Weight loss stall at an early stage page

[Free Range Grizzly]

Hi,

My wife and I started following a Paleo lifestyle about 6 weeks ago. We're both delighted with the fact that we feel better, sleep better - all the usual wellbeing benefits that people talk about here.

The problem is that despite both having a vast amount of weight to lose (she's currently 302lb), she's stalled after losing just 12lb.

There's no cheating, she often misses breakfast simply because she's not hungry, carb intake is below 100g per day. We're exercising 2-3 times per week either with kettlebells or walking - obviously exercise is a challenge when you're as big as we are but we've made a serious start. Body comp is changing as we measure ourselves once a fortnight and she's lost a total of 11 inches. I don't weigh as often as her as I'm more concerned with my health and body comp.

We haven't transitioned into low carb / paleo but gone cold turkey. We're both in ketosis (measured using Ketostix).

So the question is what are we doing wrong (if anything)? Should Mrs Grizzly be experiencing a plateau at this early stage and what (if anything) can we do to get out of it?

Any help would be welcome,

Thanks,

Grizzly

[Damiana]

Early weight loss is often water weight. Are you guys tracking what she's eating either by weighing out food portions and entering the data on a food tracking site? Either way, the loss of inches is a great sign that she is on the right track and a better indicator of body composition change than the number on a scale. I would advise you not to be discouraged and keep at it for awhile more.

[magnolia1973]

She might lose weight in spurts. She might be gaining muscle. She might be still retaining water.

Loss of inches is an indication that fat is leaving.

However, even in ketosis, some still have to watch calories. Double check how many calories and see if they sound reasonable. Of course, defining reasonable is a challenge, (people here eat 1400-4000 calories!), but you know, if she is eating 4000, maybe eat less. 2000 seems like a good start place for people. It's a myth that you can eat however much as long as you are low carb for a lot of people.

And stick with it. Weightloss is not linear and takes time, which is why a healthy, sustainable approach like primal works so well.

[Pilatesmom]

I just now went through that! I stalled at week 6. My body was still changing, but the scale was the same number for 3 weeks straight. Now, i wasn't perfect, but the little itty bitty bit of cheating I was doing was maybe 5% of the time, quite controlled. My scale just budged finally today. I have renewed faith that I am doing the right thing for my body and not only that, but the next size down of pants were a little loose! Have faith, keep going and enjoy the benefits you have achieved and the scale will change soon.

[sroelofs]

Check out the graph on my success page. You'll see that weight loss comes in fits and starts. Just keep working the process. 384 Days of Primal: Focusing on the Process to See Results | Mark's Daily Apple

[Free Range Grizzly]

Yep weight loss appears to have restarted over the weekend. The best news is that she went to buy a new pair of trousers on Saturday and when she tried them on found she'd dropped 2 sizes. There's no question that we'll stick with it - we both just feel so much better but changing body composition had us confused there for a while I think.

Thanks for your replies folks