Just finished my Whole30-not a single pound lost!

[piupiu]

I have just finished my WHole30 and when i hopped on the scales this morning, not only had I not lost a single pound, but my body fat % had gone up!

I wasn't expecting to have should loads of pounds as my clothes don't feel much looser, but I would really love to understand where I went wrong, because I feel that the last 4 weeks have been a complete waste of time. I have lived like a hermit in order to eat like this - refusing several dinner party and drinks invitations.

It is not that I am under weight as I am 5'3" and weigh 154lb. My body fat at the beginning was 37% and now it is 37.8%

I stuck to the meal plans like glue. Typical breakfast was a 3 egg omelette with kale, lunch was chicken with salad and homemade mayo, and evening meal was always something from the Well Fed cookbook. I have also given up tea & coffee and the only drinks I've been drinking are carbonated water or mint tea.

I've not been exercising much, maybe a yoga class a week and some walking, but as a mother of two small kids and someone who runs her own business, there just isn't the time, especially with all the food shopping and cooking I've been doing over the last few weeks.

My diet before I started the WHole 30 was pretty low-carb. I had done the Atkins diet a couple of years ago and got to my goal weight of 135lbs, but I had lapsed a bit and had the occasional curry or pizza binge and the weight had piled back on. A couple of months before I started the Whole30 I had given up grains and sugar an lost 7 lbs, so really the only changes once i started the Whole30 were omitting dairy and alcohol from my diet and adding in a lot more veg than I was used to eating.

Whilst i have noticed that my skin has got much smoother and my nails stronger since starting the Whole30, my main goal had been to lose some weight, so I am very disappointed.

I would love to know where i went wrong....the only thing that i can think of is that I have had a terrible cold and sinus infection since Day 3, which despite all the nutrients that I must be consuming, has still not gone. I have a permanently blocked head, so am feeling pretty crappy. Could this stall weight loss? In the last few days the doctor has prescribed me anti-biotics and decongestants - could they cause weight to pile on?

Or could it not be a cold but a reaction to something that I have started adding into my diet i.e. coconut?

I am loving eating this way, so want to continue, but I also want to shift these stubborn pounds.

Please help!

[MeadowLily]

Were you doing this for the weight loss?

 

We believe in Eating Good Food.

Our recommendations are based around the framework of a Paleo Diet, with a focus on health, not history.

We like to put a positive spin on our nutrition plan, focusing on all the foods we do eat (instead of what we don’t).

Whole9′s Nutrition in 60 Seconds

We eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, healthy oils, nuts and seeds. We choose foods that were raised, fed and grown naturally, and foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals.

This is not a “diet” – we eat as much as we need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight. We aim for well-balanced nutrition, so we eat animals and a significant amount of plants.

Eating like this has helped us to look, feel, live and perform our best, and reduces our risk for a variety of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions.

[MeadowLily]

The Whole30 is not a diet, a short-term fix or a temporary solution. It’s also not the Whole365.

 

We want you to use the Whole30 as a learning tool to gain awareness of how the foods you used to eat were actually affecting how you look, feel, live and perform.

And then we want you to carry that awareness forward, and use your experience to change the way you eat for the rest of your life.

We encourage you to make educated, deliberate decisions about when, how often and in what quantities you include less healthy foods in your diet. We’ve devoted an entire chapter of It Starts With Food to maintaining your new, healthy habits after your Whole30 is over.

We also have an entire section of our Resources page designed to help you turn your Whole30 experience into a life-long, sustainable, healthy practice.

[MeadowLily]

Since the inception of our Whole30® program in April 2009, we’ve made one thing abundantly clear: This is not a weight loss program. It’s not a diet, it’s not a quick fix, and it’s certainly not a “17 Day Get Skinnier Than Your Friends” kind of approach. But that doesn’t mean we don’t recognize or value your weight loss goals.

