Stalls and Plateaus

Officially a "stall" is 4 - 6 weeks of no weight change at all.  Most folks hit a "plateau" after some weight loss.  My theory is that your body is adjusting to your ongoing weight loss in stages, and needs time to acclimate each time you have a drop in your weight.  After all, the ancient biological mechanism of your body is geared completely towards retaining weight.  You body sees weight loss as a crisis!

Caffeine can slow some folks from losing. It can imitate the insulin reaction and inhibit ketosis, same with sweeteners. That sweet taste can trigger carb cravings and can fool your body, so you don't get into ketosis.

So, decrease the sweetener, and the coffee. Drink water instead. Eliminate them if you can, and see what happens. You could probably add some green salad and green veggies to your diet, roughage is a good thing, and cut out some of the cheese. Try it for just the next week, and see what happens. Make it your goal to try to stay at about the 20 carbs mark.  That way if you go over, it's only a little.  

Cheese, is another problem area. For some folks it can stall them. Between the salt, which retains water, and the "hidden carbs", it can be a problem for many.  CARBS HIDE!!!  Cheese is NOT a completely carb free food.    Also - labels lie!! If it is less than one carb per serving, they can legally say it has "zero" carbs, but they can have partial carbs, which add up. 

Bacon is often cured with sugar, and has about half a carb a slice. Rule of thumb is 1 carb for 2 slices. Cheddar cheese does have carbs, not many, but an ounce has roughly .4 gr. of carbs.  Call it half a carb. One large egg has .6 gr. carbs, NutraSweet has carbs too - 0.861 per packet. Most ketchup has sugar in it. 4.1 gr. carbs per tablespoon!! One half cup of sour cream has 4.9 carbs.  100 gr. of broccoli (about 3/4 of a cup) has 5 grams of carbs. 

So, point one, are you counting the "hidden" carbs? If not, you need to start paying attention to that.

Point two, For some folks, the TYPE of carbs matter a lot. Veggie carbs don't phase them, but cheese, and sweeteners really throw them off ketosis. Could be the same overt number of carbs, but they hit their system differently. Everyone's different. Experiment, and see what happens.

Also, stop weighing yourself every day, you're going to drive yourself nuts! I know! Some folks, it takes time for their bodies to adjust to the low carbs. Atkins says it can even take a few days to get the residuals out of your body. 

Many folks go through this - Hang in there!!! You can DO this!