One year plateau?!?!

This topic contains 7 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by martina 7 years, 10 months ago.

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martina

9:17 am
7 Feb 17
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Hello everyone,
I have been on the fasting diet for over 3 years. When I started, I weighed 70kg. My goal weight was 60kg. It took me 10 months to lose my first 8kg, then my body kind of settled at 62kg, and no matter what I tried (5:2 or even 4:3) those last 2kg weren’t coming off. So I decided I was happy weighing 62kg, which I managed to keep for 18 months on 6:1.

In February 2016 I was prescribed Nortriptyline as a preventative drug for my chronic migraines. The neurologist did warn me that it may cause some weight gain. Within 2 weeks I put on a kilo, within 4 weeks, another one. I decided to go back to 5:2 (rather than staying on 6:1), but the weight kept creeping up, and I found myself that by the end of 8 weeks I had put on 3 kilos! I decided to come off the drug, since not only it made me put on weight, but it wasn’t even working at preventing migraines 🙁

I carried on with my 5:2 regime, in the hope of losing those 3 extra kilos that I had gained, but instead of losing them, gradually over the last 8 months I put on another 2 kilos! So I am now back to weighing 67kg, which is 5 kilos more than I had lost and maintained for 2 years (can’t find an emoticon that can express how I feel!)

One thing I have tried recently is going 4:3 for a month, but it made no difference. At Christmas I was given a Fitbit and I decided to add walking to my daily routine. So, in the last 6 weeks I’ve also walked an extra half hour every day (on top of doing 5:2). No difference so far, I still weigh 67kg and I am literally losing hope and thinking of giving up all together.

In the past I have tried the Atkins, South Beach, Slimming World and Weight Watchers, none of them gave me the results I wanted, or long-lasting ones like I had with the Fasting Diet in the first two years. I am at loss as to what to do next 🙁

And before anyone suggests this: on the fasting day I’ve also tried to just drink water and no food at all, but having no food/sugars in my body, triggered nasty migraine attacks.

Hope someone can help.

Mark Mywordz

10:07 am
10 Feb 17
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Sorry to hear that, martina.I would suggest you continue with 5:2 but first do 3 days of this: http://www.thefitindian.com/the-fastest-indian-vegetarian-diet-to-lose-weight/.
It works every time for me and is very quick.
I have just done 3 days of it and lost 5 pounds. I use the Indian diet whenever I reach a plateau on 5:2 and it works every time. The good thing is that you can eat as much as you like/need.
It is recommended that you walk 5 miles every day with 5:2. 5 miles takes about 1.5 hours. If that seems too much try to build up gradually to 5 miles, if possible.
Dr Jason Fung’s book might help with the migraine.
Good luck.
Mark

martina

11:43 am
10 Feb 17
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Thank you for your advice Mark. This diet sounds interesting and not too hard to follow. Do you just do Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3? or do you do the 3 days in random order?

My Fitbit tells me I walk on average 6km each day (which is less than 5 miles). In the original book it didn’t mention this rule of walking 5 miles a day. Is this something new? I thought you could adjust your TDEE to the amount of exercise you took. Even though I walk 6 km a day, I asked the TDEE calculator for ‘sedentary’ calories allowance, and it gave me 1500 calorie per day on non-diet days which I stick to.

Thank you again
Martina

AT

12:21 pm
10 Feb 17
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Hi Martina

I had a similar experience to yours……

You don’t say what your height is and your BMI so maybe 67kg is where you are meant to be???

Last year having dropped from 69.8kg at the beginning of January, I then plateaued at around 58kg from the end of May and by the end of October I had gone up to 59.5kg!
I then discovered the November Challenge and joined – the support of the group and the advice given so generously got me to my target weight of 55kg by the beginning of December.
I experimented with doing B2B 1/4 TDEE FDs, 16:8 on my NFDs, water only FDs – I did not increase my exercise levels as I was already doing 2 x yoga classes, 1 x pilates and 1 x gentle aerobic class on top of fell walking 2 or 3 times a week. (I also I asked the TDEE calculator for ‘sedentary’ calories allowance) You are correct in that exercise is not essential to weight loss but Dr Mosely does advice it to speed up weight loss and I would say that walking 6km is no more than lightly active)
Since then I have been maintaining between just under 55kg and just above 54kg (with a BMI of 20 to 20.5)
In order to maintain and be able to enjoy my treats of wine 3-4 times a week and cake 1-2 times a week, I still do 2 x FDs each week (these are either 1/4 TDEE days or water fasts depending on how I feel) and 16:8 NFDs (I’m not an early breakfast person so very happy to break my fast with brunch or lunch) – I weigh weekly after my 2nd FD for consistency. I’m carrying on with the FDs for the long term health benefits and because I feel good doing them!!!