 

 

- See more at: http://whole30.com/2014/02/weight-loss-whole30/#sthash.Mohnl3mi.dpuf

[MeadowLily]

Six Reasons Why the Whole30® Didn’t Work For You

 

We’ve been running our Whole30® program for 3-1/2 years now, and have received thousands of glowing testimonials. (There are even more floating around on the internet, too—Google “Whole30” and you get hundreds of thousands of hits. Literally.) We’ve proven the program improves people’s health, and many report the Whole30 really did change their life.

 

But the Whole30 isn’t perfect (no diet is, universally), and we will be the first to admit it. The program is as good as we can make it, to have the most significant impact on as many people as we can reach. We’ve tweaked it, adjusted it, made it better as the years went on. But it’s not perfect, by any means, and it’s not a miracle—despite the miraculous results some people do experience.

 

That’s not to say that a strict 30-day Paleo elimination program isn’t a damn fine protocol. In fact, the Whole30 generally works really, really well for the vast majority of people. Which is why, when we hear from those who say the Whole30 (or some other form of short-term Paleo intervention) “didn’t work” for them, we pay attention. We read their stories, ask questions of these participants, and over the years, have gathered some data on why, for these folks, “the magic” just didn’t come. (At least, not in the way they hoped it would. More on this soon.)

In many cases, it’s not your fault if it didn’t work. And the one thing we want you to take away from this article is that if the Whole30 didn’t work for you, you are not a failure, and there is nothing wrong with you. It just is what it is… but there are reasons for it.

So today, here are six reasons (infused with a gentle dose of tough love) why your perfect Paleo elimination program just “didn’t work”… and what you can do about it.

 

You Didn’t Do It Right

This is the most common reason for the “failure” of elimination programs like the Whole30 to provide results. You followed the technical letter of the rules, but didn’t embrace the spirit or intention of the program. You “slipped” or “treated yourself,” because you had to/wanted to/figured it wouldn’t really matter. You adjusted the program to suit your cravings, your social life, your idea of “healthy.” You only gave it two weeks before deciding it wasn’t working.

And if you’re really, truly honest with yourself, you know that you didn’t really give the Whole30 your full efforts. And as we’ve mentioned before, mediocre efforts yield mediocre results.

Of course, this isn’t everyone’s situation. So for those of you who really felt like you gave the program the attention and dedication it deserves, then maybe…

 

Thirty Days Wasn’t Long Enough

While radical health improvements can take place in just 30 days during the program, when you put it into context, decades of less than healthy behavior often can’t compete with 30 days of Whole30. Fat adaptation (teaching your body to use fat as fuel) takes time.* Stubborn medical issues, like psoriasis, migraines, chronic pain conditions, or diabetes, can’t be fully resolved with just a month of healthy eating. And an unhealthy psychological relationship with food—and the cravings, habits, and emotional ties that go along—are often the toughest battle to win.

*This is especially true if you’re coming from a S.A.D. (Standard American Diet). It can take several weeks before you learn to trust the “hungry” and “full” signals your body is sending you—and you may not have been eating enough in the beginning, because you were afraid of all that fat.

Many Whole30’ers report that they didn’t feel or see “the magic” until day 45, 60, or beyond. Whether you choose to extend your Paleo elimination program or not is entirely up to you, but think about your results in terms of the context of your life, your health history, and your habits—and realize that maybe, you’ll need longer than just 30 days to see the ultimate results you were hoping for. But then again, you also have to make sure you’re measuring the right thing. Quite possibly…

 

You Aren’t Paying Attention To The Right Stuff

You really, really wanted to lose weight on your Whole30, and you read tons of testimonials about effortless weight loss when nothing else worked—so of course, you expected this would be your outcome too. But you didn’t lose weight, or you didn’t lose as much as you had hoped. So you deemed the program a failure, because the number on the scale didn’t budge, or your pants still fit the same. (You could apply this same concept to anything—you were hoping your skin would clear up and glow, your gym performance would skyrocket, or your chronic pain would completely disappear.)

But were you paying attention to what else happened during your program? Are you falling asleep easier, staying asleep longer, waking more refreshed? Is your energy more consistent, or have you lost your usual mid-day slump? Has your pain decreased, has your skin improved, have your allergies diminished, are your sugar cravings easier to battle?

