I'm stuck!

Dawnrader

Member
Hi folks, I'm here looking for a bit of advice.

I started slimming world back in November and to date i've lost 3 stone BUT I've been stuck at this same weight for almost a month now. Lose 1/2 lb, put it on, lose 1/2lb, put it on, I swear I've been drifting around this stone bracket for ages.

This week I decided to have a success express week to try and jump me back into losing again, I stuck to it really well, had salads with some sort of meat content for the full week and ate fruit or other free things for snacks. No carbs at all for the week, laid off the lattes' in work and drunk sugar free diluting juice instead. I did have some syns, used the higher levels for all of them but didn't even get near the 15 I'm allowed daily.

Got on the scales last night feeling pretty damn good to be told I had put this friggin 1/2lb back on!

I'm utterly mystified as to what is causing this and i'm very disheartened with the whole thing, i honestly feel like giving up but know it's going to be better in the long run if i stick with it.

Has this ever happened to any of you and what did you do to get back on track?

Any suggestions would be fantastic.

Nic
x
 
Well aside from pregnancy... :D
It would be helpful if you had a food diary. Some people do hit a plateau, where their body is adjusting to a new set point weight. It should start moving again soon. Sometimes if I've been super good, I find that a meal off plan, like fish and chips from the take away, seems to confuse my metabolism enough to get it going again. Even on starvation diets, people get times where their body refuses to budge. Of course this has a limit and eventually they start losing again. I remember watching Louise redknapp trying to get to size zero and she had a barely lost anything week. So did a journalist who was on 500 calories a day.

Are you absolutely sure you're sticking to plan? I only ask because I watched a marathon of Secret Eaters the other day, and it was amazing how much people get through without realising it. It made me watch myself more
 
How frustrating! Maybe your success express week you weren't eating enough? So the half pound is your body retaining water? Are you exercising more? That can interfere with losses too until you get used to it. How are your hormones? My weight loss is definitely affected by my time of the month, which is all over the place at the moment since I had a coil fitted before Christmas, can you put it down to something like that?

There was a lady in my group who was stuck just as you describe when I first started, and she's going again now and lost 3lbs a week the last 3 weeks!

You're doing so well to stick at it! Hope things get moving for you soon :)
 
I'd give it at least a month, weight can fluctuate day to day and week to week, but over a month should stabilise. I'd resist weighing yourself for another month and then see if you've had a loss.

Also double check you're following the plan 100%- no tweaking! Remember smash used as flour/thickener is synned, juiced and cooked fruit is synned and so on. It's easily to try mouthfuls of things here and there and forget about it but it all adds up. Are you drinking enough? If you're retaining water then you need to drink MORE.

If all of that doesn't help then see your GP and get your thyroid checked as it might be underactive.
 
Let's start with a typical day's food diary..

Are you still keeping a diary? If not please do and post so we can have a look and feedback comments to you.

Has your consultant not made any suggestions on this? I find it hard to believe they would just leave you in limbo like this. I would suggest going back to basics, make sure you are planning meals, keeping the diary to keep on track and try to avoid too much repetition. You mentioned the lattes at work - are you synning these correctly? How many syns per day are you having in total? Also, you could try the superspeed soup and see if that helps at all.
 
Hi Nic- are you close to target at all or have you still got a bit more to lose?

Steph, i'm nowhere near target, i started 1/2 pound away from 23 stone and i'm now 3 stone lighter so i've got a very long way to go before I get even close to a target. Even at this weight it should be pretty easy to continue losing.

Well aside from pregnancy... :D
It would be helpful if you had a food diary. Some people do hit a plateau, where their body is adjusting to a new set point weight. It should start moving again soon. Sometimes if I've been super good, I find that a meal off plan, like fish and chips from the take away, seems to confuse my metabolism enough to get it going again. Even on starvation diets, people get times where their body refuses to budge. Of course this has a limit and eventually they start losing again. I remember watching Louise redknapp trying to get to size zero and she had a barely lost anything week. So did a journalist who was on 500 calories a day.

Are you absolutely sure you're sticking to plan? I only ask because I watched a marathon of Secret Eaters the other day, and it was amazing how much people get through without realising it. It made me watch myself more

It's 100% not pregnancy, i was fitted with a coil last November because I had some pre cancerous cells, so there's not a chance of that happening any time soon.

