Not Losing? Maybe you are a "Wait and Whoosh" body type

[chinadoll]

I have been back on induction for eight days and my body is readjusted. So now I am preparing myself for its inevitable weight loss pattern of wait and whoosh.

A lot of folks have been posting about how they are doing everything right but only losing a pound or so or maybe seesawing for a month at a time.

They are getting some great advice and being asked to post menus and do all these things to start the process. I have to tell you I have been there and there is nothing more frustrating than doing everything right and still not losing. In fact the advice even starts to grate on you because you know you are doing things right.

Well I am here to tell you something entirely different. I know from past experience my body will often go six weeks without losing a single pound. Or it will tease me by giving me a glimpse of a lower weight then bounce back up three or four pounds and leave me hanging.

Then, out of the blue, six or seven weeks into a "stall", I will lose several pounds at once. Mind you I am not a fast loser. I have to struggle for every pound. Probably because I am not a small eater. I eat between 1800 and 1900 calories a day and put in a lot of exercise to compensate. I am also female, premenopausal, and highly resistant to weight loss. BUT the point is the pattern of loss is WAIT & WHOOSH. Yours may be the same so put away the scale. If you are truly doing things right then the loss will follow. Use inches instead and try to focus on how you are feeling physically. Its tough to be patient but I am hoping that some of you may recognize yourselves in this and have the patience to wait it out.

Until I got used to this pattern, I played a mental game with myself. My body and I were at war. I had the goal to retake my body by sticking to the woe. My fat cells kept trying to hoard the weight to fool me into giving up. It was just a waiting game to see who would give out first. Would I give in to carbs and wave the white flag? Or would I withstand the seige of the scale and wait until the fatcells gave up and went home? I became determined that I was not going to allow my fat cells to scare me off the WOE. I'd wait for the whoosh and trust that doing the right thing would eventually give me the results I wanted. I am stubborn and that helped.

I am now restarting after taking some time away for a number of reasons and am writing this to remind myself that the game has begun again so I need to be prepared. So, take this fat cells!

[Sunny_0ne]

Thanks, Chinadoll. That was a very encouraging post.... for a lot of us.

[chinadoll]

Well we aren't all steady losers. LOL I figure there may be others like me who need to know they are "normal" and wanted to help them not get frustrated.

[C P]

Thanks for this post chinadoll. I really did need that this morning - DH has lost another pound and me - still the same! Although, as I've posted in other posts I'm really feeling the health benefits, I was feeling a bit grumpy and weepy this morning.

The ironic thing is that on any other 'diet,' this morning would have seen me having a rebellious binge. You probably know the 'reasoning' that goes...

'Well I might as well have something I really want - I'm being so 'good' and not getting anywhere...'

Because I do feel so good in other ways, cheating wasn't an option - so I was even feeling miffed about the fact that I couldn't even bring myself to cheat for the instant (short-term) satifaction it would bring! Now that is a weird feeling!

I came on the board first thing (still in bed!) for a good read and hoping to get my spirits up, and this has definitely helped. It's raining here at the moment, so my planned gardening is a no-go. Looks like I'll be getting on the walker/strider machine and day-dreaming of the summer veggie plot and the elusive whoosh!

Thanks again

CP

[chinadoll]

You made my day. That was the whole idea.

[stephbob]

I completely agree with the OP! The first time I did Atkins, I was losing 1lb every day. This time around, I'm on day 6, but I've lost it in 2 stages. Everyone is different, and some people will find that every time they do Atkins, they can have different results.

At the end of the day, as long as the weight comes off, that's what's important! Whether you lose 1 lbs a day over 5 days or 5lbs in one day every week, it's coming off!

[Zarabelle]

Great post!

The last time I did Atkins, I used to stay the same weight or drop half a pound for three weeks in a row and then whoosh 3-5 pounds off on the fourth week (when I got my period).

I now have an IUD and so don't have a monthly cycle and seem to lose slow and steady each week.

[kibskix]

the first time I did atkins I lost a little every day in the first week or so, then i'd stall for a few days to a week, then lose it all at once. But the amount I lost at a time equaled the amount i would have lost if it had come off every day, so I just ignored it and let my body lose the way it wanted to. I realize that isnt the same as stalling for 6 weeks, but its the same sort of concept, especially for those of us who are very impatient and obsessive about the scale!

[stephbob]

I don't know if anyone here can answer this, but is a stall usually just your body's way of readjusting to what you're doing to it? I know how frustrating stall are, when you go weeks or months without dropping a pound, but is it still a case of slow and steady wins the race? (Or at least finishes in our cases!)

[chinadoll]

I have always thought of it as a place your body regards as a set point. A weight where, biologically, your body liked to be. I have found a tendency to stall at weights where I had previously been stable for a long time in the past. I agree with you that our bodies are probably readjusting. When I hit a stall I try to put myself into a maintenance mindset. I still follow the WOE but I try not to have any expectations to lose (hard I know) for awhile. Eventually, the body is ready to move on. The trick is to hang in there while it figures out where to go.