 

As we’ve written about so many times, the scale (and your body) aren’t the only measure of Whole30 success—in fact, we’d venture to say it’s pretty far down the list of potential life-changing results. And being open to embracing all of the changes the program has to offer—both the expected and the unexpected, the large and the small—can open your eyes to the results you’ve actually achieved.

So if you didn’t lose weight (or change one particular health factor as much as you were hoping), take a different approach and focus on all of the positive changes you have seen. Of course… it’s entirely possible that you’re barking up the wrong tree altogether.

 

You’re Looking For a Nutrition Solution To a Lifestyle Problem

If you come from a S.A.D.—even the “healthy” kind, with whole grains and low-fat dairy—we’d be stunned if the Whole30 didn’t make a huge impact on how you look, how you feel, and your quality of life. Stunned. But if you’ve been eating pretty Paleo for a while, decide to tighten things up that last 20% in the hopes of seeing the results you’ve been missing, and just don’t see them, you know what that tells us?

Diet ain’t your problem.

And no amount of additional Paleo elimination, carb-gram tweaks, or fasting cycles is going to completely resolve your issues. If this is your story, it’s time to look at your other factors. If you’re only sleeping five hours a night, doing high-intensity activity six days a week, and eating a purposefully very low-carb diet, you’ve got bigger fish to fry than the occasional cream in your coffee. Check out the Whole9 Health Equation, and see what other factors you need to prioritize to get things moving in the right direction.

 

In addition, just maybe, and we say this gently…

 

Your Expectations Are Simply Too High

This is a difficult one to tell people, because we hear “miracle” Whole30 testimonials every day. “The Whole30 made my hot flashes disappear!” “The Whole30 fixed my adrenal fatigue!” “My rheumatoid arthritis was curedthanks to Paleo!” So If you are in menopause, suffering from cortisol resistance, or have an autoimmune condition, you’re wondering, why didn’t this happen to me?

We understand. And we can’t blame you for feeling disappointed when you see other people “just like you” experiencing the results you desperately hoped to see… but didn’t. But the thing you have to understand is that no one is just like you. Your history, current context, genetics, environment all meld together to form a unique situation: you. Which means the same protocol applied to two very “similar” people can yield dramatically different results.

 

Here’s the other thing we need to be clear about—the Whole30, while a powerful dietary intervention, isn’t always a miracle cure. (We’re probably not going to use that as our next tag line, but it’s the truth.) To be blunt, the impact of your hormones during menopause far exceeds the benefits of not adding milk and sugar to your coffee. The long-reaching effects of chronic stress aren’t usually fixable with dietary intervention alone—that’s the exception, rather than the rule. And, as far as medical research has demonstrated to date, autoimmune conditions aren’t normally fully reversible.

So while the Whole30 could help you improve some symptoms, maybe all it’s going to do for you (depending on your history and context) is help you maintain—or not make things worse. It may improve your skin, your energy, your sleep, but if you’re battling a serious condition or disease (or are going through massive hormonal changes, such as during pregnancy or menopause), it’s just not reasonable to believe that any dietary intervention will magically see you through. It’s wonderful if it does, but it’s simply not realistic to expect. 

 

Which brings us to the final reason, which plays on the above…

Lifestyle Interventions Can’t Fix Everything

Many come to the Whole30 with long histories of yo-yo dieting, chronic stress, poor lifestyle choices, and longstanding illness. The effects of health history are far-reaching, causing changes to your metabolism, your inflammatory status, and how your body responds to stimulus like food, stress, and exercise for years—decades—to come. And some of you are still working through these issues when you come to Paleo nutrition or the Whole30.

 

This situation requires the toughest love of all.

