Weight loss - suddenly slow? HELP

[pleasehelp235]

Whenever I have gone on slimming world
/weight loss journeys before I tend to lose weight quite quickly.

I have been dieting for the last 5 weeks and the weight loss is suddenly very slow.

Can anyone give me tips on how to speed it back up? I know all of the usual I.e more water, less carbs, more exercise etc

It’s completely normal for weight loss to slow down at times and then pick up again, so try not to worry too much about it.

How long has your weight loss stalled for?

Apparently this is quite common.

I am the opposite - I find weight loss slow at the beginning - and then suddenly speeds up! Don't quite know why . But then I do eventually reach a plateau of sorts.

My reading on the internet is that plateaus are often your body trying to "adjust" to the drop in calories etc. The body doesn't like change, and prefers homeostasis. It also wants to protect you against starvation. Various hormones come into play, to try to slow things down, including weight loss!

Some things I've read suggest this is the time i.e during a plateau or when you're "tired" either physically or mentally of the "diet" - to actually "come off" the diet and have a break!!!!! It sounds counter-intuitive but there is a suggestion that its best to stop "deficit" calories and to up them to "maintenance" calories (even maintenance plus a little bit more) for a couple of weeks until this phase passes. Your various hormone and thermogenic and metabolic levels get restored during the break. Then go back to the diet "refreshed", and the theory is your body is more ready to lose more weight. Its good if you can time these breaks with holidays ... P.S. These breaks are not meant to be about total self-indulgence, just increasing to maintenance rather than deficit or maintenance plus a little more. According to the theory, you may even put on a little weight during this short time (mostly glycogen) but you this will go again once you "return" to calorie deficit .

As, according to some things I've read, it can take up to a year for the body to accept a new "set point" after successful weight loss - instead of "fighting" it - this may be a way to consolidate weight loss along-the-way, rather than all at the "end" of the diet. So in the end - it all works out easier and takes the same (or even less) amount of time.

Just my halfpennys worth ....

Very interesting @PixPax!

Thank you DownUdd. It explains something, doesn't it? Although mindlessly returning to old habits is no doubt part of people putting weight back on of course - some of it is probably also the body "fighting back" by increasing hunger hormones etc etc. In its own way its trying to protect you from perceived threat of starvation etc by lowering metabolism, increasing hunger hormones, etc. It takes a lot of willpower to ignore those messages - and thats maybe when the serious yo-yo dieting and "disordered eating" begins?

As I said, from my reading, "diet fatigue" - including tiredness, hunger, weakness, plateaus etc - probably means its time to take a break or relax a bit, not up the ante!

That said, I can't say I've sorted it myself. I just know that losing a stone and then putting it back on again is not going to help me, short term or long term. In fact even me going on about "maintenance calories" in my last post - shows to me that I've started losing the plot and it might be time for me to relax myself and take my foot of the accelerator for a while ...

Just to add, I've looked at some old threads on ''how to keep the weight loss off'' etc, and they make interesting reading (though even then people disagree, as people have their own way). But flexibility, overall consistency and commitment it seems to me is what counts, not punishment (though of course I guess some people take that road too). I think these kinds of threads act as lots of "signs" along the road to show us how people have made it work*, but we all also have to find what works for us and what we're trying to achieve.

Ciao.

*e.g. Karl Lagerfield drank 10 cans of diet cokes a day on his "diet" but is that whats going to work for us .

Or Judy Garland (since she's been in the news recently). Pills, eating disorders, yes she was thin but she died young probably related issues ...

Sorry, I'll stop there. On my feet, cooking a roast, and a couple of .

Can I bribe my son to go out and get an apple pie for afters, sorry taking the p* now .