by 300 carbs, down to around 50, and set about seeing if I could eat this way, and if I could enjoy it.

Fortunately, I was a spectacular success on both counts. I could eat as much as I wanted! And I didn't want to eat as much!

Gone was the torment of near-constant hunger. Gone was the obsession with the next meal. I slept so well, my moods improved, and the weight came off.

I didn't weigh myself once. I just knew my pants were getting looser, and that was good enough for me.

So please don't look at this as "cram for the exam." Don't make your sole criteria lower numbers on the scale. EAT. Figure out what foods you enjoy, brush up the cooking or the foraging skills, do whatever you need to do to get this thing down, and relax.

It is for life. In every sense of the word.

And if we work it that way, everything we wanted from it, will come.

I don't know what you read that made you think there was a linear weight loss every week.

I've not seen it, not for myself, and not in the almost 7 months I've been visiting this site daily.

What I have seen, in myself and others, is a longer term downward pattern for those people who can take a longer term view and wait out the inevitable slow periods on the scale.

In particular in the first weeks, what I've seen is that in the first six weeks (for those who make it that long, certainly not everyone does!) the percentage of weight that people lose (relative to what they need to lose) is generally pretty consistent - but the way they lose it will vary a lot.

Some people are like you, dropping a lot really quickly in the first week or two, then spending 3-4 weeks with no more losses before the scale picks up again.

There are those that lose almost nothing for the first weeks, and there are people who lose modestly but very consistently (and they complain that their weight loss is not as fast as "it's supposed to be".

My advice is to promise yourself to get to the 6 or 8 week mark. If your diet is as you list I'm pretty sure it's in a range to get you to lose - but your body right now has just given up a huge number of pounds, it's just consolidating before going further. Your pattern of 2 weeks loss and then a plateau is ultra-classic, and really all there is to do is wait it out.

If you're going to succeed long term and get to goal, you can plan on facing several more of these frustrating periods.

Good luck!

As I'm going through a stall myself, I've been reading about it online, this may help:

- A stall is diagnosed if you've gone >6 weeks without weight loss

- During induction you lose mainly water and glycogen stored, (which may cause some dehydration) afterwards, your body starts to replenish the water lost, which may mask any fat loss, or even show slight weight gain.

- Some may experience loss of several pounds over one or 2 days after a stall.

- Some ways to overcome a stall: drinking water, count calories, alter carb count (INcrease or DEcrease),

- cut out dairy

Hope this helps..

I was about to give up last night, but a friend of mine who lost 30 lbs in 6 months on Atkins was really supportive, and showed me his weight loss graph which shows 2 stalls, one 3 weeks into it, and the other in the 3rd month.. The wooshes after the stalls are promising!

So, I'm counting down the 6 week stall

Good for you for eating so many veggies throughout the day. The above foods add up to approximately 1,000 calories (fitday.com). Your metabolism has slowed right down to adjust to starvation mode. When our metabolism slows down we don't lose weight.

Eat more food. Not more carbs, but more protein which makes us feel full, and more fat. 2 pieces of meat at supper time and a whole can of tuna at lunch, not 3 oz. Then a bit of cheese before bed. Don't weight yourself multiple times in one day - that will just make you obsessive. Eat, eat, eat, staying away from simple carbs and you will lose weight

You said that PERFECTLY. I think anyone new to this WOL should read that ^

Meh. Personally I think the whole "starvation mode" stuff is a bit over dramatized. If nothing else, the fact that it is often the subject of why you need to eat several meals a day in the "women's health" magazines at the grocery store checkout makes me skeptical at best.

Yes, I would advise that purposely eating 1000 calories a day when hungry for more is bad. But if that is all your body wants, then there is no reason to force yourself to eat more. If you have the extra glucose out of your system, and are effectively burning body fat for fuel, you may not need the extra calories. When you do, you will get hungry, and then should eat. No reason to make it more complicated than need be.

Agreed, it has to be tailored to the individual, but the OP mentioned she's stalled on weight loss, so 1,000 calories per day may be too low for her. As well, we should pay some attention to getting enough protein to match our current weights. As we lose weight, we can cut back.
I have some days that I'm at the 1,000 / day mark because I'm closer to goal weight. But 1,000 cal/day "may" be dangerously low for someone at 200 pounds, low carb or not.

For some reason, coconut oil tends to stall me. I can be VLC but if I use coconut oil or try bulletproof coffee (coffee with a bit of cream or butter plus coconut oil), I stall or gain.

For the record, bulletproof coffee (per the recipe) contains neither cream nor coconut oil. Although some do successfully substitute those things in.

Okay. Its a version I got off of the forum here. The coconut oil does seem to stall me.

People like to call a lot of things "bulletproof coffee". I would emphatically say that cream is ABSOLUTELY not a part of it. Coconut oil in place of MCT oil is pretty close though.

Thanks for all the support everyone!

I have gone back to making sure I have some protein at every meal (closer to what I was doing in my first weeks) and I have added fat as well. In fact, I am now questioning my fat intake as I am now sometimes going over my recommended calories from a keto calculator. LOL, if it is not one thing, it is another!!

My menu is still similar, but I have added extra butter and coconut oil to breakfast, mayo dressing to my salads at lunch, or chicken if I am only having veggies, and trying to keep eating an avocado a day. Lots of fat, lol

Someone asked about my macros - I am now trying for 20g carbs, 75g protein, and 152g fat. 1750 calories a day. This is a new thing, I have been doing it for not quite a week.

I did my measurements today for the new week, and I've had no change in weight and a 1/2 inch INCREASE on my waist. *sigh*

Many of you say I can't look at this like all my other diets. Well. I don't have any other diets. I've never done another one. This is my first and I want it to be my last. In all honestly though, I do not intend to eat like this for the rest of my life. It is a means to an end for me.

Two years ago I lost 40lbs in a year by doing cardio twice a week. That is the only thing I changed. I then put about 25lbs of that back on when I stopped going to my fitness classes due to work. My plan right now? Use low carb to help jump start some weight loss, to help me get lighter and healthier. I will also be adding 2-3 fitness classes a week. My hope is to get down to a more acceptable level weight-wise, and then to be able to add some foods back in. Will I ever go back to copious amounts of carbs and sugar? No. But I can not live my life with no whole grains or fruit, or never having birthday cake with my kids on their birthday. I need to make better choices everyday, and this is teaching me that, but as things are now, it will not be my WOE for the rest of my life.