Lifestyle interventions can’t fix everything. In fact, you could pile a Whole30 on top of sleeping ten hours a night on top of smart exercise on top of stress management… and that still might not totally “fix” you. Because some issues are so longstanding, and so disruptive long-term, that you need targeted intervention with a trained and experienced professional to fix your stuff.  (And we’re not talking about “Are you stressed a lot? You probably have adrenal fatigue. You should take some adaptogens and only do strength work.” This information is basically useless at your stage of the game.)

 

We’re talking about connecting with a good functional medicine practitioner, doing some very specific (and probably costly) testing to figure out exactly what’s going on, and then supplementing with the appropriate stuff, at the appropriate dose, for the appropriate amount of time. Months, generally. Perhaps a year or more.

 

We told you, this part would be hard to hear. And we’re sorry if this is your context. But trust us when we say weunderstand. (Melissa spent two years recovering from her stress addiction and cortisol resistance, working with several functional medicine practitioners, doing lots of testing, and following a very specific supplementation schedule and radical lifestyle interventions to get her to the very healthy place she’s at today.)

 

Of course, this doesn’t mean diet, sleep, exercise,  and stress management don’t matter. In fact, in this situation, rigorous attention to these details (and we mean rigorous—change-your-entire-life-around-to-improve-these-lifestyle-factors rigorous) is a prerequisite for the work you’ll do with your practitioner. So don’t give up on the Whole30, or your other healthy lifestyle protocols. But in this case, in your context, please don’t expect even this level of attention to the lifestyle stuff to fix everything for you. (Believe us, we wish they could.)

 

The Good News

After all this, there is good news. If you’ve done the Whole30 with not-so-stellar results, go back and reevaluate your efforts, and your outcome. Perhaps you’ll see your program in a new light—or be motivated to try again. (Our Whole30® Daily has a series of questionnaires to help you be more aware of the benefits, large and small, you may see along the way.)

If you’ve got a complicated health history, don’t be discouraged! You didn’t get to this place overnight, and you’ll not get out of it quickly—but armed with a healthy lifestyle (and perhaps the help of an experienced professional) you are already back on the road to recovery. Patience is key. Being kind to and forgiving of yourself is key. And focusing on the positive changes you are already seeing could have the biggest impact on your experience. How you view the situation is sometimes more important than the details of the situation itself.

 

We’ll be talking a lot more about these complicated issues, and the fact that lifestyle interventions can’t fix everything, in future articles. In the meantime, if you’re one of those people for whom a perfect Paleo protocol just didn’t work for you, take heart. You are not alone, and we’ll do our best to provide you with the information and support you need to continue to move forward with your health initiatives.

 

[ShannonM816]

I'm sorry that you're disappointed in your results. Weight loss is a product of many, many things, including the obvious food and exercise, but also stress and sleep. I'm guessing with a little one, you're probably not getting eight hours of sleep every night. That could be a factor, and it could mean it's going to take a little longer to lose weight.

 

If you like eating this way, keep eating this way. It's certainly not going to hurt you, and if you stick with it, your body will get to the weight it is comfortable at.

 

It's possible that there's something about the cold or the medications that are hindering weight loss, certainly it's worth waiting that out to see if a few more weeks makes a difference.

 

And about the body fat percentage -- I'm assuming you have one of those scales that tells you your weight and your body fat? Those are not necessarily accurate. And .8% certainly seems like a reasonable margin of error for something that isn't 100% accurate anyway -- you probably didn't gain .8% body fat, your scale is probably just a little off.  I wouldn't worry about it. Just relax.

 

Again, you said you like eating this way, so keep eating this way. Maybe relax a bit. Go to dinner with friends and don't get obsessive about what's in the food -- but then when you're home, go back to W30 eating. (If you want to do reintroductions to see how you react to different foods, do that first before adopting this suggestion, since having stuff from a bunch of food groups could make it hard to know what you're reacting to, if you do have a reaction.)

[Tom Denham]

You might not have done anything wrong. Some people don't start losing weight for 6-8 weeks. Some people seem to take longer for their hormonal rhythms to fall into place to support fat loss. 

