Ok. I've plateaued. Help.

[HolyQuadrityDrinkFeckArseGirls]

I have been in light to medium ketosis for the last 10 days (got ketostix) but I'm not losing any weight anymore.
I and been low-carbing for over 3 months and uptill about a month ago I have been losing weight slowly but systematically. Ideally I'd like to lose half a stone.

The worst thing is I really suffered with pmt before my curent period during which I pug on 2lbs! Half of it was water retention and half the amount of food I ate over 3 days of the ore-period hunger I still ate the allowed stuff, just twice as much more of it. I thought it'd go down once the period arrived but most of it stayed. What do I do?

Bump

Steady loss for 3 months is brill well done!! The last 7lbs are notoriously hard to lose. Normal to plateau at 3 months so you could think about allowing a month for your body to catch up then take action if weight loss continues to stall. If that fails people on here have tried a variety of things you could look into:
*Cutting out dairy/caffeine/fruit/eggs/chocolate/nuts - maybe try one or 2 at a time for 3 days and see what works
*restricting cals and fat (Favadi from the paleo thread is doing this)
*egg fast - quite a few people have done this recently with mixed success if you scroll down there are a couple of threads including an update one
*Having a weekly high (healthy) carb day or carb cycling- Fourarms did this I think
*IF or skipping breakfast and only eating within an 8 hour window (wii fit is doing this as part of a paleo cleanse)

I clearly spend too much time on this board and need to get a life ;)

Thank you yumyum!

I read somewhere that low-carbing does not lose you weight but it corrects it to your optimal weight. Which is fine but i'm a gym bunny doing weights and I'd like to lose a bit more of fat to build up muscle instead.

I've cut out fruit, nuts, very rarely have 90% chocolate. Do eat butter and double cream but cut out milk and soft cheeses. Do eat eggs though. Hmmm. And drink coffee but coffee stays! Need to start writibg stuff down, maybe i'm lieu g to myself or something.

I suspect I don't eat enough fat. What would you recommend?

Sorry it's so long!

Stalls are common on LC plans as it seems to correct your whole metabolism and your body takes time out every now and then to readjust. The stalls get longer and more frequent the closer you are to target.

Are you within the ideal BMI range? If you go to the gym you could be carrying a fair amount of muscle and need to assess your weight more in the athletic ranges. Is there the facility at the gym to get your body fat measured? You may not be carrying as much as you think.

If you do think you genuinely need to lose a bit more then it might be an idea just to check you haven't gone off piste by using one of the food diary sites that gives a breakdown into macros. I use Fat Secret but a lot on here use My Fitness Pal. Don't think theres much to choose between them.

Sometimes you just have to wait it out.

Actually, I think you might need more healthy carbs potentially if you are a gym bunny! Def look into carb refeds www.marksdailyapple.com/carb-refeeding-and-weight-loss/#axzz3CuWe9H2i and having maybe 2 very low carb on days when not exercising? You could try swapping cream for coconut oil (bulletproofcoffee etc)?

If you could do some cardio like a dvd before breakfast or going for a run while fasted that might get rid of some lbs and hopefully the fact you are losing weight will counteract any muscle loss? I know this works for me and is what I need to start doing at some point can't quite bring myself to get up at 6.00-

Maybe look into primal and cross fit there might be some advice on losing fat there if you do a google search? Otherwise it might be worth doing a new question in chat or exercise topics so someone who knows about plateaus when low carbing and lifting weights might pick it up? sorry not much help ... I am not great at the exercise stuff!

A lot of the advice on how to overcome a plateau is contradictory so pick something and try it for a couple of weeks if it doesn't work try something else. I think it is all about shaking things up - different food, different exercise, more or less cals food etc..

(ps please let me know what works so I can try it if I get to the amazing point of 7lbs before goal!)

I do think it's natural to plateau at this kind of distance from goal. Sometimes the body needs to 'reset' itself before further weight loss can occur. Are you taking measurements as well as weighing? If your waist/hips have reduced but your weight hasn't then you may be due for a whoosh. Alternatively I notice my wobbly bits go soft just before a whoosh. If that's the case then you can trigger a whoosh with a carb refeed. I recommend something like a baked potato for lunch, a small amount of white rice with dinner and maybe an alcoholic drink in the evening for a carb refeed. Enough carbs for a temporary glycogen gain that will take the excess water away when you lose it in a couple of days, but not so much that you fall off the wagon into carby excess.

Another thing that can work near goal is to track your macros. Personally I see optimum weight loss at 5% carbs, 20% protein and 75% fat. If you're tracking macros then you can keep an eye on total calories to make sure you aren't overeating. If you're eating things like pork scratchings and bulletproof coffees then calories can rack up very quickly.

Eating eggs is great as they are naturally low carb, cheap, easy to cook, satiating and their choline content is supposed to optimise fat burning. I eat at least one egg meal a day, sometimes two. The egg fast is a good way to break a stall and lose weight fast but it isn't very high protein and if you're active you run the risk of losing a bit of muscle mass. I used it after coming back from holiday a bit heavier and lost 2.5 lb in three days while half a stone from my goal weight of 9 stone.

If you feel you can skip breakfast then intermittent fasting is a great way to lose the last few pounds. I did 14:10 for a while which meant that after I had eaten my last meal of the day, I didn't eat again for 14 hours. So if I had dinner at 6 then I was okay to have breakfast at 8, but if I had a late night snack then I may not have eaten until 11 the next day. You can have up to 50 calories during your fast so you can still have a cup of tea or two first thing. The best thing about IF is you don't have to do it every day. If you wake up hungry then just have breakfast and go back to IF the next day. It's supposed to target the stubborn body fat too (because of a difference in the receptors on fat cells in different areas in the body). If you're too hungry in the morning to delay eating then a bulletproof coffee for breakfast is a good compromise.