how can you not lose weight, when you are eating half the amount of food you were previously eating?

following a certain eating plan, and not deviated at all for 2 months, but the last 2 weeks i have not lost anything………..why?

and i dont believe the ‘body goes into starvation’ thing.

Are you still chEating properly?

That could be a part of it. Also did you not lose a fair chunk straightaway? Weight fluctuates a bit anyway – I wouldn’t worry too much. Less activity as well perhaps? Don’t forget to count the calories in beer as well

The body does hit natural plateaus. From previous posts you seem to have had weeks where you have shifted considerable amounts, so the occasional fortnight with no loss might be expected. If no change in another week then change things up a bit. Move the off day, if you still do it, to another day of the week.

I’m sure others more knowledgeable will be along shortly.

Edit: Hmm…maybe I haven’t got lightning fingers.

i have not been doing the cheat thing really, i cant seem to bring myself to do it.
feels like a waste of all the good work.
and there aint nothing i am craving.

I think I read something once along the lines of ‘keep your body guessing’, because if there’s a consistent pattern it will maximise it’s efficiency i.e. store more calories as it’s designed to do. Stuff like mixing up what times you exercise, whether that’s before or after eating, vary the size and times of meals.

This might be bollocks of course, it’s a vague recollection, and it might of been crap advice to start with!

IANAD

I Am Not A Donut?

Ton – I can understand that. But it seems you’re not following the plan properly.

Down the chippy with you! Send me down some proper gravy.

Good edit Jamie – I was going to point out that i’D already spoken.

Are you drinking plenty of water?

yep plenty of water, and as much exercise as i can manage.

think it’s quite normal, i lose weight in “steps”, and the steps get longer and the drops smaller the more weight i lose.

+1 Klunk, I hit plateaus for a bit then after a while it starts to fall off again. Try changing up the type of exercise you do maybe? I’m trying running as opposed to biking for a bit to see what happens.

Physiology doesn’t care if you believe in it or not…

i read/learned about this when I was diagnosed with a certain condition but basically eating less means in some circumstances that your body will go into a kind of hibernation or at least physiologically your metabolism will slow to take into account the reduced calory intake = less weight loss

Dietician, but I think I like donut better.

The cheat day is important, you need one good meal with loads of carbs and sugar, you don’t have to enjoy it, but you should do it.

I have lost 2 stone in a year and have 2 stone left to loose.

The first 6 months i was kidding myself on, i was loosing weight by upping excercise and making some small changed to diet but not much, lost 12 lbs by Nov then put 9 lbs back on in 2 months. To say i was pissed off by Jan was an understament.

But it was really good for me as i started to really look into food and everything about it, i just couldnt understand how i could put on so much weight in such a short time.

In the winter its really important to moderate your eating and try to do some excercise almost every day, even just a walk round the block a few times.

Cutting sugar consumption is critical, on of the things i really didnt realise is how bad fruit juice is, yes even ‘pure’ fruit juice. I changed to try and eat food with a low GI, more meat, good quality wholemeal bread, brown rice, more veg and less fruit. Almost cut out sweeties altogether (my nemesis!) I do have sweeties on a friday as part of family night, dvd and some pick and mix.

Try and up the excercise and what what you drink, i find sugar fee diluting juice good and sweetners in coffee/tea.

Keep at it, even if you plateau keep it up, it will come off.

How many pints (of ale) did you have last week Ton?

too many mate i reckon…. 😆

Edit: Hmm…maybe I haven’t got lightning fingers.

I’m still impressed.
ton, I think you need to try and work on the cheating day, have a little bit of faith.
It took you long enough to change lifestyle and start losing the weight, which is awesome, see if you can take it a bit further and do chocolate, pizza and beer on the off day.
Much as you can’t see that the cheat day is beneficial, I can’t see why you’d want to drink beer!!!

Have a little read of this

linky

Hit the weights, that’ll speed things up.