I've tried to have a night or two off plan to see if it would jump start me again and all that happened was a maintain!

I have people watching me all the time, my hubby at home makes sure I don't eat rubbish and a couple of my work mates are also in SW so i've no chance of eating anything naughty. It's a good thing really. There isn't any junk food in the house either.

How frustrating! Maybe your success express week you weren't eating enough? So the half pound is your body retaining water? Are you exercising more? That can interfere with losses too until you get used to it. How are your hormones? My weight loss is definitely affected by my time of the month, which is all over the place at the moment since I had a coil fitted before Christmas, can you put it down to something like that?

There was a lady in my group who was stuck just as you describe when I first started, and she's going again now and lost 3lbs a week the last 3 weeks!

You're doing so well to stick at it! Hope things get moving for you soon :)

I just wish I could get moving again, got weigh in tonight and i'm not getting my hopes up, i've been feeling bloated and fat (fatter than I already am) for the last couple of weeks.

I've been going to the gym twice a week for the last 2 months so it's not something that's really new as I was at the gym back in November when I started SW. Life got in the way with a wedding and a funeral so i stopped going for a while but been back at it for 8 weeks now.


I'd give it at least a month, weight can fluctuate day to day and week to week, but over a month should stabilise. I'd resist weighing yourself for another month and then see if you've had a loss.

Also double check you're following the plan 100%- no tweaking! Remember smash used as flour/thickener is synned, juiced and cooked fruit is synned and so on. It's easily to try mouthfuls of things here and there and forget about it but it all adds up. Are you drinking enough? If you're retaining water then you need to drink MORE.

If all of that doesn't help then see your GP and get your thyroid checked as it might be underactive.


No tweaks here, i sound like a saint, truly i'm not but i'd rather syn flour than use smash etc.

I did start to increase the amount of water i drank over the week, as i thought it would help with my weight loss but it seems to be conspiring against me and adding more weight. I generally don't drink a lot of water so increased it to the recommended 2l a day, not sure if I could drink any more than that, I might float away!

If I don't move this week a trip to the GP might be an answer.


Let's start with a typical day's food diary..

Are you still keeping a diary? If not please do and post so we can have a look and feedback comments to you.

Has your consultant not made any suggestions on this? I find it hard to believe they would just leave you in limbo like this. I would suggest going back to basics, make sure you are planning meals, keeping the diary to keep on track and try to avoid too much repetition. You mentioned the lattes at work - are you synning these correctly? How many syns per day are you having in total? Also, you could try the superspeed soup and see if that helps at all.

I've been keeping a food diary this week, I'll post it at the bottom. Last week i cut out the lattes altogether as I maintained the week before so I wanted to see what the difference would be without them and i gained 1/2 pound! I use my HEA for a single latte as it's skimmed milk in it, any teas I have at home are syned.

I've got 20 syns a day to use, it was 25, and it's very rare that I even get close to 15 never mind 20 or 25.

I need to give my diary to my consultant tonight so she can have a look at it, i've been doing the plan for 26 weeks now and lost 3 stone, I should know what I'm doing by now and it utterly confuses me as to why I've been at this weight for so long.

I will need to give the speed soup a try, i like soups anyway and it sounds tasty.

I'll post my gain/loss for this week once I get back from class tonight but I'm not holding out for a loss.


Food Diary for the week.... Not eaten anything yet today however I do have a cuppa beside me.


Thursday
Breakfast
1/4 chocolate cookie (4 syns)
White Coffee (HEA)

Lunch
Baked potato, salad leaves, tomato, cucumber, tuna mayo (4 syns)
Bottle of Diet Coke

Dinner
2 chicken thighs, salad leaves, tomatoes, pickled onions, gherkins, beetroot

Snacks
10 crab sticks
Danio passion fruit yoghurt (1.5 syns)


Friday
Breakfast
Apple & Orange
Tea with milk
1 almond (no idea of syn value)

