my crazy way to get ot of my stall

 i know people arent gonna want to hear this and i will probably get nasty comments. i wasnt gonna say anything but i decided that fear of bullies wouldnt stop me from sharing and maybe this will help someone...

i started in a stall about 3 weeks ago, maybe a little longer. i tried my old atkins trick of eating carbs for 1 day to shock the body and break my stall but it didnt work....in fact gained a couple pounds. next day back on track and dropped those 2 lbs no problem but was right back where i began. this past friday i decided to try something drastic...fridy, saturday and sunday i allowed myself to go off program. i ate what i wanted. still tiny portions but it was carb city. didnt weight all wekend cause i didnt want to see the damage

got on scale this morning to see where i was starting in my experience and was shocked. i was full on down 1lb from my lowest. i was totally shocked.

i am back on program 100% today. i know eating like that will not continue to get results but that mini break just may have done the trick. we will see if the scale stays down and keeps moving. (p.s. i must admit it was kinda nice to nibble on a few things i had been missing nd sunce this was a controlled thing i didnt even feel guilty)

If you read Body For Life, Bill Phillips advocates this approach.

I have heard multiple times people say they up their calorie intake by 200-300 calories and it breaks stalls. My dietician recommends changing up what you eat every day to help avoid having a lot of stalls.

Interesting. Why do you think it worked?

It's not crazy or something that isn't discussed. It's actually talked about a lot here and on the main forum. I've never seen bullying about changing things up to help maybe break a stall.

My issue through my losing stage is I have food issues, if I would have allowed myself an "off weekend" I'd struggle to get back on. It doesn't sound like you share that struggle so congrats on that front. But, some of us can't go to carb city and come out easily.

Report back if you have any further bouncing. I have bouncing in maintenance and it's always more related to water weight and fluid intake vs. calorie intake.

I allow myself a cheat meal once a week. Keeps my sanity and seems to help break stalls in the past. However this weekend I took things a little too far and lets just say the whole day became a junk food day. I felt out of control and did not like that. Ive decided I will continue to only have 1 cheat meal per week again. Nothing wrong with switching things up. Just be careful things don't get out of control. Its pretty easy to do. 

 the only person I know who was ever successful at WW had one day where she allowed herself to eat up to double her usual amount provided it was good, 'on-plan' food. She never stalled or plateaued, just steady loss of 60 lbs that have stayed off (she exercises like mad and generally eats healthy). She swore that was what made the difference - she never felt deprived because she knew that day was coming up each week.

I seem to do well with a "cheat" weekend or holiday once a month.  It helps me psychologically as well to just have the things I've been elevating to ******ic pleasure status and realize that they really aren't that great, and to toss the monkey a few cookies, then to get back to my real life eating.

It seems like a holiday or occasion arises about once a month and I let myself indulge and then set a time limit.  When the holiday or vacation is up, I'm back on plan with no rationalizations or issues.  It always precedes a good loss for me, too. 

I have also upped my calories in general to end a stall.  I lose well on 1100-1300 calories with regular exercise.

Thanks for speaking up about this.  Sometimes I feel like the only one who doesn't strictly follow the 600-800 low carb plan.  It's nice to see others succeeding with higher calories, too!

"Toss the monkey a few cookies"... OMG, I died laughing. That's awesome.

Ya know... with all the exercise you do... 1100 calories is probably what your body needs. You are a machine, woman!

Rockin'!

On topic - I do this too... it does help to shock my body sometimes. Having said that, things are slow in general these days. I'm okay with that.

thanks so much all. I generally don't count calories just carbs and protein. I am sure my calories are high as I eat full fat. I have always dine good on Atkins if i kept carbs low and fat high. In fact sometimes when weight would slow back then I would even drink a tbsp of olive oil. Gross.

I am gonna track on myfitness pal and see what my Cal's are for a day.

Thanks again for all of your kind words and sharing experiences with me. I am at 80lbs today. Here's hoping tomorrow I hit 90!