BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb I seem to be having trouble losing weight

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but for some reason I'm not losing much weight. I started my diet about a month ago and I've only lost somewhere between 5-7 pounds(it fluctuates). Lately, I haven't lost anymore. I've begun a workout regimine but, though I enjoy it and it makes my feel better, it hasn't made a difference in weight loss so far. My pants are still as tight around the waist as ever so I know it's not just that I'm gaining muscle.

I have a few things I can think of that might be factors but they're pretty small:
-I eat one D-lite or Zero bar daily (mostly dark chocolate with zero net carbs)
-I eat A LOT of broccoli with my dinner most nights
-Some nights my dinner includes tomato sauce(hunts basil, garlic and oregano), peppers, and a bit of onion.
-At school my only option is burger with no bun and pickles, so I've started wondering about the processed cheese but still this shouldn't be enough to ruin my diet.
-I've been drinking a good amount of the low carb chocolate milk, about 2 cups a day, which SHOULD equal 4 grams effective carbs, but I'm beginning to get suspicious.
-I'm on the depo shot which can have an effect on weight.

Other than this, I'm doing pretty well with just a couple times going off my diet. I try to drink lots of water, take my vitamins every day, excercise, and eat a pretty balanced diet(excluding most carbs of course).

Anybody have any ideas?

This may be a sensitive question, but how much do you weigh?

THe less you weigh to begin with the harder it is to lose weight because you need less to "run your system".

Usually the "miracle" cases of people losing 20-30 lbs in the first couple of weeks are people like me that start out at 305-310 lbs.

Funny side note: One of my collegues works part time with me, Tues-Thursday. She gets so angry because between the time she leaves on Thursday and comes in on Tuesday she says that it looks like I've lost another ten pounds. She's been doing low carb for months and has only lost 15 pounds. But she's only 155 now and only has maybe 15 more pounds to lose. It gets really hard when you're close to your "goal weight".

That's why I'm going to be satisfied when I get down to 180. I'm not going to kill myself to lose those last 20 pounds. I'm 5'9", I'll be fine at 180.

Actually, I started at 237 (my highest weight ever). Now, I'm at about 232. For a month, I wouldn't say that's really good. I'm 5'5 and like you I don't really care to get down to a really small size. I would be extremely happy with myself if I got down to about 160-170. I personally don't even want to be slim. I just want to be a little chubby. lol

Some peoples bodies are very reluctant to release fat. I have a page on problem solving here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/5597.asp

but first I would say to make sure you get a scale that measures fat AND weight. You can very easily be losing the fat and gaining muscle at the same time, which would be a good thing. Make sure you measure your weight, your fat % and your body measurements (waist, hips etc) weekly.

A main reason a lot of people stall is stress. When you are under stress your body naturally holds onto fat as a necessary reserve. Exercise is a great stress releaser but it might be time to look into others.

Keep a journal of exactly what foods you eat in what quantities. I have carb charts here -

http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/4486.asp

it might be that you're eating far more carbs than you think, when you really look at it.

Also, I'd try cutting out all non-induction foods for 2 weeks and then adding them back in slowly. As we age, we develop allergies to all sorts of things that we used to eat all the time. You could have developed some sort of allergy over the years that you never noticed, but it's interfering with your body losing weight. I know that I used to drink a ton of milk, but after starting low carb I realized that milk was causing the bloating I'd been experiencing for years!

Ok. Thanks for the advice. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I'm going to try to only eat induction foods for a while and see how that goes. No more low carb chocolate bars or low carb milk...

Something that has happened has me worried too. This may seem a bit personal, but I figure this is a mostly women's forum and maybe someone else may know about what this is or experienced it. I've been on the depo shot for three years now and since then I've not had a menstral cycle. A few days ago I started having very serious cramps and menstrating a little. The cramps have not stopped. The only thing about my life that has changed is my diet (low carb) and I've started excercising about every other day. If this lasts many more days, I'm going to go to a doctor. I'm really stumped on what could be happening.

If anyone has any ideas on what it could be I'd appreciate comments.

Before I say anything I'm going to say this: See a doctor.

Now, with that said I'll tell you of my disturbing tale when I went on a low fat diet a couple of years ago. Before dieting I only got my period once a year because of my weight (I was around 360 then). When I started the low fat diet I lost 25 lbs the first month and got my period.

IT WAS THE PERIOD FROM HELL!

I had to go home from work an hour after I got there because the blood was just FALLING out of me. When I got home I ran (waddled) past my mother to the bathroom and as soon as I sat down...you would have thought my organs exploded and fell out of my [censored].

The same thing happened with my sister when she went on a diet.

Losing weight has a pretty direct affect on menstruation, so don't worry too much. But definitely see your doctor just to be sure.

Thanks for the info Donica. It puts me at ease a little to hear that heavy menstration can sometimes follow weight loss. Even though the pains have now mostly stopped, at least the really bad ones have, I think I'm still going to call the nurse line on monday just to be sure. Perhaps it's the depo that's causing me to barely bleed and the diet that's causing the cramps in the first place. I don't know. I'll let you know what the nurse says.