Dear Kayla,
It’s been 3 or more weeks and I’m still keeping at the same weight and not dropping. I’m eating only supper and having meat, salad and a veggie or meat and salad. Why am I not dropping weight?
Signed,
Sheila
Dear Sheila,
I know it’s frustrating to be in the situation you’re in. It sounds like you’re being consistent and trying hard, and the scale’s just not cooperating. Been there, done that. The main encouragement I can give you is that weight loss is laggy and cumulative, and it usually takes a lot longer than any of us want it to. But there are some things to investigate, just to make sure that results eventually do start to show up.
The first place to start is: do you need to lose weight? I like to start here because some women honestly believe they need to lose weight when they simply do not. A quick check of your height and weight against the Body Mass Index will give you an objective measure. And it will also give you reasonable expectations regarding the speed of your weight loss. Click here for a handy dandy BMI calculator.
If you are currently obese or very overweight according to the BMI an average loss of about 1 pound per week is reasonable. But as you approach the normal BMI, weight loss slows to something like 1/2 to 1/3 a pound of loss per week on average. This can feel like you’re not losing any weight at all, especially when you factor in how much body weight fluctuates naturally due to water retention. If you are at or near a normal BMI you’ll likely need 6 weeks of spot on consistency before you’ll see a downward trend in the scale’s movement.
Which brings us to the next place to investigate: consistency. How many off plan days have you had? If you’ve not been paying close attention to that, or (even better) tracking that, do so for the next 3 weeks. Also, how consistently have you been tracking your weight? I found that daily weighing combined with watching my 7-day average over 6 weeks of time helped me to see clearly whether my weight was truly stuck, or just slowly moving down.
I define a true plateau as 6+ weeks of spot on consistency with your plan, and 0 pounds of downward movement of your 7-day average, when compared to your 7-day average 6 weeks ago from today’s date. If you find you are in a true plateau, it means that you’re eating just enough to keep yourself at your current weight. To get the scale to drop, you have to eat less food. I know you pointed out you only eat veggies and meat. Alas, one can easily manage to eat in a caloric surplus even given those restrictions.
If you can, try to get comfortable with this process taking longer than you initially planned. Relax. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. You want this weight to stay off forever, so focus on working a plan that you can stick to for the rest of your life.
I wish you all the best on your weight loss journey!
Kayla Cox
PS: I also recommend having no forbidden foods. It can make weight loss feel so much more enjoyable, and easier. And it even helped me find my stopping power.
PPS: Here are some free resources you may find helpful: