Day 18 of plateau

[betheboo 40]

I am super frustrated & feeling like a failure Every day people ask me "so how much have u lost now?" & I tell them oh I' ve kinda stalled I think I need to pay closer attn to my portions & actually weigh my food. I must be under estimating my calories b/c according to my journel & body bugg I always have a signifigant cal deficit. I need to break back out of the fast food habit to... Such a hard one to break! Just feeling really down today...

[vlp1968 83]

Sorry you are feeling down. Fast food was a real dowfall for me too. I was pretty good at not buying junk at the store, but would go out for fast food instead of eating the healthy stuff I bought. I find since I haven't had it in so long, I don't miss it very much. I would just go cold turkey and break the habit. Just tell yourself fast food is not an option for you. That's what I did anyway. Also, are you excersising? It has so many benefits, just one being weight loss. It's tough to start, but it will become a matter of routine. It took me about 4 months post op to hit the gym. Now I go about 5 days a week. Good luck, you can do it!

[stateofzen 46]

Fast food can be a trigger for me. Even if I'm very careful about watching the calories, one trip soon turns into 4 trips and I'm back to craving fatty, salty foods. So I avoid it to the best of my ability.

Maybe it's time for a meeting with the support staff, like the dietician, at your surgeon's office? Sometimes I new set of eyes and a different voice to give us "the talk" about compliance is what we need.

[Catherine55 43]

If you're journaling your calories honestly, the problem might be that you're not taking enough calories. I had a few plateaus where my body just stalled on weight loss, and I'd up my calories for a day (I do not recommend doing this frequently!! Maybe once a quarter, at most!) ... er, by eating some ice cream. Then, the next day, I'd go back to my normal good program, and it actually seemed to jumpstart me a bit. That said, if the issue is just that you're eating more than you are writing down, this will not work for you!

Another thing that stalled me a lot was when I started exercising seriously. Muscle weighs more than fat, so as I was building muscle, the scale just stayed still -- despite that I was doing a really hard core boot camp workout. That was really frustrating. However, fortunately, I kept my measurements through this whole process, so I was able to at least see that I was losing inches, if not pounds, during that time.

I hope that helps! Hang in there! You are doing really well with 25+ pounds down already!

Best wishes,

Catherine

[jen36 1]

Don't get frustrated, I was stuck at 135 for months but the past month I have switched from using the treadmill all the time to doing the elliptical and treadmill, also I am walking with my kids at night and doing some exercise programs on tv to get a little extra in. I finally am 129 today when I got on the scale so finally its over!!!!! Just keep working at it and try changing it up a bit

[betheboo 40]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! I know exercise is where I am lacking greatly... I work 12 hr night shift 3 nights a week and I am going back to school full time, going 2 nights a week. I need to just scheduel myself to go into the gym like I scheduel everything else in my life! lol I have been seriously contemplating getting back on the personal trainer bandwagon, then I have to show up. I am going to try to work really hard on cutting out the fast food as well as staying away from the cafeteria at work. There is one support group in my town it meets every other week on Tues and I almost always work tues But I will try my hardest to get to one! Thanks again everyone, sometimes I just need to hear it from fellow bandsters! lol