Plateau Discussion

I have browsed around for a couple weeks looking for more experiences with slowed or haulted weight loss while on pb and thought i would start a new thread here in nutrition as the discussion is likely to focus on that.

Short version of my story. CW diet for three months went from 333-310 and found MDA. In four months on since i have gone from 310-278. Unfortunately, i have been stuck between 276-280 for about a month.

If i was a bit closer to a healthy weight i would understand hitting a wall but I am a solid 75-100 pounds overweight (although my goal is in the 220 range)

I am certainly not the fitness person many of you are, however I get a good deal of play in weekly with disc golf 3-4 days a week, kickball league every friday and touch football most sundays. I walk 10 or so miles a week and occasionally job a bit of that just to get it over with sooner.

My diet is 98 percent paleo/primal. I seldom have a bad meal, but I do work small things in from time to time that are not 100%. these things include occasional ketchup on eggs, diet sodas etc.

A normal day - mixed nuts or eggs/bacon for breakfast. if i forget breakfast i usually buy a cranberry almond mix we have here at my school (im a teacher) this is usually with a diet soda or water. i have a hard time with caffeine

lunch is normally either leftovers from a meat/veggie dish the night before and i often make chicken wings in the oven with a paleo safe buffalo sauce i make. occasionally paleo chili is made and frozen and i bring that too

dinner is usually a high protein meal. I eat a lot of ribeye steak and chicken breasts. sometimes i have half a sweet potatoe cooked in oven sliced thin like fries sometimes i dont. Veggies are usually incorporated into dishes as i hate them alone. i do this by adding them to stir fries, sauces etc.

I have hit a wall and i am getting frustrated. i understand i could cut out a little bit here and there, zero sweet potatoes instead of 1-2 a week, zero diet sodas, zero ketchup but i feel my intake is appropriate. Am i way off? again i weigh 277.8 this morning.


What have others of you done to get off a number you have been stuck on? i had pizza last weekend with the parents, so dont say carb refeed lol.

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I'm not much help, but I would like to comment that you are better off with a regular soda for both health and fat loss reasons.

Reduce food portions or increase physical activities or do both! Yes, dieting sucks, and if you feel too comfortable with your diet, then you probably are not doing it right!

congrats on your weight loss so far. before getting into any dietary changes, make sure you're at a real plateau. the scale will only tell you so much. really pay attention to how your clothes are fitting, or take measurements for a couple of weeks. you could also track your body composition with photographs. it could be that your weight loss has slowed down, but your fat loss is continuing. if that's the case, just keep doing what you're doing and the scale will catch up.

also, whereas fat loss is the goal, it might be time to add lifting heavy things to your current exercise (rock on disc golf!). you could certainly go for a weight lifting program, like starting strength or stronglifts, but a body weight program is also a great place to start...mark's Primal Blueprint Fitness is pretty great. adding muscle will cause your body to start burning more fat.

since you've plateaued for a month, i think it's pretty clear that you just need to make a change of some sort. your diet seems ok, and you're aware of the things you should cut out (diet soda especially). so, maybe it's time to experiment with fasting or calorie cycling. you might even find that just switching up the food you eat might be enough to restart some weight loss...try some new recipes, cut the protein and increase the fat. if you've been following a regular meal plan for a while, your body may have adapted to it in some way. in that case, even minor changes might do the trick.

I'm guessing you are male, age 25-35 or so?

Anyway, give this a shot...it looks like you are eating well within your comfort zone, and doing a pretty good job with PB. Try throwing your body a huge curveball for the next couple months.

Breakfast: Big cup of black coffee, decaf OK, but full-strength better. No food.

Morning snack: none

Lunch: Big-ass salad heavily made with hard-core veggies and not just leafy veggies...bell peppers, cucumbers, broc, cauli, mushrooms, and a can of sardines, smoked oysters, or tuna. No oils or dressing on salad except maybe vineagar.

Afternoon snack: none

Dinner: Huge piece of meat, ribeye, half a chicken, pound of burger, big pile of steamed veggies cooked in butter or coconut oil, half a potato or a bit of rice, piece of cheese, dark chocolate, handful of blueberries or a piece of fruit, handful of almonds.

Evening snack: none

Eat like this for a while and see what happens.

[QUOTE=Gorbag;1122194]Reduce food portions or increase physical activities or do both! Yes, dieting sucks, and if you feel too comfortable with your diet, then you probably are not doing it right![/QUOTE]

I felt comfortable with my diet all the way from 220 to 170. I'm not so sure that's good advice.

[QUOTE=primalrob;1122200]congrats on your weight loss so far. before getting into any dietary changes, make sure you're at a real plateau. the scale will only tell you so much. really pay attention to how your clothes are fitting, or take measurements for a couple of weeks. you could also track your body composition with photographs. it could be that your weight loss has slowed down, but your fat loss is continuing. if that's the case, just keep doing what you're doing and the scale will catch up.

also, whereas fat loss is the goal, it might be time to add lifting heavy things to your current exercise (rock on disc golf!). you could certainly go for a weight lifting program, like starting strength or stronglifts, but a body weight program is also a great place to start...mark's Primal Blueprint Fitness is pretty great. adding muscle will cause your body to start burning more fat.

since you've plateaued for a month, i think it's pretty clear that you just need to make a change of some sort. your diet seems ok, and you're aware of the things you should cut out (diet soda especially). so, maybe it's time to experiment with fasting or calorie cycling. you might even find that just switching up the food you eat might be enough to restart some weight loss...try some new recipes, cut the protein and increase the fat. if you've been following a regular meal plan for a while, your body may have adapted to it in some way. in that case, even minor changes might do the trick.[/QUOTE]

I think this ^^. You can't just use a scale. You need to combine the scale with measurements and pictures and every 3 or so months a body fat calculation.

[QUOTE=The Rebooted Body;1122298]I felt comfortable with my diet all the way from 220 to 170. I'm not so sure that's good advice.[/QUOTE]

"Feeling comfortable" and "feeling [I]too comfortable"[/I] are two different things though! Nobody should expect the body to give up stored bodyfat without a fight...

quit the soda,
and call me in the morning.
as someone else said, you might actually be better with a regular instead of the diet type drinks,
something about the sugar substitutes being worse than the sugar.
drink water.
did you mention fruit ? may have to limit that too.
read up.

Thanks for the input guys. I don't eat a lot of fruit, occasionally some berries and I always have a mango for mango steak stir fry but use about a third of it per four meal cook. I don't really see the way I have been eating as a diet, just being smart and healthy and living that lifestyle but at the same time I have weight loss goals and the stagnant nature of the scale is demoralizing as many know.
I have taken measurements and have lost maybe a fraction everywhere in this month. Heavy lifting is something I have done in the past and am considering but truly hate it. As with anything else, no sacrifice no gain I suppose.
FYI I am 31 year old male.