Stalled Out and Losing a Bit of Hope
 

So I lost about 25 pounds in my first couple of months of Atkins, and I've pretty much stayed at that weight since. That was in late November.

Now I know stalls happen, but I also know that I haven't been cheating. I have, however, perhaps been eating too much and I got into a really disastrous diet soda habit that I've since kicked. Now I limit myself to one coffee in the morning (for, ahem, regularity), and then only green tea or water the rest of the day. I'm also eating out so much less than I did before this diet, which is awesome.

BUT -- and this is a big but -- I'm not being very good about tracking my meals on Daily Plate. So it is possible that instead of eating at 20 net carbs, it's been sliding up to 30 or 40. So I'm back doing that.

I know this diet works and I know that staying the same is better than gaining, and that I feel so much better and look so much better -- and even though the scale isn't registering more loss, co-workers in the last week have all told me that they can suddenly see a big difference.

So was my plateau not a plateau?

I'm just... frustrated.

Can you post a menu of what you've been eatting on a daily basis?

Hmmm... I wonder if you'll see a woosh on the scale any day. If I were you, I think I'd try to track closely for a couple of weeks before making changes.

Good for you for sticking with it for all that time! Three months is a long time to be patient, but I do think that patience will serve you well in this journey.

It's good that you're tracking Both Dr. Atkins and Dr. Eades have identified two major reasons why people will stop losing on a low-carb plan---carb creep and/or calorie creep.

The more we have to lose, the more 'casual' we become as time passes, and it's easy to go over on carbs if we're not careful. And as we lose weight, our 'smaller' bodies require less food, and unless we cut down on our portions, we may lose the caloric deficit that's necessary for any weight loss.

The key is to track (as you are doing) to be sure exactly how much we're eating.

My usual breakfast is scrambled eggs (2) with 2 sausages.

Lunch is normally a salad from the salad bar, where I can make sure that I'm only having low carbs ingredients like bacon (real strips, not bits), chicken, ranch dressing, broccoli, romaine lettuce and cheese.

For a "snack" I'll sometimes have shirataki noodles with a little bit of beef broth for flavor.

For dinner, it's usually a stir-fry of broccoli and chicken or a piece of beef with some mashed cauliflour.

BUT -- and I think this is my major weakness -- I will mindlessly snack on cheese when I'm at home.

Like I said, I think you should track for a couple of weeks, but this does look pretty clean. I wonder if you could benefit by adding a little more fat. You could just eat a tablespoon or two of coconut oil off of a spoon or add some fat to your meals. That would be my first tweek if I was you... And my second would be to keep track of protein and see if you're eating way over your needs, because any extra is converted to glucose by your body which can cause an insulin spike.

That could definitely be the culprit- at around 100 calories and 1 carb per oz, cheese can add up quickly. And, an ounce of cheese looks very tiny so it makes you feel like you aren't eating a lot of it.

Wow -- I had no idea (re: protein). How do you calculate your correct amount?

I do sometimes snack on a bit of butter or add a bit of coconut oil to a coffee.

I think cheese is probably the biggest issue. Cheese and just overall carb creep from "this and that" throughout the day, where nothing is officially a cheat, but it all adds up.

True. Plus I've noticed that cheese is the one food that I really seem to go crazy on, so it's probably triggering my blood sugar.

Sometimes we crave foods that we have some level of sensitivity/intolerance to, and dairy is a common type of food intolerance. Food intolerances can block weight loss. If I were you, I'd first give up the cheese and if that doesn't help, give up dairy entirely for 3 weeks. Then introduce dairy cautiously at one meal, and see if you get symptoms or if your weightloss stalls again.

I know it's hard, because dairy is my favorite kind of food, and I'm going to be going without dairy for 3 weeks myself to see if that helps me lose better. But it's a possible cause behind your long plateau/stall.

If you don't want to try going dairy free, at least make yourself weigh your cheese intake and plug it into an online tracker along with your other food. You might slice up cheese into one-ounce servings in plastic baggies and only let yourself eat one ounce at a time. It's so easy to consume 6 ounces or cheese or so and tell yourself, "Oh, I just had some on-plan cheese as a snack, so that's okay." (I speak from personal experience. :o)