 

Few people eat too much during a Whole30. However, you can make weight loss stall by eating too little. Eating too little slows your metabolism and makes weight loss stop. I assume you followed the meal planning template in regards to portion sizes?

 

Like Shannon said, sleep is incredibly important. I lost weight because my sleep improved. I doubt I would have lost weight if I had not experienced a big improvement in sleep.

 

Body fat percent measurement is unreliable. I won over $300 in a fat-loss competition based upon such measurements in 2010, but still don't take them very seriously. 

[Deb.]

 

Six Reasons Why the Whole30® Didn’t Work For You

 

We’ve been running our Whole30® program for 3-1/2 years now, and have received thousands of glowing testimonials. (There are even more floating around on the internet, too—Google “Whole30” and you get hundreds of thousands of hits. Literally.) We’ve proven the program improves people’s health, and many report the Whole30 really did change their life.

 

But the Whole30 isn’t perfect (no diet is, universally), and we will be the first to admit it. The program is as good as we can make it, to have the most significant impact on as many people as we can reach. We’ve tweaked it, adjusted it, made it better as the years went on. But it’s not perfect, by any means, and it’s not a miracle—despite the miraculous results some people do experience.

 

That’s not to say that a strict 30-day Paleo elimination program isn’t a damn fine protocol. In fact, the Whole30 generally works really, really well for the vast majority of people. Which is why, when we hear from those who say the Whole30 (or some other form of short-term Paleo intervention) “didn’t work” for them, we pay attention. We read their stories, ask questions of these participants, and over the years, have gathered some data on why, for these folks, “the magic” just didn’t come. (At least, not in the way they hoped it would. More on this soon.)

In many cases, it’s not your fault if it didn’t work. And the one thing we want you to take away from this article is that if the Whole30 didn’t work for you, you are not a failure, and there is nothing wrong with you. It just is what it is… but there are reasons for it.

So today, here are six reasons (infused with a gentle dose of tough love) why your perfect Paleo elimination program just “didn’t work”… and what you can do about it.

 

You Didn’t Do It Right

This is the most common reason for the “failure” of elimination programs like the Whole30 to provide results. You followed the technical letter of the rules, but didn’t embrace the spirit or intention of the program. You “slipped” or “treated yourself,” because you had to/wanted to/figured it wouldn’t really matter. You adjusted the program to suit your cravings, your social life, your idea of “healthy.” You only gave it two weeks before deciding it wasn’t working.

And if you’re really, truly honest with yourself, you know that you didn’t really give the Whole30 your full efforts. And as we’ve mentioned before, mediocre efforts yield mediocre results.

Of course, this isn’t everyone’s situation. So for those of you who really felt like you gave the program the attention and dedication it deserves, then maybe…

 

Thirty Days Wasn’t Long Enough

While radical health improvements can take place in just 30 days during the program, when you put it into context, decades of less than healthy behavior often can’t compete with 30 days of Whole30. Fat adaptation (teaching your body to use fat as fuel) takes time.* Stubborn medical issues, like psoriasis, migraines, chronic pain conditions, or diabetes, can’t be fully resolved with just a month of healthy eating. And an unhealthy psychological relationship with food—and the cravings, habits, and emotional ties that go along—are often the toughest battle to win.

*This is especially true if you’re coming from a S.A.D. (Standard American Diet). It can take several weeks before you learn to trust the “hungry” and “full” signals your body is sending you—and you may not have been eating enough in the beginning, because you were afraid of all that fat.

Many Whole30’ers report that they didn’t feel or see “the magic” until day 45, 60, or beyond. Whether you choose to extend your Paleo elimination program or not is entirely up to you, but think about your results in terms of the context of your life, your health history, and your habits—and realize that maybe, you’ll need longer than just 30 days to see the ultimate results you were hoping for. But then again, you also have to make sure you’re measuring the right thing. Quite possibly…

 

You Aren’t Paying Attention To The Right Stuff

You really, really wanted to lose weight on your Whole30, and you read tons of testimonials about effortless weight loss when nothing else worked—so of course, you expected this would be your outcome too. But you didn’t lose weight, or you didn’t lose as much as you had hoped. So you deemed the program a failure, because the number on the scale didn’t budge, or your pants still fit the same. (You could apply this same concept to anything—you were hoping your skin would clear up and glow, your gym performance would skyrocket, or your chronic pain would completely disappear.)