Lunch
2 chicken drumsticks, salad leaves, pickled onions, gherkins, beetroot

Dinner
Tomato & Herb mugshot, 10 crab sticks, banana and 100g of cooked ham (just in the door from the gym and I’m too tired to cook, ate everything in the car except the mugshot)
Tea with milk

Snacks
None


Saturday
Breakfast
Musli, 0% greek yoghurt, kiwi, blueberries, banana (4.5 syns)

Lunch
100g thin cut ham, salad leaves, beetroot, gherkins, pickled onions, 5 crab sticks, tomatoes
Weight watchers wholemeal pitta (HEA)
Banana

Dinner
Mince, onion, peppers, tinned tomatoes, passata, garlic puree, tomato puree, stock cube, balsamic vinegar, sweet soy (syned but I don’t know how many, it’s not in English), Pasta.

Snacks
Orange, banana, mugshot, muller light raspberry,
Tea x 3

Sunday
Breakfast
WW Pitta, salad leaves, tomatoes & chicken

Lunch
Mugshot, 50g ham, banana

Dinner
Chicken, 5 spice powder, tinned tomatoes, green beans, sweetcorn, peppers

Snacks
Tea x 5


Monday
Breakfast
Nothing

Lunch
Saturdays leftovers, Mince, onion, peppers, tinned tomatoes, passata, garlic puree, tomato puree, stock cube, balsamic vinegar, sweet soy over a bed of sprouts

Dinner
M&S steak stuff, got a small can from Emily to try, looked and smelled like dog food but added lee & Perrins and some sweet soy to make it taste better (2 syns)

Snacks
Banana, 10 crab sticks, 2 clementines, 3 chunks of mango out a fruit pot for my breakfast
tea x 3

Tuesday
Breakfast
Banana, tangerine, mango, yoghurt

Lunch
Sundays leftovers, Chicken, 5 spice powder, tinned tomatoes, green beans, sweetcorn, peppers
and sprouts

Dinner
SW chips, salad leaves, beetroot, pickled onions mayo (2 syns) and chicken

Snacks
2 oranges, mugshot, mango,
WW pitta (heb), salad leaves, tomatoes, philadelphia lightest 25g (1 syn)
Tea x 2
 
Last edited:
Hopefully not stuck any more, lost 4lbs..... will just have to keep an eye on things.
 
Hi Dawnraider,
Firstly we'll done on your amazing loss so far! That's a huge achievement to get that much weight off. Can I ask, sorry I dont belong to a group just am a SW member on-line- you mention you used to have 25syns and now you have 20. Are people given different amounts of syns? I thought everyone had between 5 and 15 per day? Or is it calculated on your weight? I only thought WW did that with their points?

Lella xxx
 
Hi Dawnraider,
Firstly we'll done on your amazing loss so far! That's a huge achievement to get that much weight off. Can I ask, sorry I dont belong to a group just am a SW member on-line- you mention you used to have 25syns and now you have 20. Are people given different amounts of syns? I thought everyone had between 5 and 15 per day? Or is it calculated on your weight? I only thought WW did that with their points?

Lella xxx

Hi Lella, I am allowed 20 syns too, it's worked out on your start weight or possibly bmi, I don't know what the boundaries are but your height and starting weight are very close to mine so you could be allowed the same. I rarely use up to 15 syns but it's nice to know the flexibility is there :)

I think the standard 5-15 syns a day applies to the majority of slimmers who have a bit less to lose. Men often are allowed more syns too. I'm surprised as an online member that this couldn't be worked out for you?
 
I'm similar weight to you and wasn't ever told about having extra syns. Was told the 5-15 syns a day. Even change of consultant hasn't had anything mentioned either.

anyway glad you are loosing again. Our bodies do strange things clinging to the weight!
 
Sorry for not getting back to all of you sooner, my life is a bit crazy right now.

I discovered that my wednesday night treat was doing the damage, so have canned that on the head this week and lost an amazing 7.5lbs!!!

As for the syns, if you're over 20 stone you're allowed 25 syns, under 20 stone is 20 syns. I don't know when I will be reduced to 15. It generally doesn't make a difference as I don't have that amount daily however i was blowing my treat night out the water and it stopped me losing!

Don't do it ladies.... stick to plan!
 
7.5 pounds is fantastic - well done!
 
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