I'm New and gaining

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franceacct
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:25 pm
Location: Atlanta

I'm New and gaining

Post by franceacct » Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:35 pm

I've been doing this for 4 weeks. Week one I lost 6 pounds. Week 2 I didn't gain or lose. Week 3 I gained 1/2 pound. Week 4 I've gained 2.5 pounds. I'm a vegetarian and last week I walked a 10k on Friday and walked over 30 miles the entire week and I sill GAINED 2 pounds. HELP!!!!!! I've been telling tons of people about No S (after I found it while searching the internet), but now I'm discouraged. I have 30 pounds to lose.

wosnes
Posts: 4168
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:38 pm
Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA

Post by wosnes » Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:08 pm

Take a deep breath and relax. Even on more restrictive diets you may gain a little from time to time.

You've been on this about 4 weeks and lost just about a pound a week. You're right on track.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:22 pm

Uh-oh. Not to add insult to injury, but it's better not to talk about No S until you feel it's been working for you for several months. Don't give other people the power to hover and naysay it. They are operating from diet head, a painfully unsuccessful way of changing eating habits, with few successes in the world, percentage-wise. People are actually primed these days to assume that no one can learn moderation and that the "extreme" models of weight loss the media touts are viable and necessary.

The strategies of No S don't always get people to weigh less week by week. It often works in fits and starts as your appetite for certain amounts and foods change.

Though Reinhard doesn't talk overtly about true hunger, it is certainly implied that eventually, you will often be hungry for your meals and not be too full when you finish them. This will eventually be true on S days, too. You may have to purposely adjust the ratio of light and heavy foods or use smaller plates for at least two meals a day eventually. Try not to operate from panic, though. Compassion and curiosity work better.

If you must weigh, I recommend weighing every day and averaging it once a week. That number can be very different from the lone weekly weigh in, and gets you used to fluctuation. You might use a site that has a moving average.

I'm always more interested in what BMI people are aiming at, rather than how much they want to lose, though I'm well aware of its deficiencies with people at either end of the height/frame scale.


Hang in there! This is definitely worth a good 90-day run.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

ironchef
Posts: 1630
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:12 am
Location: Australia

Post by ironchef » Sun Jul 06, 2014 11:09 pm

Welcome!
wosnes wrote:You've been on this about 4 weeks and lost just about a pound a week. You're right on track.
Bingo. In fact, any more than a pound a week is not usually recommended. I can see how that first week 6 pound drop must have confused you and set up some unrealistic expectations, but this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Hang in there!

franceacct
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:25 pm
Location: Atlanta

Post by franceacct » Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:14 am

Thanks Guys. I've been yo-yo"ing" for quite some time and I want no s to work. So I just became discouraged. Thanks...I'll keep at it.

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BrightAngel
Posts: 2093
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 4:22 pm
Location: Central California
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Post by BrightAngel » Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:26 pm

oolala53 wrote: Though Reinhard doesn't talk overtly about true hunger, it is certainly implied that eventually,
you will often be hungry for your meals and not be too full when you finish them.
This will eventually be true on S days, too.

You may have to purposely adjust the ratio of light and heavy foods
or use smaller plates for at least two meals a day eventually.
Try not to operate from panic, though.
Compassion and curiosity work better.

If you must weigh, I recommend weighing every day and averaging it once a week.
That number can be very different from the lone weekly weigh in, and gets you used to fluctuation.
You might use a site that has a moving average.
Good Advice! :)
BrightAngel - (Dr. Collins)
See: DietHobby. com

leafy_greens
Posts: 426
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:18 pm

Re: I'm New and gaining

Post by leafy_greens » Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:11 pm

franceacct wrote:I've been doing this for 4 weeks. Week one I lost 6 pounds. Week 2 I didn't gain or lose. Week 3 I gained 1/2 pound. Week 4 I've gained 2.5 pounds. I'm a vegetarian and last week I walked a 10k on Friday and walked over 30 miles the entire week and I sill GAINED 2 pounds. HELP!!!!!! I've been telling tons of people about No S (after I found it while searching the internet), but now I'm discouraged. I have 30 pounds to lose.
I would avoid weighing yourself so often and look at the big picture, not a week at a time. In several months the average of your weigh-ins will probably show your weight going down. It's too hard to gauge this in one-week increments. I typically don't weigh myself at all and have lost weight on No S before, just from looking at myself and my clothes. Reinhard has a podcast (#24) about ditching the scale which is rather useful.
"No S IS hard... It just turns out that everything else is harder." -oolala53

uschi
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:44 pm

water retention?

Post by uschi » Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:13 am

Hi franceacct, hope things are going well this week.

One additional factor you may want to consider is water retention. Sounds like that week you logged 30 miles and participated in a 10 K was more physical activity than you're used to? One of the ways a body responds to what it interprets as unusual physical stress is inflammation and swelling-- which amounts to an extra "jacket" of fluids--water--that you're carrying, even though you may have actually lost fat that week. The good news is that this will even out once your body gets used to that level of activity--no need for diuretics!

Compounding this, if you were out and about and consuming sports drinks, granola bars, eating out vs more scratch cooking at home, you can be retaining water and getting a bigger number on your scale even though you took in less calories.

Even though I eat small/normal NoS type portions when dining out, my weight balloons by a pound or two the next day and even more the day after-- by now I know that's from added MSG and sugar and who knows what else. I don't sweat it and I'm back to normal after a couple of days. The good news is that means we're eating pretty clean at home, AND, when I don't puff up after dining out, I know that establishment is really using wholesome ingredients, so we're more likely to go there again. And really, when you start paying attention to eating better you eventually lose the taste for the junk and minimize eating out at all.

So stay the course, you really are off to a great start!

r.jean
Posts: 1653
Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 7:47 pm
Location: Midwest

Post by r.jean » Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:04 pm

I stumbled onto No S 3 1/2 years ago, and it has been a miracle for me. I lost a decent portion of the weight I wanted to lose in the first year, but more importantly I came to peace with my weight and how I got here. It is hard to say what is happening for you now without knowing all the details, but I encourage you to stick with it. It is not a quick weight loss, but for me it has formed some lasting good habits.

I recently started working on my leftover weight, the weight that did not come off the first year of doing plain vanilla No S. I am paying more attention to what I put on my plates and using a fitness and nutritional app to help me examine my food choices. I do not necessarily recommend this right at first when your main focus is following the basic rules, but it is working for me at this point in my journey.

Most importantly I refuse to eat foods I do not like, and I need to be careful not to under eat. If I get too hungry I can go over the edge and gobble everything in sight. (I exercise a lot too and this is especially true after vigorous exercise without proper nutrition.)

Good luck!
The journey is the reward.
Maintenance is progress.

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