But were you paying attention to what else happened during your program? Are you falling asleep easier, staying asleep longer, waking more refreshed? Is your energy more consistent, or have you lost your usual mid-day slump? Has your pain decreased, has your skin improved, have your allergies diminished, are your sugar cravings easier to battle?

 

As we’ve written about so many times, the scale (and your body) aren’t the only measure of Whole30 success—in fact, we’d venture to say it’s pretty far down the list of potential life-changing results. And being open to embracing all of the changes the program has to offer—both the expected and the unexpected, the large and the small—can open your eyes to the results you’ve actually achieved.

So if you didn’t lose weight (or change one particular health factor as much as you were hoping), take a different approach and focus on all of the positive changes you have seen. Of course… it’s entirely possible that you’re barking up the wrong tree altogether.

 

You’re Looking For a Nutrition Solution To a Lifestyle Problem

If you come from a S.A.D.—even the “healthy” kind, with whole grains and low-fat dairy—we’d be stunned if the Whole30 didn’t make a huge impact on how you look, how you feel, and your quality of life. Stunned. But if you’ve been eating pretty Paleo for a while, decide to tighten things up that last 20% in the hopes of seeing the results you’ve been missing, and just don’t see them, you know what that tells us?

Diet ain’t your problem.

And no amount of additional Paleo elimination, carb-gram tweaks, or fasting cycles is going to completely resolve your issues. If this is your story, it’s time to look at your other factors. If you’re only sleeping five hours a night, doing high-intensity activity six days a week, and eating a purposefully very low-carb diet, you’ve got bigger fish to fry than the occasional cream in your coffee. Check out the Whole9 Health Equation, and see what other factors you need to prioritize to get things moving in the right direction.

 

In addition, just maybe, and we say this gently…

 

Your Expectations Are Simply Too High

This is a difficult one to tell people, because we hear “miracle” Whole30 testimonials every day. “The Whole30 made my hot flashes disappear!” “The Whole30 fixed my adrenal fatigue!” “My rheumatoid arthritis was curedthanks to Paleo!” So If you are in menopause, suffering from cortisol resistance, or have an autoimmune condition, you’re wondering, why didn’t this happen to me?

We understand. And we can’t blame you for feeling disappointed when you see other people “just like you” experiencing the results you desperately hoped to see… but didn’t. But the thing you have to understand is that no one is just like you. Your history, current context, genetics, environment all meld together to form a unique situation: you. Which means the same protocol applied to two very “similar” people can yield dramatically different results.

 

Here’s the other thing we need to be clear about—the Whole30, while a powerful dietary intervention, isn’t always a miracle cure. (We’re probably not going to use that as our next tag line, but it’s the truth.) To be blunt, the impact of your hormones during menopause far exceeds the benefits of not adding milk and sugar to your coffee. The long-reaching effects of chronic stress aren’t usually fixable with dietary intervention alone—that’s the exception, rather than the rule. And, as far as medical research has demonstrated to date, autoimmune conditions aren’t normally fully reversible.

So while the Whole30 could help you improve some symptoms, maybe all it’s going to do for you (depending on your history and context) is help you maintain—or not make things worse. It may improve your skin, your energy, your sleep, but if you’re battling a serious condition or disease (or are going through massive hormonal changes, such as during pregnancy or menopause), it’s just not reasonable to believe that any dietary intervention will magically see you through. It’s wonderful if it does, but it’s simply not realistic to expect. 

 

Which brings us to the final reason, which plays on the above…

Lifestyle Interventions Can’t Fix Everything

Many come to the Whole30 with long histories of yo-yo dieting, chronic stress, poor lifestyle choices, and longstanding illness. The effects of health history are far-reaching, causing changes to your metabolism, your inflammatory status, and how your body responds to stimulus like food, stress, and exercise for years—decades—to come. And some of you are still working through these issues when you come to Paleo nutrition or the Whole30.

