The scale froze at 256.6 for well over a week. The stall may have broken naturally but once I started looking for an answer I came across a couple things that made sense.

• I increased my Water from 60 to about 90 ounces- water is apparently aids weightloss for various reasons- but in any event- I increased it.
• I varied my carb and calories- I've been a one trick pony- 2 Protein shakes and 1 small meal a day- usually cottage cheese. I changed this up to include grits with laughing cow cheese (carbs), Soup (pureed) and applesauce. I got some carbs in there because I saw references to the body needing some carbs and the shakes provide 5 carbs a peice so allowing myself 20 or so carbs wasn't going to hurt anything. I alternated for the space of 3 days- higher carb lower carb.
• I broke everything I ate into halves and ate every 2 hours. Instead of working to get the shakes in all at once I drank a half shake, then two hours later I had another half shake and I basically ate a little something every 2-3 hours. I don't know how I forgot this from Medifast but I did. It keeps the metabolism going.
• I varied my exercise- I was asked to do 30-45 minutes 3x a week by the doc but I chose to walk almost every day. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday would be my harder walks including uphills and the other days were flatter walks with more sniffing time for my dog. I have read that that I may be premature in attempting to exercise so much- even though it feels great- because I may be causing a calorie deficit in doing so that causes my body to hang onto every calorie it can like a kid with their hand caught in the cookie jar. (auditory Sam Kinison yell- NOoooo!) So I have dialed back how often and how much for the last 3 days as well.

Yesterday the scale dipped down to 255.4 and today it's 254.

So this may all be simplistic and at the moment is only supported by what I assessed myself above. But for what it's worth- I am hoping that shaking things up keeps me out of a rut.

WoooHooo!!! Great job figuring that out!

@@TammyDTM I am hoping I figured it out and that it means something...it could all be coincidence...but I'm thinking not.

Thank you for sharing this. :-)

I'm on the Atkins induction diet before I go on the liquid 2 week pre-op diet. It wants me to target 20g carbs plus or minus 2g per day. I wonder if it's possible to get too few carbs. (?) And what it does to ones metabolism. Just thinking out loud.

Glad you broke through the block!

@@wascott ...good thing to wonder...so I did some Googling and came up with this:

How Many Carbs Do I Need to Spare Protein Loss?

Early research into the topic of starvation and low-carbohydrate dieting found that as few as 15 grams of carbohydrates per day can limit nitrogen loss in the body. And raising carbohydrate intake to 50 grams per day severely limits the need for the body to use amino acids for gluoconeogenesis (which is why I suggested setting daily carbs on the low-carb days of The Ultimate Diet 2.0 at 50 grams).

This occurs via at least two mechanisms:

1. The increased carb intake maintains blood glucose and insulin at a higher level (inhibiting cortisol release).
2. The carbohydrate provides glucose for the brain, limiting the need to break down body protein.

Basically, in the context of dieting, dieters can either jack up dietary protein to cover the increased carbohydrate requirements of dieting or simply eat slightly more carbohydrates to provide them directly. Both have the same end-result. 15-50 grams per day limits the body’s need to break down protein and will allow protein requirements to be set lower than a diet providing essentially zero carbohydrates per day.

It was at this web address: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/how-many-carbohydrates-do-you-need.html/

Of course, this is only one source...But I'm feeling pretty good about the carb range listed here. I know when I was on Medifast which prompted a light ketosis required carbs to be under 100 per day and mine were often closer to 80. I may not have been able to stick to Medifast for long enough to keep the weight off, but I did lose weight and it really has set me up with some good habits for success with this. I hope the Atkins is doing the same for you.

Great information. Thanks for sharing!

The nutritionist only wants me to be on Atkins for about 5 weeks total. (The weeks before I go on a two week liquid diet prior to surgery).

It was a little rough as my body switched over to ketosis mode. I believe I was exercising too much at the time. I took a two day break from exercise. Now I'm back to an hour plus a day on the treadmill and adding weights to my walking workouts.

So far my weight has been dropping nicely. I've already lost the bare minimum required before surgery (5%). My goal is to lose the ideal amount of 10%. I don't expect to lose the next 15 pounds as easily but I'll do my best. If I meet this goal early I think I'll up my carbs a little bit per Atkins phase 2. The induction phase is very restricted on food choices.

Good luck with your weight loss journey!