The Plateau

So I have hit my first plateau last week.  No weight loss - but no gain, either.  It can and does happen to anyone losing weight, but it is still a bit irritating to go through.  As reinforced by lots of the people I know you simply have to shrug it off and keep sticking to your plan.  Time will make you keep losing weight if you stay healthy and active.

I took a closer look at my recent diet in the wake of this plateau week. Have I started changing what I eat much? The number one thing which would put the breaks on the Dukan Diet would be if I ate off-plan foods, or was using too much salt in my cooking.

I have been a little bit liberal in my schedule, I am supposed to do 'pure protein' days alternated with 'protein and veggie' days. I have done a few more 'veggie' days than I was supposed to, out of a growing boredom with the pure protein days.  Veggies make you retain more water, which can mask fat loss and this make the scales stay still.

The recommendation from my diet book is - if you 'plateau' for more than a week or two, try going back to the 'attack phase' for 4 days (pure proteins only) - double the time spent walking, and be sure to drink tons of water.  I can try this but I don't really think it is going to be the way for me.  I am more likely to stay on my current slightly-modified 'cruise phase' diet and reintroduce gym time.  I haven't actually been to the gym since I started this diet and shed about 32 pounds.  Mostly because so far, I haven't needed it to keep up the weight loss and I have really been enjoying walking around the neighborhood and college areas.

Here's why the gym is probably the right answer, versus rewinding my diet plan and walking forever and ever.

• Building muscle mass helps you be stronger, so you can exercise longer and more easily.
• Muscle burns through more calories, so your metabolism is in a higher gear.
• Having a gym routine in place enforces discipline, and will keep me from slacking when it's too wet or cold outside to go walking or jogging.
• There are things I can do at the gym which I can't really do properly at home.
• Losing a bunch of weight without building any muscle will eventually make me look ridiculous.  While not the primary reason for losing weight, I do want to look better too. :P

Fortunately the gym is not a new experience for me. We already have memberships and I used to go there at least a few times a week.  I am familiar with how to use most of the machines there, where to go and find all the free weights I need, etc.  It's just a matter of going back and making it happen.

I also need to take a little bit closer look at my diet and be sure I am getting enough calories. Leslie expressed to me recently I might not be.  If that's true, I will stop losing weight because the body will shut down the fat-burning process when it thinks I am starving myself thinner.  That's NOT what I want to be doing anyway. I want to be eating properly, not just less.

So!

I have some work to do this week figuring it out.  We booked plane tickets to Hawaii Saturday night, and thinking about roaming around in the heat on beaches in January is a pretty good motivator to figure out how to keep getting healthier. I want to have plenty of energy to explore while we are there. :)

There's a happy ending to the story though, here.  This morning I checked my weight again - 286 pounds. So after all that fretting all week, what I really needed was patience and to stay on target. That's 3 pounds down this week. I'll take it.



Click for the big version.