Dutch ~
Congratulations on your loss! I am really happy for your success! It is so worth the wait (weight), eh?
Sudaoning ~
Re: your
slow loss and your plan
When people hit a stall, it is needful to asses their entire plan – adequate water, meals on time, exact amount of meat – weigh it after cooking and exact amount of veggies, etc.
What’s your stress level like? In my April 2004 Newsletter
http://www.makemethinner.com/newsletter ... letter.htm
I addressed the issue of stress and how it affects weight loss. Research is showing more how our body reacts negatively to increased stress levels. Cortisol increases can cause our body to store flab instead of releasing it. We pack our lives so full with activities, we spend more time stuck in traffic, we live like caged rats in our workplace – little tiny cubicles where we fail to get natural lighting and rarely get a chance to leave the hamster wheel to take a break. More people are looking for ways to de-stress and they aren’t doing it in a gym – they are doing it by the glassful, by the bagful and by the plateful.
Are you getting enough sleep?
When people have not been resting very well and certainly not sleeping enough it will show on the scale. Our body must have adequate rest in order to repair and restore itself.
Physical injuries affect weight loss as does excessive exercise for the amount of calories taken in. That’s why I suggest that active women use Medifast 70 rather than Medifast 55. However, Suda, you haven’t been ODing in the exercise department.
If all these things are right in line with the Medifast weight loss program, then there are a few other things I look at. I have a person consider having shakes only – no bars at all - for a few days then resume the regular 5 and One Plan. Another suggestion is to have a double shake for breakfast – two packets of MF mixed with 12-16 ounces of water, then the other five shakes every three hours.
People that have their bar in the evening or for breakfast can sometimes create weight loss slowdowns. We do not want to introduce a bar for the first meal of the day because they have higher amounts of sugar than does oatmeal or a shake. After having gone all night with no food, it is not a good idea to break the fast with a sugar surge – it makes the blood sugar level raise too rapidly and then drop off. Likewise, the bars have higher carbs and it is best to not have them after supper in the evening since most people will not be exercising prior to bedtime. It is suggested that bars be eaten at lunch, early or later afternoon when one has had some steady input of food and will have some activity.
People with thyroid issues have slow weight loss – it is a bummer but that’s the nature of the disease. There may be some health issues that affect weight loss. Certainly a woman’s menstrual cycle wreaks havoc and yet because we know it comes about regularly, we must prepare for it by getting adequate exercise, rest and drink plenty of fluids and lay off succumbing to those manic calls of carbs and fatty foods by slurping a Dutch Choc shake or having soothing herbals teas!
I personally would not go with two Lean and Greens per day for a young person without diabetes but it’s your choice to do so if you will. Older people do have different nutritional needs than do younger people and also people with compromised health. Seniors eat two smaller Lean and Green meals and usually have 4 Medifast products, depending upon the caloric levels we plan along with their physician’s direction.
Regarding the 6-8 ounces of protein – I think that people often DO NOT measure their protein amount and over eat protein, which means that their meal is not balanced properly and it directly affects their weight loss. I have been MFing for quite a while now and only recently do I eyeball it – I have measured faithfully. It is too hard to guesstimate how much is 5-6 ounces. Americans are used to consuming rather large quantities of meat and fish and often eat larger portions that are needed for good health, let alone the amount permitted on a weight loss program.
I am not a physician nor pretend to be one but have extensive training and experience using Medifast. Each person is unique and our bodies just do not all behave the same way and for some reason, some of us have fat stores that just don’t seem to wanna leave! Drat! I hate it when that happens. It
IS frustrating – for you and for me, too. When I allow a couple pounds to creep up, it takes a long time to shed them – it’s not like the first two-three weeks on Medifast when I began in 2002. How I wish that I could have you all dump a pound a day, we would all be feeling mighty fine.
Some of you do well to weigh once a month, some do fine weighing once a week and others, like moi, weigh every dang time we walk past the scale! I feel that there is definite value in recording one’s daily food intake and weight so that we can analyze the loss patterns.
Our daughter has had some very slow weight loss weeks. She went several weeks with the needle of the scale barely moving and then it picks up and she dumps a number of pounds per week. That’s her body’s pattern.
I am on maintenance and yet my “good” weight days are Thursday – Saturday. I can virtually not vary my eating habits one iota and somehow pick up a pound or two over a matter of one - two days and then it will take several days for it to fall away. I don’t get my knickers in a wad any more when that happens because of my food journaling and recording my weight daily. I understand my body better.
Suda, it is unusual for a person to experience a
true plateau so early in the weight loss phase as you are at this point. They often do not occur until a person has lost 40-50 pounds. If you have faithfully been measuring your protein amounts, it certainly won’t hurt to increase your protein up to 8 ounces to try to ‘shock’ your body system. Protein imbalance can sometimes do the trick.
I know this is long a drawn out response to your simple question but I felt it necessary to address this complex issue as so many are reading this and are all at different points in your weight loss program. Some are beginners, some are mid-program and some are about ready to begin transition and some are maintaining.
May the Fat Fairy crash and burn and not visit any one’s house ever again!
May the Skinny Fairy visit us all every day! Shake on, Kids!