I would say to mix things up a bit, also if you have a high carb diet maybe reducing the carbs a bit and increasing vegetables and protein might help the weight to start dropping off again – Good luck with your journey

martina

1:08 pm
10 Feb 17
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Thank you AT for sharing your story. You’re doing really well, by the way, well done!

I just ran the calculator again and put ‘lightly active’. I am 160cm tall and weigh 67kg.

These are the results:

Your BMI is: 26.2
Your BMR is: 5289 kJ / 1264 calories
Your TDEE is: 7272 kJ / 1738 calories

I was actually sticking to 1500 calories on my NFDs, so in theory I should have lost weight. My FitBit tells me I burnt an average of 1,878 calories a day in the last month.

So, what am I doing wrong? Does lack of sleep have an impact on weight loss? I’ve not been sleeping well at night. I get an average of 6 hours sleep, but often interrupted because I am in pain.

Mark Mywordz

7:48 pm
10 Feb 17
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Re the Indian GM vegetarian diet. I don’t do it full time but once or twice a year I do it, when I plateau and can’t seem to lose any weight whatever I do. I do days 1,2,3 in that order. There is probably some logic to the order but I don’t know what it is. All I know is that it works and I lose 5 lbs in 3 days. I do the stuff I also do on 5:2 like drinking plenty and keeping busy. But I don’t count calories at all on the Indian diet, I just eat when I’m hungry.
Like AT I do “2 x FDs each week (these are either 1/4 TDEE days or water fasts depending on how I feel) and 16:8 NFDs” but I’ve only done water fasts 3 times in 2 years. I went out for meals with friends twice one week and had to do 2 water fasts to get back on track.
I live in Spain and wine is very good and cheap here but I try to drink only at weekends and mostly it’s one or 2 glasses of Rioja and no more. Spanish cakes are rubbish, so I eat very little cake even though I like it.

Vaderz

10:04 pm
10 Feb 17
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Hi Martina – how are your stress levels? You say you’re not sleeping well… you’re worried about your weight gain, worried about your migraines – stress could very well be the culprit here?

Read this article: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/

Ignore the bits about very low calorific intake and high levels of exercise (just another form of stress for the body), but read the bits about how cortisol can affect your body and particularly the bits about additional water retention it can cause you to retain (which is probably what the weight gain was from when you were on that drug)… so, there is a good chance that the majority of it isn’t fat gain, just that your body is retaining a higher water level because of the elevated cortisol levels.

I would be interested in hearing back whether you think this could be your issue and how you go about addressing it – and whether it actually works. One suggestion would be to raise your calories to that 1700 level (eat food you enjoy – maybe even have a rest from 5:2 and go back to 7:0, just for 2-3 weeks), change your routine around to minimise stress during your day and do what you can to get a better nights sleep (will probably help with your migraines too!)… easier said than done I guess, but ‘give yourself permission’ to relax, spend more time socialising with friends if you can and generally try to chill out. If elevated cortisol levels are causing higher water retention, then a few weeks of that should start to see that water retention lower (reducing your weight on the scales), and once that starts to stabilise again, you can then go back to 5:2 and your 1500 calorie NFD and resume as you were doing before.

Hope that helps (and makes sense) 🙂

martina

11:41 pm
10 Feb 17
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Thank you guys, you’ve been very supportive.

@mark, I’m curious to try your Indian Diet, it seems fairly easy compared to fasting. I don’t drink any alcohol, so that’s a help I guess.

@vaderz, I read the link you sent and it was very good. In fact I have been wondering whether stress levels might have something to do with it. I am not consciously stressed as such, but my migraines, which are chronic, cause me a lot of physical suffering, poor sleep, etc. I also found this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24238370

My insulin levels are OK, I get them checked once a year as I had gestational diabetes. I went through an early menopause, so that didn’t help either. I think there’s an element of fluid retention, as my legs tend to look swollen, especially in the evening. It’s possible that a lot of weight that won’t come off is water rather than fat. I need to figure out some natural way to get rid of excess water, without taking additional medication. But I also like your idea of having a break from dieting, and eat 1700 cal a day for a few weeks 🙂

I also take several different medications for other conditions and I do wonder if their combination is having some strange effect on my metabolism.