Also the idea of the cheat meal is to stop your metabolism slowing down, which it sounds like it has done.

read that link swampi, it makes sense.
gonna have to try hard to get my head round the day off.
Mrs say’s i am not eating enough.
today i hae eaten
kippers for breakfast
mushroom/onion omlette for lunch
steak with salad for evening meal.

it dont sound like much when i come to think of it.
this is kinda a typical day now.

Try eating 6 small meals a day rather than 3 bigger ones, this also helps speed up your metabolism.

Hit the weights, that’ll speed things up.

I’m not sure if Ton’s health will allow for that….I could be wrong though.

How often are you eating? Reducing the volume of food is fine but if you also reduce the frequency then your metabolism slows down and it won’t shift the stuff…so eat frequently (but don’t over eat or increase the volume of food).

How much exercise are you doing? How much water are you drinking? What kind of foods are you eating?

If you are following an eating plan what does it suggest?

I’ve always found if I up my exercise then the weight shifts reasonably quickly, but I then find after I’ve got it down my appetite seems to go into overdrive so I need to maintain the exercise.

Already been said, but hey … use the ‘day off’ day, you don’t have to go crazy, just give your body a ‘bump’ . You’ve already lost a load, slow and steady now is good, with plateaus to be expected every now and then. Swampi’s link also takes you to Tom Venuto’s stuff. If you can get over just how American and ‘pumped’ it all is there’s some good advice in his writing. Stick with it Ton … expecting user name change to ‘Pound’ or maybe ‘Kilo’ at a future date… 😉

By far the best site I’ve come across. Read the nutrition and losing weight section (in fact read the whole site), there is also a decent calorie calculator in the fitness tools section.

Why not buy a fat burner like Ripped Freak

I am sure you do not get rid of weight that easily … 6 months or more I guess.

And no beer except on cheat day

5 or 6 Small meals a day Ton, if you miss meals out your metabolism will slow down to match and you will find your hungry and not losing … you need to eat to keep your metabolism running at full pace, it could take 4 to 6 weeks of eating the Right things at the Right time to get yourself on track.
my mate was 21.7 stone and only ate in the evenings so i told him the above information and he now weighs 14.7 stones, he dropped 3 stones in no time too 🙂 … oh BTW nuts are Not fattening! (just thought i’d say) Lol

Ton,

I think your body slows down a bit as you loose weight, and you’ve lost loads haven’t you? you need to keep at it, keep your calories low, take a day off each week (idave can explain), do as much exersize as you can.

take care of yourself though my lovely x

Watched a documentary a couple of weeks back about weight loss and exercise.
The upshot was to combine healthy eating with short bursts (less than 5mins) of intensive pedalling on rollers each day. You need to really go flat out.

It kick starts the body into burning fat reserves apparently.

My problem´s the opposite, I can´t keep the weight on. Probably need more pasta/rice, is there a reverse iDave diet thats not just cake and beer?

I had the same issues for years, ended up having a blood test and found I had an under active thyroid, now on levothyroxine for life, but now lost weight, still goes on if I hit the beer and bread.

Doesn’t sound like you’re eating enough. iI’m iEating iPlatefuls iOf iApproved iFood.

“A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.” – from here.

If you’ve cut out carb-dense fast-carbs, you need to eat a lot of less-carb-dense slow-carbs to compensate. Remember, it’s not a low carb diet, it’s a slow carb diet.

mike, you have hit the nail on the head.
my meals are either meat/fish and salad/veg.
not really got going with the bean thing still. i will try now tho.

by the way, i got weighed this morning 3 times back to back. 2lbs weight loss this week which is ok i reckon.

2lb a week = slow and steady

To loose 2lbs of fat require a fair cut in consumption Over 1000 cal a day less eating or a 80 min bike ride every day. Or a combination of both.

Pretty hard to keep up.

2lbs a week is bang on what you should be aiming for Ton 😉