Weight loss has stopped I think I can't break my body set point weight page

[rrich49132]

I am not sure if many of you have heard of body set point weight but I am thinking that I am not going to be able to break into the 170's. I started Primal about 12 weeks ago at 194 lbs and am down to 183 lbs this morning. I have been at this weight for about the last month or so and seem not to be able to get into the 170's as I would ideally like to be about 172 lbs or so. Honestly if I just had a defined mid section I don't care what my weight is as still carry my weight in the stomach area but am obviously down in that area from when I started.

Have any of you run into a wall with your weight loss and seem to not be able to shake a certain weight? I am still staying on course as I don't want to stop this as outside of the stop in weight loss I have lots of energy has not the same desires to eat crap and no longer eat till I am full and feel like crap afterwards.

[Metric]

Have you tried mixing things up a bit? Macro's, change workouts, etc.

(Just as an example) If you're eating very low carb, possibly increasing carbs for a bit? That kind of stuff?

I haven't gotten to that point yet; however, I'm sure I've seen that recommendation from others (to mix things up).

Hopefully other members will chime in on this issue.

[Owly]

Are you depending on your scale alone or are you taking measurements? Sometimes you might not see much change in your weight even when you are physically getting smaller.

And it's hard to say why you might be stalled without more details. Can you give us an idea of what you eat, what your exercise is like, and other factors such as sleep and stress levels? Height and weight, gender?

[Fletch666]

Be patient. Stay with the real food and the primal exercise and it'll work.

After losing ~35lbs I hung around 170 for probably 6 months. I wasn't gaining or losing weight, though I was walking and lifting heavy stuff. I started experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (which became very easy) and I stopped looking at the scale (which, strangely, was harder). I weighed myself this week for the first time in a while and was 166lbs. And then I really looked at myself in the mirror. Hey, I have arms! Like, with actual muscles! Is that the hint of what might someday be abdominals? Cool!

Ignore the scale. Eat real food, lift heavy stuff, walk and sprint.

And the usual addendum: If you get frustrated, drop cheese and alcohol for a month and see what happens. For me, life without Brie and red just ain't worth living. IF is fantastic. It'll totally change (fix) your relationship with food (if you have any issues there).

[rrich49132]

My body is definitely changing as my pants are very loose.

My workout consist of a Monday and Wednesday strength and conditioning class with heave weights. This 4 week cycle is 6 sets of 3 reps of various things like front squats, deadlifts, flat bench, incline dumbell and a few other things. Saturday morning is my circuit class from hell that pushes me to my limits where we do things like pushups, burpees, famers walks, KB swings, sled pushes and an array of things as it is never the same.

My diet is fairly consistent. I have a cup of coffee in the morning when I get to work with a bit of the unsweetened almond milk and for breakfast at home I have a smoothie with 3 cups of spinach, 2 tablespoons of bee pollen, water, 1/2 a frozen banana, 1/2 an apple and some frozen blueberries. I also have a 2 eggs omelet with things like onion, peppers, spinach, bacon, sausage, mushrooms in some combination. For lunch I have a piece of chicken or some sort of meat I made the night before and usually steamed broccoli, zucchini, or squash. For dinner is some sort of meat as well like a steak, pork chop, chicken, crab meat, shrimp, scallops or a piece of fish and some sort of veggie like lunch.

I have been doing this for the entire 3 months for the most part. My carbs are probably less than 50 grams a day.

Any thoughts of changing anything up. I really like my smoothies and need fruit to offset the spinach as I don't want to take that away.

I do need to get a body fat test soon as I can't just go by the scale alone. As mentioned I want to a trim and defined mid section which is tons of work at 43 yrs old. That is my goal as weight honestly does not matter.

[Knifegill]

You're doing it right. The last few pounds take the longest, and don't be surprised about these stalls, slight regains, and then losses again. I got down to 175 here at 5'9", and now I'm just adding muscle, which is destroying body fat pretty efficiently. My weight goes up and down in this ten pound range - sometimes I weigh 170 and sometimes 180. If anything, increase your protein if it's not already very high. But honestly, you've already won this battle. Good job. Keep on keeping on.

[rrich49132]

Thanks so do you mind me asking how long you have been primal and how long can would you say it will take following the course and losing my love handles and mid section?

[marthat]

Check out the Shangri La Diet info at Seth Roberts and The Shangri-La Diet. The "diet" is actually a concept of flavourless calories that fool your body and brain into letting go of the setpoint. It's explained better there, but the how-to is to consume a shot of flavourless calories (usually pure fat, like light olive oil) within a window of 2 hours with no other flavours. The effect is to lower your setpoint, reduce your appetite and allow your body to release the fat it's holding on to. Five years ago, I lost 18 lbs in 3 months, achieving my goal weight of 135 lbs after years of never being able to bust below 148 lbs. It was amazing! I still use the oilshots a couple of days a week, and have been using them to successfully lose the 15 lbs that I put on through stress and falling off the Primal wagon last fall. I've lost 12.5 lbs in the last 60 days doing Whole30 and SLD oilshots about 3 days a week.

In a nutshell, shoot back 2 tbsp extra light olive oil or other rather flavourless pure fat while holding you breath and chase with lots of water. Eat or drink nothing with flavour for the hour before and after, no gum, mints, toothpaste, etc. You should notice a reduction in appetite, referred to on their forums as AS(appetite suppression).

It meshes nicely with the Primal guidelines and may help. Good luck!

[teach2183]

I wouldn't change anything just yet. It's hard for your body to drop lots of fat and muscle at the same time. You may just be in a muscle building phase. I haven't lost anything in 6 weeks but people have been commenting that I look slimmer. Until all changes stop, I would keep up what you're doing.

[rrich49132]

Good point.

I need some sort of BF tester. Those scales you but really don't work with accurate numbers as that is the only way I can find out if this is working while my weight stays the same and obviously what I look like in the mirror.