Weight plateau

Hello and welcome to the forum. Have you considered Intermittent Fasting or The Eating Window?

Tagging @daisy1 for the information pack for you.

I plateaued for several months my advice is to keep going and it will start again

I notice no mention of exercise. Starting exercise 10 mins twice a day might be a good start increasing when it feels right 15 min...20,,,,25...30 may prove that catalyst to start losing again

Hi @Frosticles it is likely one or two variables which have stalled weight loss. I got a massive weight loss over Christmas by changing one thing in my protocol, for me it was to remove yogurt from my food; this was keeping me steady, so is a good maintainer on my lifestyle eating.

I would keep a diary for a week or 2 of what your staples are. Eat similarly to what you currently do and remove just 1 item at a time (When I removed the yogurt I increased veg). If there is no change after 2 or 3 days, return the staple and remove another, and so on. Other tweaks you can consider, completing your last meal circa 17.00 and having as long a window as possible (comfortable) before the next meal. There is no need to go hungry. If you are not getting circa 7 hours sleep try this, during your deep sleep is when the weight loss occurs, so this is vital.

Frosticles said:

Low carb has stopped working for me. My weight has stayed the same for months! Initially it was great, I lost 18lbs and reduced my Hb from 75 to 37 and am now only taking 500mg Metformin. I would like to come off Metformin and BP tablets and also stop my surgery from trying to push cholesterol tablets on me. Any ideas?

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Hi,

You said 'low carb has stopped working for me'.
But I would suggest that unless your blood glucose is rising to your previously high levels, then low carb is still working very well for you. What are your current blood glucose levels?

Did you really mean that low carb eating is no longer resulting in weight loss for you?
If that is the case then it is just part of the process for many of us - there is absolutely no guarantee that low carbing means endless weight loss.

You can try shaking things up with intermittent fasting, changing exercise, changing eating patterns within low carbing, or look at calories, etc. Or you can be absolutely delighted that you have already lost 18 pounds, celebrate them, and enjoy your healthier, trimmer body with its nice normal blood glucose (assuming that you are still at an HbA1c of 37).

Frosticles said:

Low carb has stopped working for me. My weight has stayed the same for months! Initially it was great, I lost 18lbs and reduced my Hb from 75 to 37 and am now only taking 500mg Metformin. I would like to come off Metformin and BP tablets and also stop my surgery from trying to push cholesterol tablets on me. Any ideas?

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What is your current weight (oh, and how tall are you?).

With any weight loss eating plan there will come a point where you plateau - that is whatever you are eating matches your energy expenditure.

Often this is partly from reducing the amount you eat and partly from your body adjusting to less energy input.

If you are in a good place - that is, BG levels fine any you are comfortable with your weight - then job done.

If not (and I am in this position) then you will probably have to cut back on what you eat until weight loss starts again. This is a hard road because your body tends to become more efficient the longer you eat less. I suppose it is like training your legs - after a while you can walk further using less energy as you become fitter. The weight loss thing may be a "whole body fitness" thing where through training your body is using food far more efficiently. Which is fine until you want to lose some weight.

As others have said, fasting (intermittent or longer term) may help start the weight loss again.

Frosticles said:

Hi brunneria, don't get me wrong, I am absolutely delighted with my weight lose so far, but I know that I need to lose more weight - I'm a shorty and carrying too much weight for my height. I hope my HbA1c is still 37, my surgery will only do diabetic bloods once a year - they don't advocate LCHF either or want their patients to test! I'm not allowed an appointment with the diabetic nurse unless I have a real problem - so no advice there until next august. I try to keep an eye on the number of calories I eat as well as carbs. I will give intermittent fasting a try and do more exercise. Thanks for your advice. I'm an avid reader of the forum and it's thanks to everyone on the forum that I found out about LCHF and managed to get as far as I have.

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One suggestion: change surgery or have your diabetes care taken over by the clinic at the local hospital.

I would also suggest getting a BG meter. That way what you can see if what your eating is creating any spikes.
I know for myself that even though I have a A1C of 40 I still can spike after meals if I have too many carbs in one sitting. And that stalls my weight loss

@Frosticles

Hello Frosticles and welcome to the Forum Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful and interesting. Ask as many questions as you like and someone will help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
  
  
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
  

Frosticles said:

Thanks guzzler - what is the eating window?

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As far as I understand it The Eating Window is a method whereby you eat your day's food within a set period of roughly four hours. @CherryAA may be able to explain it better as she has had some success with it.

Are you eating enough?
We are so used to hearing how calories in calories out is the whole of the law - but for me, eating low carb means eating enough calories to run my body at some speed, healing well, looking good, mostly cheerful, but burning off fat at the same time. It does happen at the same time - and apparently I can eat far more calories when low carbing than when trying to cut out fat, for instance. That means sometimes calories have to be negative, and sometimes positive - otherwise it could not happen.
I need to eat only two meals a day, fairly well spread out, for best effect, as fasting is not something I can do without my liver helpfully tipping out glucose.