MY WEIGHT KEEPS FLUCTUATING! PART I

It is important to realize that fluctuations are an inevitable part of any weight-loss journey. They are a normal part of weight loss, because your body has to sort of pause in order to readapt in many ways as your weight changes.

There are many factors that impact a person’s ability to lose weight. That’s why everyone’s experience will be unique to their body. We are all individuals with individual responses to our changing physical environment. This is why it’s not uncommon to hear of couples or friends who enter the program together, eat the exact same meals, yet experience different outcomes.

Sometimes our issue is that we have other outside factors that are affecting our ability to lose weight – things like significant lifestyle changes, stress, illness, medications you are taking or even old medications you have recently stopped taking. They all influence weight loss as your hormones and body chemistry struggles to adapt.

Other people may not be dealing with the same issues you are – like inflammation, toxicity, low metabolism (which doesn’t heal overnight after years of damage), insulin resistance, and on and on…

So, Stay in Your Lane by giving yourself permission to run your own race – not the race of anyone else. If someone else loses more than you at a quicker pace, they are blessed… they are fortunate - not better.

There are those who work very hard and lose six pounds in their first month and are absolutely thrilled because they have not been able to lose weight at all after trying all kinds of diets. Then there are those who lose 17 pounds in a month and are really down on themselves for not doing better. It’s all about perspective.

There are some practical things you can do to get those numbers moving in the right direction again.

One of the first things that is helpful involves keeping a food journal. It really is the most important thing you can do. Guessing or trying to recall your eating can be full of discrepancies; and often, you would be surprised at how much little “tastes” or “bites” add up.

Most people don’t realize that every time you eat something, even if you just pop something little in your mouth a couple of times a day (thinking it’s no big deal), you can halt your weight loss. You think it’s no big deal because it’s small… you are calorie thinking again. It’s about how that food affects your body’s chemistry – it’s not about counting calories.

People often think that if they are eating on plan most of the time, but are enjoying things off plan on the weekends, then they should still be losing weight. Most of the things a person will cheat with are high-glycemic foods that spike blood sugar, hence spiking insulin. And insulin is a fat storage hormone.

You’ve just invited more hormonal and body chemistry changes into your week and wonder why pounds aren’t dropping off. What’s more, if that food item was something sugary or that broke down into sugar, you may go up to 3 days without any weight loss as your body chemistry readapts. So, if you indulged twice a week, you could possibly call your weight loss a wash. It’s frustrating for sure, but we don’t make the body’s rules… we just explain them to you.

Another great aspect of a food journal or food log is that you can see patterns. Many people are affected by a particular food, but don’t realize it. The logs show a pattern of eating that may need to be changed and, without it, we will find it very difficult to make a recommendation.

Next week we will continue to look at more practical things you can do to get those numbers moving in the right direction.