It's seven weeks...am I still a newbie? I am depressed and stalled. I am holding at 290 for 8 days. I start out with large ketones in the AM and go to trace to almost what it appears to be neg sometimes in the evening. And not to help things but I am due for my menses I am depressed. I do not want to fail. I tried this WOL 3 years ago and got stuck at approximately this time. I get minimum water in but always push for more. My exercise has slacked due to a sick child. As long as I am burning ketones shoul'nt the weight be coming off. It was so fast the first month. I don;t know what to do : I guess I am wondering if anyone else has had a similiar experience. I need help getting thru this slump.

It is totally normal for our bodies to take a break from losing weight. Did you take measurements before starting? Sometimes we lose inches without weight loss.

I went 8 months without a single pound loss. I hung in there and pretty soon the weight started moving again. I am down 47 pounds in 12 months now.

Hang in there. Keep drinking lots and lots and lots of water.

agony cat is right (and The voice of experience when it comes to true stalls!)

If you're showing ketones, you're likely burning fat. But burning fat does not mean automatic scale changes. As we burn fat, our fat cells (which never go away) fill up the space with water, which weighs on the scale (as does undigested food). The only way to lose the water is to drink more water and wait for the body to give it up.

You show darker stix in the morning cuz you didn't drink water all night. Drinking water dilutes your urine. This is why we usually say, if you are showing dark purple stix, all that means is you're dehydrated. There is no "better" level of being in ketosis. It's like pregancy--you is or you ain't.

Otherwise, check your diet for typical stallers--too much processed meat, too much cheese, artificial sweeteners, hidden sugars. One bite of something off-program every four days could keep metabolically sensitive people from losing an ounce.

If you've yo-yo dieted a lot in the past, an average of 1 pound per week might well be the best loss you can expect. (I'm an old yo-yo er and get .5 pounds per week on average now) But in a year, at that rate, you'd be 52 pounds lighter--much better than 10 pounds heavier, eh? If you are a truly slow loser, switch to weighing only once every month--you'll be happier as a result of not having to confront the slow loss as often.

Every time you try LCing, it will work less well. The thing to do is commit to a lifetime change now so that each time you try in the future, the loss rate isn't slower still. Let this be the last time and your weight loss permanent. I suspect if we go on sufficient diets of various sorts, eventually we won't be able to budge an ounce, no matter what radical dietary changes we make.

I'm so sorry to hear about your having a sick child. Hang in there.

Many women get a woosh after TOM. (and most don't show ketosis then--if you're still showing color, you're rare!)

HTH

Hi, dont give up.. just went threw 2 and half weeks of stand still my self.. Its a platue and you will experience them off and on during your weight loss.. and not to mention TOM.. after tom started this past week (sorry for being so imformative) I started loosing again.... Just keep eating the right way and it will start again very soon... They can be hard and depressing going threw platues but they will come to an end when your body has caught up to your recent weightloss...Dont give up


Tammy

Thanks for the feedback. On a funny note I could'nt figure oue what TOM was at first!!!! I'm thinking TOM????then it clicked!!!
I am not giving up....the LC community on this site is my inspiration.....

Hi PMS,
I'm really sorry to hear about your having a sick kid.
Please don't give up, hang in there. We're here for unlimited amount of support
Best of luck & happy low-carbing!

Bebe

PMS...

Hang in there. It's not at all unusual to loose very quickly the first few weeks and then hit a plateau. You body needs time every so often to "catch it's breath" so to speak. Unfortunately, as women, our hormones are stacked against us. Many women find that they loose well the first two weeks after their TOM, then don't loose any more until after their next TOM. It's all tied to the hormone fluctuations that go on in our bodies during our regular cycles and there isn't really a whole lot that we can do about it. Many also find that they don't show themselves to be in ketosis just before or during their TOM. Be patient and stick with the program. Things will start moving again and until they do, you are still getting some great health benefits from this WOL. Drinking the water is very important. I was never a water drinker until I started this WOE and it was hard for me at first, too. I started by filling a 1 liter water bottle in the morning and making myself finish it before lunch. At lunch I would fill it again and make myself finish it before I left work. Now it's habit and I find that I like water far better than most other things and my water bottle is never far from my side. I still like decaf coffee and the occasional glass of Diet Rite, but I mostly stick with water now.

FYI - A stall is when you don't lose any weight for six weeks or over. What you're experiencing is your body adjusting to weightloss, nothing to be stressed about.

I am doing the same thing right now so am not even going to go near the scales for another two weeks or so...


-Shelly