 

This situation requires the toughest love of all.

Lifestyle interventions can’t fix everything. In fact, you could pile a Whole30 on top of sleeping ten hours a night on top of smart exercise on top of stress management… and that still might not totally “fix” you. Because some issues are so longstanding, and so disruptive long-term, that you need targeted intervention with a trained and experienced professional to fix your stuff.  (And we’re not talking about “Are you stressed a lot? You probably have adrenal fatigue. You should take some adaptogens and only do strength work.” This information is basically useless at your stage of the game.)

 

We’re talking about connecting with a good functional medicine practitioner, doing some very specific (and probably costly) testing to figure out exactly what’s going on, and then supplementing with the appropriate stuff, at the appropriate dose, for the appropriate amount of time. Months, generally. Perhaps a year or more.

 

We told you, this part would be hard to hear. And we’re sorry if this is your context. But trust us when we say weunderstand. (Melissa spent two years recovering from her stress addiction and cortisol resistance, working with several functional medicine practitioners, doing lots of testing, and following a very specific supplementation schedule and radical lifestyle interventions to get her to the very healthy place she’s at today.)

 

Of course, this doesn’t mean diet, sleep, exercise,  and stress management don’t matter. In fact, in this situation, rigorous attention to these details (and we mean rigorous—change-your-entire-life-around-to-improve-these-lifestyle-factors rigorous) is a prerequisite for the work you’ll do with your practitioner. So don’t give up on the Whole30, or your other healthy lifestyle protocols. But in this case, in your context, please don’t expect even this level of attention to the lifestyle stuff to fix everything for you. (Believe us, we wish they could.)

 

The Good News

After all this, there is good news. If you’ve done the Whole30 with not-so-stellar results, go back and reevaluate your efforts, and your outcome. Perhaps you’ll see your program in a new light—or be motivated to try again. (Our Whole30® Daily has a series of questionnaires to help you be more aware of the benefits, large and small, you may see along the way.)

If you’ve got a complicated health history, don’t be discouraged! You didn’t get to this place overnight, and you’ll not get out of it quickly—but armed with a healthy lifestyle (and perhaps the help of an experienced professional) you are already back on the road to recovery. Patience is key. Being kind to and forgiving of yourself is key. And focusing on the positive changes you are already seeing could have the biggest impact on your experience. How you view the situation is sometimes more important than the details of the situation itself.

 

We’ll be talking a lot more about these complicated issues, and the fact that lifestyle interventions can’t fix everything, in future articles. In the meantime, if you’re one of those people for whom a perfect Paleo protocol just didn’t work for you, take heart. You are not alone, and we’ll do our best to provide you with the information and support you need to continue to move forward with your health initiatives.

 

 

 

Thanks Meadow Lily for this great rundown from Melissa Hartwig herself. These are the reasons we should be examining if we have not lost weight on W30. 

[MeadowLily]

In the first 15 days of my W30, I thought weight loss was important.  I no longer think that way.  The pounds lost may wax and wane.  In the first week, it may simply be water weight.  All of that can return by Day 30 or Day 45.

 

Body compositions and structures vary from person to person.  Insulin resistance and other factors can fight with you like a barracuda.  My digital scale was a farce.  I couldn't get a straight answer out of it ..two times in a row.  I threw it in the trash.

 

It may take a year before metabolisms start running like a finely tuned machine.  Slow and steady wins this battle.  After 4 months...what's in my head is more important than what shows up on a scale.  I'm not measuring any success by the numbers.

 

I don't count my steps, calories or chart weight ups and downs.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the muscle mass I've gained.  I continue to marvel at what patience and consistent persistence will do for any person.

 

Never count yourself out.... even when you're down for the count.  You may be knocked down temporily but pick up the pieces.

 

Seize the moment and declare loudly in the face of opposition....Don't Count Me Out!